Talk:John Frusciante

Why the heck has this text the title 'Criticism'?

'I spent the afternoon yesterday with John and Chad at Chad’s home. We had a funky good time writing and going over a couple of songs for my [upcoming solo] album. John Frusciante is an absolute one-of-a-kind. His vision and depth amazes me, and like Chad, he is extremely beautiful. Look forward to creating my next adventure in the New Year. ' -
 * I've corrected it to a more accurate title: About John Frusciante. - InvisibleSun 17:56, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

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 * And for me the only way to live life is to grab the bull by the horns and call up recording studios and set dates to go in recording studios. To try and accomplish something.


 * And if a few other people come along who discover my music because they in some natural way come across my music, cool.


 * And this whole period of time of gradually working at being a better guitar player and songwriter have gradually led me to the point where I feel I'm doing a clearer representation of the thing that I've been feeling inside me since I was four years old.


 * Anybody who's a guitar player that's spent that time with another guitar player, there's nothing better than that.


 * As far as my solo record, I don't want a gold record or anything, I'm happy to be small and to have the people appreciate the music who really like me for being me.


 * But for me if I'm gonna read about something I'd rather read a pamphlet or the instructions to a synthesizer than a book on Buddhism.


 * But I have been avoiding talking about what I'm doing now because it's frustrating for people to hear about things that aren't available yet.


 * But I think I know just as many creative people who've never taken drugs in their life as I do who have taken a lot of drugs.


 * Everything's very perfectly balanced; for all the horrible things in the world there's lots of good things.


 * For me it's important to be in balance. To not let fear get in the way of things, to not worry so much about protecting yourself all the time.


 * For me my friendship with Omar Rodriguez from Mars Volta that friendship really means a lot to me because he's another creative person who works as hard as I do.


 * I don't want to be on the radio. I don't want to be on Mtv.


 * I feel like I'd like to continue putting out records and start putting them out more rapidly than I have until now and for me if I can keep selling the records to the fans that already like me that's fine.


 * I find that the best way to do things is to constantly move forward and to never doubt anything and keep moving forward, if you make a mistake say you made a mistake.


 * I just feel like the songs that come out are the songs that come.


 * I think the feelings in my music were suggested to me before I even had the ability to play music.


 * I think the mainstream sucks


 * I think you get people taking things to excess in all fields, doctors, lawyers - -it happens to all kinds of people.


 * I try to put the same spirit into that that I put into any other music endeavor I'm involved in.


 * I would say a lot of the emotion in what I do is a sort of a thankfulness for those energies being around, because there's been points in my life when they weren't around, and it's a real sort of miserable existence.


 * I write songs because I have to write them, and if I didn't I'd be doing some other kind of music that didn't require a song.


 * I'm going in that direction rather than the 80's synth-pop direction where it's more obvious you're hearing a synthesizer.


 * I'm going through a phase where I'm really accomplishing a lot of things and in that is everything I've learned.


 * I'm not interested in forcing my music on people, and that's what the whole music industry nowadays is based on is forcing stations to play it, forcing people to listen to it.


 * In music you have people exposing this very vulnerable part of themselves, and you also have the lifestyle is so fast that oftentimes people search for whatever the easiest way to feel relaxed in the midst of all of it, or the easiest way to have energy.


 * In the Chili Peppers I'm a part of that world in a pretty big world and that's just the way it is.


 * It means basically I'm using the synthesizer more to change the sounds of other things rather than to use it as the source of the sound.


 * My music, my whole approach to the synthesizer has completely changed now.


 * Right now my taste is going more for things that are organic where the people are using all the sonic possibilities in interesting ways.


 * So when I feel the spirit upon me it's something I don't take it for granted, and I don't think I'm solely responsible for these things.


 * Something like trying to protect yourself all the time, things like trying to outwit fate. Those things can be the worst thing you can do for yourself.


 * The main thing experience has taught me is that one has to sort of hone their relationship to time, you know.


 * Yeah, I really like being alive. But I definitely don't have any intentions as an artist.


 * You just never know when somebody's gonna die. It could happen at any moment so you've got to really treat everybody that way. Just really let everybody know how you feel about them.


 * I'm very connected to these 3 people (Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith) because I feel like I was born to play music with them.


 * I just deteriorated so much that I was ready to die and all I can remember is I wanted a gun bad so I could shoot myself, you know, my heart had broken completely.


 * I'm not really a star-oriented kind of guy.


 * I don't see any value in sitcoms on any level for anybody. I just think they should be banned.


 * Everyone of you is a star. It's just hiding inside of some of you. That part of you will come out if you treat others as you would like to be treated, and when you can't find it in yourself to do so, if you just leave others alone.


 * I love the spirits that are inside me, I don't give a fuck about this body.(London, 2001)


 * If it wasn't for Anthony Kiedis, I wouldn't have written any of these songs for the really last two years. (New York, 2001)


 * I don't care if what you think I am is really what I am. What you think I am is way more important than what i really am. (London, 2001)


 * My songs I write them like I play them for one person and then when I see so many people going out to it, I feel so happy. You know how big you all are, everyone of you is like an hundred spirits to me. (London, 2001)


 * Michael Stipe, I met him also as a person, and I don't give a fuck about him as a person because he seems to be totally full of himself. But my image of him is beautiful and I love him you know, not the human being, my image of him. (London, 2001)


 * Lately, I just haven't been having sex 'cause I just don't enjoy it. I just stopped enjoying sex at one point so right now, I just concentrate on writing music for the album. (1991, a few weeks before the recording of BloodSugarSexMagik)


 * :HARP: What’s one thing you’d change about yourself?
 * JF: I really love being myself, I wouldn’t change places with anybody. I think anything that anybody wants to change about themselves, they should take a closer look, because it could just be a matter of looking at that flaw in a different way, rather than removing it.

About John Frusciante (unsourced)

 * I spent the afternoon yesterday with John and Chad at Chad’s home. We had a funky good time writing and going over a couple of songs for my [upcoming solo] album. John Frusciante is an absolute one-of-a-kind. His vision and depth amazes me, and like Chad, he is extremely beautiful. Look forward to creating my next adventure in the New Year.
 * Glenn Hughes (2005).


 * John Frusciante is definitely my favorite contemporary guitar player, and I asked him if he wanted to play on a David Bowie song, and he was like, ‘Fucking right.’
 * Danny Lohner (2003)


 * There is no real story about how John came back, it was really fate and the way that energies went that he came back I don’t really mean to take credit for it. We all wanted him back. I was the one that maintained a friendship with him when he wasn’t in the band. But at the same time I didn’t see him that much. John got to a point in his life when he was ready and willing to come back into the band; we had run our course with Dave Navarro. And it seemed like the right thing. It was definitely a rebirth for all of us. His ability to focus and discipline himself and not question himself because of what he’s doing is beautiful and pure and to surrender himself completely to that is phenomenal. He is a phenomenal person and he is an amazing artist and I am grateful to play with him. He is the best.
 * Flea


 * He lets the power of the whole universe flows through him everytime he touches his guitar.
 * Flea


 * Sometimes when I look at John when I’m playing I just want to cry because there is so much love for music coming from his heart.
 * Flea


 * John is such a pure artist. He doesn't care about the reward, he doesn't care about any of the things that come with rock stardom or being in a band or any of the things that someone might think would be the fringe benefits of being in a band. Those things are of absolutely no concern to him. He just lives for the process of making music and for the process of surrendering his body and his soul to the spirits and letting music flow through him. It's all he wants to do. And he's really dedicated his life to just doing that and to creating good feelings in the world by doing that.
 * Flea


 * If John wasn’t a rock star, he’d be a vegetable.
 * Anthony Kiedis


 * There are few people that can go to the spiritual places John does - and come back to tell you about it. He’s a good piece of magic.
 * Stephen Perkins


 * Um, John, is very beautiful. You know, very, uh…he has a very, very strong sensuality.
 * Stéphane Sednaoui


 * I didn’t see everyone, but of what I saw, I’m afraid I thought the Yanks pulverised us! The Chili Peppers and the Foos seemed to absolutely show everyone else up, in musicianship, work, polish and passion. I thought John Frusciante played SO dangerously - the best I’ve ever seen him play - The RHCP’s have deservedly conquered Britain’s hearts.
 * Brian May about Live Earth show. (2007)


 * Later when I returned home John Frusciante from the Chili Peppers stopped by my house. We ended up talking for hours about many things and then we went to his house and listened to a ton of cool music. He is a very special person with a deep passion for music, the guitar and life. Although I did not get any work done today, after I left his house I felt as though I really needed the experience to balance myself out a bit after being buried in the studio for so long. It’s so rare that I get to just hang out with interesting people who I resonate both musically, personally and spiritually with. I discovered a gold mine in John. (2007)
 * Steve Vai

-VH1 Behind The Music - Red Hot Chili Peppers 2002 Documentary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29eCtHPIVMQ at the 30:23 mark.
 * John was just up there like he didn't give a fuck about anything. You can't be in a band and not care. It's gonna show. And it did. A lot of the shows were terrible.
 * Chad Smith (On John before he left the Red Hot chili Peppers)


 * Plus, we’ve been a band for 11 years, and we’ve put out five records. That’s longer than the Beatles, longer than the Doors. [Laughs] Most classic-rock bands weren’t together for that long, though they often put out two records a year in those days. If today’s marketing structure was different, I’d prefer that, to be honest. Jazz guys used to put out four records a year! I think it’s sad that we have to saturate a market with marketing to try and sell a record so many times, instead of having more art coming from these artists. You look at Zappa or Miles Davis, these people who had so much music to give, or someone like John Frusciante, and all these records he’s been putting out. It would be great to be in a situation where that’s the norm, instead of the way it is now.
 * Serj Tankian


 * The Peppers guitar player walked into our dressing room and mumbled something about it being a beautiful experience playing with us. I guess he was stoned.
 * Henry Rollins


 * It's obvious that John is a chamán. That's exactly what he is. There is a lot of that in the way he plays the guitar. I'll tell you something: when he came to the studio to record the new songs with us, John would remain in front of the others, silent and without a guitar, to sense what was about to come. He would move his hands in the air to receive the energy. Then, five minutes before we begun recording the songs, almost without rehearsing, John would pick up his instrument and learn the solo, following a personal ritual. I don't think that anyone else can do something like that. To me, such a thing is a shamanistic quality.
 * Cedric Bixler


 * There's no one like him. When he plays, you can't stop watching him, he hypnotizes you. He's incredible. He opens his mouth as if he's screaming, he closes his eyes and... it's like he's doing magic. I imagine those south american shamans during a trance, you know. Connecting to another dimension with nothing else but a guitar. I feel lucky to be where I am and to live this kind of experiences. Magic and music, alltogether. Few things could be better in this life.
 * Cedric Bixler


 * I know I'm in the band and everything but, sometimes I just have to rock out to the John Frusciante experience.
 * Anthony Kiedis (19th April 2007 - Sydney concert)


 * Besides being a very close friend of mine who understands what I'm trying to do, John is another musician that I utilize to execute my compositions. What I look for in a musician is the ability to learn and memorize horribly fast, because I'm impatient. And they have to be able to do it without fear or reservations, and to play with all their heart and soul so that their personality comes through. In filmmaking terms, I'm the writer and director and the musicians are actors. They learn their lines and say them, and then we share the bigger story together.
 * Omar Rodríguez-López


 * He's the reason I don't have the affinity for the guitar that I should: because I know that I'm a phony. John's one of those people that I've always wanted to be. He picks up the thing and there's no separation between him and the guitar. Every single thing he plays has finesse and beauty to it. He's a natural, whereas for me it has come through a lot of playing and stubbornness, and thinking that the guitar and I are stuck with each other so we'd better make the best of it.
 * Omar Rodríguez-López


 * I've decided that I'm never going to learn how to drive a car, ever. I'm too much of an idiot and I'll probably crash. (Fan Club interview 1989)


 * Cigarettes are one of the greatest things ever invented. And to all you anti-smokers out there, if I ever became president I would make sure that you were put in the electric chair. (Jannus Landing interview 1989)


 * I keep going through girls. Any girl that can ever do me good I get bored with very easily, and any girls that are mean, weird and evil people are the ones that keep me interested and end up destroying me. (Fan Club interview 1989)


 * I think human beings have done nothing but destroy everything they touch since the beginning of man. I think they were basically designed to destroy themselves. (Fan Club interview 1989)


 * You see, one time I used to have this girlfriend named Amanda and we were always breaking up and she was crazy, she was just completely nuts. And this girl is so crazy that one time, she was on her period and we were playing strip card game, we were stripping, me and her and her friend and my friend Bill. We were all completely naked and then the loosing team had to eat/lick one part of the winning team body, that they said, and then she took her bloody tampon from the girl who was on the winning team, completely bloody, she had to lick the tampon. Not only did she lick a little bit of the tampon but she put it in her mouth and sucked it like if it was a cock. A really bloody brown tampon. It was awful. She's a nuts"(...)"You ask how I deal with all the girls who want to fuck me. These are the types of girls that keep showing up so that's why I don't have sex anymore, 'cause I don't have the energy to deal with these kinds of situations anymore because I want to deal with playing music. (VPRO, 1990)


 * William Burroughs always talks about the world is nothing but allies and enemies. And it's important to understand what things around you are the enemies and a lot of the time your worst enemy is your ego. (Funky Monks, 1991)


 * I don't think that death is a big deal. I don't care if I die right now. (VPRO interview 1994)


 * Bi-sexuality and drugs were the two things in life that I related to rock 'n' roll and my over-all image of it when I was about 9 or 10 years old when I got into punk rock. That was the whole world that I felt within me that wasn't going on around me at school. That made me feel like I had no reason to exist. (VPRO Interview, 1994)


 * Everybody's parents make some sort of mistakes when developing a child's sexuality and their brain. What's considered smart to the world and parents is like memorizing things and doing good in school. And what I've come to find is what smart is, is being able to trip out. That's what smart is. Not just memorizing things a monkey can do that. So drugs just help that. (VPRO interview 1994)


 * When you're talking to a fan, you're talking to somebody who's not talking to you. They're talking to a photograph, they're talking to their image of you, they're talking to a walking poster. And if you make the mistake of thinking, that they're talking to you... When they tell you that you're a genius, or that you're so fucking cool... Or whatever their fucking image is of you... Then if you believe it... Then you, the real human being dies. - 1997 on "The Blairing Out with Eric Blair Show"


 * I never had to get a job or anything 'cause I ended up Joining the Chili Peppers like the day my dad told me he wouldn't give me anymore money. (BTM, 1999)


 * Expression is when you're at one with nothingness, and you just beathe with your playing. (Guitar Player 1999 interview)


 * I think my songs exist before I write them, in a place called the fourth dimension where sounds and shapes and colours are the land. (Kerrang interview, 2000)


 * Your position and your relationship with music has to be one from the inside. (Off the Map 2000)


 * Music should be an expression of freedom and not an expresion of fascism. ("An Afternoon with John Frusciante" interview - 2001)


 * Somebody who spends their days absorbed in this music that I've been making with the chili peppers and in my solo music that I make, I know that's having a good impact on them. Like I know it's coming from a completly healthy place. I know the spirits that helped me do it are wonderful parts of the universe (...) And I just know that's healthy for people. (Off The Map DVD, 2001)


 * When I first stopped doing drugs, the hardest thing was to get back to being able to function as a person. Your mind and body becomes used to it, and you just feel like this real boring person when you stop. And there was about nine months where I didn’t even feel like I deserved to be called John Frusciante. So I would just dance. I had this pretty good size living room and all day long I would do these dances to all the music that I liked, whether it was Black Sabbath, or Robert Smith or something else. (Harp magazine, 2004)


 * I loved Jimmy Page since I was 7, he's the reason why I began to play. My favorite way to pratice is lean all his solos and I can play "Since I've Been Loving You" from the beginning to end. (Mucchio Selvaggio 2004 interview)


 * Interviewer: When you quit drugs, did you feel like having sex again?
 * JF': Yes, I did. I go through phases. Now i'm very well without it. (Mucchio Selvaggio 2004 interview)


 * I know that now i couldn't be happier than I am. Sex often distracts me from my job. I don't want to find myself in a relationship unless I can coordinate it with my job, without letting it influence my musical self. (Mucchio Selvaggio 2004 interview)


 * Being addicted to heroin? I really value that period of time. (Kerrang Magazine may 2006 interview)


 * That's what I spend most of my time doing, breathing a lot. I like air. (Live At Abbey Road, 2007)


 * When you're practicing and playing along with other music so much it's a natural bi-product of that that you're going to write songs. (KUHINJA Interview)


 * I feel that for a musician to keep getting better has to keep changing. And if you're constantly always referring to the same things, to me it just grows stale. (KUHINJA Interview)


 * My religious point of view is something I can't talk about. It goes against my belief system. (from Audio Inteview with John Frusciante from YouTube 2009)


 * "I understand it (The Empyrean) to mean the highest point in Heaven. In the Case of the Record (The Empyrean) I think I was more using the highest point in heaven as a symbol for the things in life that we are all reaching for and those things that are sort of out of our grasp. But yet there is some spark inside us that compels us to want to reach for them. And to want to bring ourselves to greater heights Whether it is on an instrument or whatever it is. As human beings we just have this need to reach and to reach new heights. Often they are totally out of our grasp, but that doesn't make it any less reasonable to reach for it." ..."While I don't think its good to always be sort of believing that the grass is always greener on the other side, I believe in pushing yourself to reach heights that may seem far off, but to push yourself to get there.  In my case it just all with music.  (from Audio Inteview with John Frusciante from YouTube  2009)


 * "...In the long run, you can gain more momentum if you listen to your clock inside. You may have to occasionally give up or in a symbolic sense you may have to die in order to be reborn." (from Audio Inteview with John Frusciante from YouTube 2009)


 * "...When we were mixing this record, My main thing was just to have something that I could blast on the stereo system late at night and you know trip out to...I dont at all make records to impress people or to try to do something good. Its more like I want to make something the I like, That I would want to hear, in rock music. (from Audio Inteview with John Frusciante from YouTube  2009)


 * "I like it when they just take their (musicians) same musical sense that makes them sing or play the way that they do and they apply it to their mixing console. So that was totally my approach to this. Just to Trip It Out as much as possible."(from Audio Inteview with John Frusciante from YouTube  2009)