This is from the newest issue of Rolling Stone, thanks to froosh46n2 from Ramparts forum.

The aricle is called “The Last Days of Johnny Ramone” . They had a few of Johnny’s closest musical friends submit their feelings , and the following two are from John and Flea …

JOHN FRUSCIANTE : All through my life , I’ve been able to find new things in the Ramones’ music , in what Johnny played . When we were writing Californication , I was particularly obsessed with Johnny’s playing ; every day I would play with Ramones songs . I met Johnny a few months later . As far as him being hard , I see it like this : It was like a kid protecting his playmates . To him , the Ramones were the most important thing in the world . He wanted to protect that . He was a very closed-off person during that time . He had a piercing stare ; he didn’t like talking to strangers . But in the last seven years or so , he started getting a few friends . And for me it was great . I can’t think of a person who was more consistently sweet to me .

FLEA : The first time we played with the Ramones was at a festival in Europe , in the eighties . It was our last night , and we were excited about playing with the Ramones . We decided that when they played “Blitzkrieg Bop” , we would run on stage naked and do a crazy dance : “They’ll love it , it’ll be the greatest thing ever” . So we did it . After the show , we’re back at the hotel , congratulating ourselves , and Johnny comes up , infuriated . “You guys are unprofessional . You’re assholes , fuck you” . He thought we were fucking with his show . We felt terrible . As years went by , I saw him a couple times and apologized . And he was very forgiving . He was super nice to me , always said how good it was to see me . But I always felt the ferocity about him . He took his band and his show really seriously , “I am not to be fucked with” .

Elsewhere in the article , they quoted John as saying , “But what Johnny played was every bit as dimensional as what Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page played . The space , movement , and color in those down strokes and chords opened up so many minds and made so many people come out of their shells .”

Thanks to morkmango from Ramparts forum for this:) It’s from Amplifier magazine which I haven’t got my hands on yet.

In addition to The Will to Death, AW, DC EP and Inside of Emptiness, Frusciante’s release schedule includes a collaboration with Klinghoffer (under both of their names) and, finally, an acoustic solo piece, all of which will street before year’s end. Each of the projects was recorded in various professional studios, except for the acoustic album, which Frusciante crafted in his home studio on an ancient piece of equipment.

“It was recorded on this Ampex 8-track machine from like 1970, which is the same machine that King Crimson recorded In The Court of The Crimson King on,” says Frusciante. “It’s the best sounding tape machine I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s no mistake that all those great recordings from 1969 and 1970 sound as great as they do. 8 track is just a great format.”

After DC EP, Frusciante’s solo electric album, Inside of Emptiness, will be the next release. Frusciante describes it as noisy work, driven by distortion and static in the higer frequencies, with an even more extreme sonic posture than the dense atmosphere of the Ataxia album.
“For the Will to Death, the Velvet Underground album I was listening to a lot was the third one, which is very mellow and has a lot of soft power to it,” says Frusciante. “For inside of Emptiness, the Velvet Underground album I was listening to a lot was White Light/ White Heat, which is full of lots of distortion; and you can hear that in the sound of this album. I’m most proud of this one and the acoustic one. If somebody was only going to buy one of the albums, I would probably suggest either Inside of Emptinesss or the acoustic one.”

Although Frusciante initially considered releasing these last two albums of the long recording process, Inside Of Emptiness and the acoustic project, as the first in the series because of his obvious pride in their results, he has since decided to slate them in the order of their original creation:The Will To Death, Automatic Writing, DC EP, the Frusciante/ Klinghoffer collaboration, and what is currently being called ‘The May Album’, i.e., the acoustic solo project.

Katie Melua, Britain’s best-selling new singer of 2004, was asked recently what her ideal band would be. She picked John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on guitar, Eva Cassidy as the singer and Leonard Cohen as the songwriter.

(from The Guardian)

John nominated Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (Led Zep) as one of the greatest songwriters of all time in the latest edition of Q Magazine. Here’s what John said…

“To me, the songs that Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have given us are more like communications for the gods than songs written by human beings. The richness and depth in their music is endless.”

Thanks to Universally Speaking for this

Thanks to harcore_pixee from the LJ community:)

For those of you in the UK, there is a RHCP Kerrang poster special! 20 posters altogether. There are 2 posters of John alone plus many more of the band. Get it if you can!

Yet again thanks to Soph, here are the pics from Mojo magazine…it’s a must-buy, the article is excellent.

http://img8.photobucket.com/albums/v28/eboki/MOJO/

There’s a RHCP article in the newest Q Magazine and there are some pics of John…thanks to Soph:)

http://img8.photobucket.com/albums/v28/eboki/Q-Magazine/