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"And for me, ever since I was a little kid, looking at magazines and reading books about rock stars or, since I've been an adult, reading books about painters, these things are what make me happy. There are no other figures in the world for me to look up to more than artists: either writers or muscians or painters. These are the things that make me happy. So, you know, I'm just one of them. I'm here for people who I might mean something to, you know? I'll give as much of myself as they want because I know how important it is for me."

Frusciante says his now got a handle on his bad habits, and has found a new sense of self.

"I really don't think I started having a clear image of myself until a couple of years ago. Taking drugs and drinking and smoking pot and stuff whenever I fancied it, it screws with your image of yourself - you don't have a clear image of yourself when you're just doing stuff whenever you feel like doing it. I think that's the way it works. I don't think I started to develop a clear image of myself until I stopped giving into every little fancy that my sub-conscious suggested. My sub-conscious would say: 'Take this drug, drink this, take that drug, you feel like eating this, you feel like eating that'.

"Doing interviews isn't uncomfortable for me anymore. There was a time when it felt contradictory within myself to answer questions properly. Now I've really gone inside myself to the point where nothing seems contradictory. I'm very comfortable with myself."

Kiedis too has had his problems with heroin. "Over the last four years, the lion's share of my time I´ve been clean," he told one magazine."All it takes is a short while of me using to really get dark and upset the balance. But it's good now."

Certainly being a Chili Pepper again has put Frusciante's life back in focus. While he remains quintessentially a loner - virtually every minute off the road is spent locked away inside his home studio, practising guitar or programming beats - the old musical family is now everything.

"When you have four people that have got a really good chemistry with each other and they're all at the point in their lives where they all really appreciate their need for wach other and they work really hard at writing songs for a year and then they record a record and do it right, it's going to be good. And there's not that many people who have the chemistry that we have. I wish there were more bands that did. We care about each other y'know?"

--Dino Scatena

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