I;ve covered on my channel the times that musical guests were banned from SNL
including Frank Zappa, The Replacements Fear and several others. The links to those videos
are down below. But today I want to talk about the time the Rdd Hot Chili Peppers
appearance on the show that wouldn’t result in the band getting banned,
but rather a snapshot of the band struggling with each other. Stay tuned for the full story.
John Fruscinate would be the longest serving guitarist in the band having three separate
stints with the chili peppers 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 gone through several
guitarists included Jack Sherman and Hillel Slovak. Side note guys i've done a whole vidoe on
the deah of hillel slovak. the link is down below. Following the death of Slovak in 1988 Frusciante
would join the group. Frusciante’s musical background differed greatly from his bandmates
with Flea recallingin the book , Fornication: The Red Hot Chili Peppers Story, "John was 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" hed recall.
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.”
In February of 1992 the band was invited to perform as the musical guest on Saturday Night
Live with hosts Tom Arnold and Roseanne. Also making a special guest apperance that night was
Madonna .. John for his part was in a terrible mood that weekend and almost came to blows with a
crew member, was upset that madonna ignored him and spent little time with the band offstage.
The Chili Peppers were scheduled to play two songs that night including - Stone Cold Bush from their
previous record Mother’s Milk, which went off mostly without incident, except for one moment
when you can see Kiedis kick John during the song. The group’s second song of the night, from their
new album at the time Under the Bridge didn’t go as smoothly. Perhaps Frusciante was upset about
the kick or just his general relationship with the band or just him being unhappy. By this point in
time Keidis and Frusciante's relationship was pretty strained. They were barely getting along
with the frontman remembering in his book “ Things deteriorated to the point where John and I didn’t
talk on the bus, and if we ran into each other in passing, we wouldn’t even acknowledge each other.
Getting back to the band’s performance on SNL. For Under THe Bridge Keidis relies on
Frusciante to cue him in. Kiedis would recall in his book what happened as he was waiting for
the guitarist to cue him in saying I had no idea what song he was playing or what key he was in.
He looked like he was in a different world. We were on live TV in front of millions of
people, and it was torture. I started to sing in what I thought was the key,
even if it wasn’t the key he was playing in. I felt like I was getting stabbed in the back
and hight out to dry in front of all of America while this guy was off in a corner in the shadow,
playing some dissonant out-of-tune experiment. I thought he was doing that on purpose,
just to fuck with me. Towards teh end of the song Frusicnate provides backing vocals,
but during their appearance on SNL the guitarist let out a piercing howl.
The performance setup under the bridge to be the band's second single in march
of 1992 and it would end up going platinum. .. Frusciante would stay with the band until
May of 1992 before leaving the group following a performance in 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. Following his departureFrusciante would spend half a decade in the throws of
addiction before getting clean and rejoining the group in 1998. The band for their part would
reappear on snl in May of 2006 with Frusciante when promoting their record stadium arcadium..
That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button
and subscribe and we'll see you again on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.