Oddball, rebel, charismatic man and the irreplacable guitarist of RHCP
John Frusciante, the guitarist of Red Hot Chili Peppers, never fails to surprise us. Just a little after the moment when his band made a little resume of the most successful part of their career by publishing Greatest Hits, John published a new solo album, Shadows Collide With People, which has been on sale since 24th February.
Born in 1970, he grew up in California and left the normal high school because he didn’t care about anything else apart from playing guitar. John Frusciante, however, probably didn’t expect to become one of the most recognised rock figures at the end of XX and beginning of the XXI century. He’s been influenced by two unpredictable sides of rock, with Zappa, Steve Vai, King Crimson and Funkadelic on the other side, and on the other side, American punk scene that blossomed thanks to the likes of The Germs, Black Flag and Misfits. He created his own style, combining the funky “plucking” on the guitar with psychedelic elements. Red Hot Chili Peppers automatically became a band through which he could express himself, having joined them after their original guitarist, Hillel Slovak, died of an overdose.
At that time, Frusciante was auditioning for the popular college band Thelonious Monster, whom he helped get to the mainstream after Mother’s Milk, his first effort with RHCP in 1989. This album also created more media hype around Red Hot Chili Peppers. John was catalysing the good vibes between Flea and Anthony Kiedis, which resulted with the next, Rick Rubin-produced album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The album was recorded in a rented house in Hollywood. The album catapulted the band into the stratosphere of RHCP, multiplatinum awards made RHCP one of the most important band of the nineties.
However, John Frusciante wasn’t dealing well with fame and he was acting oddly and getting into harder drugs. At the very peak of success of BSSM, Frusciante is leaving the band in the middle of their Japanese tour and practically is disappearing from the world for a longer period of time. Apart from having published two obscure albums, Niandra LaDes And Usually Just A T-Shirt in 1994 and Smile From The Streets You Hold in 1997, he wasn’t written or spoken about very much.
The silence was broken by an article in LA Weekly, in which John was described as a heavy heroin addict who wants to die; and the reporter who did the interview wrote that he was paralysed at the very beginning, as if a ghost had appeared before him. Flea was the only Chili Pepper who was keeping some sort of a contact with John. Years later, John said that those four years of his life were spent in “non-existance and heroin emptiness, as well as the unasked questions he wouldn’t even want to give answers to”. Neverthless, firstly thanks to a little help from his friends, Frusciante put himself together and went into rehab.
At the same time, roses weren’t in bloom for RHCP either, as they’d parted their ways with Dave Navarro, former Jane’s Addiction member. The roses weren’t even blooming during recording of One Hot Minute, the album which didn’t get to even half of its preceedor’s fame, even though it was perfectly played. The Chilis were only reminescents of themselves from the earliest days.
Navarro was probably not feeling good about it either, and one day he just didn’t come to a rehearsal. Flea decided to play the key role in Frusciante’s return to the band: he said he will quit if John doesn’t take the place of a guitarist again.
A couple of months after John got out of rehab, the same team that created the legendary Blood Sugar got together, entered the studio and the result is Californication. the album that broke all the records; and after which Frusciante definitely entered some sort of a hall of fame, as a oddity, rebel, a charismatic man and, before it all, the irreplacable RHCP guitarist. Now everyone’s pretty much aware that there won’t be a replacement for him, in case he ever wanted to leave again.
Two years after, John published his third solo album, To Record Only Water For Ten Days, a real creative escape from the sound of his band. By The Way, the most recent RHCP album is discovering Frusciante’s unhidden love for the Beatles, leaving everyone who was expecting yet another Californication shake their heads in disbelief.
The positive era in this artist’s creative process continues and it lasts longer than expected. John is getting better and better, which is very audible on his most recent, and best solo album so far, Shadows Collide With People. Having been asked why he’s often a reminder of the Beach Boys, John cheerfully says: “When we were recording this album, Brian Wilson was recording at the studio next door, and we ended up with our ears on the wall…we were like little children.
John is now a much happier person, pretty much different from the human wreck with scars, wounds on his lower arms and beard that was covering the dental intervenctions; but he’s still very shy and insecure, completely different from his bandmates in Red Hot Chili Peppers. Having been asked if his shyness is one of the reasons for being single, he said: “I don’t have a partner, and I doubt I will ever have one again. I know I’m not a nice person. Musicians have to be selfish.”
As far as his unusual album name goes, he says: “Well, I believe in ghosts and visions. One evening, seven years ago, I was sitting at home and all of the sudden some Africans appeared and they started blabbering and dancing in my living room. It’s interesting that they were looking at me, as if I didn’t belong there. I have never seen them again.”
Frusciante is spending the most of his free time at home, listening to music which was and which will be the axis of his life. Even though he’s enjoyed his return to safe and sound world so far, he isn’t going out too much and isn’t very friendly either. Perhaps that will change, as he’s only 33 years of age, but for now, with a shrug, he just says: “I was outside already and I have learned that the world isn’t the nicest place to be.”
Perhaps these are the shadows (of the past, colliding woth people); but in Frusciante’s case, those shadows are opening him a road of bright creativity that is then tearing them apart.
– Zoran StajiÄić
