Sunday Morning Music Cafe transcript, 2003

? August 2003, Sunday Morning Music Cafe, ? (UK).
Thanks to Sally for the transcript.
Any help on the exact day and station that aired this would be appreciated!

Mark Dennison: We went to a very posh hotel- I got dressed up, John didn’t. John from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, there’s a great story about this actually, about how he became involved with the band, He was at an audition to join a different band and was accompanied by a couple of the other Chilli Peppers themselves.

John Frusciante: Well, Anthony saw me audition for another band who were friends of his, so he saw me audition, knew I wanted to be in the Chili Peppers and err…they had hired this other guy and he wasn’t really working out. So…so, that night they called and asked me if I wanted to join, They called the other guy up and fired him, that guy threatened to burn Anthony’s house down and then I joined the band that night. I…and I made a…In the apartment I lived in at the time foot prints on the wall about 5 feet high above where my records were living leaning against the wall, I jumped up in the air, and pressed my feet against the wall you know…

Mark Dennison: Brilliant, are they still there to this day?

John Frusciante: I’m sure they washed them off by now (laughs). I’m sure they washed them off right when we left.

Mark Dennison: See, I can’t believe the first RHCP album was almost 20 years ago 1984.

John Frusciante: Hard to believe.

Mark Dennison: Don’t you get the sense that with your latest album By The Way, that your fan base has widened a lot?

John Frusciante: It’s really crazy, You see when I was a little kid to think how long the Rolling Stones had been around, when it was 83/84, they had been around 20 years, and to think we have been around as long, it’s crazy.

Mark Dennison: What I am driving at is that BTW seems to get lots more airplay, on a wider range, where as before; RHCP seemed to be confined to specialist stations.

John hums in agreement. Clears his throat.

Mark Dennison: It seems to have a much broader appeal.

John Frusciante: Yeah, No…It probably is maybe, but it’s the kids who fight their way to the front of the stage, and I look into the audience and think it’s just kids, because I can’t see the people clearly that are as far away as the rest of them, but, yeah you’re right, it’s probably more varied than I think.

Mark Dennison: With regard to female fans, there has always been the perception at least with rock bands, getting a lot of attention from from girls! Would that be right or has that changed over time?

John Frusciante: OUMMM…Well, I would say, One big thing that has changed for me is I used to give girls a lot of attention, which I don’t any more, err ummm, as far as girls giving us attention or me attention…I…We kinda all live in this bubble, so we you know, we…kinda give people autographs and stuff, an we…we never…I mean we meet girls for short moments in time but…but ahhhh…I, we don’t get out there and fraternise with girls, things like that, It’s for me…would play too many tricks on my head and I have to keep grounded as a person.But it’s great to be smiled at by girls…I love it, laughs…Yeah, very much.

Mark Dennison:The best of album is out here in November, just while we are reflecting a bit what would you say would be your finest moment as a member of RHCP? You mentioned about how you were accepted into the band.

John Frusciante: UMMMM.

Mark Dennison: What else over the past few years?

John Frusciante: URMM..Let’s some of the good moments that stick out in my head…well we recorded a song with our friend Norwood Producing, it’s an obscure song that’s to a motion picture soundtrack and err..It was the first time I was actually comfortable in a studio, where it seemed everything was first take and stuff like that, because the album Mother’s Milk had been a real struggle for me, then we did this song with this really mellow and laid back friend of ours and all of a sudden everything was first take, and it was a good break through moment for me, then there was also this show at the palace in California, near the same time, that was the first show that was like, I was not trying to be something other than myself, and I was getting through to the audience a little bit more, because for a while especially in LA it felt like they weren’t, that I wasn’t connecting with the audience, and that show it felt like we did. That last show we played in London is a really good memory, when errr..Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Tom York all came to the same show, oh and…yeah Brian Eno, yeah, Brian Eno, Tom Yorke, Jeff Beck Jimmy Paige, That was a pretty incredible night.

It was a little too much for me to take you know.

By the time I was talking to Jeff Beck who was one of my heroes from when I was a little kid, one of my main favourite people, I just…My brain just shorted out, I could not think of anything to ask him, now I think of all these great things I could have asked Jeff Beck now, but at the time my brain just shorted out, it had been too many. I had already talked to Brian Eno and Jimmy Page before the show and it was like…I just could not think of anything to ask Jeff Beck, but it’s a great memory and it, laughs, it’s such a surreal memory, to think he was at our show and he still looks the same as he did in the 60s.

Mark Dennison: If only we could all be laid back as John Frusciante. What difference is playing V2003?

John Frusciante: The only solid difference is that and this goes for every time, is the sound, you have a tighter sound in a stadium and stuff,then You can bounce sound off walls…than you do if you’re outdoors, but for us it’s not the size of the place or anything like that.

It’s…it’s more…umm,if we think the audience is with us or not and supporting us, and if we do feel we are able to get over the feeling of love and the feelings we are giving out, and if we receive it well we give it back, it’s kinda what makes a good show happen, this exchange of energy a good feeling, not the size of the place or what that place is like.

Mark Dennison: I always think over here and it must be the same in America, it’s the atmosphere and the feel of the whole thing.

There’s a standing joke here with Glastonbury especially that the toilets are you know basically mud baths.I know it’s not the same for you guys but you know as a performer…

John Frusciante: That’s too bad, I don’t know what to say, I mean, we are not in charge of the lavatories.(John laughs) Complain to your local promoter, write your letters.

Mark Dennison: Greatest Hits out 10th November, new single out end October, busy creative burst, B-sides, Chad says you could write a whole album in an hour.

John Frusciante: That’s defiantly an exaggeration, I try to be pretty much on top of things, when we are making…recording an album, it’s the whole world to me, I devote myself to it 24 hours a day, and I do personally have about 5 albums-worth of material back logged myself as a solo album, I definitely do a lot of writing, but in the Chili Peppers especially lately I have been trying to work with the tide rather than push everything.