Tattooed Love Boys
''Once the foundation of a song is built, John takes the song over the top,'' says Rubin, who has produced every Chili Peppers album since Bloodsugarsexmagik. ''It's not a lot of experimentation. John has the idea. And if he goes too far in any direction, the other members pull him back in.''
''John's always had an understated confidence,'' Kiedis says. ''But he likes being loud now, and part of that came from hanging out with the Mars Volta.'' Their guitarist, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, and Frusciante got tight when the two bands toured Europe together a couple of years ago, Kiedis explains. ''And Omar is such a rocker that John was like, 'It's time I let it all hang out.' Being at the forefront, going for the heavy blistering guitar in your face: John's always been capable of that. But he didn't feel it. Now he feels it.''
Frusciante is an only child, born in New York and raised in Chatsworth, California, in the San Fernando Valley. (He now has half brothers and half sisters by his parents' later marriages.) His father, also named John, was a professional concert pianist who, after a few years of touring and a serious back operation, enrolled in law school. He is now a judge in Florida. Frusciante's mother, Gail, was trained as a theatrical singer but chose to be a full-time mom when she became pregnant.
''I got the combination of the two,'' Frusciante says proudly. ''My dad had the passion and intensity. My mom had the ear and pitch. I was sure I could do the dream they once had.'' When Frusciante left school, he moved into his own place in L.A., where he religiously practiced guitar by himself. His parents supported him with a monthly stipend, enough, he says, ''to pay rent.''
Frusciante saw his first Chili Peppers concert when he was fifteen, in L.A. It wasn't just their funk and lunatic stage antics that blew him away. They had, he says, ''this incredible force that made everyone in the club feel great. They lit up the room. That's an incredible power to have, when you're no different from anyone else -- until you get onstage and everyone else is rocking out with you. I think that's the thing that's made Anthony and Flea stick with it, and stick with each other -- that magical power.''
In 1988, shortly after Slovak's death, Frusciante worked up the nerve to introduce himself to Kiedis and Flea, who recommended Frusciante to their friend Bob Forrest of the band Thelonious Monster, then looking for a guitarist. The two Chili Peppers even accompanied the nervous guitarist to his audition -- Frusciante's first for anyone -- then decided to keep him for themselves after they saw him play.
For Kiedis, still reeling from the death of Slovak, Frusciante was a lifeline. Their age gap and the teenager's inexperience didn't matter, Kiedis says: ''In the moment, it was, 'That's my new favorite guitar player and best friend.' John and I became inseparable. Every day, we'd get together -- eat, smoke cigarettes, chase girls, play pool.''
''Then it was like John swung the other way,'' Flea remembers. ''He'd been this eager kid, who would do anything to make the band work. Then Bloodsugar... came out, and he was like, 'These guys are a bunch of assholes, sellouts.' Becoming a hard-core junkie, deciding to live that life for a period -- it was an intense decision, the most extreme I'd ever seen. And I've seen a lot.''
''Chasing girls, running around and being silly -- I didn't want to do that anymore,'' Frusciante says. ''But I didn't know how to be an artist, a creative person, in the world. I only knew how to do that in the privacy of my home.'' In a sense, Frusciante had never left his bedroom.
''I should have talked about what I was feeling, but we weren't close at the time,'' he says. ''Flea was going through a divorce. If I'd be bumming out about something, he'd be like, 'You're fine. Look at me. My life is ruined.' And it was true, compared to my problems.'' Frusciante says that he did not start using heroin until after the band finished recording Bloodsugarsexmagik. ''If I had quit when I first thought of it'' -- during the sessions -- ''I'm positive I would have gone on to a steady, paced life.''
