Ten Questions For…John Frusciante

Like every genius John Frusciante (33) is a bit strange. But who cares: at least he’s still alive. For years the Peppers-guitarist was in a willful heroin hell, from which he was able to get out of at just the right time. Since that he enjoys life, in his own multi-dimensional way. A captivating look into a profound mind.

You once said that you knew in advance that you were going to leave the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1992. How does that work?
In the time that we were finishing Blood Sugar Sex Magik (’91), I heard voices in my head. They said I was not able to do the tour and that I had to stop now. That I was tempting fate by putting my life in a totally different direction. And that I, because of that, had no reason to do the tour. Those are often the strongest moves that a person can make: doing something without a clear reason but more from a sort of premonition. That takes courage, because it goes against everything that you’ve done in your life so far.

I ignored those voices in the beginning and for a long time I saw that as the worst mistake in my life. I did go on tour, while I had no idea as to how I should function as a traveling rock artist. At home I had made a creative fantasy universe for myself, there everything was about Captain Beefheart, paint, brushes, pencils, smoking pot and drinking wine. On tour I was faced with the tough real world. There you can be creative, but not 24 hours a day, like at home. I wrote a lot of songs, but it only took me a couple of hours a week. The rest of the time you were almost forced to do nothing. And I couldn’t handle that.

Because of the circumstances I was in when I left the band, I think it was a good choice to become a drug addict. That was just something I needed to do at that moment. I had strayed from the right path in those days and I needed to take some distance from the big bad world.

What was it about the big bad world that made you reach for drugs?
There were things that I just didn’t understand. What it comes down to is that there was this wave that was going through my head; it told me what to play on my guitar. It told me how to write songs. Eventually I found out that the wave was my subconscious. It took a while for me to figure that out.

Was it your subconscious, or do you believe that there could be other creatures that can influence you by talking to you?
I think it’s both. But in the end it’s all the same thing. That’s why I’m a bit afraid to talk about ‘other beings’. What has become very clear to me is that everyone is a collection of memories and experiences but also a collection of personalities in one. And those personalities exist as individuals in another dimension. But those are dimensions in which there is a nonlinear time, so they can’t do anything with their own personalities there. They can only express themselves by way of people that live in a linear time. Once they are in us we can make eternal things, like a record, a painting, a article, a book, or something else. I very much think that they are more important. At the same time I do not underestimate the importance of myself, because I know that they are also apart of that. Like I said: we are all one thing.

Recently I read an interview in which you were talking about the amount of calories in crackers. Isn’t it bizarre that someone who is talking about other dimensions is also talking about fat content?
No, because it’s all the same. Everything that’s happening here is just a reflection of what is happening in the Fourth Dimension. I used to think that I was the only one that was absorbed in music, but that’s not true: businessmen, assholes, yuppies, everything is a reflection of the other dimension. So it isn’t all full of color and beauty. Some parts are disgusting and repulsive.

Are there things that you get mad about?
If you would have asked me this when I was twenty two, I would have given you a enormous list. But nowadays… no, not much. Okay, I don’t like people jumping the queue, but I can’t say I get really worked up about it. You see, what I have learned in recent years is that we all are the way we are and you can’t do anything about it. Except, of course changing the past, which is impossible. Explanations about the tasteless things that people do can be found in their youth. Events have forced them to do what they think is right. Even if they are doing something offensive to someone else, wipe out a race, it’s all predetermined by things that have happened to the in the past of which they had no control. That’s why I can’t get mad at those kind of people. Nor can I get mad at the people that have hurt them in the past, because even those people were damaged by things in their youth. It’s all one big vicious circle.

I personally find the way the world is put together beautiful. When I now walk through my record collection, I realize that non of those albums could have ever been made if it weren’t for those bad things. If no one had a bad childhood, if no one had any problems in their lives with which they couldn’t cope, then no one would have made so much incredible music. That’s why I like this life.

So great music originates from coping with pain?
Yes, or from a temporary relief from pain. When you use a drug for example, it can be really great. For me playing with a friend is enough these days to make me feel as if I’m floating in heaven. A feeling of weightlessness in which you become almost disconnected to your own body and you forget what it is to have physical pain. Something like that.

I understand that you went dancing at a club every Wednesday night during the recording of your new solo album Shadows Collide With People. That’s pretty unique for a guitarist, aren’t drummers usually the great dancers?
Oh man, I really love dancing. I think it’s a great way to let go and bounce around. Dancing was a great way to really get back on top of things in those days (’97). The most difficult thing about quitting drugs is becoming ‘normal’ again. Your mind and body are so used to the stuff that, when you are clean, you feel you are a boring, superficial and useless person. There was a period of nine months in which I had the feeling that I couldn’t express myself in a way that was really John Frusciante. The only way in which I could express myself was dancing. I had a pretty big living room and the whole day I was dancing to music that I liked, whether it was Black Sabbath, The Cure or something else, no dance music in any case. I almost literary translated the music and lyrics into visual things in a way that made sense to me. For about three months dancing was my main activity. And at the end of that period I was myself again. Then I was ready to quit everything: even smoking pot and drinking wine, ’cause I had started doing a lot of that again. I felt ready to try my best at leading a normal life.

I always thought you went to a clinic to for your heroin addiction?
No, after dancing I wasn’t addicted to anything. I went to that clinic because I simply wanted to begin a new life. And because I had no money I couldn’t go anywhere else. I was there just to blow of some steam.

Did you have a relationship during your time on drugs?
I already had a girlfriend for a year before I got addicted. In the period after that we sort of became friends. The whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing became less and less significant because we weren’t sleeping together. I wasn’t interested in sex at all. Later on the need came back, but it goes in stages with me. I mean, at the moment I feel completely happy without sex. I just know I can not feel any better then the way I’m feeling right now. It’s usually so that sex only distracts me from my work. And that’s what I want to prevent from happening at all times; I really can’t have that happening to me. I feel a great responsibility to myself to be John Frusciante as best as I can be. And I can’t tolerate that something or someone keeps me from doing what I want to do.

What is you biggest strength?
I don’t know. I think it’s the discipline to really focus on something, whether that’s recording an album or stop doing drugs. If I take a decision about something I just do it. There is no way back.

—Jaan Uhelszki

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