30 Tons transcript, 2001

26th March 2001, 30 Tons, Poland.
Many thanks to Gizem, for transcribing it.
Click on the link above to watch the individual clips or scroll below for the combined file.

Hi, this is John Frusciante, and you’re watching 30 Tons.

Well, I’ve seen people having a sort of a spiritual life be very beneficial to them as creative people, because when you separate yourself from the three dimensional world and you realize that there is other planes of existence and that the heavens are as much of a part of this dimension as the ground is, then you can start sort of trying to recreate the sky and clouds and stuff with your music, and you can start really just being a better mirror of nature, you know, in your music. But, God and religion, I don’t think it does anything positive to you as an artist. I think it’s important for an artist to be free of any organized form of belief, you know. For me, I mean, I think a person should invent their own sort of… invent their own religion, you know, or invent their own system of belief as they find out about it. It’s like, I didn’t really understand anything about other dimensions when I was a little kid but I was always open-minded and I was always trying to learn more things. And at this point in my life, you know, I feel like spirits and ghosts and things have as much to do with my music as people do, you know.

If I wasn’t friends with the people who I was in the band with, I wouldn’t be in that band, you know. To me, that’s what a band is about. It is being friends with the people who you really care about as people. And when they like something that you do, it makes you feel so good about yourself, you know. In the day and age we live, if you don’t have any friends, you might as well just make electronic music by yourself, because you can make great music by yourself, you know. But if you’re gonna be in a band, be in a band with people who you believe in their opinion as much as you believe in your own. And you’ll find that you can create music that’s way bigger and way better than anything any of you could have done on your own. Or anything you could have done by telling a bunch of people what to do. I don’t believe in being in a band and just telling other people what to do. People should know what they have to do, you know. You can guide them; you can tell them “I like that. I don’t like that”, you know. You can all help each other. Everyone has to be honest about what they like and what they don’t like. But like in my band, you know, if everybody doesn’t like something, we don’t it. If one person doesn’t like it, then we just don’t do it. And we figure out something to do that we all like. And when we find things that we all like to do, it’s always something good, you know. When all four people like it, it’s like, sometimes I wonder if each one of us is sort of representing a segment of the people who end up buying our albums, because I definitely have one kind of taste, Flea has another kind of taste, Anthony has another. But we all love the music that we make, you know.

When…When I uh… I get home during breaks when the band isn’t doing anything. I record music, you know. If Anthony goes on vacation to visit his mother, or if Flea goes to Big Sur with his daughter, I’m sitting there at home. I go to a recording studio and I record music, you know. I’ve got so many songs that I’ve written in these last three years that I’ve been in the Chili Peppers… Um, you know, I have to record them. It’s my responsibility as an artist. Also, in the Chili Peppers, Anthony writes all the lyrics. Just like I write all the guitar parts, and Flea writes the bass parts, Anthony writes all the lyrics so… And writing lyrics is something that I’ve done ever since I was eleven years old. And it’s something that I’m good at so, it’s something I have to do, you know. Also singing is something I’ve done ever since I was a little kid, and it’s also something I’m good at, and so, I have to do it, you know. It’s just like eating or breathing, you know… Or scratching under my nose.

I don’t believe that it helps, you know. I believe that the people who have done good things on drugs, could have done good things without drugs. And I believe that they would have also had the added bonus of their life not falling apart, you know. I think the drugs every time make people’s lives fall apart. Sometimes it happens gradually, sometimes it happens quickly. But it always happens. And I just think it’s silly. Yeah, you can get some good feelings from drugs, but you can get just as good feelings without drugs if you live your life properly and if you get a good enough role going as far as your creativity goes. I know that if you dedicate every second of every day to being as creative as you can be that uh… You can live a way richer life with more variety of feelings and making other people feel good as well every minute of the day with no drugs. And with drugs, if you let the drugs take their course, you won’t be making anybody else feel good. You’ll be making all your friends feel awful, and you’ll also feel awful about yourself because you’ll stop being creative at a certain point. And you’ll have to constantly struggle to stay away from them. And it’s just, life shouldn’t be a struggle, you know. Life should be a flowing smooth thing. This isn’t a hard world to live in. This isn’t a hard dimension to live in. If you surround yourself with the right people and if you do the right things and if you’re as good of a person as you’re capable of being to other people, you’ll find that the world will make a space for you, you know. What happens to you is dictated by the things you think about. And you should always think good things and always look for the good in the world. If you look for the bad in the world, you’ll always find something bad. But if you look for the good in the world, you’ll find it. It’s there.

You mean the end of the show? Hi, this is John Frusciante, and you’ve been watching 30 Tons. And it’s been nice talking to you, and I hope you’ll all have good lives. See you when I come with the Chili Peppers to Poland.

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