John Frusciante is the guitarist of the
Red Hot Chili Peppers, he is also a solo artist in his own right.
John Anthony Frusciante was born in New York on March, 5th, 1970. His father, john senior, a former pianist, became a lawyer and later on, a judge at the court. His mother, Gail was a talented singer (she conducts the outro choir on ‘Under the bridge’) but ended up being a housewife when her husband took a new turning point in his career.
His family lived in the Queens before moving to Rucson in Arizona and then to Florida for a year. During that period, john’s parents got divorced. As a result of it, john settled with his mom in Santa Monica, California. By age 9, he found out about skateboard and Californian music with bands such as Kiss, Aerosmith and the Germs especially, whose tracks he’ll learn to play on guitar one year later.
By age 11, he takes his first guitar lesson and moves to Mar Vista with his mom and stepfather. The latter is an amateur of Beethoven and R&B from the 50’s and will help john to feel good about his artist’s status.
Moreover, john started to develop new musical influences. From now on, he listens to Jimmy Page, Jeff beck, jimi Hendrix, frank zappa and focus on their techniques and styles. By age 14, he records on a four-track his first “real” songs such as ‘water music’.
By age 17, he leaves school and moves to Los Angeles to live on his own. By that time, he plays guitar 10 to 15 hours a day to emphasize his skill.
He’ll go to a zappa’s audition to become the new guitarist of his band but will leave while standing in the waiting room, shortly after realising that, being in Zappa’s band, he wouldn’t be able to live the rock’n’roll that he had always intended to live since he found out about David bowie’s music.
In 1988, john jams for the first time with D.H Peligro, the drummer in the red hot chili peppers. Peligro knows that the chili peppers is john’s favourite band since he’s 15 and invites him
to jam with flea.
From their first session will come out the now well know ‘pretty little ditty” (an instrumental later on Mother’s milk lp). A few months later, flea passed a phone call to john to let him know that the chili peppers where looking for a new guitar player to replace hillel Slovak, their long time friend, who just died of an overdose. Surpassing all the other candidates, john is integrated into the group. He’s only 18 when he joins the band to record the album “mother’s milk” on which his guitar playing is faithful to the style developed over the years by Slovak.
But back home after the mother’s milk tour, john reconsiders his theoretical knowledge of music and decides to forget everything he’ve learned about playing guitar to come up with a new and personal style, and not only a rip off of Slovak’s work.
This new style will find its most eloquent expression in the following album of the chili peppers “blood sugar sex magic”, released in September 1991. Indeed, the fifth album of the peppers is their real masterpiece to date. A groundbreaking music, spontaneous and creative, fusion of many different styles from hardcore and rap to pop and funk.
The notoriety of the band expands and they finally gain the credibility they’ve deserved for years. But whereas the members of the band are enjoying the new success, john recalls a conversation he had with Hillel backstage shortly before he died where he told we wouldn’t like the band if they were becoming a massive band.
A few weeks after the end of the recording of the album, john shoots heroin for the first time, initiated by his girlfriend Toni Oswald. On the beginning of the bssm tour, john starts to suffer the first symptoms of depression and his relationships with the
bands quickly deteriorate, especially with Anthony whom he won’t talk to for months.
In early 92, during the Japanese tour, an hour before the show, john refuses to go on stage and announces his decision to leave the band. Convinced by the tour manager, he’ll go on stage this night but will take the first fly to LA, the following morning, confirming his departure.
From now on, john stars his new life of young retired from the rock’n’roll business. He starts painting, writing novels, playing some music from time to time in a band he created with his friends Stephen Perkins and Flea “Three Amoebas”.
In 1993, convinced by several friends such as river phoenix, Johnny Depp and flea, he decides to release an album of his solo work.
“Niandra lades and usually just a t-shirt” will come out in 1994 and is a melting pot of low-fi songs he mostly wrote and recorded during the bssm sessions on a four tracks.
Superimposed guitars and tortured voice, the 25 tracks of this album are a true curiosity and reveal the talent of john as a composer. To date, it remains his masterpiece.
Despite this actuality, the artist is slowly falling in the depth of breakdown. His addiction progressively deteriorates his body. In 1994, to promote the album, he gave an interview to the Dutch channel, vpro. It shows a junkie, burned out arms, all dirty and barely holding on his couch.
His deterioration will keep on going and he’ll escape to death many times. In 1997, he spends about 10 000 $ a day to get his drugs. Living in a hotel since his house in mount Olympus burned out and after spending a few months at his girlfriend’s house, he decides to release a new solo album, to get enough money to keep on living his junkie live-style.
When the album “Smile from the streets you hold” comes out, he already toured the USA with his own band, giving disappointing performances, his voice and guitar skill being completely lost. By that time, john lost all of his friends and really thinks about killing himself “I just wanted a gun so bad, so I could shoot my last-chance treatment to get off drugs. "
While recovering at the hospital, his long-years-ago lost friend Anthony Kiedis comes to visit and they start all over again a new friendship. In the beginning of 1998, after a reflexion between the chili peppers that no longer go along with their guitarist Dave Navarro, Flea proposes to a clean john coming out of his rehab if we would like to rejoin the peppers. John immediately accepts his proposition and they all start again working on a new album in the spring of 1998.
Having lost most of his ability, he spent his full days practising guitar and writing new tunes. It wouldn’t be out of line to say that the chili peppers saved john’s life and vice versa. The album “californication” more poppy than anything they’ve ever done before comes out in 1999 and sells about 12 millions copies.
The band’s popularity increases and the two years tour that follows the release of the album is a huge prove of their brand new massive success.
During that tour, john writes the songs that will feature on his third solo album, a very pop-new wave soundish record named “To record only water for ten days” which comes out in 2001.
By the same time, john starts a solo tour in Europe (London, Paris, Amsterdam, Hambourg) and in the USA to promote his album and amazes his audiences of die-hard fans who’re always surprised by his spontaneous energy and natural kindness.
Back home, he gets to the studio with the other band members to work on their following release. “By the way” comes out in 2002 and confirms their new musical orientation and is even a bigger success than “Californication”. The sold out by the way tour shows the peppers performing better than ever.
Working for about two years on a new project with his friend, josh klinghoffer (bicycle thief), john will come out with a new album in 2004 “shadows collide with people”, his first solo work recorded in a real studio with engineers, and working partners (Flea and Chad on a few tracks), and josh on the vocal harmonies.
This album, a doo-woefully be some of john’s best work. Back from the depth of addictions and loss, surviving over five overdoses and schizophrenic symptoms, john frusciante is a beautiful example of a man who win his battle over his own demons, devoting his time and heart to the art that saved his life, music.
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