John Frusciante's Biography

This is a John Frusciante's biography that I've made myself, thanks to several other biographies and interviews that I've read.
If you want to use it, please credit me, because I've spent a lot of time on it, so if you, at least can do this... Thanks : )

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John Anthony Frusciante was born in Queens, New York on Thursday, March, 5th 1970.
He comes from a family where everybody was somehow involved into music; his grand-grand father and his Italian grand father played violin and mandolin in restaurants, his father , John senior, was pianist before becoming a lawyer and finally judge, and his mother, Gail, is a very talented singer, she sings harmony vocals on ‘Under the bridge’.

He began to play guitar at 6 years old, but stopped when his teacher was not able to show him the Stairway to Heaven's solo. At the same time, his family moved to Rucson, Arizona to finally move in Florida for a year. During that period, John’s parents got divorced. As a result of it, John settled with his mom in Santa Monica, California. At 9, he found out about skateboard and Californian music with bands such as Kiss, Aerosmith and the Germs especially, whose tracks he’ll learn to play on guitar one year later.

At 14, he receives his first 4-track, on which he'll record his first "real" tracks, such as 'Water Music'. At 17, while he's discovering David Bowie, a personality who'll mark him forever, he leaves school and moves to Los Angeles to live on his own. By that time, he plays guitar 10 to 15 hours a day to emphasize his skill.

He’ll go to a zappa’s audition to become the new guitarist of his band but will leave while standing in the waiting room, shortly after realizing that, being in Zappa’s band, he wouldn’t be able to live the rock’n’roll that he had always intended to live since he found out about Bowie's music.

In 1988, John jams for the first time with D.H Peligro, the drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers at this time. Knowing John's admiration for the group, which he is the biggest fan since the age of 15, Peligro invites him to jam with Flea. Their first meeting will result in the now well-known 'Pretty Little Ditty', an instrumental track which will finally be on their record Mother's Milk. A few months later, Flea passed a phone call to John to let him know that the Chili Peppers where looking for a new guitar player to replace Hillel Slovak, their long-time friend, who just died of an heroin overdose. Frusciante at only 18 years old, surpassing all the other candidates, is integrated into the group in the mid '88. John often recalls the moment where Anthony and Flea phoned him to say he was in the band, and even says that he was so happy that there were footprints on the walls of his room, about 1,5 m high !

He thus find again the band in studio to record their fourth album Mothers' Milk, which its guitar playing is faithful to the style developed over the years by Slovak. The American tour which follows allows Frusciante to assimilate himself to the Red Hot's mind. But during the three following years, John reconsiders his theoretical knowledge of music and decides to forget everything he’ve learned about playing guitar to come up with a new and personal style, and not only an imitation of Slovak’s work.

This new style will find its most eloquent expression in the following album of the Red Hot Chili Peppers released in September 1991. The recording of the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik also sees the talent of Frusciante bursting in broad daylight at a level of creativity and remarkable professional skill (he will later declare to have composed 60 % of the present music on the album). It was a hit and, according to many people, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' best album to date. The fluidity with which he transcends the styles, going from funk to metal without forgetting pop, worthes him a laudatory critic and an indisputable fame within the musical scene of this time.

However, after the recording of the album in the 91's spring, Frusciante dreads the success that he sees being outlined on the horizon. The band's notoriety expands and they finally gain the credibility they’ve deserved for years, but whereas the members of the band are enjoying the new success, John recalls a conversation he had with Hillel backstage shortly before this last died, where he told him he wouldn’t like the band if they were becoming a massive band. John wanted to be an artist and had the impression not to be more than a robot in the service of a public eager for new heroes. He began to feel very sick. While the world tour began, he seemed less and less enthusiastic, and began to play with bitterness and anger, bungling voluntarily the songs. Moreover Frusciante had recently consumed heroin for the first time, initiated by his girlfriend Toni Oswald, and the drug wasn't for arranging his state… His relations with the others, particularly with Anthony Kiedis,whom he didn't talk to for months, became more and more tightened. On May, 7th, 1992, just one hour before one of the concerts on the Japanese tour, John said that he was quitting the band and he refused to play. After a short talk with the tour manager and the band, he agreed to play one more show and the next day he went back to Los Angeles in the grid of a terrible distress. He asked the manager to issue a statement saying that he’d gone insane. . .

Full of remorse and doubt, he spent a year or so of boring himself in his Hollywood's house, before deciding from day to day to become a junkie. He starts painting, writing novels (as he said in an 1994's interview, he fills about a notebook every 15 days), playing some music from time to time in a band he has created with his friends Stephen Perkins and Flea : "The Three Amoebas". Then, in 1993, convinced by several friends such as the late actor River Phoenix, Johnny Depp and Flea, he decides to release his first solo album, a melting pot of low-fi songs he mostly wrote between the Blood Sugar Sex Magik sessions & 1993, on a four tracks.
Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt comes out in 1994 under the Rick Rubin's label, American Records. This album allows people to discover the talent of composition and the surprising Frusciante's voice in a universe far away from thousands miles of the pepper's funk which his fans knew from him. The critic, even remaining very shared, does not prevent the artist from selling 100 000 copies of the album, which remains, anyway, a master work as well by its originality as by the tortured emotion withdrawn from it.

In spite of his actuality, he then stopped all musical activities, prefering devote himself to paint and write stories. A very blurred period ensued for the guitarist, who becoming addicted to heroin, was dying away.

Still acompanied by the spirits that guide him since his childhood, and gradually growing away from music and from the only close persons that it still remained to him, he now roamed from hotel to hotel. At the end of 1996, he almost died. After a short time of being clean, he returned to drugs. He was living in hotel Chateau Marmont when a journalist visited him and did an article on him for L.A New Times. The article was describing him as a living skeleton who was strictly feeding himself with vitamines . He said that he didn’t care if he was going to live or die.

But he also reveled that he was about to release another album. Then he was kicked out of Chateau Marmont and then of Mondrian.

However, in January 1997, John played some gigs on the Nuttstalk Tour and in Johnny Depp's Viper Room. His voice was notably damaged and he was making mistakes while playing because he hadn’t been playing for a couple of years before the Nuttstalk Tour.

Soon after, in August 1997, his second album, Smile From The Streets You Hold was released at Birdman Records. More than a coherent ensemble, it mainly consists of a compilation of tracks and some demos, recorded bewteen 1988 'A fall thru the ground' and 1997 'More', including two songs John had written with River Phoenix 'Height Down' & 'Well I've Been', where we can hear River's speech if we put backward the song. The atmosphere of the whole album is really dark and sad. It was later pulled from the market at John’s request, since the main purpose of it's release was to get more money to buy drugs.

In the end of 1997, John was interviewed by Guitar Player, and though he looked better than one year before, his speech was still hardly understandable because of the dental prothesis he now has. He also said that due to the arrest of a friend under whose name the room was booked in the Mondrian's hotel, many of his notebooks, crammed with poetry, mathematics, word games, drawings and stories, were locked away. The situation wasn’t look promising, yet...
...1997 concluded itself by a reconsideration of John about his life, after 5 years of declining and roving.

In early 1998, he checked himself into rehab and thus found himself on the recovered path. Desirous to find again a balanced life, he gets back little by little all that he had lost. He receives for that occasion Anthony Kiedis' visit, while he is at the hospital and they'll understand that they are ready to become friends again, after 6 years of quarrel and all resentments were finally forgotten.

At the same time, Red Hot Chili Peppers were having a creativity block and the chemistry wasn’t working out with Dave Navarro. This last decided to leave the band in April 1998.
Flea, with whom John had allways kept in touch with, conveiced Anthony Kiedis and Chad Smith to invite him for a jam. All four of them were anxious reminding the past events, but as they say now in interviews, this jam made them realize that it wasn't finish, and that "the chemistry" can only be with the four of them reunited, because it's an unique thing, which can't be created easily.

On 28th April, John Frusciante was officialy re-joining the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The reunited band played a warm-up show on 12th June, and on June, 14th , 1998; they played at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in Washington. Most of the fans were delighted to see John back, and as I've read and heard in interviews, we can even heard in some Bootlegs lives, fans screaming "John, happy to see you back again..."

The band members called 1998 "the year of everything" opposed to 1997 "the year of nothing".

Having lost most of his ability, he now spends his full days practising guitar and writing new tunes before entering studio. He constantly recovers and plays better and better every day.

The result of this is Californication, wich was sold off more than 9 milions copies. Reassured and finally in peace, John became again the talented guitarist that he was. Motivated as never before, John said he was ready to go for a two years world-wide's tour !!

During this period, he also began to work on his third solo record: To Record Only Water For Ten Days. The 15 songs composing this album are the results of a real "spiritual revelation"; John even said in interviews "I had to wash myself from the inside to make this record. And now, because I am pure inside, the music which gets out of me is an element as fertile as the water ".

This record, came out in February 2001 & was acompanied by a promotional mini-tour, which consisted in some acoustic shows in Europe and United States, from Paris to Los Angeles. The audience appreciated a lot these shows. John's friend, Vincent Gallo also made a video for each songs of this album, which are became rarities, because of the fact that they had only been shown on TV at diverses occasions but never published, as John & Vicent Gallo said that only 'Going Inside' was really successfully completed. The same year, John worked with the trip hop musician Tricky, bringing guitar and vocals on the song 'Wonder Woman' from the album Blowback and played on the Macy Gray's hit 'Sweet Baby' from the album ID. Still in this same year, John decided to give a present to his fans (and THAT IS a present !!!!); he carried out a free internet album, which had then been called by his fans after a survey; From The Sound Inside. We can still download it on his official website, http://www.johnfrusciante.com/.

Then, the Red Hot went back in studio to record their 8th album, By The Way. This last was released in the middle of 2002 & it was a world-wide hit. John's influences in the sound of the band on the new record was more evident than ever. His innovative approach to music is amazing in the solos and even more in the Can't Stop's riff. The album's release was followed by another long tour, with extra-dates added at several occasions and one of the most memorable was at Slane Castle, on Agust, 23rd, 2003, which they have made a DVD.

While working on By The Way, Frusciante also composed songs for Vinvent Gallo's movie The Brown Bunny. They were all previously unreleased except for the track 'Leave All the Days Behind', which can be downloaded from the internet album From The Sound Inside under the name 'Cut Myself Out'. The songs' sound is, besides, very close to this album. They will later appear on the movie's soundrack but won't appear in the movie. We can notably found the sublime 'Dying Song' among these tracks.
Then, it was a break...

...For Anthony, Flea and Chad... ... but not for John !!!

This break allowed him to work on his great 4th solo record, Shadows Collide With People. He was acompanied by his friend, the multi-instrumentist Josh Klinghoffer. And this time, the album, still produced by John himself, was recorded in studio. Flea, Chad Smith & Omar Rodriguez-Lopez also contributed to this record. This time, John decided to give some occasional shows in Los Angeles (but I alas wasn't here...) instead of touring. The album was released on February, 23rd & 24th, 2004.

Then, in may 2004, John anounced a project which he was very keen on; to realease 6 albums until the end of the year, that's to say in 6 months ! He revealed that he would record an album per month with Josh Klinghoffer.

The first of the serie, The Will To Death was published on June, 21st & 22nd 2004, at the same time that John was in live with the Peppers for the European tour. Their shows in London, at Hyde Park were recorded under the name Live at Hyde Park, where we can find John's much beautiful intrepretation of Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love'.

Little time after the tour's end, John & Josh made two shows with the German artist Michael Rother (ancient member of Neu! and Harmonia), one at Los Angeles and the other at San Fransisco. One of the performance (the one at the Los Angeles' Knitting Factory) was partially filmed (about 5 minutes) by a German TV, Arte (it consists in a small John's interview, plus one of Michael Rother's song played by the three of them, the wonderful 'Gitarrero').

John also made a band project with Joe Lally of the Fugazi and Josh Klinghoffer, which was named Ataxia. It was in fact a band for about two weeks in February 2004. They made two shows and recorded two records from these shows (they've writen all the songs in only 2 weeks !). The first album was called Automatic Writing, in reference to the surrealist movement initiated by André Breton and Max Ernst at the beginning of the 20th Century, the second album will be released in may 2007.

It was followed by two other albums, DC EP in September (which is an EP recorded in Washington DC, at Inner Ear studio, where Fugazi records their albums) and Inside Of Emptiness in October, which is a really powerfull album, as much by the guitar tones 'What I Saw', as by the lyrics 'I'm Around'.

The 5th album, an electronic project under the name "John Frusciante/ Josh Klinghoffer", was called A Sphere In The Heart Of Silence and was released on November, 23rd 2004. We can hear Josh Klinghoffer sing on almost every tracks, he even wrote one song.

The Last album of the serie Curtains, was only published in February 2005 because of an impression error on the cover. This is a wonderful acoustic album, just John with his guitar... With songs such as 'Your Warning' & 'Time Tonight', this is also John's most intimate album (maybe because of the fact that it was all recorded at his home, in his living room).

In 2005, 'The Past Recedes' video clip, directed by John's friends, Mike Piscitelli appeared on the net, but was never published and never appeared on a TV Channel (and it's better like that, in my opinion).

On April, 23rd, John gave an unforgettable acoustic performance at All Tomorrow Parties Festival, at Camber Sands in England.

Then, The Red Hot returned to the same studio in which they had recorded Blood Sugar Sex Magik, in Laurel Canyon, to record their 9th album, Stadium Arcadium, which will also be produced by Rick Rubin. It will be released on May 9th, 2006. This was their first double album in their 23-years career; the fact is just that they had 38 songs (instead of 20 !), and that according to John, it would have been a really big regress to select only 16 songs on 38, as he has said on several interviews (which is entirely right in my opinion...).

They first decided to release 3 separate albums spaced six months apart, but as it was too difficult to promote with the tour, they decided to release a double album of 28 songs, 14 songs on each CD (the first CD is called Jupiter, the second Mars). John even inspired the melody to Anthony Kiedis for one song, 'Wet Sand', as they explain on the Bonus DVD in the Stadium Arcadium's limited edition. In fact we learn in this interview that Anthony Kiedis heard John sang some melody and asked him what did he sang, John answered that it was just some "bla-bla", and not real words, but Kiedis insisted and John gave these two words 'Wet Sand' and the melody. Kiedis asked John if he could take this melody and these words, and John agreed, that's how was born Wet Sand, one of my numerous favorites on this great record ; )
It was their first album to debut at #1 on the US charts, where it stayed for two weeks, and debuted at number one in the UK and 25 other countries. Stadium Arcadium was also named the best-selling album of the year, with over seven million units sold. After that, they began another international world tour in support of Stadium Arcadium in 2006 (including the first concert of my life which I attended to, at "La Halle Tony Garnier", in Lyon, France, on June, 6th, 2006, which will be forever an unforgettable day to my eyes).

This world-tour has lasted over 1 year and a half.

In February, 2007, the Red Hot won 6 Grammys: Best Rock Album (Stadium Arcadium), Best Rock Song ('Dani California'),Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group with Vocals ('Dani California'), Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package (Stadium Arcadium), Best Producer (Rick Rubin), and Best Short Form Music Video ('Dani California')- but we already knew this: they are the best !!! ;)
The same year, the second opus from Ataxia, Automatic Writing II was released on May, 29, 2007. In continuation of the first record, this albums includes both powerfull songs 'Attention', and soft songs 'The Empty's Response'.

While the touring of Stadium Arcadium, Frusciante has composed 17 songs, which would be released this year, on a new solo record.

Frusciante who can't help to make music, has also made a lot of colaborations this year; notably on The Mars Volta's new record Bedlam In Goliath (as in a lot of their precedent records, he plays guitar on several songs ('Wax Simulacra'...) and even sings the backing vocals on one track, the haunting 'Glosa Picaresca Wou Men', but he also collaborated with Dave Gahan for his new album Hourglass as well as on the Wu Tang Clan's new record 8 Diagram and Omar Rodgriguez's (the guitarist from The Mars Volta who is a long time friend of John) on his new solo record, 'Calibration'.
Finally, The Red Hot might also enter in studio this year, in order to record a new album, according to a very recent interview (February 2008) of Chad Smith. He exactly said in this interview that the band "are just taking a little hiatus, just relaxing. We toured a lot in the last year and a half, so it's family time, and then we'll recharge and get together sometime this year and make some more music". He also added "We took a look at each other in September (2007) and we were like, ‘You know what? I love you guys, but we all kind of need a break,’ and we all said, ‘Let’s reconvene in one year.’"). So we can hope to see them again rather soon !

Back from the depth of addictions and loss, John Frusciante is a beautiful example of a man who has won his battle over his own demons, devoting his time and heart to the art that saved his life, music. In these times where people are more preoccupated by superficial things as money or glory, John Frusciante is a real exception who makes his art only by passion and entire devotion , and all along his records, we feel this passion giving birth to these intense and unique songs.