Madman or Genius?
08th February 2005, Phat Phree
Have you ever heard of John Frusciante? The name might not ring a bell, but you’ve heard his guitar playing on the radio countless times before. Like most peoples' first encounter to John Frusciante, mine was heard through the opening melodic licks of the mega-hit “Under the Bridge.” This little ditty was from a band that went by the name of “The Red Hot Chili Peppers”.
The guitar on “Under the Bridge” was so slick that it had me hooked right away. The more I listened to the Red Hot Chili Peppers after that, the more I became fascinated with their guitar player, John Frusciante. Even though Frusciante didn’t have the popularity of their hyperenergetic bass player Flea, or their charismatic wild man, lead singer Anthony Keidis, It was John Frusciante’s guitar work that stuck out from all that in a major way, and it was a major reason for the band's success.
The more I followed John Frusciante, the more I would learn that he experienced both colossal highs and death-defying lows in both his musical career and personal life. Born in 1971 and raised in California, Frusciante dropped out of high school when guitar playing and rock music took hold of the guitar prodigy. Embracing both the unpredictable side of rock (Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, King Crimson, Funkadelic) and punk (The Germs, The Ramones, Black Flag), Frusciante created his own guitar style -- combining both technical skill with a knack for penning funky, psychedelic riffs. The Red Hot Chili Peppers became an automatic fave when the young guitarist discovered them early in their career, and his dream to join the band came true in 1988, after striking up a friendship with the Chili Peppers' bassist Flea (in the wake of founding guitarist Hillel Slovak's death from a drug overdose). Interestingly, Frusciante was just seventeen years old and the Peppers would be his first band.
Frusciante's first recording with the Peppers, 1989's Mother's Milk, resulted in their first gold record, with John's amazing guitar playing serving as a catalyst for many of the songs. The group next released an even rawer record, 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik (One of the greatest albums ever, in my opinion). The album would catapult the band into the rock stratosphere, as it became a multi-platinum hit and made the little LA punk band one of the premier bands of the 90's.
But all was not well in Pepperworld. Frusciante found it increasingly difficult to handle his newly found fame, and retreated into a haze of hard drugs and unpredictable behavior. At the height of Blood Sugar's success, John abruptly quit the band while on tour in Japan. John Frusciante didn’t want to be famous; he didn't relish his celebrity status and he hated what the band had become. When asked by the media what he said to tell the band on why he quit, he replied, "Just tell them I went crazy." 'Crazy' is what John Frusciante had become, while also being quoted of saying “Voices in my head were getting louder, and the one discernable thing they were saying was for me to go” After he left, the spirit of the Peppers seemed to fade and so did the music (as evidenced by the lack of acclaim for One Hot Minute, the band's 1995 follow-up to Blood Sugar).
Besides releasing two haunting obscure solo albums (1995's Niandra Ladies and Usually Just A T-Shirt and '97's Smile From the Streets You Hold), little was heard from Frusciante since splitting from the Peppers in '92. Then a disturbing article about John appeared in the L.A. Weekly, which painted Frusciante as a heroin abuser with a deathwish (the interviewer from LA Weekly was also shocked at his ghastly appearance).
The story that follows John Frusciante from here is UNREAL, jaw dropping, as well as fascinating! So interesting, that Johnny Depp filmed a small documentary on Frusciante’s life, two years after he quit the Chili Peppers. It’s a VH-1 movie in the making about a misunderstood madman/genius who pretty much died and came back to life.
I was personally drawn to writing this story because of the following story that was posted in LA WEEKLY. It surfaced in 1996, and picked up a few years after Frusciante quit The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
