In the end, it was a simple reason that led John Frusciante to return to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. “I really wanted that challenge of trying to work in a democratic band,” he says, “with people that I respect and people that I have a chemistry with. I felt that to move forward as a soul and as a human being, I had to accept that challenge. I felt that it would be good for me to try to work harmoniously with them, and not have my ego be the thing that was driving me forward, but to have love and respect for them. That was the thing: to try to be a part of a whole.”
Frusciante is talking to Total Guitar from his home in Los Angeles, the city where the Red Hot Chili Peppers formed back in 1983. With his long hair unkempt under a wooly hat, his face unshaven, wearing black-rimmed glasses and his lean frame clad in a loose fitting yellow t-shirt, the guitarist looks pretty much the same as he did 16 years ago, when the double album Stadium Arcadium gave the band its first ever US number one. But it was in the wake of that album’s success that John quit the band - the second time he had done so, having previously bailed in 1992, both exits prompted by his discomfort with the pressures of fame.
Following his departure in 2009, the Chili Peppers went on to release two albums with another accomplished guitarist, Josh Klinghoffer. Frusciante, meanwhile, pursued his love of electronic music and modular synths, in an effort to make music that stood apart from the band with which he made his name, and with entirely personal – and non-commercial – aspirations.
So it came as a surprise when the Chili Peppers issued a social media communique in late 2019 announcing Frusciante’s return, and with it, the potential for a new album – their first with John in the fold since . The fruits of their labour, , finds the band reunited with super-producer Rick Rubin, showcasing 17 tracks that run the gamut of their collective influences, from breezy funk to progressive rock and hardcore punk. In short, the chemistry between John, bassist Flea, drummer Chad Smith and frontman Anthony Kiedis has resurfaced intact,
