The Watt from Pedro show, 25th January 2009
Mike Watt: You were purer.
John Frusciante: Yeah, yeah. I just loved making music….people didn’t, you know…I felt…whenever I tried playing with people I definitely had experiences but I felt, uh, me and them felt totally disconnected from one another, you know. They, uh, they thought I was too serious about recording sometimes, or sometimes they thought what I wanted to do was too weird or…So I pretty much just focused on practicing. I figured when I moved to Hollywood I would probably find some people who were more suited to playing with me. And , I did right away. I met a really good bass player when I moved to Hollywood, and he was the first person who I really started, uh, developing a real musical communication with, you know, uh, he died a few years later, but uh, he really, you know, he was the first person who I had a real…the kinda connection I have with Josh or that I have with Flea or Omar or whatever. I had that with him first, and that was a great experience.
Mike Watt: Yeah maybe it was so good, that’s how you extended it to these cats after him.
John Frusciante: Yeah, I mean, it’s weird the way the universe pushes people together, you know, I feel like when you’re ready and you meet the people who you’re meant to play with it sometimes happens like magic. You might never go out during a certain period of time, you go out one time and you meet somebody who becomes, like, a lifelong, you know, musical partner. It’s uh, I can’t help feeling like there’s a plan sometimes cuz it’s, it’s weird how I didn’t meet anybody who I had that connection with as a kid, and then, in my adult life I’ve slowly, you know, I’ve, I probably know, like, five people like that who I feel like I have a really, you know, born connection with, but…
Brother Matt: It’s pretty bold, movin’ out here when you hadn’t felt it yet.
John Frusciante: Umm, well I, I knew I wanted to be a musician and I felt like Hollywood was the place to be.
Mike Watt: Where were you at before?
John Frusciante: Chatsworth.
Mike Watt: Oh yeah, okay. Not too far.
John Frusciante: No, it’s very far in some ways.
Laughing
Mike Watt: Light years.
John Frusciante: It’s the deep valley and it’s just, nothing going on there and people, you know. It was good; it kept me in my bedroom practicing.
Mike Watt: Thermos bottle. It was a Thermos bottle.
John Frusciante: Yeah, cuz people, people were very, uh…
Mike Watt: Well, when it comes to working on yourself maybe you need….not distractions.
John Frusciante: Yeah, I’m not sure what would’ve happened if I would’ve grown up in Mar Vista where I lived before that, like, um, in Mar Vista, it seemed like there was…I knew some cool older kids and you know, like, had a friend who was into punk and stuff, like, I moved to Chatsworth and the fact that I was punk was just, like…
Mike Watt: Solitary confinement.
John Frusciante: …unheard of, you know. People thought I was so weird, and had the nickname ‘Punker-John’ and didn’t like that. (Chuckles.) You know, it just made me feel like a real outcast…
Mike Watt: Ostracized.
John Frusciante:…and just more and more, I kinda, I went through a weird phase of just trying to be kinda normal for awhile, and fit in and then I gave up on that and just focused on music in my bedroom over…you know, all the time and just let myself be as weird as I actually am. You know?
Mike Watt: Yeah, yeah. It’s interesting. It’s hard to really plan the life journey.
John Frusciante: Yeah, I think it’s more important just to follow your heart. I think when somebody’s goal is to, to sort of, uh, to succeed at something, in some way or to, uh, when they’re thinking of it terms of, ‘I want to be seen by the outside world like this, or that,’ like, uh, I feel like it’s sending all kinds of weird mixed messages to your inner-self. I think you’ll get what you want out of life as long as you’re clear about what it is that you want. You know, if that’s all you want, yeah, there’s plenty of steps that you can take to do that. But, if you really love music I think just following your heart and playing the music that you’re interested in and, uh, and, just putting, you know, every bit of energy into every day towards that one idea of wanting to, uh, merge with that force that music comes from, uh. The Universe has really skillful, exacting ways of, of uh, putting you in the place that you need to be at the right time to play with the people who you’re meant to play with, you know. And uh, I think it only, you know, it only comes from some kind of inner confusion about the reasons that you’re doing when you, when you, uh, when you don’t get what you want. I think it just comes from, you know, I feel like…the…for me, my mind set was always just, like, I want to make music that, you know, that I feel good about making. I just wanna, you know….for me it wouldn’t have made a difference in my mind whether I was in a, in a club band or if I was a rockstar or something, like, it, that was a total non-issue to me. Like, I wanted to make, you know, music that I liked, that I felt good about and that was something that I was always doing anyway. So it just seemed like…and, you know, when…I just felt like, you know, if it’s good music there’s always gonna be some people who wanna hear it. The other stuff just wasn’t important to me, you know.
