Plus, John Frusicante kicks ass. For those of you who don't know his story, he was their guitarist back in the late 80s/early 90s...
Here's an interview with him during the popular period AND during the seriously ****** up on heroin period. It's amazing just how much that drug can destroy you.After the massive success of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Frusciante started to intensely dislike the popularity and status of the band. While at age 18, he enjoyed the band's hedonistic rock star lifestyle, Frusciante had, by this time, changed his attitude: "But by the age of 20, I started doing it right and looking at it as artistic expression instead of a way of partying and screwing a bunch of girls. To balance it out, I had to be extra-humble, extra-anti-rock star." Frusciante later expressed that the band's rise to popularity was "too high, too far, too soon. Everything happened or better everything seemed to be happening at once and I just couldn't cope with it." Following a performance at Tokyo's Club Cuatro on May 7th, 1992, Frusciante left the band.
By this time, he had developed steady drug habits as a result of touring with the band in the past 4 years, as both Kiedis and Flea had addictions of their own. Performing with them as a teenager, Frusciante was inspired to take drugs as he looked to the others as his role models, saying in an interview, "The kids who smoked pot just seemed like burnouts to me. I was practicing ten to fifteen hours a day. But I never felt like I was expressing myself. When I found out Flea was stoned out of his mind at every show, that inspired me to be a pothead."
Upon leaving the band, Frusciante fell into a deep depression, unable to write music. For a time, he focused on painting and producing various 4-track recordings he had made during his time with the Chili Peppers. By shooting heroin, he felt able to progress with his life, more emotionally and spiritually connected to his music once again, and subsequently spiralled into a life-threatening four-year addiction.
In 2002, he remarked, “When I originally decided to become a drug addict, it was a clear decision,” he said. “I was very sad, and I was always happy when I was on drugs; therefore, I (thought I) should be on drugs all the time. I was never guilty — I was always really proud to be an addict.”
An infamous article published by the New Times LA in 1996 described in wrenching detail the decrepit state Frusciante's life fallen into.[13] Frusciante was described as "a skeleton covered in thin skin." At the height of his addictions, Frusciante was literally on the verge of death, having almost died earlier in the year due to a blood infection. His arms became scarred from improperly shooting heroin and cocaine into his arms, leaving permanent abscesses. The walls of his Hollywood Hills home were broken down and covered in graffiti, before an accidental fire would later burn the house down.
He made a couple CRAZY solo records during his heroin time, saying of that time that
Now, of course, the band is bigger than ever, he's reunited with his music soulmates, and he does Yoga and eats vegan. Still, though, he's got a unique perspective about the time when he nearly killed himself:Frusciante claims that his music is a gift from spirits that frequently spoke to him. He has said about these spirits, "I was so happy that someone was visiting I’d make food for them. When they were gone, I’d cry."
So, in summary, John Frusciante rules, he's the living embodiment of the idea that no matter HOW ****** up ahd ****** your life can get, you can pull it all back together if it means enough to you.Despite his harrowing experience as an addict, Frusciante has cited in several interviews that he does not view this time as a "dark period" in his life. “I don’t look at it like that. That was the period that I learned, when I got my mind straight about everything that I needed to know. I really value that period of time,
*steps off soapbox*
