Frusciante Back With Chili Peppers
In this week’s episode of As the Chili Peppers
Turn, Anthony Kiedis has announced that departed
guitarist Dave Navarro’s slot has been filled by
former Red Hot Chili Pepper John Frusciante. |
A stressed-out Frusciante, who originally joined the band in
1988 at the age of 17 and played on the 1989 album Mother’s
Milk and the group’s 1991 breakthrough,
BloodSugarSexMagik, split in 1992 during a Japanese
tour.
Karen Moss, Senior VP of Publicity at
Warner Bros. Records, confirmed that Frusciante is
back on board, but at press time had no statement prepared from
either the guitarist or the rest of the band. She did say that the
Chili Peppers are working on a new studio album which should be
released some time next year.
David Katznelson, Warner VP of A&R and CEO
of Birdman Records, which released Frusciante’s
1997 solo album, Smile From the Streets You Hold, admitted
surprise at the news (noting that he hasn’t spoken to the guitarist
in a month), but stressed that the decision should prove beneficial
for the Peppers.
“To get him back in the band is a good thing for them,” says
Katznelson. “He’s still a great guitar player, and I don’t think
people realize the significance that John played in the Chili
Peppers’ sound. He wrote the music for ‘Under the Bridge’ and
‘Breaking the Girl.’ It’s great to get him in a room and hear him
play the original version of ‘Breaking the Girl’ … it’s
beautiful.”
Katznelson also notes that Frusciante has recovered from the
heroin addiction which brought the guitarist to the brink of
poverty and death in the lean years following his departure from
the Peppers. In a profile of Frusciante for Los Angeles’ New
Times in late 1996, writer Robert Wilonsky
painted a grim picture of the guitarist as a gifted but tortured
artist hanging precariously on the fringe of a tragic overdose. “I
don’t care whether I live or die,” Frusciante told him bluntly,
claiming to have first shot up right after the recording of
BloodSugarSexMagik.
His addiction cost him many of his friends, and he witnessed
firsthand the fatal consequences of abuse when he played at the
Viper Room the same night actor River Phoenix, a friend and
supporter of his solo work, died on the sidewalk outside.
Nevertheless, Frusciante claimed to have made a conscious decision
to become a junkie, and enjoyed the respite it gave him from the
depression that set in after he left the Peppers. Ironically, notes
Katznelson, the week that the New Times article came out,
Frusciante was already well on the way to recovery.
“John has problems like anybody else does, but he’s in a good
way right now,” says Katznelson. “He’s one of those guys who can
really turn himself around. Flea wouldn’t work with him if he
wasn’t clean.”
According to Katznelson, Frusciante and the Peppers’ famous
bassist have remained close friends over the years, occasionally
working together in various temporary outfits. One such
collaboration, the Three Amoebas (with
Porno for Pyros drummer Stephen
Perkins), even recorded a few jam sessions, but nothing
was ever released. According to Katznelson, Frusciante’s drug
recovery might have stemmed from a promise from Flea that if he
kicked his habit, they would be in a band together again.
In addition to last year’s Birdman album, Frusciante released
Niandra La’Des and Usually Just a T-Shirt on American in
1994. Katznelson says Frusciante of late had been focusing more on
writing and painting than music, but noted that the guitarist had
“a bunch of other stuff that I’ve been wanting to put out.”
When and if these unreleased Frusciante solo recordings see the
light of day may depend on how things go with his old/new band.
“I’m pretty amazed about this whole thing going down,”
Katznelson admitted. “We’ll see what happens, but I hope it works
out.”