John’s Back in the Band: After a Ten Year Hiatus, Frusciante Rejoins the Red Hot Chili Peppers
By: Isaac Fernandez
Tags: Music, Red Hot Chili Peppers, United States, Rock, Guitar

John’s Back in the Band: After a Ten Year Hiatus, Frusciante Rejoins the Red Hot Chili Peppers Isaac Fernandez Feb 24, 2020·4 min read

Last December, the Grammy Award-winning Red Hot Chili Peppers broke the news to lead guitarist, Josh Klinghoffer, that John Frusciante would be reclaiming his spot in the band. Then, an hour after Klinghoffer’s dismissal at Flea’s home in Los Angeles, the Chili Peppers let the rest of the world know the current state of the band in a heartfelt Instagram post which received nearly one million likes. This will be Frusciante’s second returning to the Chili Peppers after leaving in 1992 and 2009.

Although it was a hard pill to swallow for Klinghoffer, he assured that there are no hard feelings between him and the Chili Peppers. In an interview with Rollingstone, Klinghoffer stated he didn’t take the decision personally, “I know they care about me and I know they liked me as a person. If they had said, ‘Thank you, Josh, we’ve enjoyed being in a band with you, but we’re now going to hire this person,’ that would have been a whole different metric. It’s John. It’s the guy who I’ve fucking adored.” Klinghoffer had been with the Chili Peppers since John’s second departure in 2009 and had recorded two albums with them, I’m With You and The Getaway. Klinghoffer had also know Frusciante personally and even helped record one of Frusciante’s solo albums, A Sphere in the Heart of Silence, in 2004.

And Klinghoffer’s right, this isn’t just any guitarist, this is John Frusciante, the man that initially catapulted the Red Hot Chili Peppers into international stardom. The man who played guitar on five out of the six most popular Red Hot Chili Peppers records. The man who jammed away on the Chili Peppers’ best-selling single, Give it Away. Frusciante first joined the band as a teenager in 1988 and has had a long history with them since. His reunion with the band is the restoration of the Chili Peppers' former greatness.

When fans think of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, they think of Anthony, Chad, Flea, and John. That fantastic four has been the most idolized version of the band and the most popular. Even a six-year-old boy knew it was only right to draw Frusciante in his art above.

It’s also not unusual for fans across the globe to pay homage to Frusciante’s guitar playing. Frusciante is inarguably the most recognizable guitarist for the Chili Peppers. Their most viewed video on YouTube, Californication, has over 660 million views with Frusciante in the mix. Other popular music videos that feature Frusciante include, Otherside (450 million views), Scartissue (270 million views), and Dani California (226 million views). Frusciante has left his mark all over the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ videography and best music. Even on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Greatest Hits record, all but one of the 16 songs feature Frusciante at the helm.

The music video for “Californication” has over 660 million views on YouTube

As for the future of the band, drummer, Chad Smith, has guaranteed new is on music on the way. “We’re psyched. The festivals are the only shows booked. For now, we’ll mostly be concentrating on new songs and writing a new record. We’re all real excited to make new music,” said Smith in an interview with Rolling Stone. Smith also elaborated and confirmed a Red Hot Chili Peppers album is on the way this year. The Chili Peppers started writing music again in 2018 and all through 2019, but it appears all of it has been discarded according to Klinghoffer. When asked by Rolling Stone whether or not the music he had helped work on since The Getaway will be trashed, Klinghoffer said, “All of it.” This probably came as a hard blow to Klinghoffer, but it makes sense that the Chili Peppers would restart the writing process with Frusciante back.

First look of Frusciane playing with RHCP

The Red Hot Chili Peppers will tour the U.S. starting in Gulf Shores, Boston, and Napa, before heading off to Europe. Fans are excited, stoked, and thrilled. It’s the second revival of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and everyone wants to see what they create with John Frusciante back. Considering the two post-Frusciante albums, I’m With You and The Getaway, were a bit lackluster compared to Stadium Arcadium — which sold nearly double the combined numbers of those two albums — the bar could be fairly high. No one is expecting a Californication (16 million sales) or Blood Sugar Sex Magik (14 million sales) type of success, but a better record than The Getaway is sure to be expected since it was the lowest-selling album since The Uplift Mofo Party Plan in 1987, a year before Frusciante first joined.