John Frusciante joined The Red Hot Chilli Peppers when he was 17 years old. He's one of my many favorite guitarist's. I did a thread in "Music: Non-Prince" and thought I'd post it here as well, to get some insight or feedback from the Muso's.There's a distinct sound he has which I love. Plus his story tells a lot about being a successful Artist, and the down side to the fame a lot of us would hope for.
Guitarist John Frusciante has experienced both colossal highs and death-defying lows in both his musical career and personal life. Born in 1971 and raised in California, Frusciante dropped out of high school when guitar playing and rock music took hold of the up-and-coming musician/songwriter. Embracing both the unpredictable side of rock (Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, King Crimson, Funkadelic) and punk (the Germs, Black Flag), Frusciante created his own guitar style -- combining both technical skill with a knack for penning funky, psychedelic riffs.
Few rock groups of the '80s broke down as many musical barriers and were as original as the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Creating an intoxicating new musical style by combining funk and punk rock together (with an explosive stage show, to boot), the Chili Peppers spawned a slew of imitators in their wake, but still managed to be the leaders of the pack by the dawn of the 21st century.


Influenced heavily by the burgeoning L.A. punk scene (the Germs, Black Flag, Fear, Minutemen, X, etc.) as well as funk (Parliament-Funkadelic, Sly & the Family Stone, etc.) In 1985 The Chilli's released the George Clinton-produced Freaky Styley. While the album was an improvement over its predecessor, it still lacked the fire of the band's in-concert experience, a problem that would finally be solved with their next album, 1987's The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. The album was the group's first to make an impression on the charts, and they followed it up a year later with stopgap five-track release, The Abbey Road EP, in 1988. But just as the world was warming up to the Peppers, tragedy struck when Slovak died from a heroin overdose on June 25, 1988. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers became an automatic fav. when the young guitarist ( John Frusciante) discovered them early in their career, and his dream to join the band came true in 1988, after striking up a friendship with the Chili Peppers' bassist Flea (in the wake of founding guitarist Hillel Slovak's death from a drug overdose). Frusciante's first recording with the Peppers, 1989's Mother's Milk, helped break the popular college rock band through to the mainstream -- resulting in their first gold record, with John's amazing guitar playing serving as a catalyst for many of the songs. The quartet released an even rawer record next, 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik, produced by Rick Rubin. The album catapulted the band into the rock stratosphere, as it became a multi-platinum hit and made the Peppers one of the premier bands of the '90s. But all was not well in Pepperland. Frusciante found it increasingly difficult to handle his newly found fame, and retreated into a haze of hard drugs and unpredictable behavior. At the height of Blood Sugar's success, John abruptly left the band while on tour in Japan.

Besides releasing two obscure solo albums (1995's Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt and 1997's Smile From the Streets You Hold), little was heard from Frusciante since splitting from the Peppers in 1992. Then, a disturbing article about John appeared in the L.A. Weekly, which painted Frusciante as a heroin abuser with a death wish (the interviewer was also shocked at his ghastly appearance). Thankfully, from the advice of friends, Frusciante checked himself into a rehab center and got off drugs and stopped his path to certain destruction. Just a few months after getting his life back on track and facing the world again, he got back in contact with the rest of his ex-Pepper mates (he regularly kept in contact with Flea), who's then-current guitarist, Dave Navarro, had just split from the band. After a loose jam session was deemed a success (as well as a psychological evaluation!), Frusciante was asked to rejoin the band. The newly kindled relationship was a rousing success, as the reunited Peppers issued the great Californication in 1999 to rave reviews and big sales. Two years later, and drugs a thing of the past, Frusciante emerged a tough singer/songwriter by releasing a solo effort entitled To Record Only Water for Ten Days. Merely a creative outlet from his band's original material, Frusciante appeared motivated and relaxed as an individual and free from the deception of drugs that haunted him before.
Excerpts from ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide .







I find it amazing to see the physical changes Frusciante went through over this 16 year period,( He was basically a kid who was still growing! ); and how his amazing talent at 17 years of age kicked the Chilli Peppers into the beginnings of a hugely sucessful career; along with the other band member's of course.
Also the rigors of total commitment to playing, and emotional stress of fame can be seen in the pics. throughout his career.
I don't like all of their / his Music, but his Funk Guitar sound is appealing to me.
What do you other Funkster's think of his guitar sound ?

I hate to beat you down, but the Peppers were on their way with Hillel Slovak. While John added a lot to the sound, the Pepper's Uplift Mofo Party Plan beats Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magic into the ground... in part because of Hillel's playing, and in part because Anthony Keidis wasn't singing yet. When somebody told him that he could sing, the band lost a LOT in my eyes. He sings like I ice skate backwards.

But hell yeah, I DO like Frusciante a lot, I really liked Mother's Milk a TON, but seriously, to say Frusciante was the catalyst for that band is just wrong. Did you see the documentary they made for Mother's Milk? What was it? Psycho something or other...

I loved the Peppers in the Slovak era, especially the Freakey Styley album. Imho, Slovak had a better 'feel' as a guitarist than Frusciante (dig his riff on Yertle the Turtle!), even though live his timing was way off sometimes. Frusciante when he first joined the Peppers did an amazing Hendrix imitation (I rememember him playing Castles made of sand really well) and I liked some of his riffs on Mother's Milk. After that they just ceased being a funk-oriented group I suppose. When Under the Bridge came out, I wasn't just disappointed, I felt insulted. Frusciante's playing on the recent albums really irritates me because I KNOW the guy is capable of so much more but seems to have painted himself into a jangly-minimalist-rickety-alternative-rock corner. So my opinion is: very talented funk-influenced rock guitarist stuck in restrictive indie ethics.
Only one true funk guitar genius has played (briefly) in the Peppers and that's Dewayne Blackbird McKnight, who used to play with the Headhunters, Herbie Hancock and Brides of Funkenstein and is now a member of the P-Funk Allstars. I don't think they recorded in that setting though.

Thanks guy's for your input. I haven't heard Hillel Slovak's playing, or the recording's previous to Frusciante's joining the band, so I better go have a listen and get educated. ( He died before I'd ever heard of The Chilli Peppers ). I agree that a lot of their stuff is crap Pop Rock now. I think the intrigue of seeing the raw decay of this young guy blowing himself away in a band he adored and later joined was a large factor in posting this thread.
I agree with you hectim that :


I saw a recent interview where John's Mother,( who sang the "under The Bridge" vocal climax ) say's she picks all the tracks which go on the Albums, and Her favourite song (otan) was "Sir psycho sexy". All up, it's pop music of late, and commercially orientated for a McDonald's type audience . Mediocre.
It's the few great tracks which Funk, with the c-o-o-l Funk guitar sound that turn me on.
Listening to Blood Sugar Sex Magic I've gotta agree with you otan. If Anthony Keidis wasn't singing it would be 100% more listenable. To me there's some nice Chicken pecking guitar going on in there which get's me funkin'.
So now I am looking forward to backtracking and listening to hectim & otan's recommendations.
Thanks for steering me towards the "Hot Stuff", I love the sociology of Music, so when I read this stuff at VH1 I couldn't help but throw it up here. The "chillies" are unique, and some of Frusciantes playing is totally inspired, metronically timed rhythmn guitar playing , IMO.

otan said:

Otan I'm surprised at your opinion regarding the album's.

Blood Sugar Sex Magik is the Funkiest that they've ever been!

pre BSSM was more of 80's LA Rock with a psychedelic flare

post BSSM was more of an alternative 70's style thing.

In my opinion of course.

But man BSSM is funky!


Dirt &Earthyvibes
Dirt Music
http://www.dirt.bz

Suck my kiss, that's funky. Under the Bridge, that's NOT. Funky Monks - not REALLY funky.

Go listen to Special Secret Song Inside off of Uplift Mofo Party Plan. The break where he says "aHAVE MERCAAYYY" - you just dont get that from them anymore.

John was great in that he did everything he could to NOT be Hillel - he played single coil strat, Hillel played Les Paul, he played clean thru the Marshall, etc. John's contribution to the success of the Peppers can't be denied, but I'll still say his presence didn't push them to the top of the charts, they were already on their way.

I really like what they were trying to do with BSSM, I like the concept behind it, the process they went through to record it, and all that, but the songs just didn't do it for me.

I wanted the rawness, the drunken speeding carchase of Uplift Mofo or Mother's Milk, where it sounded like it would disintegrate at any moment. Chad Smith kicks Jack Iron's ass on drums, but it seems that, ever since the peppers started reading their own press, they've been slaves to it.

Flux, if you really like the funky mainstream Peppers, I would suggest that you work your way backwards - check out Uplift Mofo first, and then go further back to Freaky Styley and whatever the other one was. "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes" was their first big song, I think... and they did a cover of "If You Want Me To Stay", produced by George Clinton - that put them on the map, I think.

An ex-girlfriend of mine saw them on their very first tour when they came to Atlanta and was blown away by the energy on the stage. I didn't even know what "funk rock" was back then - I was just a little INXSser, but as soon as I picked up "Uplift Mofo" my life was changed.

Okay. Enough talking about myself. What do YOU think of me?

If you like metronomic funk grooves, check out the master guitarists in this style:

Leo Nocentelli (the Meters). On their album Rejuvenation there's a song called Africa which the Peppers covered als Hollywood.

Catfish Collins as heard on Flash Light by Parliament, Superbad and Soul Power by James Brown and most early Bootsy Collins stuff.

Roger Troutman (Zapp), tunes like Do it Roger and More Bounce to the Ounce are just TOO DAMN TIGHT.

((And also: Jimmy Nolen (James Brown), Sugarfoot (Ohio Players), both guys in Kool and the Gang (early stuff!), Bruno Speight (SOS Band, Maceo Parker), Nile Rodgers (Chic)...))

Dirt said:

Yeh, I agree Dirt. Suck my kiss, Give it Away, and maybe a few others.
hectim said:

Thanks Man, I appreciate your suggestions!

otan said:


Ya see I just don't get the oppurtunity in Australia to see the amount of raw up and coming talent in the clubs and pubs that people in the U.S. or Britain do. The Live scene out here has slowly died off to poker machines and strippers. Last band I was in we got replaced by stripper's , which was kinda sad really!

What do we think of you ...? you can play, plus you've got some hot material, oppurtunities to exploit, and heaps of talent, with an Ego to match
Go for it mate, which your doing obviously with this upcoming Gig!

I have to say I prefered dave navarro to john frusciante. some chillis fans see this as blaspheming though lol

I must say that John sold me when I saw him play and sing
the middle passage in Frank Zappa's "Inca Roads" live on stage...

Anyone who can do that is all right w/me!





Jshua