John Frusciante

   

John Frusciante (born March 5, 1970 in Queens, New York) is a guitarist performing with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. His father, John Sr., and his mother, Gail Frusciante, were both musical themselves. Gail even lent her voice to the Red Hot Chili Peppers song Under The Bridge.

Frusciante started guitar at the age of seven. He progressed instantly, and from the ages of 9-12 he remembers trying to duplicate the punk rock riffs he heard on the radio. The music he listened to, and eventually his style of playing, were directly influenced by those radio hits he heard as a young boy.

John first saw the Chili Peppers in concert in 1985. They instantly became his favorite 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, bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers over, to jam with them. Flea was impressed by John's skill, and since he was looking for a new guitarist for the band after their original guitarist, Hillel Slovak, had died, he called Anthony Kiedis (vocalist for The Chili Peppers) to watch John play. It was a unanimous descision: John was in. (John was about to sign a contract with Thelonious Monster at the time, but Flea and swiped him under their noses. Needless to say, Thelonious Monster was not pleased, but the two bands remained friends anyway.

Frusciante made his first two albums with the Chili Peppers: Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik. 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 these two albums.

Mother's Milk did not do very well financially, but it was the band's first gold album. Also, the song Knock Me Down (the lyrics of which were written by Kiedis about the death of Hillel) noted a significant change of chord structure that was imperative to the band's growth and evolution.

Blood Sugar Sex Magik sold incredibly well, and was the band's breakthrough album, mostly due to the hits Under The Bridge and Give It Away, and also to the expert production by Rick Rubin, founder of Def Jam Records. This was also the first album the band recorded on their current label, Warner. All their other albums had been recorded at EMI.

Frusciante left the band May 7th, 1992, before they were supposed to do a show in Japan. When asked by the media what he said to the band, he replied, "Just tell them I went crazy."

There were a couple different reasons for his departure: One, the voices in his head were getting louder, and the one discernable thing they were saying was for him to go solo. Two, he brought a lot of negativity to the band at that point, and he knew it brought the other band members down. He also was frustrated with being in the spotlight all the time; he didn't relish his celebrity status.

During his absence in the band, he became severely addicted to hard drugs, primarily heroin. To this day, the horrible scars on his arms from shooting-up remain as a painful reminder to his past. His solo album that was released in 1997, Smile From the Streets You Hold.

Frusciante had already begun recording his first solo album before leaving the band in 1992, and the album that was released in 1994, Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt, is viewed by many as his absolute best solo album. Regardless, it is an incredibly vivid, bizarre, jaded and beautiful glimpse into the mind of (some would call) a madman; a man who lived in an altered state of mind. He says his music is a gift from spirits that frequently spoke to him during his absence from the Chili Peppers from 1992-1997. He has been known to say things that people would deem as strange, such as he believes in the notion that all music exists in the fourth dimension, and is created in the fifth.

In 1997, when Frusciante finally went to rehab, he was visited by Flea. Flea wanted John back in the band, and although there was still some tension between John and Anthony, Flea asked John if he would do them the honour. John, elated, said yes, and he still thinks of it today as one of the best decisions he made in his life. The tensions between Kiedis and Frusciante disappeared with time, and soon it was just like old times again. John was clean and happy.

The band began work on Californication soon after, and the album was released in 1999. It was, and still is, their best-selling album to date, and most of this is because of Frusciante's writing skills and his complete passion for creating music and art.

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 off-the-wall. In this record, almost all the songs begin with simple beats, and it still is one of John's most stripped down, bare-bones piece of work.

The band recorded By the Way in 2002, and it was well-received by critics. It is their softest album to date, and the difference in sound between this album and Freaky Styley (one of the band's earlier works before John joined) is spectacular.

In February of 2004 John released the much anticipated Shadows Collide With People, a well collected amazingly orchestrated work that outlines the regrets John has for his past as well as shows how much John has grown since the end of his heroin addiction. John has also recorded six new solo albums to be released in 2004, one to be released each month for six months in 2004, an overwhelmingly progressive project John undertook inadvertently displaying his abundance of talent. One of these is an equal collaboration with Josh Klinghoffer, and one is released under the name Ataxia, his side project with Josh Klinghoffer and Joe Lally.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers' secret weapon and guiding force throughout the years (and perhaps the reason for their huge success) is Frusciante, and he will always be regarded as a man wholly dedicated to music. It has worked well for him.

Discography

(With Red Hot Chili Peppers, except as indicated)

External link

Official John Frusciante Website (http://www.johnfrusciante.com)


Retrieved from "http://www.mywiseowl.com/articles/John_Frusciante"

This page has been accessed 124 times. This page was last modified 13:20, 20 Nov 2004. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).