John Anthony Frusciante (pronounced Frooshontay) was born on March 5th in 1970 in New York, NY. His father, John Frusciante Sr. worked as a pianist and is now a succesfull lawyer. His mother Gail Frusciante, a very talented vocalist gave up her singing career to be a housewoman. (She and her friends sing the chorus at the end of "Under The Bridge".) While living in Tucson, Arizona his parents split and he moved to Santa Monica, California with his mom while his dad went to Florida.
John started playing guitar when he was seven and later got his first guitar as a birthday present from his dad. Music became an extremly large part in John's life and he would practice for hours each day. He listened to Jimi Hendrix, the Ramones, Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, all of which later on influenced his guitar playing. He was interested in punk rock and fan of bands like The Germs, Fear, The Sex Pistols and later on the Red Hot Chili Peppers. When he was 15 he saw them live for the first time. John became a very devoted fan of the Chilis, knew to play all their songs and was especially fan of their guitar player Hillel Slovak and his work. He not only attended countless concerts of the Chilis, he even became friends with the band members. Slovak, however, died from a heroin overdose in 1988 and drummer Jack Irons left the band due to personal problems related to Slovak's death. Bassist Flea and singer Anthony Kiedis eventually regrouped to continue with the band. At that time John was close to join the Thelonious Monster but then chickened out. Flea and Anthony both knew about John's incredible talent and asked him to join the band. Of course he accepted and the Chilis started off as a "new" band, Chad Smith joining them later on. John was 18 years old when he joined, the youngest of the group.
"Mother's Milk" (1989) was the first record they did together. It was the also the first "Gold Record" and showed the amazing chemistry that John had with the band. This album also contains "Pretty Little Ditty", the result of a jamming session John and Flea once had. Many people know the guitar and bass riff from "Butterfly", a song by Crazy Town that was worldwide a hit.
Their next record "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" (1991) was recorded in Rick Rubin's house, isolated from the outside world (except for Chad). For the duration of recording, while Anthony and Rick had made a few ventures into society, John and Flea remained shut-ins and John consumed massive amounts of marijuana. Gavin Bowden made a documentation of the Chilis recording that album called "Funky Monks". "Blood Sugar" was so incredibly successful that it was all just too much for John to cope with. He was overwhelmed by it all and he started to intensely dislike the popularity and status of the band. While at age 18, he enjoyed the band's hedonistic rock star lifestyle, John 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." John 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." Added to all these feelings came the heroin addiction that started soon after finishing the "Blood Sugar" album. He wanted to quit the band but waited until he couldn't do it anymore. The spirits were telling him to quit for a long time but it was during their Japan Tour in May 1992 when he told the band that he quit. Right before a concert. The others tried to convince him to play at least that night and they eventually succeeded but after that night he left the band.
Home in LA the only thing he could do was "lying on the couch and be depressed". While the Chili Peppers began the search for yet another guitarist, John became addicted to drugs such as heroin and cocaine. He discovered his love for painting. After his friends Perry Farrell, Steven Perkins, Gibby Haynes, Flea and River Phoenix convinced him to record a solo album because there was "no good music anymore" he completed "Niandra LaDes & Usually Just A T-shit". Warner was to have the rights to the album as there was a 'leaving artist' clause in the Chili Pepper's contract but since John did not want to do any promotion or interviews for the album, they gladly handed over the rights to Rick Rubin's American Recordings. The album didn't shift many units as it was only restricted to the American market. It sold roughly 15,000 copies. After his friend River Phoenix died in October 1993, John became more depressed. He stopped playing guitar, he stopped painting and became a full time drug addict. He became broke after spending all his money on drugs and was expelled from his house since he wasn't paying the rent for it anymore. During the years, he moved to different places. If no one had heard from John for a while, some would assume that he was probably dead. He never ate regularly and liked his new body shape which resembeled a stick. Mainly because it looked like David Bowie's during the "Ziggy Stardust" days. After a suggestion from a friend for another solo album, John agreed to do one to pay for his drug habit. In 1997 "Smile from the Streets you Hold" was released. It sold better then "Niandra LaDes & Usually Just a T-shirt" but he later on took it off the market because he was ashamed of the motive of the album.
By 1997, John had decided to quit his drug addictions cold turkey, later entering a rehabilitation facility and beginning his full recovery. Part of his physical recuperation involved removing and replacing all of his teeth with dental implants to avoid a lethal infection. In the following years he completley changed his life habits and started to live a more spiritual live, practicing yoga and meditation and eat healthy food.