In 1987, one 12 months earlier than he joined Purple Scorching Chili Peppers, the then-17-year-old John Frusicante scored an audition to affix Frank Zappa‘s band. {The teenager} was an enormous Zappa fan, who might play each guitar solo on each Zappa album by the point he was 16, however when inside touching distance of scoring a gig with the legendary bandleader, he opted to stroll away.
In a 2004 interview with UK music journal MOJO, Frusciante defined why.
“I do not know if it is a good factor to print however he was very grumpy,” the guitarist advised music author Sylvie Simmons. “I watched the way in which that he was coping with individuals, ignoring individuals. At that time I used to be doing cocaine – it was part of my life I actually preferred – and I knew about his angle to that. So I used to be sitting there considering, do you need to be a rock star and write your personal songs and draw all the women and issues like that, or do you need to be not allowed to take medicine, and it is form of a sq. band so there’s not going to be a whole lot of women on the exhibits? And I assumed, Nah, and I walked out.”
Frusciante got here from a musical household. His father, additionally named John, skilled at New York’s prestigious Juilliard Faculty, whereas his grandfather and great-grandfather performed fiddle and mandolin for diners in Italian eating places within the metropolis. From the age of 4, Frusciante advised Simmons, he heard voices in his head telling him that he would grow to be a musician, and upon discovering punk rock in Los Angeles as a 10-year-old, that dream appeared attainable to the teen.
“Earlier than that I used to be into Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith,” the guitarist recalled. “I had deeply transferring experiences with that music, however nonetheless it was one thing that everyone else was into. However punk felt particularly geared toward me. It was very actual abruptly and music was not simply this factor carried out by these gods.
“I would examine [Germs vocalist] Darby Crash leaping off Santa Monica pier on 10 hits of acid, and the pier was a spot I noticed on a regular basis, so I felt he may very well be someone I might know. And the music was easy sufficient for me to have the ability to think about enjoying.”
By his late teenagers, the punk-adjacent Purple Scorching Chili Peppers had been Frusciante’s favorite hometown band. It was former Lifeless Kennedys’ drummer DH Peligro, briefly a member of the Chili Peppers, who launched Anthony Kiedis and Flea to Frusciante.
At this level, following the June 1988 loss of life of Hillel Slovak, the band had been jamming with Parliament-Funkadelic guitarist DeWayne ‘Blackbyrd’ McKnight, however upon seeing Frusciante audition for his pal Bob Forrest’s band, Thelonious Monster, Flea determined that the younger guitarist can be the right match for his personal band.
“They requested me if I needed the job and I stated, Sure, greater than something on the planet,” Frusciante recalled to Simmons. “That evening they fired Blackbyrd and employed me.”
And the remainder, as they are saying, is historical past. Frusciante made his recording debut with the Purple Scorching Chili Peppers on 1991’s Blood Sugar Intercourse Magik and helped propel the band to world superstardom. He has subsequently performed upon 5 additional studio albums by the band.
