• Childhood and adolescence

John Frusciante was born in Queens, New York on March 5, 1970. His father, John Sr., was a pianist and his mother, Gail, was a singer who gave up her career to take care of him. After a couple of years living in Arizona and Florida, his parents separated and he was taken to California by his mother.
Later on, they moved to Los Angeles, where he became involved with the punk scene.
As a teenager, he began studying several artists like Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix, being the last one a big influence. He also began getting in contact with drugs in adolescence while attending guitar classes.

• John in the Red Hot Chili Peppers

• Drug addiction and start of his solo career

John started taking a lot of drugs while touring with the band. He smoked marijuana before every show, and began using heroin too. When he left the band, his heroin addiction went worse than ever and fell into a state of depression. He felt that he could neither write songs nor play the guitar, so he focused in painting and writing stories and screenplays. John was quoted saying that drugs were the only way of "making sure you stay in touch with beauty instead of letting the ugliness of the world corrupt your soul.", stating that he had taken heroin to cause euphoria (one of its possible effects) because he was horribly sad during those days.

On March 8, 1994, John released his first solo album Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt, with recordings made during Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour. It had a moderate reception, but most of the critics weren't good. Frusciante's condition was getting worse than ever: he nearly died from a blood infection, his arms were almost amputated because of its scars from injecting himself with heroin improperly. In addition, Johnny Depp (actor) and Gibby Haynes (musician), two of his closest friends, went to his house and filmed a documentary short called "Stuff", showing how he was living and his house was destroyed by a fire that burn his guitar collection.

He released his secong album, Smile from the Streets you Hold, in 1997. In some tracks he accidentally coughs or screams without any reason, showing that his health has deteriorated. The main purpose of the launch of the album was to get money for drugs.

• Rehab and return to the Red Hot Chili Peppers

After a long time, Frusciante was convinced to go to rehab in 1998 but by the time he arrived, he was diagnosed with an oral infection which could cause him death. As a consequence, his teeth were all removed and he also received skin grafts to help repair the abscesses on his arms. Healthy again, Frusciante started an spiritual life, characterized by abstinence of many pleasures such as sexual activity. He began doing yoga (however he stopped because it was bringing problems to his body, especially his back) and started a diet.

As this was happening, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were about to break up because they hadfired guitarist Dave Navarro (who released One Hot Minute with them in 1995), and Flea told Anthony Kiedis that he would only continue if they invited Johnagain to the band. Kiedis accepted and Frusciante, after a visit of his friends and former bandmates, happily agreed to come backl. In 1999 the band released Californication, with excellent reviews from the press, highlighting Frusciante's work. John brought the band back where they belonged, andthe album was a commercial success. To Record Only Water for Ten Days, Frusciante's third solo album, was released in 2001, differing completely from the others. This one wasn't recorded under influence of drugs, and consciousness prevailed in music, sound and lyrics. He focused in using synthesizers and experimenting with psychodelic rock and electronica.

In 2001 the Red Hot Chili Peppers started recording By The Way, their eighth album. During that time, Frusciante wrote many of the songs that would be part of Shadows Collide With People, his next solo album.

"He is a phenomenal person and he is an amazing artist and I am grateful to play with him. He is the best." (Flea)

• John Frusciante today

After releasing By The Way, the Red Hot Chili Peppers started touring all over the world and John released his fourth solo album Shadows Collide With People. He started a side project with Josh Klinghoffer and Joe Lally called Ataxia. They released an album in 2004, Automatic Writing, and another in 2007, AWII and later disbanded. In 2005, Red Hot Chili Peppers released Stadium Arcadium, their latest album, where he practically provides backing vocals in all the tracks.
Apart from that, he contributed vocals and guitar playing on The Mars Volta first album De-Loused in the Comatorium, guitar solos on their second album Frances the Mute and helped them completing their third album, Amputechture.
Nowadays, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are on temporary hiatus. Anthony Kiedis revealed that, meantime, Frusciante will continue with his solo projects.

• Appearance

John is medium-height, with big brown eyes, wide nose and thin lips. He's recognized because of his long wavy hair, and because he usually grows a beard. Lately he has been seen with very short hair.

• Devotion to Frusciante

I completely admire John because he's a great musician and person. He transmits a lot of feeling in his music, he is conscious of what people think about him and the band where he plays but he always has both feet on the ground. His humility is admirable taking into account his past. That's why I admire John Frusciante.

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