John Frusciante

John was born on March 5, 1970 in New York. He is the son of Gail Frusciante, who appears on Under the Bridge singing background vocals in the outro part.

In the fifth grade, John went to his first rock show at the Whiskey-a-go-go where he saw the Sensible Shoes and Martha and the Muffins - his first concert was AC/DC at the LA Forum. At about age ten, he learned to play Italian traditional songs and the Sex Pistols album "Nevermind the Bullocks" on his grandfather's Gibson acoustic.

As a youngster, he came very close to being in Frank Zappa's band. He stood in line for the audition for hours, but ultimately "chickened out" as he put it. Zappa has always been a big influence on John, along with Lou Reed, Jimi Hendrix, and David Bowie. When he was 16, he left home to find a job and an apartment.

John first saw the Chili Peppers when he was 15 at the Variety Arts Center He and Hillel would talk. After Hillel died, John was the obvious choice to take over being the Peppers' biggest fan, and he was nabbed out of a Thelonious Monster audition five minutes before Bob Forrest was going to ask him to join. John's Chili Pepper debut was shortly thereafter, given that he could already play all the songs. He was first seen at MTV's 2Hip4You festival.

John grew disenchanted with the group and confused about their popularity after the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and refused to go on stage during a show at one of Japan's biggest venues. The band persuaded him to play that night, but he took a plane home the next day and began his solo career as a junkie. When asked what to tell the fans, John said, "Tell them I went crazy."

John recorded his first album Niandra La Des. He says he recorded the album during his time with the band because he wanted to pursue his own musical avenues in addition to the Peppers. Niandra was released in 1994, right when John was smack in the middle of his heroin addiction. For a long while this album has been largely unavailable due to the fact that Rick Rubin sold American Records to Sony. But now Sony has re-released Niandra.

In 1997, John released Smile from the Streets You Hold, a much more painful album than its predecessor and, by John's own account, a rather poor effort. John says that he only released Smile for drug money, and that he's so ashamed of it that he has a bunch of copies in his house that he won't even share with his friends. Nonetheless, many Frusciante fans find Smile to be the better album.

Also in '97, John's friends finally persuaded him to enter rehab. Flea then asked him if he'd like to rejoin the band, and he of course consented. John's first gig with the reformed Peppers was a KBLT radio interview.