John Fruscinate would be the longest serving guitarist in the band having three separate
stints with the group with his first happening from 1988-1992, 1998-2009 and more recently
2019 until present. By the late 80’s the Chili Peppers already had several guitarists included
Jack Sherman and Hillel Slovak. Following the death of Slovak in 1988 Frusciante would join
the band. Frusciante’s musical background differed greatly from his bandmates with
Flea recallingin the book , Fornication: The Red Hot Chili Peppers Story, Fruiscante was
and iquote “a really talented and knowledgeable musician. He [Frusciante] knows all the shit I
don’t know. I basically know nothing about music theory and he’s studied it to death, inside and
out. He’s a very disciplined musician—all he cares about are his guitar and his cigarettes.”
In 1991 Red Hot Chili Peppers would release their fifth and breakthrough album Blood Sugar
Sex Magik. It would establish the band as one of the biggest groups in the world, but the new
success brought challenges namely insecurity, infighting and drug addiction. Frontman Anthony
Kiedis would write in his 2004 autobiography Scar Tissue about Frusciante’s headspace at the time
recalling “John would say, ‘We’re too popular. I don’t need to be at this level of success. I
would just be proud to be playing this music in clubs like you guys were doing two years
ago.” It was that attitude that also showed up during their live gigs with drummer Chad Smith
telling VH1’s behind the music. John was just up there like he didnt’ give an f about anything and
you can’t be in a band and not care and it’s gonna show and it did a lot of the shows were terrible.”
.Frusciante would stay with the band until May of 1992 before leaving the group following a
performance in tokyo, japan. He would look back revealing in a 1994 interview "It was
just impossible for me to stay in the band any longer", he said. "It had come to the point
where even though they wanted me in the band, it felt like I was forced out of the band. Not
by any members in particular or management in particular, but just the direction it was going.
Upon returning home Frusciante would be hold up in his hollywood hills home finding solace
in drugs, ghosts, art and music. While to the public he disappeared for nearly half a decade
they would get a glimpse into his mind at the time with the release of his 1995 avante garde
album Niandra La Des and Usually Just a T-Shirt. Despite being written three years prior towards
his tail end with the Chili Peppers it spells out Frusciante’s fragile state of mind. CMJ New Music
Monthly called it "probably the most f'd-up album ever released by someone who had once
played in stadiums. It was in 1994 friend johnny depp and gibby haynes from butthole
surfers filmed frusciante in his home as part of a short documentary, which would later be released
to promote the guitarist’s first solo album.. According to loudersound Frusciante would tell a
US Publication about the album “My recordings had gone to from these happy, optimistic things,
to celebrations of the surreal, to really scattered, demonic-sounding things like the sound
of someone whose mind was about to explode.” In addition to dealing with a severe drug
addiction Frusciante also claimed to hvae upwards of 400 ghosts in his head telling Classic Rock “I
wasn’t spiritually protected against the spirits that meant me no good,” “Ghosts that are just
there to f with me and drive me crazy. I couldn’t discern between them and the ones that were
helping me and I was so confused. Everything that I was learning seemed to be pulling me
towards death. I saw death in everything around me. And everything that was beautiful represented
everything that was sad, lost and gone.” Despite being estranged from his former bandmates,
he did maintain somewhat of a relationship with bassist Flea who would visit his old
friend from time to time but as Frusciante’s drug abuse escalated it was too much for Flea.
Frusciante would sustain himself from royalty payments from his work in the Chili Peppers,
but his habit soon costing him $500 a day and he was now in debt $30,000 to his dealer according
to loduersound. It would be his friends who bailed him out to pay off the debt,
but Frusciante would eventually e forced out of his home unable to keep up with rent payments
and found himself living at the chateau marmont. The following year 1997 proved to be Frusciante’s
worst year of his life. The voices in his head still pushed him towards his addiction and short
on cash he would release the album Smile from the Streets You hold. But by early 1998 things
took a turn for the better, the voices in Frusciante’s head persuasive the guitarist
to stop drugs or he would die. He would check himself into rehab and give himself 12 months
to feel like if he was still feeling the same anguish he felt for the past half a decade..
His old friend flea would visit him during this time and be amazed that the guitarist
was trying to turn his life around and the timing seemed perfect. The Chili Peppers were
limping along and soon fired Frusciante’s long time replacement Ex-Jane’s Addiction
guitarist Dave Navarro due to a lack of musical chemistry and that he started abusing drugs again.
That move resulted in Flea inviting Frusciante to rejoin the band, despite the fact that his
bandmates were skeptical of the idea. But at those first practices that chemistry
that existed six years prior was still there with kieidis telling loudersound The chemistry
was bombastic and beautiful,” Kiedis admitted. “All that resentment just evaporated instantly,”
he said. “It’s like a boyfriend-girlfriend thing. Sometimes you’re so f hurt by somebody that you
won’t allow yourself to be friends with them. It doesn’t mean that deep down you don’t love
them. But, you know, ego. Ego and mind games.” Despite rejoining the band Frusciante still had a
long road to recovery from his years of addiction. According to Loduersound the guitarist had $70,000
worth of dental work to replace his missing and damaged teeth in addition to skin grafts to hide
the scars of his addiction His first concert back with the group would happen in Washington
DC at the 9:30 club a warm up gig ahead of the Tibetan Freedom Concert. If there was any doubt
about the band’s future they put those to rest with the release of 1999’s Californication,
the band’s triumphant return and their most commercially successful album to date.