John Frusciante is a name well-known among rock music.  Having tasted the highs and lows of art, drugs, rock'n'roll, and the music industry, John has led a life that many envy, and a life that many would denounce.  Nevertheless, he has come out ahead of his drug addiction and depression to play music with one of the greatest funk-rock bands ever to perform.
 
John Anthony Frusciante was born on March 5th, 1970, in New York.  John's parents divorced when he was very young, and at the age of seven, John moved with his mother to California.  When John was nine, his stepfather offered him his first acoustic guitar.  Young John taught himself how to play, and over the years his practice paid off.  As a teenager, he became interested in punk bands like the Germs.  In junior and senior high school, he became influenced by bands like Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and the like.  When he was 16, John dropped out of high school to become a full-time musician.  Once he even stood in line to audition as a guitarist for Frank Zappa, but chickened out at the last minute.

When John was 15, he went to his first Red Hot Chili Peppers concert.  He immediately became a huge fan and went to as many concerts as he could.  Eventually, he got the chance to meet guitarist Hillel Slovak, and over the years he met the other members of the band, and they kept in contact regularly.
 
In 1988, tragedy struck John's favorite band as Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose.  Then-drummer Jack Irons left the band, too distraught to continue, as he and Slovak were good friends and Slovak's death was a huge shock to everyone.  Bassist Flea and front man Anthony Kiedis, however, knew that RHCP hadn't yet reached its full potential, and they wanted to continue.  Flea had jammed with John many times before and after Slovak's death, and both Flea and Anthony were convinced that John was right for the Chili Peppers.  At this time, John had worked up the nerve to audition for the band Thelonious Monster; fortunately for the Chili Peppers, Flea and Anthony decided to jump in and offer the guitarist position for their band instead, and John accepted.  John was called a "Hillel clone" by those close to the band - not only did he play like him, but he danced and moved like him, too.

In 1989, the album Mother's Milk was released; this was the first album for both John and new drummer Chad Smith.  The Peppers' remake of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" made it to the Billboard Charts, peaking at number 59.
 
Years earlier during a conversation with the late guitarist, Hillel Slovak had asked John if he would still like the band if they made it big and played at huge venues like the Los Angeles Forum.  John had responded with a resounding "No", because it would "ruin the whole thing", the whole premise of what the Chili Peppers were about.  As the Peppers' success escalated, this conversation began to haunt John, and his feelings toward musical popularity turned negative.  During a tour for the next album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, John's relationships with the other band members began to fall apart.  John expressed his negativity by playing angrily and shunning conversation with his bandmates.
 
In 1992, during their BSSM stint in Japan, John suddenly refused to continue playing.  He called the tour manager and informed him that he wanted to quit the band.  After a band meeting, the Peppers convinced John to play for the show that night, and he reluctantly agreed.  After the show, he flew back to California, unhappily camping on his sofa and getting high to drown his troubles.  Unfortunately, fame and stress go hand-in-hand, and drugs were a popular way of coping with the stress.  John became addicted to such drugs as heroin and cocaine, and spent days at a time high and semi-conscious.

On a more positive side, John discovered his love for painting.  It was during this time that John recorded his first solo album, titled Niandra LaDes & Usually Just A T-Shirt.  Warner initially had the rights, but quickly passed them over to Rick Rubin's American Records when John refused to do promotions or interviews.  After his friend River Phoenix died in 1993, John became so depressed that he stopped playing guitar and painting, and he became a full-time drug addict.  He was eventually evicted from his house for lack of rent money.  After a friend's suggestion, he went back to the studio to create a new album, this one called Smile From the Streets You Hold, which was released in August of 1997.  After the release of "Smile", he was urged to try drug rehab (again), and this time it was successful.
 
John picked up his guitar and began to play again, this time with meaning.  In early 1998, rumors circulated that Dave Navarro, John's replacement in the Chili Peppers, was leaving the band.  Flea contacted John and offered him the position, and in April 1998 John was once again an official Chili Pepper.  In 1999, John took his "Smile" album off the shelf, as he was ashamed of the motive for its creation; he had used all the money from "Smile" for drugs.

In the meantime, Anthony Kiedis had also recovered from his own heroin addiction, and the band was able to reform wholly as the funk-rock quartet they were meant to be.  John has recorded two more albums with the Peppers, Californication and By The Way, and two more solo albums, To Record Only Water For Ten Days and Shadows Collide With People.

What John has to say:

"I guess this is a the first time in a video [Californication] that I ever showed my arms since my arms have been scarred, 'cause my arms are pretty badly scarred.  I guess people are always wondering so I might as well say that the way that my arms got the way that they look is from abscesses which came from shooting huge amounts of drugs.  The results could have been a lot worse, so I'm happy to have the scars from a period of my life where I was living destructively, just as a sign of what I've been through.  And these days I'm, you know, being healthy, and taking care of my body is so important to me.  But looking at it here, it seems like my arms have gotten better since then so that's nice to see.

[Taken from "The Red Hot Chili Peppers Greatest Hits DVD", commentary filmed August 9th, 2003.  Video: "Californication"]