Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith offered an update on how returning guitarist John Frusciante is gelling now back with the band.
In December 2019,Red Hot Chili Peppers parted ways with guitarist Josh Klinghoffer — with Frusciante rejoining the group for the second time. Frusciante’s two previous stints in the group were marked by some of their biggest commercial successes.
Klinghoffer was in the Chili Peppers for a decade, playing on the band’s last two studio albums, 2011’s I’m With You and 2016’s The Getaway.
Ultimate-Guitar.com transcribed some of Chad Smith’s recent chat with SiriusXM, in which he shed light on what the Chili Peppers’ have been up to since Frusciante’s return: “He’s back in the group, and it’s really exciting and fun, and we just kind of picked up where we left off. We’ve known each other for so long — obviously, 30-plus years — so it’s like putting on a nicely well-worn pair of shoes that feel really good. And you get back in there and it’s comfortable and a little bit different, but still we’re doing our thing. So it’s been really fun.”
When talking about the long-awaited followup to the band’s 2016 album, The Getaway, Smith explained, “There’s been no hurry, with what’s happened over the last year or so. So, we’ve been kind of taking our time, and we have lots of new music, and we’re very excited about it. And when it’s done, it’s done, and we’ll put it out, and we’ll go play some concerts next year. We look forward to being in front of people again, like, everybody wants to be so badly — us included. Not only having new music to play, but also we just wanna play live. And that’s such an important part of life’s experiences and certainly of being a band.”
Smith said that live work is still a high priority for the Peppers: “It’s really important to us. We were gonna play last summer. But we want it to be safe for everyone and a really good experience for everyone, so we pushed everything off, but we’re coming back, and it’s gonna be great.”
FAST FACTS
- John Frusciante first joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers following the death of founding guitarist Hillel Slovak in 1988.
- He first played on 1989’s Mother’s Milk and 1991’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the two albums that marked the band’s transition from struggling act to breakout stars.
- Heroin addiction took Frusciante out of action in 1993, but he rejoined the Peppers six years later, playing on 1999’s massively successful Californication and 2002’s By The Way.
- He left again after 2009’s Stadium Arcadium, making some 14 studio LP’s during an eclectic solo career.
SIDE NOTES
- In June 2020, John Frusciante released a new six-song LP under the name Trickfinger, titled She Smiles Because She Presses The Button. The disc came less than two months after his last solo outing, Look Down, See Us.
- The ambient electronic style is a far cry from the music Frusciante has made with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The new music is the result of what a statement called years of being immersed “in machines, learning tracker programs, synths and drum machines inside and out, applying the same, tireless approach he’s exhibited throughout his career.”
CHECK IT OUT: Red Hot Chili Peppers’ video for 2002’s “Can’t Stop”: