John Frusciante is the current guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. John was born March 5, 1970 in New York City. John’s childhood consisted of playing guitar for hours on end everyday, so much that his guitar became his best friend throughout childhood.
While growing up John was greatly influenced by many different musicians. His influences include Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, the Germs, Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Dave Bowie, and Captain Beefheart among others. However, the greatest influence in John’s guitar playing would come at the age of 15 when Frusciante was lucky enough to catch a Red Hot Chili Peppers show at the Variety Arts Center in LA and from that point on their music meant everything to John and he became an instant fan.
Shortly after this show at age 16 John ventured out one his own to find a job and an apartment. He continued to be an avid RHCP fan and attended many of their live shows in the LA area. John would eventually jam with Flea and be introduced to the band Thelonious Monster who was at that time looking for a guitarist. The band was of course impressed by the skill this young guitarist possessed; however, their decision was a little too late. Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose at about this time and the Chili Peppers turned to John to fill the void left by Hillel.
John was now aboard became the guitarist for the Chili Peppers at the ripe age of 18. The fan had joined the band. John went on to record Mother’s Milk with the Peppers in 1988 and then Blood Sugar Sex Magik in 1991. It was during Blood Sugar Sex Magik that Frusciante really started to get his own voice and style in guitar playing instead of just being a clone of Hillel. Following the release of BSSM the Peppers hit the road with a grueling tour schedule. On May 7, 1992 John decided he had had too much. He announced to the rest of the Chili Peppers that he was leaving the band because he just could not continue to do justice to the work they had created.
Following John’s departure from the band he would go into a long stint of heroin abuse and become a bit of a shut in. During this time he all but quit playing guitar until 6 years later when John would rejoin the band after quitting heroin and enter the studio to record the acclaimed album Californication.
A few years later the Chili Peppers went back into the studio with John to record By the Way an album that’s music was primarily written by Frusciante showing once again his brilliance in music.