Shocks, Pods, Anecdotes

Drug excesses, many quarrels, a tragic death and more than one visit to hell’s antechamber – the Red Hot Chili Peppers never missed a chuckhole during their long career. In our Legends Special we also want to show the positive side: Their great songs.

The history of one of the most successful rock bands in the last quarter of a century starts with everything but not with rock music. The later voice of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, [in the article they even translated that to German as a gag…] Anthony Kiedis, had nothing to do with music at all at the beginning. At the end of the 70s he becomes part of a private debating club named “Los Faces” at the Fairfax High School in Los Angeles (in the gym of this school the legendary video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana was shot many years later). The other three members were Michael Balzary, Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons.

Balzary comes from Australia, loves Jazz and plays the trumpet that well that he thinks about a career as a professional musician in the E-music-section. Kiedis, on the contrary, dreams about a life as a Bohemian while writing poems and acting and in 1978 he manages to get the role as Sylvester Stallone’s son in the movie “F.I.S.T.”.

Rock with socks

At this time the tolerable drummer Irons and Slovak, a Hungarian-born [no I did not make a translation mistake. That’s what they wrote] guitar talent, had a band together but they only mark time. When their bassist starts getting on their nerves because he can’t play properly, they boot him out. Slovak talks to Balzary, known to the world under his nickname Flea, into exchange his trumpet with a bass. Slovak teaches him basic bass knowledge and recommends rock legends like Jimi Hendrix warmly to him. His student makes fast progress and also develops a fondness for funk legends like Funkadelic/Parliament and Sly And The Family Stone – extremely rhythm oriented bands. Kiedis also likes them and he also starts to follow his friends’ career with growing interest.

Because the three of them don’t have much luck with their singer either, Kiedis is persuaded to come onstage with them at a gig at the Rhythm Lounge in L.A. They play an improvisational song and Kiedis raps one of his poems over it. The gig was planned as a one-time-event but the audience like them so much that the owner of the club books them for another gig in the following week.

The quartet renames itself from Tony Flow And The Miraculously Majestic Masters Of Mayhem into Red Hot Chili Peppers, begins to rehearse seriously and to expand their program. Their funk rock sound is influenced by protagonists of the blooming L.A. punk scene like the Germs, X and Black Flag, but also by hip hop innovators like Grandmaster Flash and with their energetic and spontaneous stage presence they soon become one of the most popular live bands in the city. The habit to go on stage appareled only with a sock, which was first born as a gag, does the rest to make the young savages popular in the underground music scene. They support acts like Bad Brains, live as squatters together with heroin dealers and psychopaths and they only slightly notice how Mötley Crüe set out from the immediate vicinity to conquer the world with their glam rock.

Bad temporary solutions

1984 the major label EMI offers them a lucrative record deal but at the same time Irons and Slovak also received a record deal from the competing label MCA with their second band What Is This? and they thought that it would be better to stay with that band. Time is short because the first studio date is already booked and so Flea and Kiedis have to find some new co-musicians. They decide on Cliff Martinez, drummer and a friend of Flea, and the guitarist Jack Sherman from Captain Beefheart’s band [again I translated right] but they’re not convincing temporary solutions. The new members suit the two remaining Chili Peppers neither personally nor musically as good as their predecessors. Accordingly bloodless is the first self-titled record. Many rudimentarily elaborated songs were recorded with the old cast of characters, but the songs from the actual recording session lacked this wild and debauched drive which has made them one of California’s hottest concert acts.

“We had some trouble with our producer Andy Gill”, Flea remembers years later. “He wanted us to make more stuff that could be played on the radio and he got on our nerves for a long time, until I slammed a pizza carton full of shit unto his mixing desk. We thought we were really cool and funny at that time but most of the time we were just disrespectful and disgusting.”

Sparkling song ideas

The LP stays like lead in the stores and during the following, not really successful tour Kiedis who takes every drug he can find and the much healthier living Sherman have an argument too much and Sherman gets sacked. Slovak returns remorsefully to the band because his dream to reach worldwide success with What Is This? doesn’t get fulfilled due to signs of disintegration within the band.

Kiedis: “As soon as Hillel had returned the song ideas just poured out of us and the record label was to such an extent thrilled of the new tracks that we were allowed to choose the producer for our new record. We would have never thought that the record label would pay a legend like George Clinton from Funkadelic/Parliament but they did and we felt like we were in paradise. By-and-by we realized that George was also rather crazy and chaotic but his creative power and his really friendly nature helped us in our working process. He wasn’t the super genius who looked down upon us but he was the super genius who cheered us on, supported us and nearly acted like a band member.”

But also the second Chili Peppers record “Freaky Styley” bombs. The world is 1985 not yet ready for the innovative mix between Funk, Punk and Rock. The band’s enormous potential blows out in a musical cosmos that is ruled by Synthie-Pop bands and sleazy poser-rockers.

Only in faraway England some music insiders acknowledge the talents of the Californians. Sex Pistols’ squaller Johnny Rotten tries to get Flea for his new band Public Image Ltd. and ex-Pistols-manager Malcom McLaren wants to convert the Peppers into a Surfpunk-combo which is tailored to Kiedis’ sex appeal. The meeting considering this ends in a collective fit of laughter of the musicians and a pressing advice to McLaren to quickly book his flight home.

A hard setback and a new start

In the avant-garde – rock underground-scene the Peppers are highly popular and they are often played on college radio stations. But outside of LA there are still only a few people coming to their concerts and the band members have trouble to satisfy their out-of-control affection for hard drugs. Frustrated by their continuing unsuccessfulness, Kiedis and Slovak try to escape in their heroin addiction and sporadically they stagger around on the stage as if in trance.

Despite the disappointing sales figures EMI still believes in their protégées. When Jack Irons came back to join his buddies, the record company sends them to the studio again to create their third album. This time – again according to the wish of the musicians – with Michael Beihorn, who was nearly unknown at this time and who would later produce albums by Social Distortion, Ozzy Osbourne and Korn. The in 1987 released “The Uplift Mofo Party Plan” includes with songs like “Me & My Friends” the first Peppers classic, surprises with a successful cover of Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and makes it – despite the pale and triggered drum sounds – to position 148 in the American album charts. The quartet starts to rock a bit harder, but unfortunately the going-to-extremes also spreads in their personal lives. Kiedis and Slovak sank deeper and deeper into the swamplands of drugs. The countless rampant tour excesses make the lives of the two junkies go to pieces; several times they want to quit.

The fact that there’s suddenly always a bit of money, doesn’t make the situation easier. On the cover of the “Abbey Road EP” (1988), which didn’t contain any new material except for the cover version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire”, Slovak has trouble to stand properly but his band mates are too wrapped up in their own addictions and obsession to notice the life-threatening wasting of the guitarist.

When Slovak died due to a heroin-overdose shortly after the “Uplift”-tour on June 25th 1988, the other three are completely shocked.

Flea: “Hillel’s death struck us out of nowhere. I was so stunned, when I heard about it, that I collapsed and gasped for breath. The older we became and the more drugs dominated our lives, the more he was surrounded by a deep sadness. I didn’t know how to handle it and I think that he also didn’t know how to handle this melancholia.”

Kiedis: “I myself was almost finished, my life dangled on a string. I didn’t even have the energy to attend Hillel’s funeral and I was beside myself for weeks. A month later I started to become clean. The loss has turned my life inside out and destroyed the dynamics inside the band.”

Irons gets along the worst: He locks himself for days in his house, doesn’t answer any calls, suffers a nervous breakdown and has to be treated stationary in a hospital. As soon as he’s out of the hospital again he leaves the band – because he doesn’t want to watch how his other friends send themselves to the kingdom come. When Kiedis, about whom Irons is worried the most, finally goes to rehab, Irons is no longer part of the line-up.

Despite the setbacks and their personal problems, Kiedis and Flea never think about burying the Peppers together with Slovak. Together with ex-P-Funk-guitarist DeWayne “Blackbird” McKnight and the former Dead-Kennedys-drummer D.H. Peligro, they dare a comeback which ends in a creative dead end. Blackbyrd’s and Peligro’s successors bring the Peppers more luck. In the extreme powerful, accurate and groove-accented playing Chad Smith Flea finds the perfect accomplice for his rhythmic riffs. The native-born New Yorker John Frusciante manages to fill the large shoes of Slovak, the creative head of the band.

The new drummer Smith, “They were a bit skeptical at the auditions because of my hard rock haircut and my affection for bands like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. At the beginning they also wanted me to shave my head in order to prove that I really wanted to have that job but I constantly refused and when we were posing a month later for a magazine with nothing but socks on our cocks I knew for sure that I was definitely a part of the band.

Vintage-Stratocaster-lover Frusciante is a die-hard fan of the Peppers. The 18-year-old practices up to 15 hours a day, loves – just as his new band mates – the figureheads of the L.A.-punk-scene and he acquired profound music theoretical knowledge plus he knows about Frank Zappa (he masters every solo of the jazz-rock-icon and he took part in an audition for Zappa’s band) and King Crimson as much as about Jimi Hendrix and Black Flag. Since he’s 15, the son of a classical pianist dreams about being part of the Peppers, and during the first rehearsals he already convinces them with an enormous versatile, soulful playing, that picks up Slovak’s creative visions and takes them to a higher level.

In the studio Frusciante has only little chance to prove his real abilities. On his first record with the Peppers, “Mother’s Milk”(1989), some of their best songs thitherto can be found, but producer Michael Beinhorn forces him to play preferential Funk-Metal-riffs and some Black-Sabbath- and Guns-N’-Roses-citations and he forces him to ignore delicate finesses.

The Funk-Track

Frusciante: “Beinhorn wanted us to move along on this heavy funky track and that’s the reason why I played so many riffs on the low-E-string. That wasn’t really heartfelt but it seemed a good idea at that time. In some songs we even piled five distorted rhythm guitar parts over the bass and added a solo. I’m not really proud of “Mother’s Milk” but the record had influenced many bands radically.”

The album sells, if nothing else, because of the especially in England popular single “Taste The Pain” and because MTV plays the music video of the Stevie-Wonder-cover “Higher Ground” on heavy rotation, considerable, ends up at 52 in the US-charts, achieves gold status in 1990 and earns more money for the band members than is good for them.

Kiedis relapses, Frusciante snorts piles of cocaine. Also Flea and Smith kick often over the traces and have to face a charge for sexual harassment. Instead of producing a second bombastic Metal-record, the Peppers choose in one of their clear moments Rick Rubin as the producer for the next record, who is clearly more down-to-earth and rock-orientated.

Rubin: “I’ve seen them live and I was blown away. They had an unbelievable connection to the audience and I saw an extremely high potential in them which has remained unused. Someone had put them in a box with the label “rapping Funk band” but for such limitations they were far too good musicians.”

Success out of a haunted house

Rubin gladly becomes their new producer and he relocates the rehearsal and the recording room into an altered and old gangster villa in the Hollywood Hills (he later buys it and uses it to that day). For six months he settles in there with the band and becomes the witness of an ongoing creative intoxication. Except for Smith, who rides home on his Harley every evening because he doesn’t want to stay in a house where there might be ghosts, all musicians live in the skew-whiff building, compose and play day and night and create 25 songs, of which 17 were finally used for the “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” record.

“Under The Bridge” (on which Frusciante’s mother sings some backing vocals), a heroin-ballad accompanied by a soft and distinctive guitar riff, and “Give It Away”, a flogging funk rocking song which was priced with a Grammy, are the stylistic corner posts of a masterpiece, through which the Peppers get rid of all their musical prototypes and their own past and create a totally independent sound, which is played to the gallery by Rubin in a ingenious earthy and minimalistic way. Other gems, such as the hardcore funk song “Suck My Kiss”, the folksy acoustic-guitar-song “Breaking The Girl” and the soulful “I Could Have Lied” complete the album, which reaches the third place in US-charts after its release in September 1991 and was sold 12 million times to date. Suddenly the Peppers are on one level with the Grunge stars, but for one band member this fame is simply too much.

Frusciante: “I was the drag all the time because I always told them how bad our rock star lifestyle was on tour and my mood got worse and worse.

Kiedis: “John drifted away into his own cosmos more and more and I also was an asshole at that time because I wanted –come hell or high water- that everyone had as much fun as I had. That was an absurd idea.”

Frusciante leaves the band in a mad rush during the tour in Japan in May 1992. With three hastily appointed and then fired temporary solutions they manage to do the following shows. A serious replacement for the sensitive guitar genius Frusciante is not till then found, until the former Jane’s-Addiction-riff master Dave Navarro auditions for them in 1993.

Gigantic light bulbs

The short-statured Californian broke down stylistic barbed wire fences with his old band like Flea & Co. had done, and as an authentically sounding artist balancing Alternative, Avant-garde, Metal and Funk he had gained an excellent reputation. He has to play his first gig at the Woodstock in 1994 with a giant light bulb on his head but afterwards all lights seem to go out within the band.

Kiedis fights desperately against his drug addiction, Flea’s jazzed since his close friend River Phoenix died of an overdose, and Navarro, who also was a heroin addict for years, doesn’t manage to take a constructively part in the songwriting process for the next record. Because he refuses to jam, Flea writes most of the songs on guitar, an instrument that wasn’t made for him. Equally uninspired and stiff does the ultimate result sound.

The 1995 released “One Hot Minute” sells a few million times but it can’t keep up with the creative and commercial success of “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”. Navarro stays until spring 1998 and tours with the band but the magic of the early years can’t be recreated – not even on stage.

Frusciante’s return

After John Frusciante had left the Peppers, he fell into a pitch black, deep hole. He shoots up heroin, narrowly misses death a few times only by inches and touches his guitar only sporadically for five years. The two solo records he releases during this time have as much soul as a freezer. The only thing that prevents him from a total crash is his affection for abstract art.

Frusciante: “I had heavy psychic problems; several voices talked against each other in my head permanently- some of them disagreed, others told me what I should do and some told me about the future or insulted me. It would have been easier for me, if I hadn’t smoked that much pot in my youth. When we started touring after “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”, I felt the urgency to change something within myself. To be on stage made me depressive. If I’d gone away right after the recording process, some things would have been different, but as I went away, hard drugs were the only thing that made me happy.

1997 Frusciante was completely finished. His body was on the verge of collapsing, his teeth were rotten, and his shaky hands couldn’t even hold a guitar anymore. At a friend’s urging Frusciante admitted himself to withdrawal treatment and after some months he manages to cheat death and become clean in fact. Kiedis often comes to visit him [again: I translated it right], who also gets rid of his drug addiction.

Flea: “When I asked John a short time later if he wanted to join the band again, he started crying because of joy. Actually I wanted to record a solo album at that time, but suddenly John and Anthony stood in front of my door. They grinned and John held a guitar in his hands. I’ll never forget that view. I thought then: Fuck it, let’s try it together one more time.”

Kiedis: “After the first session I already knew that he’ll make it and that the magic was back again.”

Pure musical magic

1999 the Chili Peppers celebrate one of the most amazing comebacks of the musical history with the by Rick Rubin produced record “Californication”. As if there has never been a thing like “One Hot Minute”, the album ties smoothly in with “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”, brings back the Funk and Rap elements, takes their very own style to a higher level and presents itself more inspired, joyful, atmospheric and melodic as never before. No matter if it’s hard dance along songs like “Around The World” and “Get On Top”, the hypnotic sound journeys “Parallel Universe” and “Otherside” or the smart ballads “Scar Tissue”, “Californication” and “Road Trippin” – every second of that album breathes pure musical magic and is soaked with a colorful energy, like it can only be created in perfectly well-rehearsed collectives.

Way beyond all genre limitations Frusciante mixes the efficient reducing of a David Gilmour with the broken, two-dimensional chord structures of a Jimmy Page and creates those cherries on the cake, which were missed strongly on the previous album. Simple and ingenious single-note-licks stand next to unorthodox sequences of nine- and eleven-chords, off-key as well as catchy tunes next to clever major-minor-changes, which hold the listener in a fascinating emotional abeyance.

Like no other guitarist of his generation, Frusciante has the ability to tie musical theoretical proficiency, totally free improvisations and a modest direction authentically together in the whole sound of the band. The things which are not being played are almost as important as the only hinted and limited notes. The complexity, which is musically used by him and his band mates, never interferes with the being appropriate for the masses.

“Californication” is sold over 15 million times worldwide and is the most successful Peppers-record to date. They also get a Grammy for “Scar Tissue”. During the next world tour only Dave Navarro is bothered because no “One Hot Minute”-song is on none of the set lists.

Frusciante: “When we started working for the next record, I had ideas like never before. Before the rehearsals I’ve studied the chord progressions and harmonies of songs by the Beatles, which helped me open up new resources. By day I rehearsed from 2 till 6, then I went home, watched a movie and snoozed for a while. Around 9 a friend of mine arrived and we played Beatles-songs and I sang along till 7 in the morning. Anthony and I agreed that we wanted to have more massive backing choirs and that was the reason why I learned so much about harmonies. At the end of the recording process I nearly permanently listened to “Pet Sounds” by the Beach Boys.”

The Phoenix out of the ashes

“By The Way” is heavily influenced by John Frusciante’s playing technique, a record that flows over with guitar-synthesizer parts, World Music inserts, warm sound carpets and countless felicitous six-string-experiments. The album still sounds organic and logical with itself despite Frusciante’s nearly unstoppable creative eagerness. The heavy rock songs are clearly outnumbered this time.

It’s dominated by simply arranged grooves like “By The Way”, “The Zephyr Song”, “Throw Away Your Television” and “Universally Speaking”, discreet funk songs à la “Can’t Stop” or rather ballad-sounding songs like “I Could Die For You” and “Dosed”. Regarding the songwriting it smoothly ties in with “Californication” and is sold 9 million times around the world. It’s flanked by an 18 month lasting world tour, on which Flea’s still unhappy with the creative solo attempts of Frusciante during the last recording process. His band mates talk him into staying though.

In May 2006 the double-disc-record “Stadium Arcadium” is released, which allows Flea more freedom, and contains with “Dani California”, “Snow” and “Make You Feel Better” the greatest strokes of genius in the history of the Peppers. It brings them their first number-one-rank in the US-album-charts and “Stadium Arcadium” develops into the best sold record of 2006 and is priced with record-breaking five Grammys. Almost a decade after their phoenix-like rise out of the drug ashes the Red Hot Chili Peppers still surf on a amazing wave of success in every aspect – and there’s no end in sight.

—Michael Rensen

Some singles

[Ad Bsp1: “Under The Bridge” only existed as a poem at first. Producer Rick Rubin persuaded singer Anthony Kiedis to sing this poem about drug addiction as a rock ballad. The chord accompaniment lives due to the melodic legato fill-ins à la Jimi Hendrix. The song can be found on the 1991 record Blood Sugar Sex Magik.] [Ad Bsp2: “Give It Away” is a typical Chili-Peppers-song with expressive bending fillers in the intro. The verse accompaniment of the guitar limits itself to sparing single notes. The song can be found on the 1991 record Blood Sugar Sex Magik.] [Ad Bsp3: “Suck My Kiss” attacks with powerful Heavy-Funk riffs which are played by Flea on the bass and John Frusciante on guitar synchronously to percussive Hardcore-Funk beats. The guitar sound impresses with a mix between distortion and chorus modulation effects. The song can be found on the 1991 record Blood Sugar Sex Magik.] [Ad Bsp4: “Aeroplane” was inspired by the traditional Blues-Gospel-song “Jesus Is My Aeroplane”. Accompanied by a funky slap-bass, Navarro plays an enthralling Distortion-Wah-solo with difficult semiquaver-sextet-inserts. The song can be found on the 1995 record One Hot Minute.] [Ad Bsp5: “My Friends” is an atmospheric ballad that took over the first place in the Billboard Charts two times. The warm acoustic guitar strumming is accompanied by decorating melody patterns with a slightly overdrive sound. The song can be found on the 1995 record One Hot Minute.]

[Ad Bsp6: “Californication” has been recorded in Flea’s garage. The homonymous record sold worldwide 20 million times. John Frusciante, who has returned from detox, plays simple but hooking arpeggios in the intro and in the verses. The song can be found on the 1999 record Californication.]

[Ad Bsp7: “Scar Tissue” was the first single off the Californication record and won the Grammy for “Best Rock Song” in 2000. Melodic slide-inserts border the whole song. The additional guitar changes gracefully between chord-strumming and single-note-patterns. The song can be found on the 1999 record Californication.] [Ad Bsp8: “Road Trippin” is a tribute to the close friendship between the singer Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea and guitarist John Frusciante, who returns to the band after his detox. This song gets along completely without drums. The atmospheric acoustic-folk-picking lives on the driving thumb-changing-bass. The song can be found on the 1999 record Californication.] [Ad Bsp9: “Save The Population” approaches the sound roots of the Chili Peppers and lives on the percussive and melodic single-note-line, which is repeated in the second part of the verse again but an octave deeper. A slight delay makes the guitar sound even more atmospheric. The song can be found on the 2003 record Greatest Hits.] [Ad Bsp10: “Dani California” wins over through different guitar sounds: from clean-funky with heavy modulation effects to heavy power chords à la Nirvana. At the end plays a Hendrix-like distorted guitar with neck-pickup-position throughout the solo. The song can be found on the 2006 record Stadium Arcadium.]

Red, hot & funky

When the Peppers enter the stage it bangs – they guys choose their equipment suitably. We reveal which ingredients are needed to create the Chili-sound and we’re not talking about the infamous socks here…

Guitarist number one, Hillel Slovak, who belongs to the pragmatic kind, plays until his far too early drug death in 1988 mostly on a 70s Fender Stratocaster that he boosts preferably with Marshall amps. Also the young John Frusciante, who becomes part of the band during the rehearsing process for “Mother’s Milk”, relies on that: In the beginning he relies on a 70s Strat with one-piece-maple-neck and a Marshall JCM 800 half stack. Additionally he trusts on Vintage-Fenders like Strat, Telecaster, but also on the rather uncommon Jaguar.

After the first gold record he stocks up on instruments from the late 50s and early 60s. Only seldom he uses a Gibson Les Paul Standard, a reissue type from the early 90s, for overdubs. His main guitar is a 58 Stratocaster and he also uses a 57 Strat, which he “refrets” with extra-thick jumbo-frets and which he had purchased low priced before he decides to convert it into a fretless guitar. In his experimental mood he also purchases a new Martin D-18, an old Coral Sitar Guitar, an aged Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi and an Ibanez WH10 wah-pedal, which he uses in “bass mode”.

His favorite amps till remain late 60s Marshall “Plexi” top boxes, namely a 100 watt “SLP” and a 200 watt strong “Super-Bass”-model. The amps are mostly launched parallel with a DOD FX60 Stereo Chorus. In the studio he plays experimental lead sounds with a tiny Fender H.O.T or in the DI-method, where he’s overdriving the mixing desk input on purpose.

After he went away, Jane Addiction’s guitarist Dave Navarro takes over the six string and brings along for the recording of “One Hot Minute” his PRS costum-24-models and Gibson SGs and a Bogner Ecstasy-Top-Amp. In the Fender Custom Shop he has some exquisite Strats built; on tour he also takes a Parker Fly instead of an acoustic guitar with him. The special Piezo-bridge is considerably more feedback-resistant than with any other electro-acoustic. On stage Navarro prefers Marshall stacks out of the JCM-900-series, which he preheats with a Dunlop Cry-Baby Wah, a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, a CH-1 Super Chorus, a PH-2 Super Phaser and a DS-2 Turbo Distortion.

When Frusciante comes back, the equipment tradition is continued. However, the again cured guitarist allows himself some additional Marshalls, for example a Silver-Jubilee- and a JCM-900-model and a Vintage-JTM 45, an old “Major”-head and, later on, a Fender-Dual-Showman top box. Also in the matter of guitars he makes additions to his arsenal and is now also seen with a Danelectro U1, a Singelcutaway Gretsch White Falcon and a 69 Gibson Les Paul. On his pedal board one can find his old Ibanez WH10 Wah, a Boss FZ-3 Fuzz, a DS-2 Turbo Distortion and a CE-2 Chorus, a MXR Phase 90, a Dunlop Uni-Vibe-Pedal plus a Digital Delay and a Micro-Synth from Electro Harmonix, a Z. Vex Fuzz Factory and last but not least a Moogerfooger MF-105 Murf Array for funky space sounds.

Flea’s sweaty finger gymnastics are based on the Funk foundation. For this purpose he prefers miscellaneous Fender basses in the beginning, before he defects to Music Man’s Stingray, from which he has sundry four and five strings with or without frets. Later he also experiments with more expensive basses like Spector, Wal and even Alembic (where he also has a signature instrument for a while). He’s very steady in the choice of his backline though. After all kinds of amps breathed their last permanently, he eventually finds the right ones with Gallien Krueger. Those solid transistors are a match for the very hard stress of a RHCP-tour and accompany Flea around the world.

Everyone, who wants to get the typical RHCP-sound, should use the combination of a Stratocaster and a Marshall-stack. A Telecaster, a Fender Jaguar or Mustang plus other bolted-neck-constructions with single-coil-pickups will do. To get heavier distortion, Frusciante prefers his distortion pedals to the gain controller of his amp. In addition one should use a wah-pedal plus a chorus- and/or phaser-pedal for rounding off the clean parts.

Because Frusciante’s sound also lives on his own phrasing and his snappy “Funk-attack”, thicker strings would be useful. The “physical” method of playing is part of the sound, extreme vibrato or too much bending are not really necessary.

—Arne Frank