John Frusciante

Members: John Anthony Frusciante

Active: 1988-Present

John Anthony Frusciante (March 5, 1970 ) is the guitarist of the Californian band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he has featured on five studio recordings (Mother's Milk, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Californication, By The Way and Stadium Arcadium), two greatest hits packages (What Hits!? and Greatest Hits) and one live album (Live In Hyde Park). He also has an active solo career, having released eight albums as well as collaborations with friends Josh Klinghoffer of The Bicycle Thief and Joe Lally of Fugazi.

CHILDHOOD

Frusciante was born in Queens, New York, but he moved to Los Angeles at age 12. His father, John Frusciante, Sr., was a Juilliard-trained pianist, and his mother, Gail, was also a promising musician who gave up her career to become a homemaker. Gail would later lend her voice to the Red Hot Chili Peppers song, "Under the Bridge".

The Frusciante family would relocate to Tucson, Arizona and later Florida. After the separation of his parents, John and his mother would move to Santa Monica, California.John grew to adore punk music and listen to many of the bands and artists that would become influences in his musical career, artists such as Elton John, Jimi Hendrix, Captain Beefheart, and Frank Zappa.

John left high school at the age of 16 after taking a proficiency test with his parents' permission. Within two years he was playing lead guitar for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

John Frusciante first heard the Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Yertle the Turtle" off their second album, Freaky Styley, on a mixtape a classmate made for him in high school. He then saw the Chili Peppers in concert in 1985 and they instantly became his favorite band. John began to hero-worship Hillel Slovak, the original guitarist for the band, learning every guitar and bass part from their first three albums. Hillel, however, died from a heroin overdose in 1988 and drummer Jack Irons left the band due to personal problems. Bassist Flea and singer Anthony Kiedis eventually regrouped to continue with the band.

John had become good friends with D. H. Peligro (drummer for The Dead Kennedys) around 1988, and they often jammed together. One day, Peligro invited Flea to jam with them. Flea was so impressed by John's skill, and since he was looking for a new guitarist (their current replacement for Hillel, Duane "Blackbird" McKnight, was not working out for the band) he called Anthony Kiedis over to watch John play. It was a unanimous decision: John was in. John was about to sign a contract with Thelonious Monster at the time (and had actually been playing with them for two weeks), but Flea and Kiedis immediately fired McKnight and hired Frusciante. Drummer Chad Smith would join the band two weeks prior to recording their first record together.

Around this time, Frusciante also auditioned for Frank Zappa's band, but left before the final try-out due to Zappa's strict prohibition of illegal drug use amongst musicians in his band. In an interview, he said, "I realized that I wanted to be a rock star, do drugs and get girls, and that I wouldn't be able to do that if I was in Zappa's band."

When John was asked to join the Chili Peppers he was thrilled, claiming to have "boot marks five feet high on the wall in my room for months after that call."

MOTHER'S MILK

Soon after, Frusciante recorded his first album with the Chili Peppers, Mother's Milk. Produced by Michael Beinhorn, the album didn't stray too far from the funk that dominated the band's three previous albums: Frusciante's playing on this album is heavily influenced by Slovak's playing. According to Anthony Kiedis' autobiography 'Scar Tissue', John and Beinhorn fought often about the tone of his guitar and double layering. John's personalized guitar style was not yet fully developed at the time of this album.

Frusciante is thought by many critics to contribute greatly to the creativity of the group with his unique guitar riffs and solos. He has said himself that it seemed like he was doing the majority of the writing during the recording of this album. Nowadays, John claims to detest this album, saying it was too "macho".

Mother's Milk was the Chili Peppers' first Gold Record, helped by their first hit single, a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground". The album contained the song "Knock Me Down" (the lyrics of which were written by Kiedis as a warning against letting friends lose control of themselves, inspired by the overdose death of Hillel), which exemplified the band's increasing musical sophistication.

BLOOD SUGAR SEX MAGIK

The band collaborated with producer Rick Rubin to record their fifth album in a rented mansion in California - one which had once been owned by Harry Houdini, among others, and was allegedly where the Beatles experienced LSD for the first time. During the recording, the band isolated itself from the outside world and, with the exception of drummer Chad Smith, the band lived in the house. During the whole duration of recording, while Anthony and Rick had made a few ventures into society, John and Flea remained shut-ins and John consumed massive amounts of marijuana. The monastic recording conditions are well-documented in the 1991 Gavin Bowden film "Funky Monks". This was also the first album the band recorded on their current label, Warner, who had bought them out of their previous contract with EMI.

Blood Sugar Sex Magik sold incredibly well and was the band's breakthrough album, spawning their first #1 hit, "Give It Away", as well as "Suck My Kiss" and "Under the Bridge". The album reached #3 on the 1992 Billboard Top 200 chart.

Around this time, John also started a side collaboration with Flea and Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins called Three Amoebas. They recorded roughly 10-15 hours of music, though none of this material has yet been published.

DEPARTURE AND SOLO CAREER

After the massive success of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Frusciante started to intensely dislike the popularity and status of the band. While at age 18, he enjoyed the band's hedonistic rock star lifestyle, Frusciante changed his attitude: "But by the age of 20, I started doing it right and looking at it as artistic expression instead of a way of partying and screwing a bunch of girls. To balance it out, I had to be extra-humble, extra-anti-rock star."He began intentionally disrupting performances by changing his style against the way the rest of the Peppers were playing, and had difficulty getting along with the other members.

Frusciante later expressed that the band's rise to popularity was "too high, too far, too soon. Everything happened or better everything seemed to be happening at once and I just couldn't cope with it."Following a Japanese concert performance on May 7th, 1992, Frusciante left the band.

By this time, he had developed steady drug habits as a result of touring with the band in the past 4 years, as both Kiedis and Flea had addictions of their own. Performing with them as a teenager, Frusciante was inspired to take drugs as he looked to the others as his role models, saying an interview, "The kids who smoked pot just seemed like burnouts to me. I was practicing ten to fifteen hours a day. But I never felt like I was expressing myself. When I found out Flea was stoned out of his mind at every show, that inspired me to be a pothead."[7]

Upon leaving the band, Frusciante fell into a deep depression, unable to write music. For a time, he focused on painting and producing various 4-track recordings he had made during his time with the Chili Peppers. By shooting heroin, he felt able to progress with his life, more emotionally and spirtually connected to his music once again, and subsequently spiralled into a life-threatening four-year addiction.

In 2002, he remarked, ?When I originally decided to become a drug addict, it was a clear decision,? he said. ?I was very sad, and I was always happy when I was on drugs; therefore, I [thought I] should be on drugs all the time. I was never guilty ? I was always really proud to be an addict.?[8]

An infamous article published by the LA New Times in 1996 described in wrenching detail the decadent state John's life fallen into.[9] Frusciante was described as "a skeleton covered in thin skin." At the height of his addictions, Frusciante was literally on the verge of death, having almost died earlier in the year due to a blood infection. His arms became scarred from improperly shooting heroin and cocaine into his arms, leaving permanent abcesses. The walls of his Hollywood Hills home were broken down and covered in graffiti, before an accidental fire would later burn it down. Frusciante told the reporter, "I don't care whether I live or die."

Johnny Depp and others once ventured to John's house and filmed a short documentary depicting the rather barren conditions in which John was living, along with Bob Forrest. The documentary was called "Stuff".

NIANDRA LADES AND USUALLY JUST A T-SHIRT

Frusciante began recording his first solo album, Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt, in 1992, prior to leaving the band. It was eventually released in March of 1994 under the American Recordings label. John was deeply involved in the production, performing and recording almost all the instruments and vocals.

The album was a great departure from his previous work, and would mark the beginning the lo-fi, experimental sounds that Frusciante would continue to pursue for much of his solo career. Many tracks were filled with psychodelic layered guitars and strange effects, such as backwards instruments recordings and the speeding up or slowing down of his vocal tracks. It also introduced his intensely personal and poetic lyricism. Frusciante's singing on the album was very raw, emotional, and often unintelligible.

The two titles referred to the first and second halves of the record, composed as a double album, as each part had a significantly different sound. "Niandra LaDes" was closer to his earlier songwriting, but produced much more sparsely than any of his work with the Chili Peppers. Idiosyncratic songs such as "Your Pussy's Glued to a Building on Fire" and "Running Away into You" exemplified the contrast. Niandra also included a cover of Bad Brains' "Big Takeover". "Usually Just a T-Shirt" was composed of more abstract pieces, consisting of many instrumentals and few of which followed traditional song structures. Every song on this side was untitled.

Frusciante claims that his music is a gift from spirits that frequently spoke to him. He has said concerning these spirits: "I was so happy that someone was visiting I?d make food for them. When they were gone, I?d cry."The album was dedicated to Flea's daughter, Clara Balzary, as well as his long time friend and then-girlfriend, Toni Oswald.

SMILE FROM THE STREETS YOU HOLD

His 1997 solo album Smile From the Streets You Hold was released for purpose of "drug money" according to Frusciante himself and was later withdrawn from the market. Frusciante bought many of the copies back later out of his pocket, seeing the album unfit to be on shelves.

It was written and recorded largely in the style of Niandra LaDes: lo-fi, with gossamer, layered guitar work and rough, impassioned vocals that are often unlistenable. The late River Phoenix appears on the album providing vocals for two songs.

Frusciante has promised he will one day again release the record, although to date it remains out of print.

RETURN

By 1997, Frusciante had decided to quit his drug addictions cold turkey, later entering a rehabilitation facility and beginning his full recovery. Part of his physical recuperation involved removing and replacing all of his teeth with dentures to avoid a lethal infection.

In the years following, he also began to live a more spiritual, ascetic lifestyle, changing his diet and practicing yoga. His attitude on taking drugs completely changed: "I don't need to take drugs. I feel so much more high all the time right now because of the type of momentum that a person can get going when you really dedicate yourself to something that you really love. I don't even consider doing them, they're completely silly. Between my dedication to trying to constantly be a better musician and eating my health foods and doing yoga, I feel so much more high that I did for the last few years of doing drugs."

Despite this harrowing experience, Frusciante has cited in several interviews that he does not view this time as a "dark period" in his life. ?I don?t look at it like that. That was the period that I learned, when I got my mind straight about everything that I needed to know. I really value that period of time,? he said in one 2006 interview.

Musically, with the following albums he also began to move away from his guitar virtuoso influences, emphasizing new wave sounds, chord changes and tones over his previous stylistic work on hard rock and heavy metal solos. During Californication, Frusciante was influenced by musicans he had been listening to at the time, including Matthew Ashman from Bow Wow Wow and Joy Division's Bernard Sumner. For By the Way, he mentioned his desire to emulate guitar players such as The Durutti Column's Vini Reilly, Johnny Marr, John McGeoch, and XTC's Andy Partridge, or as he put it, "people with good chords."

CALIFORNICATION

Free of his addictions, Frusciante was asked to re-join the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In 1999, Californication was released with John back on guitar. The album, featuring the guitar skills of Frusciante, was a sonic celebration of life and rebirth ("Scar Tissue"), and also an exploration of Hollywood superficiality ("Californication").

TO RECORD ONLY WATER FOR TEN DAYS

During the Californication world tour John wrote his own songs which would be released on another solo album called To Record Only Water for Ten Days. This album was not nearly as stream-of-consciousness and avant-garde as his previous solo albums, but his lyrics were still very cryptic and the sound of the album was notably sparse and stripped down.

TROWFTD sounded significantly different from his previous solo work as well as his RHCP output. The songwriting and production was more efficent and straight-forward compared to Niandra LaDes and Smile, and in terms of genre, the songs strayed from the rock pop he had just written with the Chili Peppers on Californication, taking on a more New Wave quality. Instead of focusing mostly on his guitar work, John became interested in synthesizer sounds and textures, and his synth is a prime feature of this record.

Frusciante began his To Record Only Water for Ten Days tour on January 27, 2001 with a performance at The Borderline in London. The tour concluded on June 10 with a short show at The Ruby in Los Angeles, and all 16 concerts featured only John on acoustic guitar with minimal effects.

21 unreleased songs were posted on John Frusciante's official website as a demo album, From the Sounds Inside. These songs are taken from the To Record Only Water era of Frusciante's solo career and are different, sometimes unmastered, versions of songs on the album.

In 2001, John also contributed to the first of what would be many musical collaborations with friend Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume One.

BY THE WAY

The band recorded By the Way in 2002, and it was generally well-received by critics and fans alike. It is generally considered their softest album to date.

2004 RECORDINGS

Beginning in 2004 and concluding in early 2005, Frusciante began an ambitious project, releasing seven albums within a twelve month period. Following the release of his fourth full-length solo album, in June, Frusciante officially announced that he would be releasing six new records over the span of six months. Each album would be recorded in different styles and genres, and be released through the label Record Collection.

The following seven albums of Frusciante's most fruitful musical period represent an array of rock music that often incorporates instruments, tempo changes, and electronic sounds uncommon to traditional Western rock. Many of these tracks were recorded live, as with the albums following Shadows, Frusciante wanted to produce these records quickly and inexpensively on analog tape, shunning modern studio and computer-assisted recording proceses.

SHADOWS COLLIDE WITH PEOPLE

In February 2004, John released Shadows Collide With People. The album featured guest appearances from some of Frusciante's closest friends, including Josh Klinghoffer from The Bicycle Thief, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez from The Mars Volta, and RHCP bandmates Chad Smith and Flea. Shadows is his most polished sounding album to date, which also makes it one of his most accessible. He later released demo versions of almost all the tracks through his official website, and a selection of the tracks which were recorded in his living room and featured only vocals and acoustic guitar.

THE WILL TO DEATH

The Will to Death was released at the end of June 2004. The album intentionally lacked the meticulous editing and high production cost of Shadows Collide with People, as John wanted the album to be "imperfect" compared to his highly produced Shadows.

The album was recorded in 5 days total (December 18 and 19, 2003, and January 8-10, 2004) . John's appreciation of imperfection in studio music is a trait that features largely in his music. While recording this album, he cited Brian Jones' tambourine playing in the Rolling Stones song, "Time Is on My Side", as an inspiring example of this.

AUTOMATIC WRITING

The next in the series was Automatic Writing, a record of five long jams with hypnotic bass lines and experimental guitar parts. The album was not released under the name of John Frusciante, but as Ataxia. Ataxia includes Frusciante on guitar, Josh Klinghoffer on drums and Joe Lally (bassist of Fugazi) on bass, with all three contributing to the vocals. Automatic Writing was released at the tail end of August and is apparently the first half of recordings the trio did together under the moniker Ataxia. The second half of the Ataxia session, as well as an electronic record, which is a collaboration with Josh Klinghoffer once again, are currently in the mixing phase and are yet to be released.

DC EP

The following album was September's DC EP, which included just four tracks and totaled less than 20 minutes. The record was produced by Fugazi's Ian MacKaye, whom Frusciante idolized throughout his teen years. Frusciante was accompanied on this album by Jerry Busher on drums. Musically, the songs were somewhat similar to what one could find on his album, The Will to Death, but slightly different in genre and very different in tone. The recording of the DC EP was once again very fast, over only two days, February 9 & 10. The EP is named after where Frusciante recorded it, in Washington, DC.

INSIDE OF EMPTINESS

Inside of Emptiness was the fourth of the six albums. Recorded in just 6 days (8-13 March) this album adopted a heavier feel than previous Frusciante releases. John himself said that one of the solos was accomplished by "beating the fuck out of his guitar"[citation needed]. Frusciante was once again accompanied by Klinghoffer and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez makes another appearance. The album was released in late October 2004.

A SPHERE IN THE HEART OF SILENCE

The final album of 2004 was A Sphere In The Heart Of Silence. Notable for its interesting combination of electronic music with rock, Sphere shares certain resemblances to Frusciante's other highly electronic release, To Record Only Water for Ten Days. Klinghoffer shared equally in the production of this album, gaining an equal credit, as the record was released under the name "John Frusciante and Josh Klinghoffer". Recorded in April (9-11, 14-15), the fifth album in the series was not released until November.

CURTAINS

Curtains completed Frusciante's productive journey. Officially released February 1, 2005, the album was recorded in May 2004 (8-14, 19-23), so it can still be considered a part of Frusciante's prolific year. The album is mostly acoustic, recorded in Frusciante's living room, and has the most commercial appeal of the albums in his series of six. It was also the most critically well-received, garnering Frusciante comparisons to Cat Stevens . Accompanying Frusciante on this album were Carla Azar (from the band Autolux) on drums and Ken Wilde on upright bass. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez made another contribution, adding lead guitar on certain tracks.

Each of the Record Collection albums' artwork was designed by Lola Montes and each was engineered by Ryan Hewitt.

John was also kept busy with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2004 as they embarked upon a summer tour in Europe. The band played in stadium-sized venues in their biggest tour to date. The band unveiled three new songs on this tour: "Leverage of Space", "Rolling Sly Stone" and "Mini-Epic". A live album called Live in Hyde Park was released, compiling live tracks from the band's Hyde Park shows in London. Two of the new songs, "Leverage of Space" and "Rolling Sly Stone", were included.

He also performed in Los Angeles together with guitarist Michael Rother of Neu! and Kraftwerk fame. Playing with Rother was like a dream come true for Frusciante, who has been a great fan of the guitarist for many years.

Frusciante revealed in March that he has plans to make a remastered version of the internet album, From the Sounds Inside and also to make all of his copies of Smile from The Streets You Hold, which he has sitting in a warehouse, available to the fans by selling them through his official website, stating: "I recently listened to 'Smile' again and really loved it, it's really a wonderful album and it should be out there, people should be able to listen to it".

On the 23rd of April, Frusciante participated in the All Tomorrow's Parties festival curated by Vincent Gallo, who Frusciante is quite close with. He played an acoustic set of songs ranging from Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt to Curtains.

Frusciante was also featured in certain tracks on The Mars Volta's Frances the Mute playing solos on the song "L'Via L'Viaquez".

STADIUM ARCADIUM

In 2005, Frusciante entered the studio with the rest of the Chili Peppers to work on their 9th studio album: Stadium Arcadium. The recording commenced on the 16th of March, and the album was released in the United States on May 9th of 2006.

On the album, the Red Hot Chili Peppers return to their funk style while still retaining the melodic sound as in By the Way and Californication. The album has overall received positive reviews, and John's skills as a guitarist are clearly evident on the album. As stated on the bonus DVD, John, who usually is a "less is more" style of guitarist, has gone all out on the album using a full 24 track mixer to display the full range of his guitar arsenal. As always, John has added benevolent backing vocals on the majority of the tracks. In addition to masterminding the guitar arrangements John is so well known for, he has also varied his sound, with guitar stylings ranging from the Blood Sugar Sex Magik days all the way up to By The Way. In short, John Frusciante's innovative techniques and range of playing style are prevalent throughout the album.

Frusciante has said recently that he plays a lot of "Hendrix-esque" solos on this album.

FUTURE

In 2006, Frusciante will tour in support of the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, Stadium Arcadium. He will also be featured on some, if not all, of the songs on the new Glenn Hughes (of Deep Purple fame) album, Music for the Devine, along with Chad Smith who will be playing the drums. He will also be featured along with Flea on one track, "Hard Life", on the debut album by Perry Farrell's new group, Satellite Party.

Frusciante has also been working with The Mars Volta in the studio on their new album Amputechture. Band leaders Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala have been quoted saying that Frusciante will have a much larger role in The Mars Volta in the next CD[citation needed]. He also tracked all of the guitar work for the next record by The Mars Volta during the creative process, which allowed Omar to work more as a producer for the album.

John is also in the process of remixing the second Ataxia record, while Josh Klinghoffer is working on the drums for 17 songs John has written for his next solo record, the follow up to Curtains. He spoke of it having a more orchestral and classical feel, perhaps implementing new instruments or playing piano as he has done in the past, although rarely. There are also more electronic songs written with Josh Klinghoffer as a sequel to A Sphere in the Heart of Silence, which will be worked on whenever they find time during the Stadium Arcadium tour.

STUDIO ALBUMS

1994 - Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt

1997 - Smile From the Streets You Hold

2001 - To Record Only Water for Ten Days

2004 - Shadows Collide With People

2004 - The Will to Death

2004 - Automatic Writing (Under Ataxia, his collaboration with Josh Klinghoffer of The Bicycle Thief and Joe Lally of Fugazi)

2004 - Inside of Emptiness

2004 - A Sphere In The Heart Of Silence (With Josh Klinghoffer)

2005 - Curtains

EP'S

1997 - Estrus EP

2001 - Going Inside EP

2004 - DC EP

2000 - 2001 - From the Sounds Inside

WITH THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

1989 - Mother's Milk

1991 - Blood Sugar Sex Magik

1992 - What Hits!?

1999 - Californication

2002 - By the Way

2003 - Greatest Hits

2004 - Live in Hyde Park

2006 - Stadium Arcadium