Jane's Addiction's Dave Navarro Did Both Heroin and Cocaine Before the Very First Lollapalooza Show

• A new book, Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival, looks back at the 1991 music event
• Jane's Addiction rocker Dave Navarro had been struggling with substance abuse
• "By the time I got onstage, I didn’t know which way was up," he admitted in the book

Dave Navarro is reminiscing about the inaugural Lollapalooza.

In the oral history book Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival by Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour, the Jane's Addiction guitarist recalls his experience at the first Lollapalooza festival in 1991.

Navarro, now 57, mentioned in the book that he had been struggling with substances at the time. "I was really wanting to get clean, but it was really hard on that tour," he said, adding that he went "back and forth."

Before going onstage in Chandler, Ariz. for the first iteration of the festival, Navarro was under the influence. "I had gotten too high on heroin and couldn't really get up," the musician, who has since gotten sober, recalled.

"So then I was given cocaine," he continued, which made him become "speedy" and would need to come down from. "I took a handful of pills and drank a bunch. By the time I got onstage, I didn’t know which way was up."

Witnesses claimed that Navarro and Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell (who was also under the influence of hard drugs) subsequently got into a fight — not realizing that they were brawling it out onstage.

"I thought we were off the stage. I didn’t know that we were on the stage. Were we?" Farrell, now 66, said in the book. However, once the bandmates got off the stage, Navarro didn't want to go back on. "I don't feel good about that at all," Farrell reflected.

"That was a stupid thing to do and I really regret it."

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Lollapalooza was originally created as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction and was a moving event as opposed to the music festival it is today. The inaugural Lollapalooza featured Nine Inch Nails, Living Colour and the Butthole Surfers joining Jane's Addiction.

Lollapalooza continued annually from 1991 to 1997 and then went on hiatus before a revival in 2003. Grant Park in Chicago has become its main location that many fans flock to every year for a diverse music lineup and performances. This year it will take place July 31 - Aug. 3.

Most recently, Jane's Addiction canceled its reunion tour in September 2024 after Farrell punched Navarro during an on-stage argument. The band had been halfway through its run at that point.

"Due to a continuing pattern of behavior and the mental health difficulties of our singer Perry Farrell, we have come to the conclusion that we have no choice but to discontinue the current US tour," Navarro posted on Instagram following news of the cancellation.

"Our concern for his personal health and safety as well as our own has left us no alternative. We hope that he will find the help he needs."

"This weekend has been incredibly difficult and after having the time and space to reflect, it is only right that I apologize to my bandmates, especially Dave Navarro, fans, family and friends for my actions during Friday’s show," Farrell wrote on his Instagram Stories at the time. "Unfortunately, my breaking point resulted in inexcusable behavior, and I take full accountability for how I chose to handle the situation."

Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival is available for purchase wherever books are sold.