In 2023, Hollywood superstar and everyone’s favorite nice guy Keanu Reeves made a musical comeback with his band Dogstar’s reunion album, Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees – plus a tour that spanned nearly 100 dates.

Fast forward three years, and Dogstar is back with their second-phase sophomore album, All In Now. The record continues to position Reeves as a bona fide bass player rather than a Hollywood A-lister turned musician – thanks to its melodic basslines and low-end-driven songs that earned him the nickname “Chordal Reeves.”

“[It’s] because he plays so many chords on the bass,” singer-guitarist Brett Domrose tells the Los Angeles Times.

“That’s actually how we started when I met Keanu,” drummer Ribert Mailhouse adds. “At first there was no guitar player – it was just him on bass and me on drums.”

And while Reeves’ acting and music worlds rarely collide, he did have the privilege of a one-to-one lesson with the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea while filming Gus Van Sant’s 1991 adventure drama My Own Private Idaho.

“He’s such an amazing artist and person, and he didn’t give me a technical lesson; he gave me a philosophical lesson,” Reeves told Bass Player in a 2024 interview, “which reminds me of surfing. It’s like you’ve just got to go do it and you’ve got to feel it.

“You know, I could give you technique – ‘Here’s your balance, here’s a way to duck, here’s a way to get on the board, here’s how to pop up.’ But eventually, you’ve got to be in the water, and you have to learn about the water and learn about a wave, and you learn by doing it.

“He wasn’t giving me, like, ‘OK, when you’re slapping, try not to use too much of your arm and just stay with your hand,’ you know? It was just like, ‘Play it, feel it.’ I thought that was profound.”

As for what he took from that impromptu lesson, Reeves replied, “I’m still trying to learn how to ‘play it, feel it’. That’s a never-ending journey, isn’t it?”

Elsewhere in the 2024 interview, Reeves admits that he doesn’t see himself as worthy of a signature bass – and reveals which basses his most popular on-screen characters would play.

No bassist in the past 30 years has prompted more bare-chested youngsters to pick up the bass guitar than Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. His aggressive, slap-heavy style lit up the mid-’80s L.A. scene, exemplified by their cover of Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground.

On the group’s first four albums – Red Hot Chili Peppers, Freaky Styley, Uplift Mofo Party Plan and Mother’s Milk, Flea mixed the thumping innovations of Larry Graham and Louis Johnson with his own style, built on punk rock abandon.

“Understand that my roots are in punk, which was all about playing hard, fast, and loud,” said Flea in a Bass Player interview from January 1992.

It all started in high school, when guitarist Hillel Slovak asked Flea to play in his band. He bought a Fender Mustang and played his first gig two weeks later.

“Hillel and Anthony and I were living together at that time, and a friend of ours needed an opening act, so we put a band together without rehearsing. We were billed as Tony Flow & the Miraculously Majestic Masters Of Mayhem.

“When we got onstage, I started some funk-bass thing, Anthony read a poem, and we just played. At the next show, we were the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”

At the time, no-one could have imagined the extraordinary success that awaited. Yet things could have turned out very differently.

Just as this early incarnation of the Chili Peppers was beginning to gain momentum, Flea auditioned for the notorious L.A. punk outfit Fear.

“By 1982, I had shaved my head and got into taking acid and acting crazy, and the next thing you know I had quit Hillel’s band and joined Fear. It was a complete turn – all of a sudden I was playing bare-bones, raw-energy punk rock.”

Flea’s involvement in Fear came at a pivotal moment in the development of the Southern California punk scene, exposing one of the bass world’s future stars to a band whose abrasive sound, controversial reputation, and fierce live performances helped define a turbulent chapter in underground music history.

“The musicians in Fear were great. The drummer, Spit Stix, was a big influence on my musicianship. I had never warmed up before I played; he taught me how to get my blood going before a show, how to be physical, and how to push the music. I really enjoyed being in Fear.”

Drawn to funkier feels, however, it wasn’t long before Flea was looking to leave the group.

“I discovered that what I was listening to was different from what they were into; they wanted the band to go in a metal direction, and I liked the funky feel. It became more obvious I wasn't going to have the freedom to be creative.”

The Chili Peppers themselves were also gaining fans with a signature brand of punk-funk and over-the-top antics. By this point, the lineup had shifted to include Flea, Anthony Kiedis, guitarist Jack Sherman, and drummer Cliff Martinez.

“As a band, the Chilli Peppers was really starting to happen. I wanted to leave Fear, but I didn't have the guts to quit. I was sitting there trying to get up the nerve to call, and just as I reached for the phone, it rang. ‘Hi, Flea, you're fired.’ It was great! From then on, it was just the Chili Peppers for me.”

Though his tenure with Fear was relatively short, it sharpened Flea's skills as a performer and exposed him to the raw energy that would later become a defining characteristic of his slap bass technique.

“When I got into punk, the way I slapped wasn't really funky; I was just hitting it as hard as I could, just abusing the bass. I was really into the punk ethic: play every note like it's your last! You could be dead tomorrow! Play for today! And when you perform, give every ounce of energy you have, but it’s not because you're better than anyone else – it's just what you have to do.

“You do it because you mean it: you're pissed, because things are twisted. And that's beautiful – the punk thing is so honest and sincere. Even though the genre was finished a long time ago, the intensity is still important to me.”

A teaser of the tracklist for Stage Tour – the upcoming rhythm-action game by Guitar Hero producers RedOctane Games – has just been released, and, spoiler alert, it includes a bunch of hits.

Largely perceived as the spiritual successor to Guitar Hero – the multi-million dollar rhythm game series released between 2005 and 2015 – Stage Tour was announced in February and is scheduled for release later this year.

Red Hot Chili Peppers make an appearance with their 2006 release, Dani California, while Swedish band Ghost contribute Square Hammer – their Billboard Mainstream Rock chart topper.

Elsewhere, RATATATA – from Japanese kawaii metal band BABYMETAL and German electronicore band Electric Callboy – also makes the cut.

Nuno Bettencourt’s Extreme, with their 1990 single Get the Funk Out – whose solo Brian May himself hailed as a landmark in rock history – is also included in the tracklist, with Weezer’s alt-rock early-aughts hit Island in the Sun, Static-X’s Terminal Oscillator, and Good Kid’s Mimi’s Delivery Service rounding off the list.

Aside from this Rolodex of artists, Gibson, Kramer, Epiphone and Mesa Boogie are all in on the action, as a new Kramer-modeled guitar peripheral has been unveiled at the 2026 IGN Live event this past weekend. Other instruments and equipment from these brands are also said to be featured in the game.

RedOctane Games confirmed that Stage Tour will support plastic instrument controllers and up to four players across groove/bass, vocals and drums, as well as support for standard computer keyboard controls and gamepads.

With the ultimate aim of not only bringing rhythm games back, but bringing them back better than ever before – at least according to project lead Alex Jeffreys in the developer spotlight trailer – the game looks set to follow Guitar Hero’s lead.

If the initial tracklist is anything to go by, it will not only give a boost to established names in music, but also help launch new ones.

Guitar Hero did help transform bands like DragonForce into household names after all – so much so that, according to Herman Li, the song featured in the game, Through the Fire and Flames, tends to overshadow the rest of the band's repertoire.

The game also helped inspire a newer generation of artists to pick up guitar and make it their own. Yasmin Williams is one such guitarist who, inspired by Guitar Hero, flipped her acoustic onto her lap and developed her unique lap-tapping technique.

Since leaving The Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2019 when John Frusciante returned to the fold, Josh Klinghoffer has stayed busy with his solo music as Pluralone and touring gigs with Jane’s Addiction and Pearl Jam.

His departure wasn’t easy for him to stomach – at the time he told the band, “I wish I could have done something with you guys, musically or creatively, that would have made this an absolute impossibility.”

Reflecting on the Chili Peppers’ tendency to bury the music from his era, Klinghoffer tells Guitar World: “All of that makes sense to me, but I guess it’s strange for people that connected to some of that stuff. It’s almost like it disappears; it doesn’t have a chance to live.”

Klinghoffer’s upcoming Pluralone offering, A Drop in the Ocean, has a far better chance of life. “I don’t know how many people I reach with this music,” he says, “but the fact that I’ve made enough connections, and a few people like it – I couldn’t be more grateful.”

In 2022, Klinghoffer told Guitar World that his time with the Peppers had been “enormously stifling creatively.” He’s not in that space anymore: “I’m always writing. I have like a year's worth of ideas that I could be developing.

“But it takes quite a while to have a cohesive and finished song with lyrics. The lyrics are the real work; I could come up with compositions all day long. They just appear every time I pick up a guitar.”

Now, he’s over the Chilis trauma, and the devastation of a 2024 motor accident in which a pedestrian was killed, and he's enthusiastic about what’s to come. “I’m just so grateful that I have the opportunity to make records and put them out.”

Did the 2024 traumatic accident factor into your recent creativity?

I guess everything’s always affecting everything. But I started recording a lot of this stuff in 2022, though I finished off some lyrics recently. It was shelved while I was touring with Pearl Jam; 2025 was when I finally had a chance to finish. So I’d say none of the recent traumas have affected or influenced the writing too much.

Did the accident push you to pick things back up and wash some of the negativity away?

Mostly the reason for not being able to work and finish was the touring and being busy. I’m always sort of dealing with a lot, so there was nothing too new, or more, on my plate.

How has working with Pearl Jam impacted your approach to guitar?

I’ve always cited Stone Gossard as the reason I picked up guitar in the first place. Being able to have a front row seat to his playing has been amazing. Not that I’ve styled myself after his playing, but when I was starting, some of the songs of his I learned in standard tunings, then I figured out that they were in different tunings. So I’ve messed around with his tunings a bit.

How about Mike McCready?

I’m on the same side of the stage as Mike. I think of him as one of the best, most fluid soloists in the world. I just love watching him rip into something. I’m surrounded by great guitar playing. Eddie Vedder has an amazing right hand. Being around those guys is inspirational and influential.

How does your rig change between Pearl Jam and your own music?

It’s changed a lot. On the most recent Pearl Jam tour there was a movement to reduce stage volume a bit, and since I’m in the back on a riser, I was just using a Fender Tone Master Plus. And there’s an array of guitars, but what I have at home is completely different.

I’m not the lead guitarist anymore, so I don’t have to bring my best, you know? I still bring great guitars, but my Strat and my Chili Peppers guitars are the ones that I leave at home.

Has moving away from your usual lead guitar position changed your perspective?

It’s like night and day when you go from being the only guitar player to being one of four, and trying to fit in. It could just be atmospheric, but when there’s so much already, you’re really trying to work as a team.

There’s so much sound going on, so it’s a great chance to exercise restraint, and really listen and fit in. In the Chili Peppers you were free to move and any sound you made was part of a whole thing. So it’s a cool shift.

Did you write the songs for A Drop in the Ocean on guitar?

It was primarily on guitar – and that was because I hadn’t done a collection of songs like that in a while, you know? I’d spent a lot of time writing on piano, programming drumbeats, and having an electric guitar along with that.

The album is primarily acoustic.

I really wanted to make an acoustic album. This one is more fingerpicked and acoustic-based. I don’t have a set way of doing something; whatever I happen to be playing at the time is where an idea can come from. But this album was definitely consciously acoustic-based.

Is there a particular acoustic you used most often?

A lot of it is my 1947 Martin that I bought in 2000. It was the first nice guitar I ever bought when I got some money from playing with The Bicycle Thief. We got a little cash in New York City, and I went straight to the guitar shop and bought this Martin.

I used that all over the album and a couple of other great acoustics, like a beautiful Epiphone Texan, which is a very Beatles-influenced purchase. And I have a beautiful Martin D-28, and an amazing Martin made from koa wood.

The effects seem to be minimal throughout, with a focus on clean, sparse electric tones.

Yeah – I tried to keep the effects to a minimum and go cleaner. I treated my electric guitar once or twice with a modular synthesizer, but most of the electric guitars are clean, with maybe a bit of reverb in the mix. I used my Fender Tweed Deluxe and my Vox AC30.

I also used an Epiphone Casino, and there’s a Strat used, but not exclusively. I think I also used a Jazzmaster. But there’s not a whole lot of electric guitar.

Actually, I have a pair of ‘60s Strats that have both been refinished that live in my studio. They’re both funny colors. One is Cimarron red; when I bought it, they were trying to say it’s an actual Fender refin, but I don’t know if that’s true. Fender rarely used that color; it’s almost like a deep plum color.

Then there’s a guitar I bought on the last Pearl Jam tour in Minneapolis. It’s a ’63 Strat that’s been really crudely refin’d. It was allegedly owned by Tommy Stinson from The Replacements – I thought that was cool, so I bought it.

A couple of years back you filled in for Dave Navarro with Jane’s Addiction. What was that like?

It was amazing! They’ve always been one of my favorite bands. I became good friends with Eric Avery over the last 15 years, and when he rejoined – which was big news to begin with – Dave was struggling with his health and was unable to do it.

So Eric was in and Dave wasn’t, and it was like, ‘What are they gonna do?’ I was touring with Pearl Jam, so Troy Van Leeuwen did a leg of a tour, and there were bits where I’d visit and sit in. I played with them a few times.

It was just amazing to be around that music. I thought they didn’t have it in them to sound as powerful, but it was a really special thing. There was a huge shift between Eric and Perry Farrel – they were really connecting. It was beautiful.

That surprised a lot of people.

I was blown away. And then when Troy was unavailable in 2023, I was. So without any tryouts I just stepped in, and it was great.

Were Dave’s parts tough to cop?

Basically, the entire time I’ve known how to play guitar, I’ve known those songs. But I had to work out some of the solos, like Three Days, to play them exactly the way they are on the records. Dave changed a little bit live sometimes, but he basically sticks to the beautiful, melodic thing he wrote.

So I tried to do that too. It wouldn’t feel right otherwise. It was a really special challenge to do that stuff. I feel like I got it most, or at least some, of the time. Every night was a fun experiment of recreating these beautiful recordings I grew up with.

Some Chili Peppers fans prefer the music you and Dave made with them to the albums they made with John – who you both replaced and were then replaced by. Does it bother you that those records are ignored by the band?

Not really. But I appreciate you saying that. It’s a funny thing. I guess it’s particular to the way John views the band when he’s not in it, and it makes sense to me. They have enough music that they don’t need to look to some of the other records.

But for anyone who connected with those albums, like One Hot Minute, or the two I made with them [I’m With You and The Getaway]… I imagine it’s a little weird for me to be banished from the catalog and the live performance.

Why do you think that’s the case?

I guess it’s just something unique to that band, you know? Having such a revolving door there, and such a strong presence in John. He’s kind of the preeminent guitar player, you know? He’s the one who made the work with them where they experienced their global fame.

Have you listened to the albums they’ve have made since John returned?

I listened to their new stuff one time when it first came out. I made some comments in South America that people didn’t like – but I don’t think I said anything shocking. I just said that I thought that what I was working on with them was cooler! But I don’t really keep up so much.

It seems like whenever the Chili Peppers explore new territory, they return to a specific type of sound with John.

Yeah – they have their thing, their formula. I guess it’s so much more definitive to the main amount of Chili Pepper fans; you know, that’s just what the Chili Peppers are. It’s probably a testament to them that they can step out of that and do a good record with Dave Navarro. I like that record too.

The records that we made together… The only thing I would say – and I don’t know if it’s spoken or unspoken – is that there’s a little bit of a slight disrespect to the records that aren’t the John records. Once John’s back in the picture, it’s like the other records don’t exist.

That’s the only weird thing to me, because those records were important at the time, you know? They were important enough to go and play them around the world.

Recently you’ve been working a lot with Andrew Watt within his stable of studio musicians, and ended up on a lot of records.

Andrew is younger than me, but he grew up liking a lot of the same bands as me, so we have a kinship. He’s a real fan of live recording; all the records I’ve made with him rely on being in close proximity, and that’s been great.

There’s been sessions with Andrew where I’ve been closer to Chad Smith than I was when I was in the Chili Peppers! It’s an amazing experience recording at Andrew’s studio – which, sadly, I don’t really get to do on my solo stuff.

How has working with Andrew impacted your growth?

It’s the best thing in the world to figure out your part and how to best accomplish it. And he works really fast, which I like, so it feels very vibrant and creative. He’s very open to input; it’s just a very healthy and creative environment. And it’s shocking how successful he’s been!

But his methods are the way it should be: just people playing music together, you know? In this day and age there’s been certain changes in the music business. But Andrew has been able to create a very vibrant and creative system, and it’s always fun.

What’s next?

I have another album I’m finishing now. Hopefully it’ll be out this year, but if not, it’ll be early next year. It’s another group of songs I’d worked on in 2022 and 2023, so it’s that era of songwriting, but this next group isn’t acoustic.

• A Drop in the Ocean is released on June 12.

Josh Klinghoffer has undergone a musical rebirth since he was replaced by the returning John Frusciante in the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2019. He started his own solo project under the moniker Pluralone, became one of super-producer Andrew Watt’s go-to guitarists and picked up stints with Jane’s Addiction and Pearl Jam.

With time to reflect on his dismissal from the Chili Peppers, Klinghoffer has offered his thoughts on his long tenure with the band in a new interview with Guitar World – which also means giving his take on the band’s (spoken or unspoken) decision to bury the music from his era and omit it entirely from their setlists.

“All of that makes sense to me… but I guess it’s a little strange for people that connected to some of the other stuff. It’s almost like it disappears and doesn’t have a chance to live,” he says.

“I guess it’s particular to the way John views the band when he’s not in it, and it makes sense to me. They have enough music that they don’t need to look to some of the other records.

“But for anyone who connected with those albums, like One Hot Minute [with Dave Navarro], or the two [I’m With You and The Getaway] that I made with them, yeah… I can only imagine that it’s a little weird for me to be completely banished from the catalog and the live performance.”

Klinghoffer links this decision to the band’s revolving door of guitarists, as well as Frusciante’s ubiquitous presence as the definitive Chili Peppers guitar player.

“He’s kind of the preeminent guitar player, you know? He’s the one who made the work with them where they experienced their global game,” Klinghoffer adds.

“They have their thing and their formula. I guess it’s so much more definitive to the mass amount of Chili Pepper fans, you know, that’s just what the Chili Peppers are.”

He goes on to clarify that, despite all this, he genuinely likes the records he made during his tenure, but can’t help feeling that there’s “a slight disrespect to the records that aren’t the John records.”

“Once John’s back in the picture, it’s like the other records don’t exist,” he continues. “So, you know, that’s the only weird thing to me. Because those records were important at the time, you know? They were important enough to go and play them around the world for people.”

In 2023, Klinghoffer went as far as to comment that the music the band was creating before he was fired was “way cooler” than what was eventually released – 2022’s Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen.

“I would love for it to have been finished,” he told 5 Notas of the unreleased music. “I never want to sound negative about anyone doing music, but I honestly feel like I was shocked when I heard their new record.”

Guitar World’s full interview with Josh Klinghoffer will be published in the coming weeks.

His upcoming album under the Pluralone moniker, A Drop in the Ocean, will be coming out on June 12 via Org Music.

In 2024, Klinghoffer was involved in an vehicular accident that resulted in the death of 47-year-old pedestrian Israel Sanchez. Klinghoffer took a plea deal after being sued and charged with wrongful death and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence.

Flea has recalled the time he jammed with Parliament-Funkadelic’s Eddie Hazel at one of the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s earliest European shows.

In the Summer of 1985, the Chili Peppers, fresh from the release of Freaky Styley, hopped across the pond as a band for the first time and played their first European gig at Germany’s Rockpalast Loreley Open Air Festival.

It was a slot that found them opening for George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic. An apt scheduling, considering it was Clinton who had produced Freaky Styley.

Naturally, P-Funk were a huge inspiration to the band, and Flea in particular. Now, in a new interview with Trackstar, the RHCP bass hero discussed the moment he had an impromptu jam with Hazel.

After being played the iconic Maggot Brain, Flea paid tribute to Hazel’s guitar style, saying, “I remember George [Clinton], when I first started hanging out with him, was like, ‘Man, you just can’t play like that until your heart has been shattered to smithereens and you have lost all hope.’

“[It has] such a beautiful sense of melody. Obviously you put in the work to have the dexterity and the ability to express himself, but man, it’s so beautiful.”

Of his surprise jam with Hazel, Flea adds, “I once had the privilege of playing with Eddie Hazel – and I will never, ever forget it.

“This was like the first time Chili Peppers ever went to Europe, and we opened up for Funkadelic at this festival in Germany. There was a moment on stage where I found just me and Eddie at soundcheck in the daytime, we were both plugged in, and I had this thing I was doing on the bass back then – this real fast slapping thing.

“And he was just gassing on it, and started jamming with me, playing these fast rhythms. We just locked in for about five minutes, looking at each other, just going for it.

“I’ll never, ever forget it. He knew he was being generous with me and what it meant to me to do it. But he was having fun, too, and I was just in awe and hypnotized and transfixed.”

In related news, earlier this year Flea confirmed that Red Hot Chili Peppers are working on a new album, and they've been recording at John Frusciante's house.

“It’s the most syncopated bassline I’ve ever played.” So said funk legend George Porter Jr. about the Meters’ 1974 anthem Africa.

Speaking to Bass Player in August 2021, Porter cited Africa as one of his very favorite Meters basslines for its use of space and melodic simplicity.

The politically charged song – also covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers with a swingier groove, on their 1985 album Freaky Styley – arrived at a time when young African-Americans were taking pride in Africa as the motherland, a “reset of our roots,” as Porter described it.

The 1974 session took place at Allen Toussaint's Sea-Saint Studios in New Orleans, which was later destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. The late, great pianist Toussaint featured the Meters as his label house band and produced six of their seven albums.

Guitarist Leo Nocentelli, keyboardist Art Neville, drummer Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste, and Porter cut the song live, using headphones.

“Zig and Leo were the main writers on the song, and they wanted Art to sing it, but he thought the lyrics were too controversial, so Zig sang it while he played drums. I think we ran it down to solidify our parts and then we went with the first or second take, including Zig's lead vocal. Later, Allen recorded the horns and background vocals, and I believe Cyrille Neville added percussion.”

Porter played his famous “Frankenstein” Fender (since road-retired), a ’70s Fender Precision Bass body with a ’63 Precision neck, strung with Fender half-rounds. It was recorded both direct and via a Fender Bassman 50 head and 2x15 cabinet, inserted in the alcove between the studio and an outside door.

For the first verse at 00:21, Porter dials in a syncopated groove made up of two-bar phrases – the main variation being that he plays the downbeat of beat three in the first half, and pushes beat three by an eighth-note in the second half.

“My recollection is that I was trying to avoid playing on Zig's backbeat. Overall, his drum part is very busy, and Leo has a steady part going, so I tried to stay out of the way; someone had to play simply and ground the song.

“On the flipside, after hearing the finished track I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I never knew how busy playing one note could sound.’”

As the verse moves on, Porter anticipates the ‘and’ of three more often, and also adds some slides into the octave and the 7th, to “spice up the repetition.”

In the first chorus, Porter establishes a track-long pattern of playing the first turnaround (Bb, F, G) down low and the next three up an octave. The second verse introduces some subtle variations.

“To be honest, I probably forgot what I played in the first verse, and I was trying to lock into it again.”

This creates some interesting rhythmic creations, as at 01:35, where the new rhythm in the second half of the two-bar phrase (featuring a note on the ‘and’ of beat two) leads Porter to lay off the downbeat. He continues to favor a note on the ‘and’ of two right into the second chorus.

The 20 measures at 02:22 were thought to be an instrumental or solo section at the time of tracking. It ended up being eight measures of groove, with horns added, followed by 12 bars of Modeliste's vocal improvisation.

Porter adds the 5th and the 6th (D and F), as well as capping each two-bar phrase with an upper-register fill, for the first eight measures.

“I knew the section was going to be open, so I stepped forward and got a bit busier. We actually vamped for quite a bit longer than where Allen faded out.”

“The space is as important as the notes; it's what you don't play that really makes the pocket. Feel-wise, I'm leaning forward a bit. Relax but keep it driving.”

John Frusciante was just 18 when he was offered the guitar slot in the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

By that time, he had spent years honing his skills on the instrument, immersing himself in the playing of Hendrix, Beck and Page; Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads; Steve Howe, Steve Hackett and Steve Vai; Frank Zappa and Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew.

He listened to the Germs and the B-52’s and Siouxsie and the Banshees, to Sly Stone and James Brown and Parliament, to funk and punk and rock and prog and shred and new wave and goth.

“I went through many phases,” Frusciante says. “Every year I was kind of a different person when I was growing up playing guitar, because as I kept getting better, my tastes kept changing toward something that was a little more difficult to play.”

But for all the music he loved – and he loved a lot of music – Frusciante loved the Red Hot Chili Peppers the most. “They were my favorite band,” he tells Guitar World one afternoon over Zoom. Living in L.A. at the time, he says, “I saw them as often as I could. You went to one of their shows, and there was this magic energy that was happening. It was like being in a dream.”

It would stand to reason, then, that being tapped to become a full-fledged participant in that magic energy would be, well, a guitar player’s dream. When Frusciante officially became a Pepper in 1988, he brought with him, as might be expected, the unbridled energy and enthusiasm of a kid who had just won the rock guitar lottery.

Another thing he brought? Sheer chops, with a high level of technical facility on his instrument (by this time, he says, he could peel off most any Frank Zappa instrumental, as well as all the solos on Alcatrazz’s 1985 metal platter, Disturbing the Peace, which were performed by a then up-and-coming six-stringer named Steve Vai) that enabled the predominantly punk-funk-based act to venture into previously unexplored musical realms.

But still, something was missing. “The first year or so that I was in the band was definitely a struggle,” Frusciante says.

He pauses, then restarts. “I’ve got something to say that I think could probably be good for guitar players. I think that at the beginning of my time in the band, I had my mind too much on trying to impress people, and I wasn’t trusting myself enough.

“I was feeling all these things – ‘I want to be unique,’ ‘I want to show off,’ ‘I want to stand out’ – and everything I was doing felt forced. I didn’t feel free and I didn’t feel like I was saying anything that I wanted to say. I didn’t feel like I was going deep in myself.”

Frusciante’s first album with the Chili Peppers, 1989’s Mother’s Milk, added a hookier, harder-rocking element to their sound, with bigger, thicker riffs and faster, flashier leads. The album was their most successful to date and became their first gold-certified seller.

But, Frusciante says, “by the time we were ending that tour, I got to such a point of unhappiness that I said, ‘I’m just going to throw away all these things I’m trying to do. I’m going to stop trying to grab people’s attention. I’m going to take my ego out of it entirely.’”

Instead, he continues, “I decided I was just going to use my guitar to try to support the other people in my band. So I simplified what I was doing. And at the same time, I was also putting a hundred times the amount of personal expression and soul into it than I had before.”

This change, according to Frusciante, “was the step that, all of a sudden, made people respond strongly to what I was doing. I wasn’t trying to be a Red Hot Chili Pepper in terms of what I thought other people thought that was – I just started being myself. And that honest version of myself is what you’ve had ever since.”

John Frusciante’s time in (and out of) the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the very high highs and very low lows that have gone along with it, has been well documented. Through it all, he says, there’s a bond that has been forged between the band members that can never be broken.

“We have a special relationship because we went from being a club band to an arena band together,” he says.

“When I was first in the band, we had some bummer shows. Not all the time, but we had shows where nobody showed up, or shows where we were feeling like the audience wasn’t as enthused as they had been before I joined.

“So we had to build our energy together to make something new out of the band. And we pulled that out of each other. That’s a connection we share that nobody else can share with us, because it’s only the four of us that had that experience.”

It’s an experience, Frusciante also acknowledges, that is very different from the one that the original version of the band – Flea, Kiedis, guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons – shared.

“Those guys knew each other in junior high school and high school, and they went from being kind of bummy guys sleeping on people’s floors to realizing, ‘Wow, when we step onstage, we have this energy that makes a whole club of people dance,’ ” Frusciante says. “For me, nothing we’ve ever done touches that lineup in terms of the energy I felt at their shows.”

Frusciante’s reverence for the original Red Hot Chili Peppers lineup runs deep, and it is sincere. So much so that, a week after our interview, he checks back in to further articulate how it felt to join his “favorite band in the world.”

“I just wanted to keep playing in the style they had created with Jack and Hillel,” he says. “I thought I would play like Hillel, but flashier. After about nine months I realized the flashiness wasn’t impressing anyone, and there wasn’t really a place for it in the band chemistry, so for a while after that I just relied on my energy. Those first nine months, I had the impression that a lot of their audience wasn’t into me, but by the time we released Mother’s Milk, I felt pretty accepted.”

Regarding the particular influence of Slovak, who tragically died of a heroin overdose in 1988 at just 26 years old, Frusciante says, “I’m very lucky to have replaced such a great stylist. The challenge of attempting to appeal to his audience was character-building, and even when my own style appeared, I was still using his style as the basis for what I did.

“And luckily for me, there was some strange confluence of souls, where the more I stayed within the parameters laid out by Hillel, the more I sounded like myself. I wanted to make the band sound good, and I stopped caring about how I might come across. I became content to back up the other guys in the band and, unexpectedly, that made me stand out more, rather than less.

“To this day I see Hillel’s style as the center of my own, where the band is concerned. He was a team player, and he added color and meaning to his bandmates’ contributions, and that’s what I try to do.”

Interestingly, for all of Frusciante’s youthful devotion to the Chili Peppers, he also says that “getting into them was actually a very gradual thing.” He was first turned on to the band when he was 14, when his guitar teacher at the time auditioned for a spot in the then-fledgling act.

“This was at the time when Hillel and Jack had quit [both eventually rejoined the group], and so they were looking for a new guitarist and drummer,” Frusciante says. “They got Cliff Martinez from Captain Beefheart’s band to play drums, and for guitar it was between Jack Sherman and my teacher. He didn’t get the job, but I knew about the band from him telling me that he was auditioning.”

Not long after that, a friend gave Frusciante a compilation of Chili Peppers music. Frusciante liked what he heard, but, he says, “it wasn’t until I saw them live that they became my favorite band. This was when the original band, with Jack and Hillel, had gotten back together, and I’d never seen anything like it.

“The energy was incredible. I jumped around the entire show, and the whole thing was just this psychedelic blur. Everyone was really happy, and it didn’t feel like the band and the audience were separate. So if you ask what I loved about them, that’s it – that magic energy.”

That magic energy is still alive in the Red Hot Chili Peppers today. But it requires tending to. “I think I loved the band with the Hillel lineup so much that, at the beginning of my time with them, all I could think about was that energy, and trying to match that energy,” Frusciante says. “And I thought that meant being as fiery a guitar player as possible, on every level.”

What it actually meant, as Frusciante returns to, was finding that “honest version” of himself as a guitar player. “Once I stopped forcing it,” he says, “that’s when it started to feel like, ‘Wow, we really do have that same magic energy as the band had with Hillel.’”

Frusciante pauses. “Like, we’re not trying to have it, you know? We just have it.”

This is an abridged version of a feature that first appeared in Guitar World’s June 2022 issue.

In 1989, when the Red Hot Chili Peppers had their first big hit with a frenzied cover of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground, the group's hyperkinetic bass player, Flea, could also be seen hopping around MTV in the video for Young MC's colossal hip-hop crossover, Bust a Move.

The recording experience was bittersweet, however, as Flea told Bass Player in February ’96. “The bassline I wrote ended up being a major melody of the tune, and I felt I deserved songwriting credit and money because it was a No. 1 hit. They sold millions of records, and I only got $200!

“Afterwards, my lawyer told them, ‘You should throw down Flea some cash,’ but the record company said, ‘We told him exactly what to play.’

“The truth is no-one was even in the room at the time but me and the engineer! It was ridiculous, but I learned from it.”

Check out the recording for Flea's funky beat-four variations. In each bar, his staccato notes on beats one and three lock in a groove, while the ghost-note shuffle feel on the ‘and’ of three anticipates the snare on beat four.

When asked on X what happened to the gloriously bizarre trousers that he wore in the music video, Flea responded, “They were stolen from the trunk of my car along with my badass leather jacket. I had just moved into a nice house for the first time in my life and I got robbed on the first night.”

Needless to say, Flea ended up on firm financial footing despite the alleged snub from Young MC. With new members John Frusciante and Chad Smith in tow, the Red Hot Chili Peppers released Mother’s Milk, which was more cohesive than anything the band had previously recorded.

Higher Ground remains the album’s most celebrated track, with Flea’s slap bass replacing the clavinet of the original Stevie Wonder hit. It’s still one of his most widely recognised riffs.

Here he is rocking the same pair of stuffed animal pants on the David Letterman Show. With some help from bass legend Will Lee on backing vocals, of course.

Flea would be the first to call himself a punk rocker before he ever took on the mantle of funk legend. But his infusion of punk ethos into the playing style of Louis Johnson and Larry Graham hipped a generation of rock fans to what funk bass playing is all about.

“My playing has always been very physical. A constant whackeda-whacke-da-whack. I don't do it to impress people; I just play what's fun.

“My roots are in punk, which was all about playing hard, fast, and loud. As the Chili Peppers got more and more funky, it was a natural evolution: the energy of punk translated into the music we felt like writing.”

It's been four years since Red Hot Chili Peppers released their 12th and 13th albums, Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen, respectively. And with Flea set to release his solo debut, Honora, in March, questions regarding the Chili Peppers' next outing are naturally starting to arise.

“We’ve been writing music together, recording at [guitarist] John Frusciante’s house, and the music feels great,” the band's bassist reveals in a new interview with MOJO, while admitting that the two have been on a quest to unearth “magic” in the studio.

“Ultimately, once we start playing, it’s about… just catching a magic groove and doing it good.”

As for the difference between crafting a solo album and a Chili Peppers record, Flea explains, “It’s like being in a marriage with four people that’s always moving and changing, all these challenges and all the things that you have to deal with.

“Egos are inescapable and my ego is as big and as fragile as anybody’s. But it’s always, no matter what, this intrinsic part of who I am and it’s alive and it’s beautiful and you never know what shape it’s going to take next. I really feel like that right now.”

In a recent interview with Rick Beato, Flea recounted how he ended up getting his cherished – and now-iconic – 1961 Fender Jazz Bass from a seller on social media.

Måneskin might be this decade’s most rock n’ roll rock n’ roll band – unrepentantly horny, loud and glam – assisted by guitarist Thomas Raggi’s raw, old-school noises, made the way only young fearless musicians can. With his main band taking a break, Raggi has created his solo debut Masquerade, enlisting a team of rock’s finest from the last 40 years. Tom Morello is the producer; drums come from Matt Sorum and Chad Smith.

Vocalists include The Prodgy’s Maxim, The Struts’ Luke Spiller, Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos and Kasabian’s Sergio Pizzorno. The album’s lead single Getcha was co-written with Beck and features vocals from Jet’s Nick Cester.

With a lineup like that you could end up with a directionless hodgepodge – but instead Masquerade has a clear identity. Raggi’s raucous tone and the live vibe unify the record, which carries the carefree and raucous spirit of Måneskin, while venturing into new territory thanks to the diverse collaborators.

Did you worry about making your solo record sound different from Måneskin?

No, everything came very naturally. It was cool to experiment with lots of other artists. But I grew up as a band member, so the approach was the one that I loved – jamming with the guests in this very nice studio and keeping the real sound of the room.

When I was super young I took lots of classes with guitar teachers, and I discovered lots of cool bands from the past. So my approach was to be like the best, stay in the same studio and play live. I hope you hear it on the tracks.

You first worked with Tom Morello in 2023 when he played with Måneskin on Gossip. How did he become your producer?

We have a really good relationship. After we met, he invited me to lots of shows in LA. I’d written lots of different songs and at one point I said, “Okay, maybe I can do a record.” It was very natural to ask to Tom to become part of this trip. He was super excited, actually.

After that I wrote different songs in different sessions. With Serge Pizzorno, for example, it was the first time I’d met him. We were in the studio in London, and we came out with this super cool song. I put the pieces together, went to Tom and we were all together on the whole track. Everything was very, very natural.

What did he bring to the album as a producer?

Lots of stuff – the way to arrange a song, and to put the guitar at the center. The whole songs and the singers are amazing, but my guitar is the main thing that’s connected to all the different vibes. Tom gave me lots of advice. It was super inspiring to have him playing live with me and giving me notes.

What’s the best advice he gave you?

One was to trust the first take. Lots of times I’d find a riff and say, “Maybe this is not the one.” He’s say, “It’s great!” You just have to trust yourself. Lots of times, you’re gonna be overthinking to find the perfect part. Sometimes the magic of the first take is the best.

He’s famous for always using the same guitar tone for everything. Did you do that?

I was super free – Tom gave me the space just to jam and experiment. After that he said, “This is the best of all the takes you did.” It was very cool speaking with him about the gear. I have my setup, of course, but I tried Tom’s pedalboard and amp for some songs. With my approach and Tom’s gear, we found a very cool sound.

Tell us about your own gear.

I have three main guitars – a Telecaster, a Stratocaster, like a relic, and a Squier. My main guitar is the Squier. It’s made in Japan so it's from the 70s. I have a Seymour Duncan SSL-5 in the bridge position. My first guitar teacher gave me that guitar. He was using it for, I don't know, 10 or 20 years. It’s a very important guitar for me.

I have lots of different pedals. I have an OCD, a wah, Strymon Mobius, a Deluxe Memory Man – that’s one of my favorites. Then I have a rotary simulator that gives that cool twist to the songs.

Is that the rotary on You Spin Me Round?

Exactly. Also in the solo of The Ritz; and with Måneskin I use that pedal a lot. I'm trying to find my marker. The fact that you can recognize me thanks to the rotary is a super cool thing.

Another thing I took from Tom is that you can recognize him thanks to the sound he has. I would love to do the same as a next step. I'm trying to find the right pedals so you can hear it and say, “That sounds like Thomas.”

I have two rotary pedals actually. I have one inside the Strymon Mobius, and the other one is the Strymon Lex. So for the recording of Zitti e buoni, the Måneskin song, I used that pedal.

My amp is a 100 watt Marshall Plexi, like Jimi Hendrix used. It’s a reissue. I put a master volume on it so you can turn it down. I have two OCDs. My clean sound is not a properly clean sound – it's more like a crunch, with a little bit of drive from the OCD.

After that I have my rhythmic sound from the second OCD with lots of drive. My solo sound that is the second OCD boosted by an Agata boost by Effeti di Clara. Sometimes, when I have to go very distorted, I use a Rat pedal. That’s a masterpiece.

Did you write the songs with the guests in mind, or did you look at a song and go, “I know who’d be incredible on this song”?

It was both. With Maxim, for example, I had in mind a rock song with some electronic elements. It was the first time I’d met him too. Matt Sorum is a really good friend of mine. I said to Tom, “I’d love to include Matt,” and me and Tom spoke about it. Then we said, “He's gonna be perfect on that song.”

Luke Spiller is a friend of mine and of Tom too. Upsahl is amazing on Lucy, I think she did an incredible job. The whole thing about this album is that we put two generations together. We have Upsahl and Luke, but we have Matt Sorum, Maxim and Chad Smith.

There are lot of solos on this record. Were they improvised?

Yeah, a lot. The approach I have is to improvise, but I like to add three or four important licks into the pile. I would play different solos then Tom would say “Okay, Thomas, come in here.” In the control room we took the best parts of those solos. I love that approach – it's important to me to find a very hooky part in a solo, and not be shredding around. But everything starts from improvisation.

Did you overdub your solos over the live tracks?

I did some overdubs, like in You Spin Me Round, for example. There are some harmonies around, and also in Getcha. But the idea was to have just one lead part, because another guitarist that inspired me a lot is Jimi Hendrix. The cool thing about that generation is that you have a combination between solo parts and chords because it was just one track, of course.

I’m the only guitarist in Måneskin, so as I grew up with the band my approach was like that, basically to cover the whole part with one guitar – like Led Zeppelin and the Red Hot Chili Peppers did. So yeah, I did some overdubs, but there should always be just one guitar to take the main part.

What do you want people to get from this record?

The main mission for me and Tom was to inspire a new generation of people to grab an instrument, the same way we did. I love it when someone tells me, “I love this riff you did, and that’s why I picked up the guitar.” So the mission is to try to create a new scene.

I’m 24 years old, and I’m very lucky, because my dad put me onto the huge bands of the past. But lots of people my age don’t know rock n’ roll is is real –not because they don’t like it, but because they don’t know it.

What are you going to take with you from this album when you go back to Måneskin?

Experimenting with different artists was very cool. But it was hard to find the right spot between my taste and the taste of the guest. I had to go into a new world every time. So I have the feeling that when we make our new record with the band, I'm going to be more open-minded.

Rock music is still the main thing to me, but I think my approach will be different. I can take the vibe from Damiano, Vic and Ethan. I would say “versatile” is the best word.

• Masquerade is on sale now.

Flea has built quite a bass collection over the years. The Red Hot Chili Peppers powerhouse's treasure trove includes, perhaps most notably, his cherished 1961 Shell Pink Fender Jazz Bass, which has been his primary studio instrument since 2006.

However, Flea himself admits that, for many years, he was far from a gearhead. “I always thought [with regards to] electric rock musicians' obsession with equipment, ‘Give me a break, man. It's all in the fingers in the heart. Give me any piece of shit, I don't care,’” he tells Rick Beato. “That's how I always felt. That was kind of one of my arrogant things.”

However, that all changed when Flea gave an old Fender a spin and resonated with its tone. It was an enlightening experience. From that point on, he was hooked.

In his quest for a vintage bass sometime in the 2000s, Flea took to what was then known as Twitter, then still in its earliest days.

“I remember it was in the very beginning of Twitter... and I was like, ‘I want a bass.’ And some guy wrote me, ‘I've got one for you.’ [The] guy met me in a Tower Records parking lot and gave me that bass. I traded him a Modulus for it!”

“You got the better end of that,” quips Beato, echoing what the rest of us are thinking.

“I hope that he feels good that I have gotten so much [out of it],” Flea replies. “I've recorded every record on it since I got it. I don't play it that much in big stadiums with the Chili Peppers, because [of] the old pickups and stuff. But it's a beautiful bass.”

His love affair with Fender Jazz Basses has been going strong since then, culminating in the release of his own signature bass in 2016 – a precise recreation of this rare Twitter find.

“The ’61 Fender Jazz Bass is magic. It's truly the greatest bass I’ve ever played,” Flea said upon release. “Fender embodies everything I love about music and individuality. The Flea Jazz Bass is a true resurrection and possesses that wave of energy a bass should give you when it’s in your hands.”

In more recent news, Flea has just announced his first solo record and shared the first taste of what we can expect with his debut single, A Plea – recorded in collaboration with double bassist and composer, Anna Butterss.

If there’s one thing that immediately alerts you to the fact that Flea is playing bass guitar on a record, it’s his tone: a vast, muscular and melodic sound that has the power to shift any element of the music that surrounds it.

Yet in spite of his illustrious career with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the huge respect in which he’s held within the music world (and not just by bassists) – earning him a place among the 100 best bass players of all time – Flea has never talked about a solo album. Until now.

With his first solo record expected in 2026, Flea recently shared a music video for his debut single, A Plea, directed by his daughter Clara Balzary.

Naturally, the new track features plenty of four-string exploits as Flea delivers a frantic fingerstyle groove that drives home the restlessness of the song.

And in characteristically obtuse style, at its heart is an unexpected partnership with one of today’s unsung bass heroes, double bassist and composer Anna Butterss, who thickens the groove with an improvised bassline of their own.

The Australian-born Butterss has been a name to watch for some time now, bubbling under with their work for the likes of Jason Isbell, Jeff Parker, Phoebe Bridgers and Jenny Lewis. Their presence at the heart of a niche L.A. jazz scene also culminated in a critically-acclaimed solo album, Mighty Vertebrate.

The shift from the Chili Peppers’ typical soundscape may surprise many Flea fans, but this project is more than just a chance to prove he remains one of the very finest bassists on the planet – for Flea, who also tackles trumpet on the album, it’s all about building a bridge.

In a press release he described his new single as mirroring the issues he sees in modern society.

“I’m always just trying to be myself. I don’t care about the act of politics. I think there is a much more transcendent place above it where there’s discourse to be had that can actually help humanity, and actually help us all to live harmoniously and productively in a way that’s healthy for the world. There’s a place where we meet, and it’s love.”

• A Plea is out now.

Sometimes these interviews are matter of fact; the player remembers the reason why they chose a particular electric guitar (often because it looked cool) for their Guitar World cover shoot, and there’s some fun anecdotes.

For Dave Navarro, looking back on his ’96 GW cover, it opened up some big memories, of the time he was in the running for GNR, his Black Beauty that he gave to John Frusciante, and also, it was a big deal. It was his first cover…

How exactly did you acquire this guitar?

I was a Les Paul player from day one. It’s actually not very well known, but in the early days of Jane’s Addiction, in the ’80s, I was a Les Paul player. I had a Black Beauty, and that’s what’s on the first live record [1987’s Jane’s Addiction]. I was always playing Les Pauls, but I was on tour once and one of them broke. The neck snapped off.

That’s how I ended up in the hands of Ibanez. At that point, we were so young; the only company that would grant me an endorsement was Ibanez. They turned out to be amazing. I loved them and I played them for many, many years, right up until 1991.

What led you to stray from Ibanez and pick up this Les Paul?

In terms of this guitar, sometime after 1991, I got a call to audition for Guns N’ Roses. And I think you could probably figure out that it was before Gilby [Clarke] joined, so it was right after Use Your Illusion came out. I was looking at my arsenal of guitars, thinking, “What would be right to show up to a rehearsal with?” Obviously, a Les Paul came to mind.

So you bought this guitar with Guns N’ Roses in mind?

I actually bought that guitar to go and play with Guns N’ Roses, which is wild. Now that I’m thinking about it, I ended up buying the Les Paul just to go over and jam out with the band, which actually never ended up happening. So the guitar just ended up staying in a case, because everything else I was doing from that point forward was with PRS, who I’d moved over to during Lollapalooza.

You’d moved to PRS and even used some Strats after you’d joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who you were with in 1996, when this GW cover shoot took place. Why did you use the Les Paul?

Years after the GN’R thing, I knew that guitar was kind of leaning up against the wall. I guess the Guitar World people came to the house to do the shoot, and if you walked around my house, there’s, like, 12 guitars all over the place – and they’re all different makes and models.

For some reason, I picked up that guitar and grabbed it for the shoot. I don’t even know why – and, I think, in hindsight, I was probably contractually supposed to be holding a PRS. [Laughs] I was endorsed by them, so I don’t know why I picked up the Les Paul.

What happened to this guitar after your GW cover shoot?

In a final twist of fate, John Frusciante was in detox at a hospital. He called me and said, “I’m sitting in a hospital and I don’t have a guitar. Can you loan me one?” I was like, “I’ve got this Les Paul sitting here if you want to play that.”

I was still in the Chili Peppers at the time, and he was getting clean. I was like, “I’ll come down to the hospital and bring this to you.” So I ended up giving him that Les Paul, which is… you know, the layers here are kind of bizarre. And I hadn’t thought about it until now.

Did you end up getting the guitar back from John, or did he keep it?

I never heard from John. He apparently sold the guitar once he got out of rehab. And that was that – I never saw that guitar again. That was somewhere in the ’90s.

Have you spoken to John about that guitar since?

Many years later, I was out of the Chili Peppers, he was back in, and I was with Jane’s Addiction; I think we were recording Strays [2003]. I got a call from John, and I hadn’t talked to him in years. I say, “What’s up, man?” He goes, “I remember years ago, when I was in the hospital, you brought me this Les Paul, which was really nice of you. Thank you so much for that.”

He went, “I got out of detox and I sold it. I’m really sorry. I was wondering if I could come visit you.” And I hadn’t talked to him since that day, to be honest, but he came up to my house, and he had a guitar with him. He sat down, opened the case, and it was a Black Beauty.

He was like, “I just wanted to apologize for selling your guitar. I know it’s not the same guitar, but I know you had a Black Beauty in Jane’s Addiction on the original record, and [it] got broken, and you don’t have it anymore, so I got you this.” It was a really nice, kind of an “amends” action on his part. We sat for a couple of hours and talked about music, our histories and how they’ve been intertwined.

Wow. Is it safe to assume you never toured or recorded with the Les Paul on the cover?

It literally had never been played live and wasn’t used to record anything when I had it. But there’s a history to it – and whoever has it now, you know, I wish I could buy it back.

It seems as if the guitar has a special place in your heart.

When it comes down to it, the guitar isn’t very significant in my career, but the tendrils of significance in terms of interpersonal connections are vast. So, in some ways, that’s a special photo. It was the first time I’d been on the cover of GW, so to have that documented reminds me of all the years I’d been in between bands and struggling with drugs…

It’s significant in a nostalgic sense. But I don’t think anybody, including the current owner, has any idea what this guitar is or where it came from. I’m sure [they] bought it off the wall of a pawn shop and have no idea it passed through my or John’s hands.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Since making its debut on October 11, 1975, NBC’s Saturday Night Live has been a pop-culture juggernaut like no other.

But before becoming a weekend staple for generations of late-night viewers, creator Lorne Michaels’ variety show began as a brash, uniquely irreverent counterculture experiment boldly pairing off-the-cuff outsider comedy with of-the-moment musical guests – for the record, the first show featured Billy Preston, Janis Ian and, arguably most memorably, Andy Kaufman miming his way through the Mighty Mouse theme song.

Indeed, while it’s a comedy-first operation, music has always been a major part of SNL’s appeal – and, obviously, that means we’ve seen a lot of guitarists grace the show’s stage.

It’s been a spot for bands to crank it up just before their careers went supernova. Others faltered spectacularly on live TV, beneath the bright lights of Studio 8H and under the watch of millions of viewers at home.

Some of the greatest guitar virtuosos showed up unannounced for once-in-a-lifetime jams. A pair of blues-loving bees morphed into the show’s breakout musical act.

While it’s all made for hundreds upon hundreds of must-see moments, to paraphrase the show’s iconic metalhead character, Wayne Campbell – a.k.a. Mike Myers, an obtuse on-air shredder in his own right – some were more worthy than others.

So, in honor of the show’s staggering 50 years on the air, ladies and gentleman, behold the 50 greatest guitar moments in SNL history.

50. The Rolling Stones – Shattered

Season 4, Episode 1; October 7, 1978

While nabbing the Stones was a major coup, the band’s lone SNL appearance isn’t remembered for being great. Mick Jagger’s voice is shot and unpretty through Beast of Burden, but Shattered taps into the sleazy urgency of the Some Girls era.

It also embodies the chaotic, anything-goes-in-the-moment spirit of live TV right about the time Jagger starts snapping his ivory sportcoat at Ronnie Wood, wet-towel style.

49. The Devil Can’t Write No Love Song sketch

Season 25, Episode 5; November 13, 1999

Garth Brooks plays a down-on-his-luck musician willing to sell his soul for a hit. Ready to make a trade, Lucifer – a horned-and-bearded Will Ferrell – bursts onto the scene with a devil-red Fender built out of a “hell-spun mixture of the bones of fornicators.” Trouble is, the dark lord is a damned terrible songsmith. Fred’s Slacks is a brittle-toned, out-of-tune geek-rock atrocity, and his originals only get cringier from there.

48. Joan Armatrading – I’m Not in Love / Down to Zero

Season 2, Episode 21; May 14, 1977

The highlight of Joan Armatrading’s SNL performances is the sound of her rich and oaken vocal – but her stately 12-string chording chimes through the mix quite nicely, too.

Whether through the dew-eyed I’m Not in Love or the yearning folk-rock of Down to Zero, guitarist Jerry Donahue also brought a waterfall-rippling wave of flanged-out fretboard elegance to the arrangements.

47. System of a Down – B.Y.O.B.

Season 30, Episode 18; May 7, 2005

The SNL censors were prepared to bleep out the F-bombs SOAD’s Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian regularly scheduled into their zany, kinda thrash/kinda ska single B.Y.O.B. The latter let loose an unscripted “fuck yeah” during a surf-zested string slide, though, which ended up putting he and the rest of System on SNL’s blacklist. They never played the show again.

46. Metallica – Fuel

Season 23, Episode 8; December 6, 1997

An argument could be made that SNL blew it by not booking Metallica during the height of ’80s thrash and that they slept on the biggest metal band in the world circa Enter Sandman.

But producers gave ’tallica fans that which they desired by finally bringing aboard the band during their Reload period. Fuel found Kirk Hammett all-gassing his wah-wah solo. James Hetfield kept on theme by strapping himself to a flame-emblazoned Flying V.

45. The Tragically Hip – Grace, Too

Season 20, Episode 16; March 25, 1995

When original Not Ready for Prime-time Player Dan Aykroyd was asked to co-host this episode, he agreed – with a caveat: fellow Ontarians the Tragically Hip had to come along with him.

Gord Downie grinned cherubically as he flubbed his first line, but Canada’s Band otherwise nailed the artfully hard-rocking Grace, Too, guitarist Rob Baker flexing a wide, flavorful vibrato into its finale.

44. Adam Sandler – The Thanksgiving Song

Season 18, Episode 7; November 21, 1992

Sandler used his Weekend Update segments to test out goofball characters like Cajun Man and Opera Man. The news desk was also where he developed his voice as a singer-guitarist, and that all starts with The Thanksgiving Song.

Coming out the gates with cheerful 7th chords and a toothy grin, he uses the quaint acoustic jazz-folk song to toast turkey dinners and serve up a side of pop-culture non-sequiturs.

43. Queens of the Stone Age – Little Sister

Season 30, Episode 19; May 14, 2005

Though drummer Joey Castillo was already clonking his plastic jam block hard-and-heavy through this segment, Will Ferrell apparently felt that Queens could use more cowbell.

The comedian reprised his famous Gene Frenkle character – ill-fitting shirt and all – and whapped to his heart’s delight, but the impromptu percussive performance wasn’t the scene-stealer. Credit that to Josh Homme putting on a clinic with his serpentine flair.

42. Big Ricky & the Minnows – “Bass Lake” sketch

Season 50, Episode 16; April 5, 2025

A lakeside potluck jam on Tom Petty’s Free Falling goes horribly awry once Big Ricky – played by an increasingly exasperated Jack Black – realizes everyone hitting the stage is hoisting a bass and the soupiest tone of all time (“The quality of sound feels like a sinus infection”).

The low-end nightmare swells into a dozen rhythm-stringers and one particularly talented basset hound trying to find their footing within the frequency, with disastrous results.

41. Spinal Tap – Big Bottom

Season 9, Episode 18; May 5, 1984

Talk about bass chops, these guys got ’em. Unlike Black’s bass sketch, Tap’s low-end monstrous performance of Big Bottom was no shit sandwich. Performed on air just two months after This Is Spinal Tap hit screens, the band’s performance of their multi-bass opus rumbled with hilarious, horn-dog fervor.

Derek Smalls lays down the initial rhythm with a double-neck bass. Nigel Tufnel hits those perfect fourths like a pro. The synth-bass is on point, too. But it might be David St. Hubbins mud-flappin’ lead bass prowess that pushes the ludicrous metal anthem into overdrive.

40. J Mascis & the SNL band – Out There

Season 25, Episode 16; April 8, 2000

It’s a travesty that J Mascis never got to chop through this Where You Been? stunner on the show with the rest of Dinosaur Jr. in the ’90s. Nevertheless, a 20-second sampling of Out There – which Mascis performed while sitting in with the house band – found the alt-rock guitar hero wham-smashing his way through a micro-sized but massive-sounding SNL moment. This performance took us to the commercial break seconds after the show staged its iconic “More Cowbell” sketch.

39. The Black Crowes – Sometimes Salvation

Season 18, Episode 9; December 12, 1992

Sometimes Salvation is a funny pick because the Crowes’ aching, extended blues ballad shares a similar feel to the SNL band’s longtime closing credits jam, Waltz in A. Where it differs is that the Georgia rockers also had Marc Ford sustaining a series of seismically reckless and romantic bends through his spacious solo. And it’s spectacular.

38. Foo Fighters – Times Like These

Season 28, Episode 13; February 22, 2003

Foo Fighters are prolific SNL guests, having hit the program nine times since 1995. Their third pop-in at 30 Rock came during the promotion cycle for One by One and began with a crunching version of All My Life.

But Times Like These is what makes the highlight reel – not just because the Foos crushed their yearning anthem with ease, but because Jim Carrey stormed the stage mid-song to air guitar his right leg like a maniac.

37. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stone Cold Bush / Under the Bridge

Season 17, Episode 14; February 22, 1992

Dubious to include, but hard to ignore, the Chilis left a strange taste in millions of mouths with this off-kilter two-fer. Stone Cold Bush was funky, but merely fine – Flea gets appropriately slappy on the bass, but things get weird when vocalist Anthony Kiedis soccer-slides toward John Frusciante and boots his bandmate in the butt.

Under the Bridge is even more tense, with Frusciante cresting through a loose fluidity that paints a bit too outside the lines – and with a lot of brown. He ends the alt-ballad howling in falsetto like a hound from hell. The rest of the band seem stunned over their tragic Magik performance.

36. Boz Scaggs – Lowdown

Season 2, Episode 2; September 25, 1976

Elliot Randall’s wildcard solo is one of SNL’s most uproarious musical WTF moments. Halfway through the hit’s soft disco shuffle, Randall rips out to center stage for a furious hellfire of hammer-ons.

He tries to hit a behind-the-nut bend but kind of biffs it, then walks back with a huge smile to resume his soulfully rhythmic plinking.

Slang-style praise or secret diss, Scaggs jumps back in to croon with perfect comedic timing: “You ain’t got to be so bad.”

35. Prince – Partyup

Season 6, Episode 11; February 21, 1981

Prince’s most storied SNL performance arguably isn’t this one, and it wasn’t even in public – rather, a slow-jammed Let’s Go Crazy during the show’s 40th-anniversary afterparty in 2015 apparently had cast members losing their minds. But his televised Partyup in ’81 was still plenty iconic, with the Purple One parading around in thigh-high boots and sex-grinding his guitar with slinking funk licks.

34. Tracy Chapman – Give Me One Reason

Season 15, Episode 9; December 16, 1989

Here’s a good reason to have owned a VHS machine in the ’80s: Chapman’s rhythm-locked, Grammy-winning blues-rocker Give Me One Reason was performed on SNL a full six years before it made it onto an album.

Chapman anchored its television debut with subtle, staccato acoustic fingering and her soulful vocal, though the house band gets into the action, too; Tom “T-Bone” Wolk injects jumping-bean bass accents while bandleader G.E. Smith delivers Delta-ready slidework.

33. Devo – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

Season 4, Episode 2; October 14, 1978

Devo’s subversive take on the Stones classic harnesses the palpably anxious and painfully horny undercurrent of the anthem arguably better than when it’s ever sung by Jagger.

Sweet release arrives through this performance, where Devo – deep in their matching hazmat suit-and-3D glasses era – twitch through the tune like a bunch of broken androids, Mark Mothersbaugh wilding out while using a Hagstrom 1 with boosts and overdrives duct-taped all over its cherry body.

32. Pearl Jam – Not for You / Rearviewmirror / Daughter

Season 19, Episode 18; April 16, 1994

Pearl Jam were arguably the biggest band in the world in the spring of 1994, so SNL showcased the hell out of the Seattle quintet during their second appearance on the show – even offering them a rare third song. Their Daughter performance, in particular, presented an extended Jam; the group gave the alt-rock anthem a funky two-minute outro full of vibe-heavy fretless bass and ad-libbed Crazy Horse lyrics.

31. AC/DC – Stiff Upper Lip / You Shook Me All Night Long

Season 25, Episode 15; March 18, 2000

AC/DC’s SNL debut found the band cranking into their Back in Black classic a whopping 20 years after its initial release. In a solid performance, Angus Young wails hard and goes full-Curly while spinning around the ground during the finale.

Earlier in the evening, though, the eternal schoolboy and brother Mal arguably locked in harder for the gritty, then-current and super-underrated Stiff Upper Lip.

30. Punk Band Reunion at the Wedding sketch (Crisis of Conformity – Fist Fight in the Parking Lot)

Season 35, Episode 14; February 6, 2010

What begins as a father sheepishly getting his old band back together at his daughter’s wedding reception quickly devolves into one of SNL’s most raging hardcore performances ever. Fred Armisen sneers his way through ’80s-style Reagan-punk lyrics, while the arrangement itself quotes Suicidal Tendencies’ Institutionalized.

The table-crashing, glass-smashing melee gets all-too-real once drummer Dave Grohl’s mic cuts out. A cream Strat-strapped Kutcher saves the day by lunging over with another mic – which also reveals he’s definitely not the one punk-chording through their Parking Lot.

29. The Replacements – Bastards of Young / Kiss Me on the Bus

Season 11, Episode 7; January 18, 1986

G.E. Smith was a Replacements fan and called the group when SNL needed a last-minute replacement for the Pointer Sisters. The Replacements proceeded to get drunk backstage with host Harry Dean Stanton and strolled out to deliver slapdash Tim songs while sloshed out of their skulls.

Paul Westerberg fumbled lyrics, Bob Stinson played a loaner Les Paul after he fell on his own guitar on the way to the stage. The night was best summed up by the first line of Bastards of Young: “God… what a mess.”

28. Bonnie Raitt – Thing Called Love

Season 15, Episode 11; January 20, 1990

Nearly 12 years to the day after her first SNL appearance, Bonnie Raitt returned to the show to slide through this blues-rock blazer. At one point she bats at the body of her Strat to gain some gnarly sustain. Later, she juxtaposes a fiery, near-30-second glass slide solo against the arrangement’s laidback, roadhouse-reggae breakdown.

27. Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way / Always on the Run

Season 18, Episode 18; April 17, 1993

Everything went Kravitz and co-guitarist Craig Ross’ way. Sporting the rawest and most iconic rock riff of ’93, the pair brought harmonized pull-offs and Hendrix-ian sharps to a pitch-perfect performance of Are You Gonna Go My Way – and then Ross delivered a wailing solo.

They then dug into their retro-rock war chest for Mama Said single Always on the Run, expertly swaggering themselves through fuzz-funk syncopation before Ross splintered off with another heater solo.

26. Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit / Territorial Pissings

Season 17, Episode 10; January 11, 1992

Nirvana’s Nevermind dethroned the King of Pop’s Dangerous from the Number 1 spot on the Billboard chart the same week they dropped by SNL. Understandably, they played Teen Spirit, the industry-revolutionizing game-changer that got them there.

That said, Territorial Pissings was the livelier of their two performances; Cobain capped the manic track by smashing his guitar into a tower of logo-less cabs; Krist Novoselic hucks his bass into the air like loose change; Grohl rains drum hardware across the soundstage.

25. Rage Against the Machine – Bulls on Parade

Season 21, Episode 17; April 13, 1996

Interestingly, the SNL time bookers paired billionaire media mogul and Republican nominee hopeful Steve Forbes with left-leaning political rap-rockers Rage Against the Machine.

Rage tried to hang upside-down U.S. flags across their cabs as a form of protest, which led to an onstage confrontation with patriotic stagehands, who yanked away the subversive Stripes milliseconds before the band kicked into Bulls. Tom Morello crushed it with his wah work and mock-scratch technique. Then the band got booted out of the building.

24. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – You Don’t Know How It Feels / Honey Bee

Season 20, Episode 6; November 19, 1994

Petty’s fifth of eight appearances on SNL came during his Wildflowers cycle and boasted a new, temporary Heartbreaker behind the drum kit: Dave Grohl. The performance interestingly falls between the latter’s post-Nirvana, pre-Foo Fighters period, and he hits those cans heavy.

You Don’t Know How It Feels was a crowd pleaser, but the real treat is Honey Bee. The swamp-soupy garage-blues tune had Mike Campbell dripping out liquid gold guitar leads, but Petty hits an uncaged-and-uncouth, bendy solo of his own.

23. Aerosmith on Wayne’s World

Season 15, Episode 13; February 17, 1990

Satirically or not, SNL’s resident headbangers-cum-cable access hosts hoisted the flag for heavy music during a time where the show probably should have booked more metal acts.

Nevertheless, Wayne and Garth still got their party on with Aerosmith one time, with Joe Perry and Brad Whitford beefing up Mike Myers’ mock-squealing Wayne’s World theme as a basic-but-brawny basement rocker. Aerosmith also hit a pair of Pump tunes for the show, but this was their biggest bash of the night.

22. Fear – Beef Baloney

Season 7, Episode 4; October 31, 1981

Fear was brought onto SNL as a favor to fan and then-former castmate John Belushi, whom showrunners were hoping would pop back on the program for a cameo.

Fear then invited hardcore kids from across the Eastern seaboard – including members of Minor Threat and Negative Approach – to mosh out during a chaotic four-song medley. Bassist Lee Ving is constantly chasing a micstand as it gets knocked about by stage divers.

21. Phoebe Bridgers – I Know the End

Season 46, Episode 11; February 6, 2021

Phoebe Bridgers wasn’t the first person to smash a guitar on SNL, but she’s the one who got the most flak for it. I Know the End starts subtle, but the indie-rocker ended up primal screaming her way through the climax – which likewise found co-guitarist Harrison Whitford delivering quixotic scalework – before yanking off her jet black Danelectro and decimating it against a speaker wedge. The misogyny brigade tried to shame her on socials; Bridgers sold the axe for $100,000 and donated it all to charity.

20. Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band – Hot Head / Ashtray Heart

Season 6, Episode 2; December 22, 1980

Beefheart’s underrated early ’80s period found the experimental icon making music with the meanest-sounding iteration of his Magic Band. They put on a feisty performance for a shocked SNL crowd – guitarist Moris Tepper, in particular, spewing hot fire with his junk-blues sliding.

Beefheart cradled a cigarette, brilliantly rifling off a dadaist word salad through a haggard wheeze that sounded like his lungs had burnt right down to the filter.

19. Living Colour – Cult of Personality / Open Letter (to a Landlord)

Season 14, Episode 16; April 1, 1989

Living Colour’s April Fool’s appearance found Vernon Reid going off-the-charts gonzo with his inspired fusion playing.

He cut loose through a mind-bending, minute-long solo on Cult of Personality and then leaned into a vivid display of ambulance siren-styled inverted bending on Open Letter (to a Landlord).

The only thing that might’ve outshone Reid’s playing was Corey Glover’s extremely late-’80s, iridescent purple-and-yellow BodyGlove wetsuit.

18. Rihanna (with Nuno Bettencourt) – Diamonds

Season 38, Episode 7; November 10, 2012

Nuno Bettencourt never got the funk out on SNL during Extreme’s peak. Despite this, the Boston virtuoso was able to shine bright like a diamond when he popped up on the show as part of Rihanna’s backing band. The focal point is the pop star, without question, and Bettencourt begins the song with minimalist, volume pot-craning ambiance. But by song’s end, he’s soaring through the mix with a boldly prismatic vibrato.

17. David Bowie – Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

Season 22, Episode 12; February 8, 1997

Armed with a Parker Fly, an unruly series of harmonic slides and an onslaught of out-of-control pinch-squeals, ace guitarist Reeves Gabrels (nowadays a member of the Cure) was a beast to behold on Scary Monsters.

Bowie & Co. were supposed to play something off 1997’s Earthling, but they went rogue and performed the retro cut as a form of protest after the singer objected to a sketch idea – and as a dig on Lorne Michaels, who told Bowie about a terrifying cocaine binge he’d been on while listening to Scary Monsters in the ’80s.

They were ushered out of the building ASAP. Bowie reportedly regretted not grabbing the fruit basket on the way out.

16. Top of the Pops sketch (aka Ian Rubbish & the Bizarros – It’s a Lovely Day)

Season 38, Episode 21; May 18, 2013

Fred Armisen’s SNL tenure was full of musical characters, one of his most memorable being comically hate-filled Spirit of ’77 punk eccentric Ian Rubbish.

While the U.K. snarler had many memorable lyrical barbs, Armisen’s last show as a full-time cast member found him slapping on Rubbish’s peroxide wig and a Fano Alt de Facto to deliver an earnest farewell anthem called It’s a Lovely Day.

It turns into a jam featuring Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein, the Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones, J Mascis, Aimee Mann and Michael Penn. Is this one of Armisen’s top-10 greatest TV appearances of all time? Yeah, probably.

15. H.E.R. – Hold On

Season 46, Episode 4; October 24, 2020

H.E.R. wowed guitar-heads doubly in this Season 46 standout moment. She shot melodious, mile-wide vibrato through the ceiling during a revelatory performance of R&B slow jam Hold On.

She also used her time on SNL to showcase a then-brand-new signature Fender Chrome Glow Strat, which reflected a rainbowed array of colors beneath the stage lights that was almost as resplendent as her tone.

14. Robert Cray – Smoking Gun / Right Next Door (Because of Me)

Season 12, Episode 13; February 28, 1987

While Smoking Gun was tight, we’re going to suggest that it’s Cray’s run-through of Right Next Door that left a stronger impression on the music-loving public.

There’s a sleek, clean-channel mystique coursing through the smooth-blues arrangement, Cray accenting his adulterous tale with perfect, passionately plinking accent rhythms.

By song’s end, he bait-and-switches us with a yearning backend climax of wry little wriggles and finger-snapped string work. Of course, if you're going back and watching all these, don't deprive yourself of Smoking Gun.

13. The Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock

Season 19, Episode 5; October 30, 1993

The Pumpkins went in for the kill during their first appearance on SNL. The performance of loud-quiet-loud classic Today was spectacular, but the alt-rock champs went nuclear on Cherub Rock.

Billy Corgan shreds his sinewy vocal cords throughout and wails a furious solo on his modded Bat-Strat. James Iha likewise gets in a few nasty and textural bends before they put this all-out bash to bed.

12. Beastie Boys – Ricky’s Theme / Heart Attack Man

Season 20, Episode 8; December 10, 1994

The Beasties’ second muscial spot of the night began with instrumental soul jam Ricky’s Theme, where auxiliary Beasties player Money Mark’s morning glory electric piano glistened against Ad-Rock’s sly-and-wily wah-wah guitar and MCA’s lithe standup basslines.

An extended cymbal segue leads to gear-swapping and a furious aesthetic pivot, as the Boys then go buckwild with a pacemaker-exploding old-school hardcore freakout. Ad-Rock smashes an S-shape into the ground – splinters fly into the air as the screen fades to black.

11. Adam Sandler – Lunch Lady Land

Season 19, Episode 11; January 15, 1994

From Red Hooded Sweatshirt to The Chanukah Song, most of Adam Sandler’s SNL music went unplugged. But unencumbered by the confines of the Weekend Update desk, the Sandman went full-electric with a black Gibson Les Paul to strum this Bruce Springsteen-ian opus about elementary foodstuffs revolting against their maker.

Sandler sells his Jungleland rip with goofball heartland earnestness. Of course, the sight of Chris Farley’s hair-netted Lunch Lady gracefully plié-ing across the stage near Kevin Nealon’s sentient Manwich pushes the performance into all-timer territory.

10. Fishbone – Sunless Saturday / Everyday Sunshine

Season 16, Episode 16; March 23, 1991

Despite its gloom-clouded song title, Fishbone were beyond brilliant on Sunless Saturday. Frontman Angelo Moore somersaulted across the stage with manic energy and put on an acrobatic vocal performance. John Norwood Fisher flexed thick bass thwaps across the soul-metal fusion piece.

A double-strapped Kendall Jones switched between acoustic strums and flanged-out-and-frantic tap solos on an S-shape. Keeping things on-theme, they then dipped into the funkily Vitamin D-dosed “Everyday Sunshine” for their second song.

9. St. Vincent – Birth in Reverse

Season 39, Episode 21; May 17, 2014

While the Season 39 finale brought out rappers 2 Chainz and Lil Jon for a pair of sketches, Annie Clark commanded the stage with playfully panicked art-punk energy during her performance of Birth in Reverse. Early on, she’s twitching out jazz chords on a vintage 1955 M-75 Aristocrat.

By the finale, a choreography routine finds St. Vincent and guitarist Toko Yasuda harmonizing post-shred bristliness while parading the stage like a pair of nectar-crazy hummingbirds.

8. Elvis Costello – Radio Radio

Season 3, Episode 8; December 17, 1977

“I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen; there’s no reason to do this song here.” In one of the show’s most iconic moments, musical or otherwise, Elvis Costello came into 8H to play Less Than Zero but abruptly and awkwardly halted the single to re-route his band toward a spritely but unexpected Radio Radio.

The swerve had staff panicking behind the scenes. He’d later say it was because Zero was too slow; it might’ve been that its lyrics on the rise of British fascism were, well, incredibly British. Costello satirically recreated the chaos for SNL’s 25th-anniversary special in 1999, hijacking Beastie Boys’ Sabotage to once again play Radio Radio.

7. David Gilmour with G.E. Smith & the SNL Band – Song for My Sara

Season 13, Episode 7; December 12, 1987

This episode brought out two musical guests, wildly juxtaposing Buster Poindexter’s broad, brass-heavy calypso-sleaze smash Hot Hot Hot with Gilmour’s tastefully funky instrumental, Song for My Sara.

Supported by the SNL band, the latter echo-quaked melodious vibrato from his headless Steinberger GM 3T. T-Bone Wolk thumb-and-finger popped his way through the piece. G.E. Smith is all smiles while supporting the Pink Floyd legend. The song was never officially released, making Gilmour’s drop-in appearance even more unique.

6. Eddie Van Halen with G.E. Smith & the SNL Band – Stompin’ 8H

Season 12, Episode 13; February 28, 1987

Van Halen’s lone and unplanned SNL appearance arose out of boredom. As then-wife Valerie Bertinelli was rehearsing skits that week, EVH ended up in the music office trading licks with Smith, and together they whipped up a bluesy lil’ choogle named after the show’s 8H soundstage.

Eddie goes full Orca-moan on his striped Kramer 5150 before flitting between tasteful quarter-note taps and cut-throat runs. Smith is ear-to-ear grinning while chopping at his Tele. The two guitarists literally – but playfully – butt heads mid-stage, though they stood united for this memorable drop-in moment.

5. Stevie Ray Vaughan – Say What! / Change It

Season 11, Episode 10; February 15, 1986

As Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton recalled years later, host Jerry Hall’s then-husband, Mick Jagger, was around during rehearsals. Mick almost sat in with the band for their SNL debut but ultimately didn’t have the stones to go through with the team-up. Instead, a mass of Texas talent graced the stage, with SRV first hitting 12-bar instrumental Say What! as a screaming, whammy-and-wah-wild workout.

For the cocksure Change It, he strutted through flavorful blues runs alongside fellow Strat-smith, brother and Fabulous Thunderbirds co‑founder Jimmie Vaughan.

4. George Harrison and Paul Simon – Here Comes the Sun / Homeward Bound

Season 2, Episode 8; November 20, 1976

Back in the first season, Michaels went on-air to offer the Beatles a hilariously paltry $3,000 – to split however they’d like – if they appeared on his show (“You want to give Ringo less? That’s up to you”). Paul McCartney and John Lennon were apparently watching the show together in NYC and damn near took a cab to 30 Rock to collect. But it was Harrison who became the first Beatle to play on SNL, and he did it with another music icon.

In one of most stunningly tender musical moments of the early years, Harrison and Paul Simon teamed up to strum and folk-finger through the former’s Here Comes the Sun and the latter’s Homeward Bound, back to back. Outside of their acoustics and gentle vocal harmonies, it’s pin-drop silent in the studio, the audience watching history in the making.

To say the least, the performance was more than alright – it was god damned magical. McCartney would ultimately show up as a musical guest four times between 1980 and 2012, and he closed out this year’s 50th-anniversary show with another Abbey Road classic, The End. Ringo hosted in 1984.

3. Jack White – Taking Me Back / Fear of the Dawn

Season 48, Episode 13; February 25, 2023

Ever since the White Stripes bashed through a radically raw Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground on 8H in 2002, Jack White has been an SNL fixture.

On top of being a five-time musical guest, he once ripped a solo as a six-stringing wedding crasher in a 2018 sketch and also covered Rockin’ in the Free World during this year’s SNL50 concert.

While he cut a memorable double-handed tapping tribute to EVH in 2020, his mic stand-toppling, pedalboard-maximalist Taking Me Back / Fear of the Dawn medley in 2023 was a fiendishly feral display of fuzz-blown sonics and wah expressionism.

2. The Blues Brothers – Soul Man

Season 4, Episode 6; November 18, 1978

John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd prototyped their musical-brothers band in the first season with a buzzy, bee-costumed performance of Slim Harpo’s I’m a King Bee. They eventually bought some fedoras and rechristened themselves as Jake and Elwood Blues.

Flanked by members of the SNL band (blues vet Matt “Guitar” Murphy and Stax session all-stars Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn), this Season 4 cold open is the Brothers’ defining moment – and it led them toward a hit record and a blockbuster film.

After smashing into a sweat-box vamp of Otis Redding’s I Can’t Turn You Loose, they choogle through a cool-as-ice cover of Sam & Dave’s Soul Man. Cropper steps into the spotlight with sleek vibrato waggling while Elwood honks his harmonica.

1. Frank Ocean with John Mayer – Pyramids

Season 38, Episode 1; September 12, 2012

Pop-bluesmith John Mayer’s earnest-but-animated performance style was roasted on the show several times, via squinty-eyed, fat-tongued and faux-ripping impersonations from Bill Hader, Jimmy Fallon and host Ashton Kutcher. Mayer got the last laugh with his staggering 2012 guest solo for Frank Ocean.

The R&B singer walks over to a vintage arcade cabinet and starts gaming once Mayer unearths deep, atmospheric bends on a finish-obliterated Strat. A fighting game plays on in the background, but Mayer delivers the knockout blow.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

It was an early evening in June 2006, at the Hollywood studio of music photographer Neil Zlozower. Decades of rock photos covered the walls of a dark alcove that opened into a large, well-lit room, where a busy assistant on a ladder adjusted a huge backdrop.

“Is Charlie here yet?” The impending arrival of the veteran jazz bassist was clearly causing anxious excitement despite the bona-fide rock star already present. Flea responded by strapping on his '61 Fender Jazz Bass and stabbing energetically at its flatwound strings, escaping into his own musical world.

When Charlie Haden finally stepped from his hired limo, the whole place seemed to relax. The two bassists had never met before, and the reason for their meeting was an advertising photo session for Gallien Krueger, whose bass amps both players endorsed.

Flea's band is the Red Hot Chili Peppers, one of the most creative and successful in rock, and Flea himself is one of the genre’s most revered bassists.

He found his playing voice melding funk techniques with the intensity of punk, but his initial musical fascination was with jazz, a passion that has stayed with him decades after commending himself to a life in rock & roll.

Haden, whose lengthy resumé includes legends like Ornette Coleman, Keith Jarrett, and Pat Metheny, as well his own Liberation Music Orchestra and Quartet West, began singing on his family's country radio show.

Following his older brother, he took up bass, then got hooked on jazz after hearing pioneering saxophonist Charlie Parker. Haden joined Ornette Coleman's revolutionary group when he was still a teenager.

Flea: “You were singing country music as a kid. And all of a sudden you're playing with Ornette Coleman! What happened there? You were pretty young.”

Charlie Haden: “I was 19.”

Flea: “From singing country music at 15 to inventing free jazz with Ornette at 19 – that's a big switch. Four years isn't that long!”

Charlie Haden: “Before that, in the late '40s, there was no TV and I listened to classical and jazz radio constantly.”

Flea: “Did you study jazz?”

Charlie Haden: “I’m self-taught. One of my brothers played bass on the radio show, and he had some jazz records, but you're talking about Missouri. It was hard to find records, and nobody played jazz.

“I went to a concert in Omaha, Nebraska – Jazz at the Philharmonic with Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Billie Holiday, and Oscar Peterson – and when I heard Charlie Parker play, that was it. It was unbelievable. He had beautiful harmonies and beautiful melodies. You hear the gamut of beauty in his playing.”

Flea: “It's hard for me to fathom: not only that level of musical sophistication, but the depth of feeling. And to step so far beyond what had ever been done before on an instrument.

“When I was a kid, I had such an opportunity to get that education through my step-dad, who was a jazz bassist. I was 12 when my parents divorced, and all of a sudden I was living with a jazz musician who was having jam sessions at the house all the time. It changed my life.

“My goal was to become a jazz trumpet player, but then I got into my early teens and I had to rebel against my parents. All I wanted to do was be a punk rocker and play the bass guitar. I went completely in the other direction from jazz, and now I'm trying to catch up. I'm studying theory and trying to play along over bebop changes with the Jamey Aebersold books and everything.”

Charlie Haden: “On trumpet and bass?”

Flea: “Mostly on trumpet, but on bass, too. I regret not learning that stuff when I was young, but my path is my path and it's been really good for me.”

Charlie Haden: “Well, you still have that learning opportunity. I never discouraged my kids from what they were excited about, and they grew up hearing all kinds of music. They went in the direction they went in on their own; I just encouraged them.

“Josh used to say, ‘Dad, you have to listen to this.’ it would be the Meat Puppets and Black Flag and all kinds of punk rock. And I'd say, with a forced smile, ‘Oh, my goodness! That's great, Josh. It's beautiful!’

“Did you ever hear Jimmy Blanton play the bass?”

Flea: “On records, yes.”

Charlie Haden: “He was amazing. Duke Ellington's band came through St. Louis and played a dance – back then it was dances and not concerts. Afterward Duke went back to the hotel to sleep, and all the musicians went to an after-hours session.

“This young bass player was playing, and these guys flipped out. They went back and woke up Duke Ellington, and brought him to the session. Duke hired Jimmy on the spot, and the band left St. Louis with two bass players. Jimmy Blanton made all those records in 1940 and 1941, and then he got what they called ‘consumption’ back then, tuberculosis.”

“He got very sick in L.A. and they had to leave him in a sanitarium. Milt Hinton told me he went there every day to see him. Milt was playing in Cab Calloway's band at that time, and every night they'd dedicate a song to him. Milt said he was there when Jimmy took his last breath. He was 23 years old. But if you've ever heard him play ... man!”

Flea: “It's unbelievable how many guys die so young. Booker Little is a big one for me. He has one of my favorite trumpet sounds ever.”

Charlie Haden: “I played with him. He used to come into the Five Spot when I was there with Ornette and Don Cherry.”

Flea: “Did you ever play with Eric Dolphy?”

Charlie Haden: “I recorded with Dolphy on this album called Free Jazz with Ornette and Don Cherry, Freddy Hubbard, Billy Higgins, Ed Blackwell, and my closest friend in life, Scott LaFaro, who used to share an apartment with me in L.A. before I moved to New York.”

“Scott was killed in a car accident when he was 25. He played on a very famous album by the Bill Evans Trio called A Sunday at the Village Vanguard. That was one of the last records he made.

“He was a tenor sax player with his dad's dance band when he was in high school, and one night the bass player didn't show up, so his dad made him play. He started playing the bass and he loved it, but he had the concept of the horn in his head. You can hear it when you hear him play.”

Both of you started your musical lives with something besides bass. Has that affected the way you think about or approach bass?

Flea: “Since I played trumpet first, when I picture notes in my head, I make a valve pattern with my hand and finger it on the trumpet. I never think about the bass like that, and I'm sure that has a big effect on my approach to playing bass. I never think of notes as fret patterns. I always think about it on trumpet.”

Charlie Haden: “So you think of yourself as a trumpet player first?”

Flea: “I don't know!"

Charlie Haden: “The real answer is that the instrument really doesn't matter. It's the music. I tell my students that, especially the bass players. They have to take themselves away from the concept of the bass. It's really important to discover your own music, and you're not going to discover your music if you're trying to play like some other bass player.”

Flea: “I always say the same thing. Any instrument is just a vehicle to express who you are and your relationship to the world. No matter what level you're doing it on, playing music is an opportunity to give something to the world.”

Charlie Haden: “When I was a kid and my older brother played the bass on our radio show, I noticed that when he didn't play, the fullness of the music stopped, and I was really attracted to that sound. He wouldn't allow me to touch the bass, but the minute he left the house, I'd pick it up, put on a record, and play along.”

What's important to you in terms of your sound?

Flea: “As time goes by, I realize more and more how important it is to have a good sound. Recently, I've only been playing all-wood vintage basses, whereas before I didn't really think it mattered what bass you played. I was so into being raw about it and trying to get across what was in my heart.

“I always heard guys talking about using this or that amp, this or that setting, and certain strings, and I thought it was all bullshit. I thought what mattered was how you hit them and your emotional intent, and I still think that's the bottom line. I mean, Charlie Parker could have played some old piece-of-shit sax and it would have sounded like Charlie Parker.

“But now I treasure the instruments that I play more and more. So now I play a 1961 Fender bass, and I love the old wood sound. It sounds really nice; I think it's further away from being a tree and is more used to being a bass now.”

Charlie Haden: “I always look at the sound of the bass as being like a rainforest: I try to get a deep wood sound. There are so many jazz bass players who spend thousands of dollars for these old instruments, like the classical guys do, and then they proceed to put a horrible pickup on it, plug into a horrible amplifier, turn up the treble or reverb or whatever, and it sounds like an electric bass. So they could have saved all that money and got an electric bass to begin with.

“I want to get the sound of the wood, so I use an amplifier that's made specially for the acoustic bass, and I also use gut strings on the G and D, which bring the wood sound out of the instrument. For the A and E, the lower-vibration strings, I use Thomastik SpiroCore because gut strings would be too loose.”

Flea: “The most incredible thing about the upright bass – the few times I've played one – is the way you can feel the whole thing vibrate when you have it up against your body. It's like your body is resonating with the instrument. It's a very fulfilling feeling.”

Charlie Haden: “That's why I stand so close to the bass when I play. One night in 1959 I was playing at the Five Spot with Ornette, Don Cherry, and Billy Higgins, and I always play with my eyes closed – but I opened my eyes, and there was some guy onstage with his ear next to my f-hole. And I was like, ‘Who is this guy?’ And Ornette was like, ‘That's Leonard Bernstein!’”

Flea: “I grew up listening to anything I could get my hands on. The Beatles were first, but jazz was the real discovery. When I was 12 and wanted to be a trumpet player, it was all Kenny Dorham, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, and Miles.”

Charlie Haden: “Did you ever hear Fats Navarro?”

Flea: “Oh, yeah. And Lee Morgan is really my guy, too. The fact that those guys could play like that still boggles my mind. Outside of musicians or real jazz aficionados, people don't even understand. They think jazz is wild and crazy, but they don't realize the discipline, work ethic, and academics that are required.”

“What it really boils down to is this: To be great, you have to be able to love and care way more than your physical body is capable of.”

How do you tap into that when you’re onstage or in the studio?

Flea: “I just try to be who I am and do the best I can. I love music, and I love connecting as a human being.”

Charlie Haden: “I always tell my students, if you want to become a great jazz musician, first you have to strive to become a great human being, with qualities of humility, and appreciativeness. Do that, and you might have a shot at becoming a great jazz musician.

“There is no yesterday, there is no tomorrow, there is only right now. And in that moment, everything changes because you see a different perspective of life. You see your complete insignificance in the world. Only then are you able to see your true importance to the universe. And that's what real humility is.”

Flea: “I remember being on tour and being miserable. I had broken up with my long-time girlfriend, I was unhealthy, I was stressed out, and I couldn't sleep. I was falling apart. I didn't want to do it anymore. I know I shouldn't be whining, being a big rock star and all that, but at the time I was very unhappy.

“Then one day I woke up and thought to myself, 'So what if I'm miserable? It's not about me, it's about going out and playing for people.' So I tried to forget about all my problems and concentrate on what I could give.

“We all have our burden – you can try to fill it up with drugs or some other kind of addiction, but the bottom line is that the only thing you can do is give.”

Dave Navarro was a certified guitar hero when he joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1993. And while he cherishes his time with the band, he’s not sure he was the man for the job.

“Whatever magic John brought to the Chili Peppers, I didn’t have that style of magic,” he tells Guitar World.

Nevertheless, Navarro’s brand of magic did breed one spectacular, if not misunderstood, record in 1995’s One Hot Minute.

At the time, although the record went platinum, the perception was that it was an outlier, if not a failure.

Sure, songs like Aeroplane, My Friends, and Deep Kick showcase an amalgam of the Chili Peppers' funk leanings careening with Navarro’s metal instincts, but people didn’t get it.

“When it came down to it, I was a goth kid in a funk band,” Navarro laughs. “If you had to narrow down what the disconnect was, I’d say that would be it.”

And the disconnect wasn’t just with fans, it was also within the Chili Peppers’ ranks.

“It became clear pretty fast that as much as we tried and as much as we wanted it to work, we weren't coming from the same musical place.”

This, along with the grief his bandmates dealt with after John Frusciante’s departure, left Navarro in a tough spot.

“I couldn’t help but feel like the odd man out in a lot of ways,” he admits. “We made a record and embarked upon a world tour, but I had very little history with these guys.”

“The best way I can describe it is that I was in a cover band with the actual band,” he laughs. “And that’s a very strange place to be – especially with the clashing of styles.”

Though the Chili Peppers don’t perform One Hot Minute’s tracks much, time has been kind.

“I get a lot of people telling me how much they love that record – more than I’d expect,” Navarro says. “That’s pretty cool, but on the eve of release, the four of us covered our eyes, and were like, ‘Okay, let’s see what happens here.’ [laughs]”

Though he hasn’t listened to the album in decades, Navarro acknowledges One Hot Minute’s importance.

“The funny thing is, it was one of their least successful albums, but for me,” he says, “it was the most successful record that I’d ever played on at the time.”

“It certainly elevated my visibility as a guitar player,” he says. “Some moments from that record are some of my favorites from my career. But I really believe that when you listen to One Hot Minute, you’re listening to four guys trying to find who they are together.”

You came into the Chili Peppers after John left – and after they’d had huge success with Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

“I was a fan of the Chili Peppers, but it was more for their musicianship than specific songs, you know. Flea called me and asked me if I'd like to come jam with them. Back then, it wasn’t unheard of for friends to get together and play, so I really didn't think much more of it other than, ‘I'm just gonna play with these guys today.’

“I went down and played with those guys for a couple of hours, and they sat me down and asked me if I'd like to become a member of the band. I was working on Deconstruction with [Jane's Addiction bassist] Eric Avery, and didn't have plans to tour that record.

“So, since there were really no long-term plans for the Deconstruction project, and I had just passed on a Guns N’ Roses offer, I figured, ‘Well, these guys are more in line with the scene that I came from,’ and playing with Chad [Smith] and Flea intrigued me. I said, ‘Yeah, I'd be happy to.’”

With Jane’s, you played Les Pauls, Ibanez, and PRS guitars. But with the Chili Peppers, you needed to play Strats to cop what John had been doing.

“Since 1991, I was a Paul Reed Smith player. Once I joined the Chili Peppers, when it came to learning their back catalog to perform live with them, I really needed a single-coil sound. I really needed that Strat sound to emulate and be as authentic to the material as I could.

“I had to relearn my approach to guitar, musicianship, and how to communicate musically with these three individuals, who were very much a tight-knit unit. It was an overwhelming and daunting task. I did it because I loved the guys, the material, and their level of proficiency on their instruments, so it was a no-brainer for me.

“Along with that came my introduction to my thinking, ‘How am I going to make my style of playing work in this arena?’ That was a very tough transition because their sound didn't really call for what I naturally gravitated towards.”

Once you started working on One Hot Minute, a record that's dark in tone compared to the Chili Peppers' other records, were those challenges you mentioned weighing on you?

“Yeah, they were. My first guitar that I played growing up was a Strat. My inspiration to seriously play guitar was Jimi Hendrix. I was like, ‘Okay, that’s what he uses, so that’s what I’m gonna use. Then, I got into Jane’s Addiction, and I wanted a fuller sound that ate up more sonic space, so I moved to the Les Paul.

“But when I joined the Chili Peppers, it was a little too much. And when it came to reproducing the back catalog, and other players that were more single-coil guys, I needed a Strat.

“When it comes to funk, you want that percussive, thin sound, even if it’s dirty. And that was one area where we didn’t line up; I wasn’t necessarily a fan of funk stuff. I was more of a fan of rock, so it was a difficult transition for me.”

According to the liner notes, the tracks were written collaboratively, so there must have been elements of darkness elsewhere, too.

“I didn't necessarily write any of the songs on One Hot Minute; they were more collaborations. And I naturally turned to my effects and played a little bit darker.

“I naturally like to double things and had a way I liked to record. But that wasn't necessarily something that they had done a lot of in the past with their other guitar players, and certainly not with John.”

What was your perception of how it was with John?

“John was very altruistic and pretty much one take, one guitar, whereas I liked really big sonic soundscapes with more of a metal edge. And I think the addition of my approach to guitar playing is what you can hear on the record. And that record really is a documentation of the four of us trying to figure out who we were as a band.”

Did you feel that not having John there weighed on the rest of the band?

“Frankly, I don't really wanna speak for anyone, but I think losing John and having to kind of restart their band, I think the rest of the guys were undergoing a grieving process, you know? Having lost John like that, I think there was an accumulated sadness that went along with trying to make that record – especially after coming off of their biggest-selling record.”

That must have contributed to some of the darkness, too.

“They were such a finely oiled machine, and I can’t say it was a comfortable experience. It was really strange for me to have to jump into an environment where this unit had a way of doing things that was completely contrary to the way I was used to doing them.

“So, I look at that record as a documentation of us trying to find how we fit together. In many ways, I feel that record should have been the demos for that record. They were all brand new compositions that we hadn’t lived with, sat with, and played live.

“I feel like that record was a first pass at what could have been, and we never really got there. And then, without speaking out of turn, Anthony [Kiedis] covers this in his autobiography, so I’m not really revealing anything that isn’t public knowledge – and I’m very careful not to do so – but he was going through his own dark time personally.”

Can you remember what it was like putting together songs like Walkabout, Coffee Shop, and One Hot Minute?

“A song like One Hot Minute, or Coffee Shop, those kinds of songs are truly blends of completely stylistic approaches crammed into a single song. You can hear that. And some of my favorite stuff is a song like Walkabout; like, I’d never played anything like that, you know, the funk guitar. I really enjoyed doing that and exploring different musical spaces.”

Did Rick Rubin help you with stepping out of your comfort zone?

“Working with Rick Rubin was another hurdle that I had to overcome. He was very into few overdubs, live takes, and capturing the band as it sounded in the room – and he does that better than most. But when we’d be playing, I’d have in my head like four other guitar parts that I was planning on laying down, and they’d be like, ‘No, this is done.’

“But my approach to recording has always been to put down as many ideas as I can think of, and then strip away what you don’t want. And their approach was to have your parts, have your song, and have it ready to go. [Then] record the song and have it be organic, and have a lot of space for the vocal. But back then, I really didn’t consider that.”

Aeroplane is probably the most beloved track from One Hot Minute. Do you remember how that came about?

“They did give me some leeway with overdubbing and creating a wall of sound here and there, as I wanted to do. And on a song like Aeroplane, that really was a result of me really kind of doing a deep dive into Parliament Funkadelic and kind of learning to approach guitar playing to where the guitar is more of a percussive thing than a lead thing. That’s what you hear there. It’s all Parliament-inspired.”

The first time you listened back to One Hot Minute, what did you think?

“There’s clearly a disconnect that you can hear on that record. But I also think there are moments of real connection as well. There are moments that I really wish had been done a different way, and wished that I had done differently, but then there were moments that I think are some of the greatest moments that I’ve ever recorded with any band.”

One Hot Minute was a platinum-selling record, but it was considered a failure at the time.

“I had to face the diehard audience of Chili Pepper fans, who didn’t like the fact that I was in that role. There was a lot of backlash from the fanbase because I was filling John’s role.

“I always found it odd that any of that was directed at me. I was like, ‘Well, if you don’t like me being here, you can blame them. I didn’t force myself into this, they asked me. All I did was say yes.’ [laughs]

“Coming off the success of their previous record, and then having the lukewarm reception of this record, that really impacted everybody in the camp. Again, this was odd for me because the record wasn’t what we had hoped in terms of reception from the fanbase, and there were question marks about the direction, and I was feeling the brunt of that.

“But for me, personally, it was the most successful record that I’d ever played on. [laughs] It definitely outsold anything that Jane’s had done prior, so getting a platinum record, to me, felt like a win. But for those guys, it felt like a failure, so it was a really strange dynamic.”

Even so, time has been kind to One Hot Minute.

“I think that’s very nice, but I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. There were a lot of good times during the One Hot Minute era, but there was also a lot of struggle and pain. I certainly could feel the disappointment on their end.

“But, I mean, John is such an incredible musician and songwriter. His contribution to the Chili Peppers can’t be undervalued. These guys were used to coming in and having fully crafted songs, and they’d work on them as they deemed appropriate, so that was something I wasn’t used to.”

Though it didn’t come naturally to you, do you wish you’d been more open to that?

“I look back on those days, and I could have probably tried more to work in that fashion. But I didn’t know any differently, you know? My only experience was another way, and it wasn’t until years later that I realized why things were so difficult like it was.”

How do you look back on the making of One Hot Minute?

“I can summarize that record as an extremely difficult situation with players who were coming from different places, trying their very best to make it work. In some cases, we exceeded our expectations, and in other cases, we didn’t live up to the expectations that we had.

“If you look at it on paper, and I say this with all the love and respect, I wasn’t the right guy to fill that role. I’m grateful to have had the crash course in expanding my musicianship. The only problem is that I had to do it in front of the world, which made it uncomfortable. [laughs]

“I believe that I became a better guitar player as a result of it, but I don’t know that I would repeat that. In hindsight, maybe I was better cut out for Guns N’ Roses than I was the Chili Peppers. But at the time, the Chili Peppers were more from where I came from, but when it came down to getting in a room and musically trying to fit, it was another story.”

Many people wish the Chili Peppers would play more songs from One Hot Minute, but those songs are clearly not in John’s wheelhouse.

“Well, I think that with Josh Klinghoffer, they did revamp Aeroplane a time or two, which was nice. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s kinda cool that they’re doing that.’ But I have no idea what their perspective is on the whole thing. And when I see them, which is infrequent, we don’t talk about it.

“We’re just always like, ‘Hey, man, great to see you. How have things been?’ We just pick it up where we left off, but there’s no reminiscing. And it’s kinda odd to do right now because it was a difficult but valuable part of my career. I think once we get off the phone, I might skim through the record because I haven’t heard it in well over 20 years.”

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with how well it’s aged.

“I really love Warped, My Friends, and Transcending. There are songs where I love the A section, but I don’t love the B section.

“I look at it as a kind of interesting musical experiment. I don’t know that this will make sense, but it was like taking Dave Murray from Iron Maiden, throwing him into The Cure, and seeing what happens. [laughs] I’m too old and have been around the block too many times to have any ill feelings about it.”

The late 80s saw a brief explosion of funk-rock. While the Red Hot Chili Peppers are clearly the Beatles of that period of funk-rock in hindsight, the funk-rock invasion saw them initially competing with the likes of Jane’s Addiction, Faith No More, Primus, Living Colour, and 24-7 Spyz.

From that fertile scene came guitarists who combined Hendrix’s chord-melody approach with P-Funk syncopation and Zeppelin-level riffage. RHCP founder Hillel Slovak created the template, but the seven guitarists who later enjoyed stints in the band all created their own delicate balance of funk grooves and rock aggression.

Here’s a rundown of all eight players, and the other places you might find them.

Hillel Slovak – (1982–1983, 1985–1988)

The Chili Peppers’ founding guitarist left an indelible mark on rock history despite recording only two full albums with the band.

Slovak co-wrote five songs on the band’s 1984 self-titled debut, but left before its recording to focus on his other band, What Is This?, who had signed to MCA Records. After an EP and an album, Slovak asked to return to RHCP, prompting vocalist Anthony Kiedis to tell Flea, “I'd give my firstborn son to get him back in the band.”

Slovak’s influence loomed the largest on a young John Frusciante. He was best known for playing a rosewood-board Strat into a cranked Marshall (a 100 watt Superbass), for a style that was equal parts Hendrix and funk, and for his signature use of fuzz and wah – all elements that Frusciante would make his own trademarks.

Frusciante didn’t even play funk before studying Slovak’s style.

“I learned everything I needed to know about how to sound good with Flea by studying Hillel's playing, and I just took it sideways from there,” he told Guitar Player in 1997.

Slovak’s tragic death by heroin overdose in 1988, aged just 26, cast a long shadow over the band’s history. Multiple RHCP songs have been written in his honor, and when the band were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, Slovak was included.

“He's a beautiful person that picked up a guitar in the 1970s and didn't make it out of the 1980s, and he is getting honored for his beauty,” Kiedis said at the time.

Jack Sherman – (1983–1985)

When Hillel Slovak ditched the Chilis in 1983, Jack Sherman filled the position. He would go on to feature on the band’s self-titled debut album.

Bassist Flea later wrote on social media that Sherman had “played the most wicked guitar part on our song Mommy Where’s Daddy, a thing that influenced the way I heard rhythm forever.”

Although he was fired before the recording of Freaky Styley (1985), seven of the songs he co-wrote still made the album.

Post-Chilis, Sherman recorded with Bob Dylan, Parliament/Funkadelic founder George Clinton, and ex-Undertones frontman Feargal Sharkey. He died of a heart attack in 2020, aged 64.

DeWayne “Blackbyrd” McKnight – (1988)

After Slovak’s death, the Chili Peppers needed an emergency replacement, a role that would be filled by Parliament/Funkadelic guitarist DeWayne “Blackbyrd” McKnight. It further solidified the band’s authentic funk credentials, with P-Funk leader George Clinton having produced Freaky Styley.

McKnight didn’t exactly slot into the band smoothly, however, and they fired him three dates into the next tour. The guitarist was reportedly so unhappy that he threatened to burn down Anthony Kiedis’ house.

McKnight later revealed to Guitar World that he had been asked to fill-in for Slovak multiple times before his death, but each time Slovak came back in time to do the show.

“You might even say that they had gotten me in there to coax Hillel back; at least that's how I saw it. But I don't know how it went, and I don't know what they felt because I never talked about that with them.”

Outside of RHCP and P-Funk, McKnight also has credits with jazz legends Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis, as well as with the fusion band, The Headhunters.

John Frusciante – (1988–1992, 1998–2009, 2019–present)

Despite Hillel Slovak’s immense influence on the band, John Frusciante is for most the defining RHCP guitarist. He has twice left the band, and each time his return has brought a huge boost to the band’s creative and commercial fortunes.

His 1998 reunion with the band produced the 15-million-selling Californication, while his 2022 comeback with the band, Unlimited Love, shot to #1 in the US and ten other countries, a feat that the band had not achieved since before his departure.

But it was 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the band’s commercial breakthrough, that really secured Frusciante’s place in the guitar pantheon. Frusciante may have been following Slovak’s blueprint, but he made it convincingly his own.

On Under the Bridge, Frusciante appropriated Hendrix’s combined rhythm-and-lead style more convincingly than anyone since Jimi himself, while thumpers like Give It Away and Suck My Kiss had punk levels of aggression without the need for heavily distorted tones. While many bands in the funk-rock explosion sacrificed the funk element to sound heavier, Frusciante didn’t compromise on either.

The success was too much for Frusciante, who became a recluse and developed a heroin addiction. He managed a pair of twisted and experimental solo albums before reuniting with the band to power them to even greater success. He also found time for a side project, Ataxia, with Fugazi bassist Joe Lally and future RHCP guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.

The 2000s were a prolific decade for Frusciante, who released eight solo albums and juggled multiple side projects, as well as releasing By the Way (2002) and Stadium Arcadium (2006) with the Chili Peppers.

Frusciante left the band in 2009 and spent a decade making mainly electronic music, before giving the fans what they wanted in 2019. Whether he will ever leave again remains to be seen, but at this point anyone else who plays with the Red Hot Chili Peppers is just filling in for John Frusciante.

Reflecting on re-joining the band a second time in a 2022 interview with Guitar World, Frusciante said, “There’s an appreciation of the chemistry that I can’t say I really had towards the end of being in the band last time – an appreciation of what we’re capable of. When you get so used to something, you sometimes tend to take things for granted.

“I’d had lots of time making music where I do whatever I want. And that was great. And I continue to do that. But it seemed like a really good step for me as a human being to try to play in a band again. Most of all, I just have a lot of fun playing with those guys.”

Arik Marshall – (1992–1993)

When Frusciante quit abruptly in the middle of the Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour, the band needed a safe pair of hands. Arik Marshall provided those hands, having previously recorded with Tone Loc, Sting, and Etta James.

The band later praised him for learning the set quickly and never letting them down on stage. When it came time to write a follow-up album, however, Marshall quickly got the boot. The band felt he was not the right writer for the job.

Fortunately, Marshall’s stint with the band coincided with their golden-era guest appearance on The Simpsons in the episode Krusty Gets Cancelled, guaranteeing him cool points forever.

Marshall later played with Macy Gray, appearing with her on Saturday Night Live and in the Toby Maguire Spider-Man (2002). Since then he’s been largely quiet, although he was the guitarist in a wedding scene in The Hangover.

Jesse Tobias – (1993)

Anthony Kiedis felt Jesse Tobias was the guitarist to help the band follow up Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and he was hired in 1993 to help write the next album. Unfortunately, the chemistry with the rhythm section just wasn’t there, and Tobias was dumped months later.

It all ended well, though: Tobias joined Alanis Morisette’s band for the Jagged Little Pill tour, and on that jaunt met his wife, Angie Hart, who was singing in support band Frente. The band they formed together, Splendid, which made a cameo appearance on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In 2004, Tobias joined Morrissey’s band, where he is still a member.

Dave Navarro – (1993–1998)

After the arduous audition process for Frusciante’s replacement was over, Dave Navarro finally made himself available in 1993. The band have claimed that Jesse Tobias would have been fired anyway, but Navarro’s interest certainly sealed his fate. The former Jane’s Addiction guitarist made the next Chili Peppers lineup into something of a funk-rock supergroup. The resulting album: 1995's One Hot Minute.

At the time, One Hot Minute was considered a disappointing follow-up to Blood Sugar Sex Magik, but the album certainly has its fans. It went double platinum in the US and sold a million copies in Europe, which is hardly shabby. Pea has become an enduring live favorite, and single Aeroplane was added back to the band’s live set in 2016 because it was one of the favorites of Frusciante's second successor, Josh Klinghoffer.

Outside of the Chilis and Jane’s Addiction, Navarro has had an impressive session career, often getting the call when pop stars want a dose of rock: Alanis Morisette’s You Oughta Know, Christina Aguilera’s Fighter, and live versions of Janet Jackson’s Black Cat have all benefitted from Navarro’s weighty soloing.

In 2001, he released his solo album, Trust No One, and in 2020, along with Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, Navarro began the side project NHC (Navarro Hawkins Chaney).

Josh Klinghoffer – (2007, 2009–2019)

Pre-Chilis, Josh Klinghoffer had carved out a career playing with bands like The Bicycle Thief and Golden Shoulders, as well as being a session musician for Gnarls Barkley.

When Frusciante again stepped down in 2009, Klinghoffer – with his experience in the Frusciante side project Ataxia – was a natural choice. At the time Frusciante commented in an interview with Alternative Nation, “In many respects he's the person who is closest to me, and with whom I can speak honestly about everything. His opinion is very important to me and I value it a lot.”

On the Stadium Arcadium tour, Klinghoffer had played additional guitar and keyboards for the final legs. He offered the band a smooth transition.

In Klinghoffer's decade with the band, they released a pair of albums: I’m With You (2011) and The Getaway (2016). While neither of these reached the commercial or creative heights of the band’s work with Frusciante, they were generally well-received.

Klinghoffer struggled to avoid playing too much like Frusciante, while the band were wary of moving too far from their core sound. That tension arguably kept the band’s creativity on a leash.

Klinghoffer said as much in a 2022 interview with Guitar World, saying his decade with the band was “enormously stifling creatively.”

“They’re an established band with an established sound, and I learned over time how little deviating from that was possible,” he explained.

“When I first joined, I wouldn’t use certain chords when I was writing if they sounded like something John would play. Or if it sounded like a choice they would have made on their last album, I purposely went the other way.”

“As much as I thought they were up for experimentation,” he continued, “they generally stayed in their own lane.”

Post-Chili Peppers, Klinghoffer has released three albums under his pseudonym Pluralone. Since 2021, he has been an additional touring musician for Pearl Jam.

He filled in for Dave Navarro on Jane’s Addiction’s 2023 tour as Navarro struggled with Long Covid. Klinghoffer has also recorded with Iggy Pop and Morrissey, although the latter recordings have not been released. Along with RHCP drummer Chad Smith, Klinghoffer played on Who Believes in Angels? (2025), a joint album by Elton John and Brandi Carlisle.

Former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer will avoid jail time over the fatal car accident that claimed the life of a pedestrian last year.

Klinghoffer was facing vehicular manslaughter charges after allegedly running over and killing 47-year-old Israel Sanchez at a crosswalk in Alhambra, California. The victim's daughter, Ashley Sanchez, originally filed a lawsuit for wrongful death in July 2024 following the incident on March 18. The case was later escalated to a charge of vehicular manslaughter.

Rolling Stone reports the guitarist appeared in an Alhambra court on May 28. He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence, and was sentenced to one year of informal probation and 60 days of community labor.

Klinghoffer, who replaced John Frusciante in RHCP between 2009 and 2015, was alleged to have been driving a Black 2022 GMC Yukon down Meridian Avenue near West Main Street in Alhambra. The plaintiffs allege Klinghoffer was using his phone when he took a sudden left turn, causing him to hit the 47-year-old in the back.

The Sanchez family also claimed he had been driving without license plates and “made no braking or slowing motion until after he fatally struck.”

Sanchez was rushed to Huntington Hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after. Blunt force trauma was revealed as his cause of death.

Los Angeles County Judge Rosa Fregoso ruled that Klinghoffer must also attend a driver safety class and pay a restitution – the figure of which will be determined at a later date.

After Klinghoffer entered his plea, a prosecutor warned him that any similar incident in the future could see him facing more serious charges. “If you continue to drive while distracted, and as a result of your driving someone is killed, you can be charged with murder,” said the prosecutor.

Ashley, Israel Sanchez’s daughter, is said to have broken down crying when delivering a victim impact statement, saying, “My father was an extraordinary grandfather to my [children]. His absence has left an irreversible void in our lives.”

She called her Israel “the heart of our family,” and said Klinghoffer’s actions had caused her “deep and lasting trauma,” adding that her father’s death was an “avoidable loss.”

A hearing for the civil case is slated for July 1.

The guitarist did not comment on the charges when they came to light. He was on tour with Pearl Jam at the time after he joined as a touring musician in 2021. He had been on release on his own recognizance.

The announcement of Ozzy Osbourne's return – and last-ever live performance – on July 5 marks the historic reunion of the original Black Sabbath members for their first show in 20 years.

Dubbed ‘Back to the Beginning’, this homecoming – and, frankly, celebration of a great legacy – takes Sabbath back to where it all began: Birmingham.

However, instead of a traditional headliner-and-support-style show, this event will bring together some of rock’s most influential, generation-spanning talents – a supergroup, if you will, or a “very supergroup,” as Tony Iommi shared with Planet Rock – for what already looks like an event destined for the history books.

Most intriguing among the lineup is a Tool, Rage Against the Machine and Smashing Pumpkins supergroup, teased by Sharon Osbourne, who appears in the same interview.

“Tom Morello is going to be playing with Billy Corgan and you know the drummer from Tool [Danny Carey]. You wouldn't have thought that you would see those three guys together, but they're all from Chicago, so they're all home guys,” says Osbourne.

“Then you’ll see Slash and Duff [McKagan] and whoever they choose to play with,” she elaborates in an interview with NME. “David Draiman [Disturbed] is going to come up and sing, Jonathan [Davis] from KoRn is going to be here and he could be playing with [Red Hot Chili Peppers’] Chad Smith or whoever! Alice In Chains are coming and they’re playing as the band.”

As Osbourne explains, assembling all these big names was no easy feat – but their willingness to commit is a testament to Ozzy’s legacy and, by extension, Black Sabbath’s.

“People are coming in from all over the world – they're all gigging because it's the summer, so everybody's out doing festivals, and somehow, it worked. Bands like Anthrax, we asked them to be a part of it, and they said, ‘Oh, don't even bother to send us a ticket. We're going to be there no matter what.’”

After all, as Osbourne puts it, “This is a celebration – of the genre and the pioneers who started it and passed it on to all these bands. Usually, this thing is done when you’re dead – so it’s nice that these guys can be alive to be appreciated!”

Tickets for the mega-event go on sale on February 14, with proceeds from the show set to be shared equally between Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorn Children’s Hospice.

Visit Live Nation for tickets.

A host of music icons – including the first-time duo of Dave Matthews and John Mayer, Joni Mitchell, Billie Eilish and Finneas, Lady Gaga, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sting, Stephen Stills, and Green Day – are coming together for the fundraising mega-event FireAid, to support relief efforts for the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires.

The star-studded benefit concert is set to take place on January 30 at L.A.'s Intuit Dome and Kia Forum, just three days after this year's Grammy Awards.

Furthermore, FireAid will also be broadcast in select AMC movie theaters, as well as on numerous other platforms, including YouTube, Apple Music, Prime Music, SiriusXM, Paramount+, and iHeartRadio.

Other stars joining the lineup include Stevie Nicks, Earth, Wind & Fire, Gracie Abrams, Gwen Stefani, Jelly Roll, Katy Perry, Lil Baby, P!nk, Rod Stewart, and Tate McRae, with more artists set to be announced in the coming days. While the Eagles are not scheduled to perform, they have already pledged a $2.5 million donation to the cause.

It's a remarkable roster of artists. So much so that Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick badged it “on a level of Live Aid, mid-'80s” in a comment on John Mayer's Instagram post about the event.

The ultimate aim of the event is to motivate viewers across all platforms to contribute donations, with proceeds benefiting numerous California relief initiatives and organizations, under the advisement of the Annenberg Foundation.

The event is being produced by longtime artist manager and music industry powerhouse Irving Azoff, alongside his wife, Shelli. Live Nation and AEG Presents are also involved, while the Los Angeles Clippers, the pro basketball team that moved into the Intuit Dome last fall, are set to “cover the millions in expenses associated with the event.”

According to the event's organizers, proceeds from FireAid will “focus on rebuilding infrastructure, supporting displaced families, and advancing fire prevention technologies and strategies to ensure L.A. is better prepared for fire emergencies.”

Tickets for FireAid go on sale through Ticketmaster on January 22 at 12 p.m. PST/3 p.m. EST.

Aside from FireAid, Guitar Center, Fender, the NAMM Foundation, Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, and MusiCares are among the many music companies and organizations that have launched initiatives to support musicians, music education programs, and music professionals impacted by this large-scale tragedy.

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ former guitar tech Dave Lee has revealed that Eddie Van Halen’s tech once helped John Frusciante source an elusive vintage wah pedal – but the electric guitar god wasn’t particularly impressed with his gear choice.

Lee joined the RHCP’s wider circle of behind-the-scenes pros during Dave Navarro’s short stint in the band, having originally been recruited by the Jane’s Addiction man. Four years later, though, Lee was helping Frusciante – who rejoined the band in 1998 – to assemble his Californication pedalboard.

“It was a relatively small pedalboard for John to begin with,” Lee tells Boss. Among its humble inclusions was an original Ibanez WH10 wah pedal borrowed from SIR (Studio Instrument Rentals).

“John liked it so much that we took it with us when we left the studio. He wouldn’t use anything else,” Lee expands. However, Froosh’s reliance on the pedal would eventually prove to be a bit of sticking point as the shows rolled on.

Lee continues: “At the time, I didn’t realize how fragile they were. They kept breaking because they’re made of plastic. I thought I could just keep buying more, but they became increasingly difficult to find.”

Not one to be defeated, Lee turned to his Rolodex of contacts to get hold of another example of the revered-but-feebly-built wah – and Van Halen’s own guitar tech answered the call.

“Eddie Van Halen’s tech, Matt Bruck, was a genius at locating hard-to-find gear,” Lee says. “He helped us get John a WH10 and a Marshall Major [amp head]. I was at John’s house when Matt called me and said, ‘I’ve found you a WH10. I’m at Eddie’s house. You can come on over and pick it up if you like.’

“So, I drive over to the Eddie Van Halen residence, and when I pull up outside, Ed is standing there with the WH10 wah in his hand, just kind of looking at it. He goes, ‘Why does John Frusciante want a piece of crap like this?’

“I laughed and said, ‘Yep. You’re right. It is made of plastic, and they break all the time. That’s why we need this one. We only have one left,’” Lee relays. “He looked at me very seriously and said, ‘Listen, man. You need to tell John this is the only one left. Because when I’m using a pedal, and I think it’s the only one I’ve got, I’m a lot more careful with it.’

“That was some good guitar tech advice from Eddie Van Halen. John thought that was hilarious.”

Frusciante would leave RHCP for a second time in 2009, with Lee saying “the writing was on the wall” long before that moment. 10 years later, Froosh asked Lee to fix up some of his neglected Stratocasters – a move that hinted he was about to return to the band yet again.

Frusciante was recently bestowed with his first-ever Fender signature guitar, coming in at an eye-watering $20K.

Total Guitar’s July 2006 issue featured none other than John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on the cover, with a line of text promising discussion of meditation, drugs, Hendrix and some chat about the band’s then-latest album, Stadium Arcadium.

As the interview went on, John waxed lyrical about his thoughts on learning music theory. Turns out he had more to say on the subject post-interview.

So he wrote TG a letter. And, rather than abridge it for you, here it is in full. Thanks again for your wise words, John!

John Frusciante on music theory and creativity

“Do as thou wilt shall be whole of the law.”

I am sitting here listening to The Beatles and I want to say a couple of things regarding my comments on the question of whether or not to learn theory.

If you don’t know theory, and yet when a chord progression is played low on the neck you can play a melody in keeping with the chords halfway up the neck without being lost, you are doing well. In this case, there is no pressing need to learn theory because you can make music with another person, understanding as you do the numerical relationships of music.

Though you may think of them as shapes, the relationship is a numerical one as numbers are a human’s way of measuring distance. So theory shows a person how to be far away in terms of frequency (how high or low the notes are) but close in terms of feeling and connectivity.

In the article [Phil Ascott’s interview with John, issue 150] I irresponsibly generalized that the reason people don’t learn theory is because they are lazy. There is another, better reason to not learn it. If you have such a good flow of creativity going and are making music that fills you and those who hear it with joy, or if in your heart you believe you are well on your way to doing that, learning theory could slow you down as your brain would have to learn to function in a different way.

I firmly believe it would help such a person eventually (as it helped Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Frank Zappa, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, etc), but until a person can use this knowledge quickly and effortlessly without having to think about it, thinking theoretically will be a distraction.

Therefore, I encourage people to learn it when they’re young or when they have no creative demands on them. Theory can deepen anybody’s expression (even the hypothetical people I mentioned who already understand basic ‘numerical relationships’), but it doesn’t happen overnight.

And in the meantime, a creative person may think they have lost something, but once they can access their knowledge effortlessly they will be more free and will have more colours to choose from.

I must also comment on one of Joe Satriani’s (much respect!) reasons to learn theory, from an otherwise fine lesson on this subject, where basically the student is asked “Can you play like Stevie Ray Vaughan?”, thereby supposedly proving the need to learn theory. I postulate that none of these geniuses, who made great music without theory, knew they were geniuses when they were first learning.

If someone feels they have the time, patience and brainpower to form their own conception of musical relationship and to figure it all out in their own way, then they should. I have learned as much from the styles of musicians who don’t know theory as I have from musicians who do.

Many of them just found a unique style that resulted in beautiful music. Many of them don’t even understand the relationships I speak of too well and have to fumble around for 10 minutes before they play anything good, but when they do it’s something incredible.

But, by the same token, let it be remembered that some people, like Hendrix, were just too poor to take lessons and would have if they had had the means. Hendrix was quoted as saying he would like to quit the music business for six months and go to music school.

My own musical growth was compromised by not having enough money to pay the fee of the teacher I wanted to take from. But some of us have the desire to learn and the will to gain knowledge by whatever means necessary. Magazines like Total Guitar taught me immensely.

In fact, I don’t know what I would have done without them. Life gives you what you put into it, and if you have the will to learn, practice and make music, it doesn’t matter if theory is part of the equation or not (but! I recommend it).

Love is the law, love under will,

John Frusciante

Top-tier guitar tech Dave Lee has rubbed shoulders with some bona fide rock and pop A-listers. His most well-known gig, though, is undoubtedly his long-standing role as John Frusciante’s guitar tech during his early Red Hot Chili Peppers days.

So, owing to the fact he was in Froosh’s inner circle, it might come as a surprise that the esteemed tech didn’t immediately suspect the famed guitarist was considering rejoining the Chili Peppers in 2019 – even after he was summoned to set up Frusciante’s neglected Fender electric guitars.

“Right before he returned to the Chili Peppers again in 2019, John called me up out of the blue,” Lee tells Boss. “I was in my garage when the phone rang, and ‘John Frusciante’ appeared on the screen. I hadn’t talked to him in years.

“I answered, and he said, ‘Hi Dave. It’s John.’ I paused for a second, and he goes, ‘Frusciante.’ It was the craziest thing. He said, ‘I haven’t played my Strats in years. I’ve been messing around with them lately, and I think they’re broken. They just don’t feel right. I’ve had them on a stand in my living room, and the sun gets on them. I think that might have ruined them.’

“So, I asked him, ‘Do you want me to come over and look at them?’ He goes, ‘Would you do that?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll come by tomorrow,’ and he goes, ‘That’d be great!’”

However, even after this call, it didn’t immediately cross Lee’s mind that Frusciante was seriously considering reuniting with Anthony Kiedis, Flea and Chad Smith.

“It didn’t occur to me,” he admits. “There’s a place I go to called Eric’s Guitar Shop, where I’ll take instruments for major repairs or maybe something I’m baffled about.

“At least, I thought it best to take some of John’s main Chili Peppers Strats to Eric’s for a second opinion: the Sunburst ’62 and ’55, the Olympic White ’64, and the Fiesta Red ’61. I also took the ‘60s Telecaster Custom.

“When Eric saw them, he looked at me and goes, ‘John’s going back to the Chili Peppers.’ I said, ‘No way is he ever going back to the Chili Peppers. I just spent two hours with him, and he’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him.’ But Eric goes, ‘I bet you he is.’ I guess he was right!”

And while Frusciante did eventually ask Lee to rejoin his team, the in-demand guitar tech had to – regretfully – turn it down.

“I got a text from John. He wrote: ‘I know that you probably don’t want the job, but I’m just letting you know that it’s available to you if you want it.’”

He concludes, “Maroon 5 had so much work planned, so I texted him back saying, ‘John, I’ve committed to a bunch of stuff that I have to do. But I’ll gladly help you in any way I can to get stuff sorted out.’ It felt so weird having to turn that down!”

In recent John Frusciante news, the highly-respected guitarist's first-ever Fender signature guitar was recently unveiled – and it’s a $20k Custom Shop replica of his iconic 1962 Stratocaster.

Fender has painstakingly replicated John Frusciante’s legendary 1962 Stratocaster for its latest Limited Edition Masterbuilt Custom Shop signature guitar drop.

There have been plenty of iconic Strats across the decades – Gilmour’s Black Strat, Eric Clapton’s “Blackie”, and Rory Gallagher’s own 1961 model, to name just a few – and Froosh’s own heavy relic’d sunburst model is comfortably up there with the lot.

Perhaps the main electric guitar from his entire collection, the ’62 has been used extensively throughout his Red Hot Chili Peppers stints, and was responsible for tracking – and bringing to the stage – a huge assortment of the band’s biggest hits.

A foundational aspect of both Frusciante’s heralded guitar tone and the wider RHCP sound, the 1962 model has become deeply synonymous with its influential owner – and now, at long last, it’s been reproduced by Fender.

You may recall that rumors of a Frusciante signature Strat began circulating in May last year, after Frusciante was spotted playing a replica of his original model.

More than a year later, a hugely anticipated signature version of the Strat – which marks Frusciante’s first-ever signature Fender – has finally dropped, but this isn’t your regular US-made signature, nor is it a more affordable Ensenada-made spin-off.

This is very much a top-of-the-line Custom Shop replica created by Senior Masterbuilder Paul Waller. As such, it commands a hefty price tag: $20,000, to be precise.

That expense is reflected in the level of detail that’s been applied to this replica. As Fender stresses, it “spared no expense” in recreating every detail of the source material, from the dings and dents on the headstock and neck, to the heavy aging of the sunburst finish.

Naturally, the electronics and the physical playability of the replica have all been modeled on Frusciante’s OG model. That means it has a “singular worn in quality that is usually only attainable with a pre-owned vintage guitar”, while the pickups offer an ILLITCH hum-canceling system as per the source material.

Those pickups, notably, are hand-wound single-coils built by legendary pickup winder Abigail Ybarra, who first retired back in 2013 after spending more than five decades working as part of the Fender family.

Underneath all the cosmetics bells and whistles, you’ll find a select two-piece alder body, a rift-sawn maple neck, and a slab rosewood fingerboard that offers 21 narrow tall frets and a vintage 7.25” radius.

Other appointments include vintage-style tuners, a bone nut, Vintage Strat wiring, and a vintage-style synchronized tremolo.

All in all, it’s undeniably the closest thing you’re going to get to experiencing the real Stratocaster, which Frusciante bought way back in the late 1990s when he re-joined the band for the Californication era.

“The main guitar that I played was my ’62 Strat, which is the same guitar that I got when I rejoined the band back in 1998,” he told Guitar World in 2022. “Back in ’98 I didn’t have money for a Strat, but I told them all I had was a Fender Jaguar, and I felt that I should have a Strat for it to sound like the band.

“Anthony [Kiedis] and I went to Guitar Center and he lent me the money to get a Strat, and it was the one that spoke to me off the wall. And ever since then, I’ve had many other Strats – from that period of time, generally – and that one that happened to be there that day, I’ve never found one better than that.”

Now, $20k is hardly accessible for the majority of guitar players, but fear not: Fender also rolled out the red carpet for Mike McCready’s own sunburst Strat, which received a similar Custom Shop treatment before a Made in Mexico variant arrived later down the line.

Could a similar thing happen here? There’s no guarantees, of course, but it would be a no-brainer for Fender, which clearly recognizes the historical significance of this particular Strat.

“Frusciante’s Strat is right up there with the most iconic Fenders of all time; being able to work on his first-ever Signature model was a true privilege,” notes Waller. “Recreating this instrument’s many beautiful imperfections was no easy feat, but behind every ding and dent is a story and it’s our job to make sure that this guitar’s narrative is told in full, stunning detail.

“For an instrument this heavily reliced, it still retains so much of its original beauty. A ton of work went into this one, and while much of that can be reflected in its visual components, the whole team is tremendously proud of how this thing plays.”

Visit the Fender Custom Shop to find out more.

Former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer is set to be arraigned today, September 26, in a California courthouse for an accident that resulted in the death of a pedestrian on the afternoon of March 18.

Klinghoffer is expected to be charged with a misdemeanor of vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence. He will enter his plea at 8:30 a.m. PT at the Alhambra courthouse.

According to court records and evidence, the guitarist was driving a Black 2022 GMC Yukon down Meridian Avenue near West Main Street in Alhambra, when he made a left turn, allegedly while using his phone, and hit 47-year-old pedestrian Israel Sanchez at a crosswalk. Sanchez was struck in the back and was pronounced dead shortly after at Huntington Hospital.

Klinghoffer was sued by Sanchez's daughter, Ashley Sanchez, in a lawsuit accusing him of allegedly driving while using his phone, which led to him being unaware of his surroundings and failing to brake in time before the fatal collision.

Andrew Brettler, the guitarist's attorney, told TMZ that “it was a tragic accident.” “After Josh struck this pedestrian in the intersection, he immediately pulled over, stopped the car, called 911, and waited until police and the ambulance arrived. Obviously, he's cooperating with the police throughout the traffic investigation. This was purely a tragic accident.”

In further comments to KTLA 5 News, Brettler said, “It's clear from the evidence that Mr. Klinghoffer was not on the phone at the time of the accident.”

The Sanchez family lawyer, Nick Rowley, disputed Brettler's claims, asserting that there is video evidence of Klinghoffer driving while on his phone at the time he allegedly hit and killed Sanchez.

Rowley stated, “Israel Sanchez was on his way to the grocery store to make soup for his family and never came home. He did everything right, looking for oncoming traffic and abiding by pedestrian signage, but tragically Mr. Klinghoffer, in a rush and on his phone, hit him fatally from behind with a large SUV.”

The guitarist, who has also performed with Pearl Jam and Jane's Addiction, has been on release on his own recognizance.

Andrew Watt has built a stellar roster of collaborators, with British legend Paul McCartney firmly on that list. On August 20, the Beatles bassist joined Watt and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith on stage at the 250-capacity Stephen Talkhouse in the Hamptons, for a raucous rendition of The Beatles’ I Saw Her Standing There and Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World.

McCartney joined the show mid-set, to the audience's surprise and delight. He immediately commanded the stage and led the band, which, in addition to Watt on guitar and Smith on drums, also included Saturday Night Live band member and seasoned session guitarist G.E. Smith, along with a horn section. Watt's girlfriend, singer-songwriter and model Charlotte Lawrence, also joined McCartney on vocals during Rockin' in the Free World.

Prior to this impromptu performance, McCartney had guested on the Watt-produced Rolling Stones album Hackney Diamonds, playing bass on the track Bite My Head Off.

In a New York Times profile, the producer also revealed that he had written an as-yet-unreleased song with McCartney, which came about over a cup of tea.

“He’s very resourceful,” McCartney said. “I said, ‘I’d like to show you something on guitar, but I haven’t got my guitar with me. And he said, ‘I’ve got a guitar.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, but I’m left-handed.’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve got a left-handed guitar.’”

After a jamming session, McCartney returned to the studio with lyrics and a vocal line. “Suddenly, we had a song. From a cup of tea to a song. Doesn’t it sound easy?”

Watt recently worked on Iggy Pop's 19th studio album, Every Loser, Pearl Jam's Dark Matter, Lana Del Rey and Quavo’s Tough, Quavo and Lenny Kravitz’s Fly, Post Malone’s latest album AUSTIN, The Kid LAROI’s single Forever and Again, and BTS' Jungkook’s Seven.

This past week, he was revealed as the producer behind the fast-rising, country-tinged Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars duet, Die with a Smile.

For many, Flea’s wildly energetic slap bass antics and funk-sharpened attack make him one of the greatest bass players in the world. But now the Red Hot Chili Peppers maestro has named the bassist that, in turn, fascinates him the most.

The bassist, who starred in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games closing ceremony over the weekend, has singled out who he believes to be the “greatest rock bass player” – and he's given the honor to Paul McCartney.

“I think Paul's the greatest rock bass player. He's just great. I mean, there are so many guys that are great in different ways, but Paul's bass playing is so lyrical and melodic, and it's just so beautiful,” he tells Team Coco (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar).

“One of the things I've heard is that he put the bass on after. [In] a band like mine, sometimes the song starts with bass lines. Whereas Paul and John and George, when they wrote songs, they just went and played live and would do it after.”

One example of this, Flea says, is Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. What Flea finds so fascinating, is that McCartney’s playing contradicts the typical role of a rock bass player.

“The melody is already there,” he says. “So then he's doing a counter melody, so the bass is a melody as opposed to just a rhythm, and that's amazing.”

Ultimately, that against-the-grain expressiveness and focus on melody, rather than simply supplying a low-end undercurrent for other musicians to shine on top of, was a crucial ingredient in his band’s sonic stew.

Naturally, Flea's crazy licks didn't go unnoticed. Beyond the band's multiple Grammy wins and record sales figures comfortably into the millions, other bands wanted him in their ranks.

“John Lydon once made a stab at poaching Flea for Public Image,” the band's singer, Anthony Keidis revealed earlier this year. “At which point Flea keeled over and passed out.”

While the former Sex Pistols man wasn't successful in his poaching attempts, The Mars Volta were. Flea played on the band's now-classic album, De-Loused in the Comatorium, but his contributions often slip under the radar.

Reflecting on a glory-littered career earlier this year, Flea explained how he regrets destroying so many bass guitars during their '90s and '00s live shows, saying: “I feel like such an idiot.”

The Australia-born, Hollywood-raised Michael 'Flea' Balzary, so nicknamed for his diminutive stature and onstage leaps, is, many bassists feel, one of the finest funk bass players ever to stalk the earth.

Bred on a diet of cool jazz and trumpet lessons, with his most treasured childhood memory a meeting with Dizzy Gillespie, Flea took up the bass guitar after the prompting of his high-school classmate Hillel Slovak, who – along with singer Anthony Kiedis and drummer Jack Irons – formed the first line-up of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, then a cheeky funk-punk act.

From these humble beginnings, Flea evolved a frighteningly fast slap-and-pop style, influenced by Larry Graham and Bootsy Collins, but spiced up with the energy of his beloved hardcore punk scene.

After applying scintillating bursts of notes to four ’80s albums, Flea had become known as ‘Joe Bass Player’ as he once put it, and decided to tone down for 1991's landmark Blood Sugar Sex Magik album.

Give It Away was a monster of a single, with a bassline that more or less made up the whole song with its liquid slide motif and some beautifully dexterous fills. As Flea told Bass Player in February 1992, the song almost ended up on the scrapheap. “I had told the guys, ‘Aah, it's just another bassline – I don't really like it.’ But they said, ‘No, no, it's really good – we gotta do it.’ Good thing!”

Producer Rick Rubin clashed with Flea during the recording of this track, attempting to persuade him to simplify his original bassline. But Give It Away became a total inspiration to bass players everywhere and went on to win Best Hard Rock Song at the 35th Grammy Awards in 1993.

At the beginning of the tune, Flea plays two neck-spanning slides. These are a little tricky to nail – the most important thing is to reach the uppermost notes right on beats three and four. It's a good idea to break out the metronome to make sure you're hitting these slides on the right part of the beat.

To dig into the verse, Flea outlines an Am7 using chord tones, and makes the most of the long glissandos down from the G. Pay special attention to beat two, which includes two different slides: first from D up to E, and then from G at the 12th fret down the neck. While there are definite starting and ending points on the first slide, the downward slide tapers off without landing on a specific note.

The second bar is similar, except that the high G at the end of beat two hangs on for just a hair longer, carrying into beat three. The key for this funky line is in the details: the deadened ghost-notes and pickup notes Flea plays in beats one, three, and four help the line lock the groove.

For the chorus, begin with an open-A downbeat. Beat four is packed with two ghost-notes, which you should play by half-fretting G and C. Slide into the second bar's downbeat from G, holding the A until beat two, when you should begin your slide down the neck.

At the guitar solo, Flea drops down a string, beginning his line on a low E. After repeating the one-bar figure seven times, he rounds out the section with a rippin' descending line played on the E string, leading back into the verse figure.

Back in February 2020, John Frusciante played his first gig with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in over a decade as part of a memorial show hosted by the Tony Hawk Foundation.

The event was also attended by ex-RHCP electric guitar player Dave Navarro, who – along with the rest of his Jane’s Addiction bandmates – was present to perform a four-song set for the gig.

During proceedings, Froosh was invited onstage to join Navarro and the LA alt-rockers to perform Mountain Song – a cover, it turns out, that marked the first time the two guitarists had ever played together, despite their close friendship and RHCP ties.

In a new interview with Guitar World, Navarro reflects on the experience, and recalls how the impromptu performance came about.

“The time I played with John was the first time I'd ever played with him,” Navarro explains. “After all these years, and with me being in the Chili Peppers, I never got the opportunity to play with him.

“We were doing a benefit for a guy who lost his son – God rest his soul – and the Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction were playing.

“I called John immediately and said, 'Dude, you have to join us for a song. I'm not going to let you not play with us.' He was like, 'Yeah, I'd love to.' And that's how it happened.”

Navarro joined RHCP to fill the space left by Frusciante, after the band’s most decorated guitarist left in 1992. Following brief tryouts with guitarists Arik Marshall and Jesse Tobias, Navarro – who had left Jane’s Addiction at the time – was recruited. He recorded 1995’s One Hot Minute with the band, before departing in 1998. Frusciante rejoined that same year.

The two guitarists remained close over the years, with Navarro previously recalling how he once brought a Les Paul for Frusciante to play in rehab after his first departure from RHCP. Frusciante ended up selling the guitar to buy drugs, but years later, he apologized to Navarro by gifting him a replacement Gibson Les Paul.

Reflecting on the pair finally sharing the stage after such shared experiences, Navarro continues in his GW interview, “I was just floored to have him because he's one of my favorite guitar players, and he's a contemporary favorite.”

Expanding on what it’s like to play with such high-profile guest stars such as John Frusciante and Tom Morello – another player with whom Navarro jammed recently – the Jane’s Addiction member adds, “They're nothing but exciting because these guys are great, and I have love and respect.

“I know they're phenomenal guitar players, and it's fun for me to hear our songs with just a completely out-of-left-field take on the soloing. There's like a brotherhood and a unity among musicians. And with guitar players especially, that happens. It's really special.”

Read the full interview with Dave Navarro, in which he recalls how he stopped playing guitar for a year after the tragic death of Taylor Hawkins, and discusses his battle with Long Covid.

Former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer has been sued for wrongful death and negligence after allegedly running over and killing a pedestrian who was walking in a crosswalk in Alhambra, California. Ashley Sanchez, the daughter of 47-year-old victim Israel Sanchez, filed the lawsuit on Wednesday.

According to the lawsuit, the incident happened in the afternoon of March 18. The plaintiffs allege Klinghoffer was driving a black SUV with no license plates and made a left turn, striking Sanchez. 

A video presented by the plaintiffs shows a black car hitting a man during a turn and then pulling over. A still from the footage seems to show the driver holding an object, allegedly a cellphone, above the steering wheel. 

Furthermore, the video depicts a 40-foot-wide grassy median dividing the road in question, which the plantiffs argue should have given Klinghoffer enough time to spot any pedestrians in the crosswalk. The plaintiff party obtained the video footage from a neighbor's Ring camera. The lawsuit further states that no arrests have been made.

In a news release, Ashley Sanchez spoke of Israel Sanchez and how the incident impacted her family: “My dad was known for being a great chef, the most talented of his family, the greatest grandpa always full of love and joy. His smile was so infectious. His life was taken by a careless act of a person who didn’t bother to look where he was driving.”

Klinghoffer's attorney, Andrew Brettler, told TMZ: “It was a tragic accident. After Josh struck this pedestrian in the intersection, he immediately pulled over, stopped the car, called 911 and waited until police and the ambulance arrived. Obviously, he’s cooperating with the police throughout the traffic investigation. This was purely a tragic accident.”

The plaintiff's attorney, Nick Rowley, contested Brettler's use of the term “tragic accident”, stating: “Mr. Klinghoffer should be arrested and prosecuted for homicide. We have a video of him on his cell phone at the time he hit and killed Israel Sanchez, a loving father, in a crosswalk.

“Israel Sanchez was on his way to the grocery store to make soup for his family and never came home. He did everything right, looking for oncoming traffic and abiding by pedestrian signage, but tragically Mr. Klinghoffer, in a rush and on his phone, hit him fatally from behind with a large SUV. 

“The loss and grief that the Sanchez family now faces is immense. We will not stop until there is accountability and justice for Mr. Sanchez and his family.”

Alhambra Police spokesperson Sergeant Brian Chung hasn't responded to press queries, stating that the case remains active and no further comments can be provided at this time.

Klinghoffer himself hasn't commented on the lawsuit. He is currently on tour with Pearl Jam, after joining the band as a touring musician in 2021, and has previously performed with Eddie Vedder and Jane's Addiction. The guitarist was previously dismissed from the Chili Peppers in 2019, after former guitarist John Frusciante re-joined the band. 

Flea says he regrets destroying so many bass guitars in the ‘90s and ‘00s while playing with Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The funk rock giants have always propelled their shows with energy and intensity, and – back in the day– that often came with the odd trashed stage. It’s a habit that led to the death of many of Flea's instruments, including ones that played a fairly large part in the band’s history. 

Posting on X, Flea wrote: “[I] feel like such an idiot for smashing my bass to pieces on stage back in the day, pathetic.” Sean Lennon, son of John, appears to resonate with the sentiment, having replied with: “You’re in good company though.” 

It’s a sentiment that The Who’s Pete Townshend might not totally agree with, though – he often had to glue the guitars he smashed back together, just so he could play and smash them all over again.  

While rock ’n’ roll may forever associated with breaking musical instruments, it does come with its consequences, as shown in the clip below. 

One’s loss, however, is another’s gain. As found on Reddit, Flea’s exploits back in ‘99 meant a fan could take home a piece of rock ’n’ roll history home with them after a concert in, of all places, California.

“I have Flea’s main Modulus bass from 97-99 (smashed),” their post claims. “It was his main bass he used from 97-99. It died at the 1999 KROQ weenie roast [California festival] following a stage trashing after the encore. 

“[It was] one of two Modulus basses to die that night, the first was tossed into the crowd and later recovered. It was also used during the Californication recording sessions as well, this one is significant in the RHCP history.

“He killed probably 5-10 of these in this era,” the post continues. “Never a planned part of the show though. I HATE that he did this to these but if he didn’t this bass would be in a museum somewhere and not on my wall.”

"We work hard," wrote Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Michael ‘Flea’ Balzary in the liner notes of 2004's Greatest Hits album – a world away from the club-level act that his band had been two decades before. That hard work has led him to the position of Best Bassist in multiple Bass Player polls even though, as he tells us, he's nowhere near being the bassist that he really wants to be.

An Australian who moved to California as a kid and endured a tough childhood which you can read all about in his 2019 autobiography Acid For The Children, Flea – so nicknamed for his habit of leaping about on stage, like you didn't know that already – is probably his demographic's most visible bass player. He won his category in Bass Player's 100 greatest bassists poll by a significant margin, indicating that many of you reading this would agree with that assessment.

A founding member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea's reputation as a killer bass player had almost seen him lured away at one point. “John Lydon once made a great stab at poaching Flea for Public Image,” Anthony Kiedis reported in Bass Player. “And Malcolm McLaren tried to poach the whole band.” 

“He sat down with us, watched us rehearse, and then he said, ‘Okay, here's the plan, guys. We're going to simplify the music completely, so it's just basic, old- school, simple three-chord rock ’n’ roll, and we'll have Anthony be the focus of attention, and you guys will be the back-up band doing this surf-punk thing.’ At which point Flea keeled over and passed out. 

“It could have been what we had smoked – we were very dysfunctional at that point – but I think it was more what McLaren said.”

A jazz and punk-rock obsessive since his early days, Flea's bass parts are deft without being over-polished, fast without lacking heart, and infused with a hippie sensibility that is equal parts Larry Graham and Peter Hook. Nowhere is this more evident than on the Chili Peppers' 1991 album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

One of the high points of the album is the most obviously Chili Pepper-sounding song on it, the relentless Give It Away.

Nowadays the long-time RHCP fan will not be able to hear its opening salvo – a ringing, string-bent chord from John Frusciante plus Chad Smith's staccato snare – without punching the air. Like its big-rock-single contemporaries of the time – Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit and Metallica's Enter Sandman – Give It Away has been a club staple for so long that it inevitably evokes early-'90s emotions.

But there's a reason why Give It Away has become such a benchmark: it is, without a doubt, one of the catchiest singles to be released in the last few decades. Once heard, it sticks deep in the listener's ear and will not be removed. 

The core of this catchiness is twofold. Firstly, Flea's simple, elegant bassline – a simple upper-register slide with a three-note tail – is among his most effective work to date, taking the less-is-more philosophy which he had often spoken of on the BSSM album to an elevated level. Only on two or three occasions does he drop in one of the deft fills for which he had become famous, making the whole effort a masterclass in economy.

Secondly, Kiedis' vocal – the closest to a rap, rather than singing, that he comes on this record – hangs on a repeated boast of, “Give it away, give it away, give it away now,” all of which he enunciates perfectly in couple of seconds at most. It's a fantastic piece of vocal acrobatics and is all the more remarkable since Kiedis is not known for the speed or dexterity of his vocals, before or since.

The song made a profound impact. Kiedis later explained: “I was toy shopping in New York right before Christmas, and this little girl was tugging on her mom's coat, pointing at me and going, ‘That's him, that's him.’ And her mom came over and said, ‘Oh, I've just got to thank you, you've made my life so much easier.’ 

“She said the only way she could get her little girl dressed in the morning was to play our record and sing to her. And to me, the appreciation of a child is the ultimate compliment.”

As one of the founding members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea’s outrageous showmanship and superhuman thumb have made him the throbbing heart of the band’s musical mayhem. Flea has also immersed himself in studio sessions with everyone from Johnny Cash and Alanis Morissette to Thom Yorke and “wild-ass drum music” with original Peppers drummer Jack Irons.

Not content with playing bass guitar in one of the world's biggest rock bands, there are still a handful of musicians who Flea would love to collaborate with – if he could revive the dead, that is.

“The first band that I really loved was the Beatles,” he told Bass Player. “But if I was starting my own fantasy supergroup I would have Jimi Hendrix on guitar and Billie Holliday on vocals. I’d play bass and I’d have Tony Allen on drums. I would want to play some trumpet as well, so I wouldn't pick Clifford Brown because he would hog the stage!”

At this point, Flea picked out the music that he would hope to accompany him if he was castaway on a desert island. Flea named the Beatles among his pick of desert island discs. “The White Album was the first thing that I connected with as a kid, but if I could only listen to five albums for the rest of my life? I would also take Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, (GI) by the Germs, Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division and The Clifford Brown and Max Roach Quintet Recordings.”

With an early grounding in jazz, Flea was introduced to rock music via a chance meeting with local guitarist, Hillel Slovak. “I met Hillel when I was 17. He played me some Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin records, and I started really getting into rock music. I took up the bass guitar and joined his band.”

Flea's musical influences continued to evolve as he merged his love of jazz with his new found appreciation for classic rock. “In the beginning I got really into prog rock. I was listening to Bill Bruford's One of a Kind, Weather Report, Allan Holdsworth, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, and The Tony Williams Lifetime. Coming from jazz as a kid, I could really relate to the virtuosity of that music.”

The final phase that preceded the Red Hot Chili Peppers came with the arrival of punk rock. “Punk rock was a huge awakening for me. It was almost like a spiritual awakening. It dawned on me that if you just played one chord, but with the right intent, it could be as emotionally powerful as the greatest John Coltrane solo. That’s when the concept of the Red Hot Chili Peppers was born.”

With six Grammy Awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 13 studio albums, countless platinum certifications and sold-out world tours, the Red Hot Chili Peppers remain one of the most influential acts in music history. And while Flea admits that much has changed since their rise to fame in the late ‘80s, he's optimistic about the future.

“I've noticed that young people are starting to think more for themselves. It's like they're plumbing music history and finding what they really love, as opposed to getting the latest corporate release rammed down their throat by MTV. There's a bigger sense of camaraderie, which fosters a lot of creativity among kids. There's potential for great things to happen.”

Despite his renewed optimism, Flea’s fundamental approach to making music hasn't changed. “For me, music has always been about reaching for that thing that feels beautiful. It's always been about what feels good, and how my body reacts to that. I’m just devoting myself to being the best musician that I can be.”

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have revealed that John Frusciante has broken a finger, which forced them to cancel a KROQ performance in California earlier this month.

RHCP were scheduled to perform at KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas concert at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, with the injury causing the LA funk rockers to withdraw, but the extent of the injury, and which member was out of action, hadn’t been revealed until the event began.

The announcement came via a video, recorded by Kiedis as he sung his apology a capella, which was played on screens throughout the venue at the KROQ Christmas bash. The band will now play KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas Encore, which takes place March 2 at Kia Forum, meaning their return to the KROQ sphere, which Kiedis says “has always rocked”, isn’t too far away.

It’s a fate every guitarist fears, and while it hasn’t been revealed how the 53-year-old sustained the injury, the revelation follows news in early December that the band would be sidelined for six weeks due to a band member’s injury.

Frusciante, a key player in the group’s success, rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers in December 2019 after 10 years away. Since returning to the band he first joined at age 18, they have released two albums, with Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen both arriving in 2022.

The band returns to the road on February 17 at The Venue, Lincoln, California, with dates following across North America.

John Frusciante is one of the most prominent Fender Stratocaster players on the planet and, accordingly, he’s had a few over the years.

His most iconic Strat remains, of course, his sunburst 1962 model, which was purchased by Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis when the guitarist rejoined the band in 1998.

But Froosh has had a string of other vintage squeezes over the years, including a stunning ’61 Olympic White Stratocaster, which found fame during the band’s 2006/2007 Stadium Arcadium tour. During this time, the guitar also made its way into the hands of Josh Klinghoffer, who was then a member of the group’s touring lineup, preparing to take over guitar duties full-time after Frusciante departed in 2009.

Yet when the Stadium Arcadium tour – and Frusciante’s tenure with the band – came to an end in August 2007, the Strat wouldn’t stay in the departing guitar hero’s rack for long.

Instead, it found its way into the hands of IRONTOM and AWOLNATION guitarist Zach Irons, son of original Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons, who revealed how he came to own the vintage Strat in a new interview with Guitar World.

“I first met John in 2009 or 2010, when I would go to his place and learn songs. He would teach me things, and at the time, I was only 16 or 17, so it was amazing,” Irons recalls.

“One day, I went over there – and I’m such a fan of his, which I’m open about – and I was talking to him about guitars. I’d ask, ‘What did you use on this song,’ and pick his brain.”

Irons couldn’t see any of the guitars they were discussing around the house, so he asked his mentor where they were hiding – only for the Chili Pepper to wonder himself.

“John was like, ‘I don’t know…’ and asked his assistant, ‘Hey, where are my guitars?’” Irons continues. “And the assistant says, ‘Oh, they’re in the backroom, and I said, ‘Can I pull some out?’ So, we pulled a few out – the ’61 Strat was one, and I loved it immediately. Eventually, John said, ‘I want you to take that guitar with you – it's yours.’ It was an amazing thing.”

Frusciante clearly saw something in Irons’ abilities, and believed his ’61 Strat would bring out the best in the young player. The Red Hot Chili Pepper made the right call, as he would go on to share his admiration for Irons when he named his favorite modern-day guitar players in an interview with Total Guitar last year.

“Zach Irons is a very creative, unorthodox guitarist,” Frusciante said. “He’s always finding new ways to approach it: hand techniques I’ve never seen and ways of using effects unique to him. He is so deeply rooted in the essence of rock guitar playing that he’s finding ways of retaining that feeling while completely changing the role of the instrument.”

The respect between the two players is mutual: Irons is a huge admirer of Frusciante’s work with the Chili Peppers and beyond. But as he reveals, that wasn’t always the case.

“At the time in my life when John gave [the Strat] to me, I was so malleable; my brain was a sponge,” he recalls. “I looked up to John so much, which is interesting because initially, I wasn’t really a fan of his playing. I was more into flashy stuff, like Eddie Van Halen, when I was a kid.

“That changed after seeing John at the Troubadour before Stadium Arcadium came out. He actually played my ’61 Strat that night, and I could see how amazing he was. I always thought, ‘If there was one guitar I’d want of his, that would be it,’ and it's the one that ended up being mine.”

Being a left-handed player, Irons had to make a few tweaks to make the guitar playable: reversing the nut and saddles, and removing the control knobs to prevent accidental adjustment (thanks, GroundGuitar).

For sentimental reasons, however, Irons doesn’t bring the ’61 out on tour; instead, he uses an ’81 Fullerton reissue onstage with IRONTOM and AWOLNATION, which he claims is “close to those sick guitars from the ’60s”.

Frusciante also shaped Irons’ pedalboard, in particular his choice of wah pedal.

“Because of John, I love the Ibanez WH10,” Irons explains. “He influenced me, and I couldn’t escape using his gear. I would want to do my own thing on principle; I don’t want to do everything he does, but he paved the way there.

“I’ve tried other wah pedals, and I hate them. The Ibanez is a staple of John’s sound, and I can’t get away from it. I had a pre-Reverb.com obsession with finding them, because they used to be very hard to find and super-expensive.”

Read our full interview for more from Irons, including what it was like to get Led Zeppelin guitar lessons from Frusciante and what made him finally come round to digital guitar tones.

And for more info on Frusciante’s current Strats, have a read of our in-depth 2022 interview with the RHCP guitar icon.

Halestorm saw their international profile receive a shot in the arm back in 2012, when they scored a Best Hard Rock/Metal Grammy for their song Love Bites (So Do I). On the strength of the group’s latest album, Back From The Dead, the Pennsylvania rock quartet were also well-positioned to score a 2023 Heavy Music Award for Best International Artist.

Their success is at least partly due to the range of influences that go into their sound. In Smith’s case, his music education included all the greats: “You’ll notice a pattern in this list, because all my favorite bass players are composers and play melodic bass parts,” he told BP. “If you ever find yourself humming along to a tasty bassline, there’s a chance that it’s by one of these guys.”

Far from being just another headbanger, Smith could never be called an ego-fuelled rock star. He’s pretty much the opposite – ever-friendly and in awe of his heroes. We asked him to reveal his bass guitar influences in a fistful of albums.

1. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)

“I was only eight years old when this album came out. It was three years before I even picked up a bass, and I didn’t care to explain why I loved Blood Sugar Sex Magik, I just did. Flea was clearly put on this earth to speak the language of music. His attention to groove and melody is something I fell in love with when I was a kid, and since then I have enjoyed his style and tone in every single song he has gone on to create.”

2. Tower of Power – Tower Of Power (1973)

“My dad introduced me to Tower Of Power at a young age. As I became more involved in jazz through lessons and school, my appreciation of them continued to grow. Every year they would play at a local theatre near to where I lived, and my dad would take my brothers and I. Rocco Prestia and the band never disappointed me. Listen to the opening track, What is Hip? – it’s airtight. Rocco could probably have held that 16-note pattern in his sleep.”

3. Parliament – Up For The Downstroke (1974)

“Bootsy’s attack is so punchy and aggressive. It doesn’t sound like he plucked the strings with his fingers, but more like he grabbed and pulled each note equally and deliberately. His tone has a sharp set of teeth. The entire P-Funk catalog is a music lesson, but the first song that was introduced to me, and still an all-time favourite, is Parliament’s Up For The Down Stroke.”

4. Jackson 5 – Third Album (1970)

“James Jamerson was a critical player when it came to creating the Motown sound. I don’t know if he played every song on Third Album, but he did perform on the last song, Darling Dear, and this track has always stood out for me. James lays down a constant, cascading flow of melody, and what’s more, he does it with one finger, the hook.”

5. The Beatles – Abbey Road (1969)

“Just as so many people before me did, I grew up listening to, and loving, The Beatles. Paul McCartney wrote and performed some of my all time favourite songs on Abbey Road. He created beautiful melodies to accompany some of the most influential, and well-known songs of all time. Let’s not forget his voice, which is a unique and wonderful instrument in its own right.”

Back From the Dead is available to buy and stream.

You know the drill. Ask a seasoned musician if they have any regrets about their career and they’ll say they ‘wouldn't change a thing’. Not so, in the case of Flea. The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist was recently interviewed by the LA Times and revealed that he’s previously discussed re-recording the band’s first album.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ self-titled debut was released in 1984, but now – speaking to the paper’s music critic, Mikael Wood – the bass player says he wishes he could revisit the material.

“I always regret the way we made the first one,” says Flea. “I think the songs are really good. Our band was smoking at the time. But [drummer] Jack [Irons] and [guitarist] Hillel [Slovak] quit, and we hired these two other guys: Jack Sherman and Cliff Martinez.

“Both were great musicians, but the connection just wasn’t as profound as we had with the guys we started with. I’ve often wanted to go back and re-record that album, but I can never talk anyone into it.”

Flea has also previously said he wanted to “go back and fix” a track on 1995’s One Hot Minute. However, RHCP’s debut album celebrates its 40th anniversary next year, so this is probably his best window to convince his current bandmates to jump on some new sessions – particularly given the band rehearsed material from their earliest releases when John Frusciante returned to the group last year.

When it comes to Flea’s past bandmates, the aforementioned drummer, Martinez, has nonetheless enjoyed a fruitful career in music, breaking into film music in the 1990s and contributing to the scores of Drive, Traffic and The Lincoln Lawyer. Guitarist Sherman, meanwhile, later worked with Bob Dylan and George Clinton, among others, before he passed away in 2020.

Elsewhere in the interview, Flea discusses current RHCP guitarist John Frusciante’s performance on the current tour, having previously expressed concerns about how he would handle adjusting to the band’s sizeable tour schedule.

“[It’s been] really good,” says Flea. “Each gig is like a sacred thing for him. In true John fashion, he practices for like five hours before every show – Blow By Blow by Jeff Beck on, playing every single solo, warming his fingers up.”

The guitarist has never been a slouch when it comes to practicing. Indeed, if anything, he goes too far – a motivation that was evidenced when Frusciante’s guitar teacher told him he wasn’t good enough, so he started learning Steve Vai licks.

John Frusciante is widely hailed as one of the finest players of his generation, but his path to guitar greatness was far from straightforward.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers stalwart has been candid about his desire to impress early on in his career – best encapsulated in recently unearthed footage of him shredding like a hair-metal guitar hero at the age of 17  – before settling into a more comfortable, band-positive role for RHCP’s 1991 masterpiece, Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

Now, in a new interview for bandmate Flea’s This Little Light podcast, Frusciante has opened up about why he once prioritized melting faces rather than hearts. And it all stems from a negative comment from a former guitar teacher.

At the age of 16, Frusciante had reached a crossroads. He was trying to combine two schools of thought in his playing: the textural guitar style of players like Adrian Belew and Andy Summers, and the flasher, speedier techniques pioneered by Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads. Ultimately, he couldn’t decide what kind of guitar player he wanted to be.

In the search for his identity, he took lessons from a guitar teacher his mom met in a health food store. We say ‘lessons’, but it ended up being a singular encounter, after their first meeting ended in disappointment.

Frusciante began the lesson by showing the tutor a series of recordings he’d made at home on his Fostex X-15 four-track, inspired by Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp. “I was playing in the way that I should have been,” Frusciante recalls. “I was on the right path.” But that was about to change.

“This guy, he said, ‘Let me see you play a blue scale as fast as you can,’” Frusciante tells Flea. “And I played a blue scale as fast as I could, and he's like, ‘That's not fast. You're not a good guitarist.’

“He said, ‘You know that noise you're making on your recording is OK, but if you can't play a fast blue scale, you can’t go around telling people you're a good guitarist.”

The effect on Frusciante was devastating. “I never went to this guy again,” he says. “The feeling of being told that I wasn't a good guitar player was about the worst feeling I could imagine, and I was just gonna make sure that no-one was going to say that to me again.”

During the lesson, Froosh’s soon-to-be-ex-teacher cited Tommy Bolin and Steve Vai as examples of ‘good’ guitarists, lending him Vai’s 1984 debut album, Flex-Able. Frusciante never returned the record, and devoured the virtuoso’s playing style – both solo and with Frank Zappa – to make himself bulletproof to criticism.

“It [Vai’s guitar playing] became my benchmark,” Frusciante says. “I’d already started to get into some of Frank Zappa’s music, but I knew that Steve Vai had been in Frank Zappa’s band playing guitar. It was around that time Frank Zappa and Steve Vai just became my favorite thing. I think I’m about 16 by this point. And I just started learning every complicated Frank Zappa piece of instrumental music that he’d written.”

This put Frusciante on what he sees as the wrong path: prioritizing blinding scales over his natural expression as a player.

“I told him [the teacher], ‘I can’t figure out whether to be a textural guitarist or a flashy guitarist,’” Froosch recalls. “He said, ‘Of course flashy guitar player, because flashy guitar players can do whatever they want, but the textural guitar player can’t do what a flashy guitar player does.’ And that was his logic – I suppose on some level I saw the logic of what he was saying, but at the same time, I saw that different people have different things to say.”

With hindsight, the guitarist was able to look back at these events and reflect on how different players have different approaches – and that there is no such thing as a ‘bad’ guitar player, as long as they are being true to themselves.

“I saw somebody ask Steve Vai recently: what did he think of Kurt Cobain’s guitar playing, and it was a great answer. He said, ‘Kurt Cobain knew exactly enough to be able to say what he wanted to say.’” Frusciante continues.

“One person has ‘this’ to say, and another person has ‘that’ to say. For Al Di Meola to say what he had to say, he had to be able to pick every note really fast. But for Robert Johnson to say what he had to say, it had nothing in common with that kind of technique at all.

“I knew that what mattered was that you were feeling something and saying something. And so while I always was interested to hear different people’s perspectives, I did always know that that had to be the center.”

While that lesson was the last Frusciante would ever take – and initially dented his creativity, as his woodshedding put a halt to his songwriting efforts – the story ultimately had a happy ending. Not least when he relayed the tale to Vai himself.

“I actually told Steve Vai that story about five years or so ago, and he made me feel so good about it,” he beams. “He told me a story about a music teacher that he had who fucked up his brain for a while. Oh man, I can’t tell you how good it was to have Steve Vai sympathize with my position in that.”

To bring the whole story full circle, Vai himself is a fan of Frusciante’s playing – in particular, his take on Zappa’s material.

Last year, Vai told Guitar World, “John has always been an MVP in any band he performs with. He always writes the perfect part, and his passion for vintage recording gear captures his tone magnificently. 

“Perhaps one of my favorite performances by him is an obscure one, Inca Roads by Frank Zappa, performed solo live. Anyone who can play it is a Jedi boss! I never had to play that part when I was with Frank, thank goodness.”

For more wisdom from Frusciante and how he found his voice on guitar, check out his 7 tips that will make you a better guitarist.

Whether One Hot Minute was a disappointment or a criminally overlooked album in the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s arsenal is up for debate. Many consider it to be one of their weaker efforts, but it certainly yielded some great songs. The addition of ex-Janes Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro brought a heavier slant to the group’s sound, with borderline metal moments on Warped and Coffee Shop.

"Actually, Aeroplane was the only song I was worried about,” said Flea in his 1996 Bass Player cover story. "I thought it sounded like another stupid white boy trying to be funky! When I played it live in the studio, the bass didn't record right, so it was one of the few things I had to overdub. I put it out anyway, but it's the one thing I'd go back and fix. The part kept feeling stiff to me, as if it wasn't my day. I wanted to redo it, but Rick Rubin said it was cool."

Don't let Flea's humbleness fool you. Aeroplane has to be one of the funkiest use of slapped octaves ever. The bassline in the verse isn’t as flashy as Flea’s earlier slap style, but his wiry tone and heavy thumb perfectly illustrates his commanding-yet-essential approach, while the fingerstyle line in the chorus, with its huge slides and groovy fills, weaves effortlessly in and out of the vocal melody. And there’s an awesome bass solo to boot. Weak effort? We think not.

The following interview is from the February 1996 issue of Bass Player. During a two-week break from the Chili Pepper's gruelling tour schedule, Flea took some time to explain why he's fallen back in love with his instrument, how not to be a player who's "all flash and no smash," and how practicing Transcendental Meditation helped him to become a better musician.

There are a bunch of different styles mixed together in the bassline of Aeroplane. How did you come up with the slap part in the verses?

"I was sitting in my garage with a bass guitar Louis Johnson gave me – a Treker Louis Johnson Signature 4-string – and I started playing that '70s funk line. The bass had light strings on it and had that whacka-whackita sound. It's kind of a ‘been done’ groove, but it's nice and Anthony liked it. The chorus part was one of those things where we were stuck; sometimes when we're looking for another part, I'll have no idea what I'm going to do, but I'll say, 'What about this?'"

Compared to the full-bore thumbwork of early Chili Peppers records, your parts on Blood Sugar Sex Magik showcased a more stripped-down approach. On One Hot Minute, did you try to combine elements of both?

"I was trying to play simply on Blood Sugar because I had been playing too much prior to that, so I thought, I've really got to chill out and play half as many notes. I think my playing on One Hot Minute is even more simple; I thrashed through the recording and didn't care about the parts being perfect. It's not that I don't love the bass passionately anymore – I just felt I'd been getting too many accolades for being Joe Bass Player."

Some might argue that this record is one of your stronger bass efforts.

"Really? Maybe not thinking about it made me play better. I definitely left lots of mistakes on there, and I can't even think of anything I played that was complex; even the slapping stuff is simple. It's original-sounding, and I'm proud of that, but what I played was more a matter of aesthetic choice. On the other hand, I guess Giant Steps was simple to John Coltrane, because it was him playing it. It's easy if you can do it!" 

Coffee Shop is chock full of bass stuff, including a solo.

"It's funny – Coffee Shop would never have been a song if it weren't for this effect called the Electro-Harmonix BassBalls. I started playing with it one morning in Hawaii, and it had the most amazing underwater, Bootsy kind of sound – and it also had this siren effect going on. But when we got to L.A. to start recording, the box never made the sound again. I got so mad, I crushed it! I almost didn't even want to record the song, because to me, it was all about that bass sound. I ended up using a Boss Dynamic Filter on the record."

In the solo, it sounds as if you're ripping the strings off the fingerboard.

"We didn't know what to do at the end, so I said, 'I'll solo.' I played the track once, and I wanted to fix it later because I thought it sucked, but I never did."

Pea, your bass-and-vocals solo piece, features an acoustic bass guitar.

"Yeah – it's a Sigma acoustic bass guitar. There's not much to say about Pea. I mean, it's just a song I wrote."

Are you catching any flack for it?

"Because I say, 'Homophobic redneck dick'? I did get some shit for it, but fuck those people! We had to put out a version of the album for Wal-Mart without that song."

Did that upset you at all?

"No. If someone says, 'I'm not going to buy your record, but I'll buy these songs,' then okay – buy those songs. I'd rather they hear it all, but to hell with my ego."

The ending of One Big Mob has a heavy feel.

"That song was actually part of a 12-minute movement. The end was the intro to another song called Stretch You Out, which is more of a funk thing, but we didn't put it on the record. It's too bad, because bass players would probably like that tune more than any other song on the album. I think we'll put it out as a B-side."

Walkabout is built around the bass, especially the verses.

"I had gone to see the Spike Lee movie Crooklyn, which has this cool '70s funk soundtrack. I came home, picked up my bass, and started playing that verse line. I wrote the intro at rehearsal – it was another of those 'What about this?' things."

Transcending centres around a twisted b7 bass riff.

"I play the root and the b7, which ring at the same time, and then I play the 4th and bend it up while I keep plucking. I wrote that part on my acoustic bass guitar while I was sitting on the beach in Hawaii."

How did you get that ultra-slimy sound on Falling Into Grace?

"It's the BassBalls, the Boss Dynamic Filter, and maybe a Boss Auto Wah, too. I had all three hooked up, but I may have used only two of them."

How do you think One Hot Minute differs from Blood Sugar Sex Magik?

"There are two big differences. First, I was in a different place emotionally for this record. I was coming out of a two-year period of misery, when I was down emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Second, Dave Navarro is intensely different from John Frusciante. Dave is really into the studio; he would spend weeks on every song, put something like 15 tracks of guitar on every tune, and weed through it in the mix. Dave's sound is more layered and 'effecty' than John's, which was like, boom – play it dry and leave it alone."

So the contrast between your styles created the album's textured sound?

"The contrast made a big difference. John was a huge fan of the band when he joined, so it wasn't a big change for us. He did come into his own aesthetic as time went on, and he had a huge amount to do with the sound of the band, but Dave's coming from his own trip – the Jane's Addiction thing in particular, which was very different from the Chili Peppers."

Did adjusting to yet another guitar player affect the feel?

"We were playing something new, and it was exciting – but on the negative side, we'd never toured together. The record is what it is, though: a document of that time. It has good energy, the grooves are good, and the music is good. I'm happy with the way I played, but I'm already onto another groove."

The band's jams seem to be stretching out into new areas.

"To me, this is the least jam-oriented record we've made. I mean, we definitely jammed on the ideas, but there's only one groove on the whole album that came from a jam, Deep Kick. The rest of it came from sitting down with a guitar or bass and saying, 'Check this out, guys.' I wrote almost all of the music on the record."

So you've expanded beyond writing only grooves?

"I've always had a major hand in writing, but on some of the One Hot Minute songs, I wrote the chords and the melody and most of the words. I wrote a lot of the lyrics on Deep Kick and Transcending, for example."

Did you put the songs together on a 4-track?

"I've got one, but mostly I'd play acoustic guitar and come up with the chords and melody, and Dave would take my simple guitar part and play it in his magical Navarro way. Or, I would have a bassline, and Dave would think of a guitar part to go with it."

When did you start learning to play guitar?

"I started a couple of months before we began making this record. Rick Rubin gave me a Martin acoustic, and I bought a Neil Young songbook to learn chords. Playing guitar has definitely helped me as a songwriter; instead of thinking in terms of basslines and grooves, which is an amazing way to think, I now think about chord progressions and melodies. It's another musical dimension for me."

One Hot Minute is available to buy or stream

Last week, Justin Hawkins invited What Makes This Song Stink mastermind Pat Finnerty onto his podcast, Justin Hawkins Rides Again, for an episode titled How NOT to Write a Song.

The two-hour conversation was, to say the least, incredibly comprehensive, and out of the numerous lines of thought-provoking discussion the pair pursued, one in particular stood out: namely, whether John Frusciante is an overrated guitar player.

In the episode, Hawkins addressed his historical criticisms of the electric guitar star, and explained why he believes the Red Hot Chili Pepper isn’t as good as people make him out to be.

During the conversation, Hawkins asked, “Why are the Red Hot Chili Peppers fans so sensitive? The videos that we do on them receive a lot of ‘critique’ from RHCP fans.

“My issue with Red Hot Chili Peppers is that I get nothing from John Frusciante’s guitar playing,” he added. “I feel like if we can call Mark Knopfler an underrated player, I would describe John Frusciante as an overrated player. In fact, I have done that, more than once.

“It’s always like, ‘You’re jealous because he sold more records than you have.’ And it’s like, well, Mark Knopfler has sold a lot more, more, more records than me, and I’m not jealous of him. I love his guitar playing. So that argument doesn’t really hold any water.”

Finnerty was in agreement: “I don't know why [Frusciante] is so revered. I feel like whoever’s listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers only listens to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”

As for what the pair didn’t like about Frusciante’s playing, criticism centered around his lead style and the feeling – or lack thereof – that Froosh puts into his solos. “He doesn’t give me any of the… [plays a single note vibrato],” Hawkins demonstrated. “He goes like this… [plays a single note without vibrato].

“Somebody said to me it’s deliberately minimalist,” he went on. “Maybe it’s like that thing where you become a super-accomplished painter and start doing some naive child-like daubings, and that’s your phase. I think that might have been one of the things he was exploring, but it doesn’t stop it from being shit.”

Finnerty echoed this observation, drawing attention to the “dinky” solo found in Californication as evidence of Froosh’s shortcomings as a soloist.

Despite the critique, Hawkins did reserve some praise for Froosh, complimenting him on both his tone and choice of guitars. The mention of Frusciante’s guitar collection, though, sent Hawkins down a different train of thought – one that took an unexpected aim at PRS.

During his praise of Frusciante’s Stratocaster ways, Hawkins launched a not-so-subtle dig at John Mayer, saying, “I’m not a fan of a very, very popular guitar player who has his own [PRS model], which I think is a guitar that no rock ‘n’ roller should ever play.

“You and I probably would recognize some Knopler influence in a lot of the choices they make,” he said to Finnerty, “but they do so on a PR… on a particular type of guitar which I personally don’t think any good rock ‘n’ roll has ever been played on, because no rock ‘n’ roller would ever play that guitar.

“It’s too polite, it’s too easy. There’s no friction between the meat part and the wood part. It’s all so beautifully luthier’d that it’s just like playing butter. I don’t want to pay good money to see somebody playing butter, I want to see somebody struggling with a [Les] Paul.”

Hawkins' podcast isn't unaccustomed to hot guitar takes. In an earlier episode, the guitarist singled out prog virtuoso Plini and labeled him “a bit boring”.

“It takes a lot of colours to make a rainbow,” said Mike Watt in his 1995 Bass Player cover story. “There are guys who play 7-string basses, there are guys who play 3-string basses, and I even met someone once who played a 1-string. I love the idea of people stretching the stereotype – to me, the more of that, the better. I think for every 7-string bass they should make a 1-string!”

Watt is a dyed-in-the-wool bass guitar legend to many. “Mike's innovative, melodic and hardcore, all at the same time," said Flea, who dedicated the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s mega-selling album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, to Watt back in 1991. “He can also play the simplest thing in the world and imply that he can play anything. He’s one of the greatest bass players ever.” 

The Virginia-born 65-year-old grew out of Southern California's late-'70s punk-rock scene, co-founding the seminal post-punk outfit the Minutemen with guitarist D. Boon and drummer George Hurley. In 1985, D. Boon died in a car crash. As part of a slow and painful healing, Watt and Hurley joined guitarist Ed Crawford, and alt rock band fIREHOSE was born. Watt toured almost constantly, taking time out to record two bass-duet albums, Dos and Numero Dos, with ex-Black Flag bassist Kira Roessler, to whom he was once married.

In 1994, fIREHOSE decided to call it quits. "It got kind of cruise-control," says Mike, "and I had never been in that situation before. Music was always very vital to me." Undaunted, Watt put together Ball-Hog or Tugboat?, an ambitious 17-song project with nearly 50 alternative-music guests, including such heavies as Flea, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, and Nirvana's Krist Novaselic and Dave Grohl. Described by one writer as a “publicist’s wet dream," Ball-Hog was almost universally lauded by fans and critics alike.

The concept was simple yet profound: “I called it a wrestling record, so people wouldn't know what to expect,” said Watt. “It's the same reason I say I'm a punk bassist: so people won't call me a reggae or a ska player. I'm free to define myself. People wonder why I call myself a punk – a punk is someone who gets fucked in jail for cigarettes! But if you're a punk, you can play anything you want.”

This interview is from the September 1995 issue of Bass Player, and follows the release of Mike’s debut solo album, Ball-Hog or Tugboat?

Tell us about the recording of Ball Hog or Tug Boat?

“I made the record in two days in Seattle, eight days in L.A., and two days in New York. For the Seattle and New York sessions, there were no rehearsals; I just played the bass lick I had written, or I gave the other musicians a cassette of my little version. At least half of the people heard the lick for the first time on the spot – especially the Seattle players. Basically, I just laid out the bassline and went through it a few times, and then we went for it.” 

How did you come up with the wrestling concept?

“After the last fIREHOSE gig I was thinking; ‘Well, what now?' The idea of a bass solo record seemed kind of anal, so I invented the wrestling idea so people wouldn't know what to expect. I was really scared to do it at first. This was the first time I’d done something without a real band, but I figured if I had my parts down then it would work. When the record was done, I noticed that it sounded like 17 different bands and one bass player who wouldn't get off the stage!" 

Do you think people’s perception of the bass guitar has changed?

"Where I come from, bass was always where you put the lame guy, but nowadays, a lot of kids decide this is what they want to play right off the bat. I'm sure back in the '60s a lot of people thought of the bass as a kind of toy, almost like a kazoo. We had to fight and earn the bass some respect, but it's come around – and it's still coming around, more and more. On the other hand, there's something cool about people not really knowing what we do: we're left free to define ourselves."

Do you ever play a 5-string bass?

“I play with my left-hand thumb a lot, and I can't even wrap my hand around one of those wide-o necks. I once had to play Norwood Fisher's 5-string, and I couldn't do it, even after he'd taken off the B string for me – although that was probably incompetence on my part. I guess there's something neat about that B string, if you're in a little club and people can actually hear it."

Do you have a practice routine?

“You know how bass is – if you don't play with a drummer for a while, you just lose it. You play too soft. To stay in practice, I used to get together with these two guys each morning, and we'd play Madonna songs. We called ourselves the Madonnabes. I used a semi-hollow Gibson Les Paul Signature bass; it's acoustic, so you can feed back with it, which is righteous. I don't use feedback for going over the top, like Hendrix – I just use it for sustain and for swells. I even got Les Paul to sign that bass; he was playing in a little club in Torrance, and I brought him the bass during soundcheck. He wrote on it, 'Keep on pickin' – and I can't play with a pick, so I guess the joke is on me!"

Have you been working on any other side projects?

“Flea, Les Claypool, and I have this idea of doing a project where we'd interpret all of ZZ Top's Tres Hombres on three basses. There would probably be a lot of hype built around it, but we'd like it just to come out. That's one of the reasons why I did this wrestling record. I just wanted it to come out of left field, so there wouldn't be all this hype. That's one thing I told the people at the label: you can't foul this; it's a personal project, and it should be treated with respect. Some of these guys will never get to make another Columbia record, and in a way I don't think Columbia will ever get to make a record like this again.”

What do you miss most about the punk scene?

“I miss a lot of the chaos of the old days. Back then, you never knew what the next band was going to sound like. Almost anything went, and it wasn't about haircuts or guitar styles. I first tried music when I was 12. I started hanging out with D. Boon in the San Pedro projects, and his mom wanted to get us to start playing music – probably just to keep us off the streets. So after school, we'd go to his place and try to figure out parts off records – Creedence, stuff like that – using his guitar. Basically, if the band was easy enough to copy off the record, we liked 'em!"

What do you remember about your early gigs?

"The only gigs we could play were keggers in people's backyards, where you'd play Great White Buffalo or something for 20 minutes. We also played a couple city-sponsored gigs out on the jetty. We'd be playing Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper songs, and people would throw so much shit at us. See, we didn't know we were supposed to tune with each other. And the singer would be doing this Alice Cooper/Kiss act, bleeding out of the mouth and everything.”

What was it like touring with the Minutemen?

"By the time we got the Minutemen going, hardcore was already on the scene, so the audiences were very conservative – little kids spitting on you and stuff. In those days we'd make a record every six months, because our records were like our flyers. We didn't tour to promote records – we made records to promote our tours. And some of those records were incredibly cheap to make: we made Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat for $50, live to 2-track, and we made our best record, Double Nickels on the Dime, for $1,100. For that one, we mixed 45 songs in one night."

"In a way, the fact that Pedro was culturally redneck helped me, because it was like being in a Thermos bottle. I'd see bands move to Hollywood, and suddenly they couldn't write songs anymore. There's something about real-life experience that helps you in terms of coming up with ideas. Sometimes it's good to be up against the wall, where you need to make the most out of what you have.”

This issue first appeared in the September 1995 issue of Bass Player. Ball-Hog or Tugboat? is available to buy or stream. 

Former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer has been sharing his opinion on the band’s recent recordings with John Frusciante, stating that he thinks that the group was making “cooler music” when he was in the lineup. 

“I had to listen to the new albums. I couldn’t let myself [not],” admits Klinghoffer, in a new interview with Brazilian podcast 5 Notas. “I was hearing little things about them. I don’t think I finished the second one. [2022’s Return Of The Dream Canteen]. I was trying to cram it in once before leaving on a plane, and I got as far as maybe the ninth song. I don’t think I listened to the rest.”

In addition, Klinghoffer discussed working with the group on new music prior to his 2019 departure when he was asked how he felt hearing the material RHCP released last year.

“It’s tough,” says Klinghoffer [around 33.12], in slight hesitation. “Because I honestly think we were doing cooler music. I would love for it to have been finished... I never want to sound negative about anyone doing music, but I honestly feel like I was shocked when I heard their new record.”

The comments are tempered elsewhere in the interview by Klinghoffer’s acknowledgement that he still loves and admires Frusciante – he also recalls fond times working with the RHCP man on solo material and in his and Flea’s Joy Division tribute band.

Later, Klinghoffer is asked about the prospects of working with Frusciante again, but seems (understandably) unsure about rekindling their relationship.

“I wouldn’t say there’s no chance,” offers Klinghoffer. “Even if we don’t talk much in the process, I feel like it would be fun to play some of those songs again or play them live.

“We don’t talk much these days but I've always maintained that I still have an enormous love for him, you know? He's one of my favorite musicians, one of my favorite writers, um, so you know, like… I’m not against the idea.”

Klinghoffer has previously described his time with RHCP as “enormously stifling creatively” and he has not been idle since leaving RHCP, having spent time touring with fellow rock veterans Pearl Jam and, more recently, Jane’s Addiction.

However, despite his heavyweight rock resumé, Klinghoffer told Guitar World last year, “I’ve never lost this sense that I’m a beginner.”

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has launched a new podcast focussing on music education and the creative process. Titled This Little Light, the 15-part series explores the influences and teachers that inspired some of Flea’s own musical heroes. The first announced guests include Rick Rubin, Patti Smith, Thundercat, Stewart Copeland, Margo Price, and Cynthia Erivo.

“I wanted to do This Little Light to benefit my music school, the Silverlake Conservatory of Music,” Flea said in a statement. “The idea behind it being music education, falling in love with music and embarking on a musical journey for your life. Everybody’s path is so different, and it’s fascinating to learn how every musician came to music and developed their study of it over time.”

The series looks like it will go into some depth, with Flea quizzing his guests about the teachers who guided them, and how the lessons they learned as young musicians have shaped their careers. A portion of the proceeds from the podcast will also go towards the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a non-profit organisation that Flea founded in 2001.

“The reason I started doing this podcast was to benefit the school, but specifically it’s about music education,” says Flea. “I meet so many musicians, from someone who doesn’t even know what a scale is to someone who plays with a philharmonic orchestra. Everybody has a different educational path, and every single one of them is fascinating to me.”

There’s currently a lot to look forward to for Flea fans. In addition to the podcast, the Red Hot Chili Peppers kick off a world tour in support of their most recent albums, Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen. The North American leg will run from March 29 through May 25, while a European tour will take place in June and July.

This Little Light, a production of Cadence13 and Parallel, is available for free. 

Having made a lasting impression on the world of retro-funk bass guitar with his band Vulfpeck, Joe Dart has been further channeling his bass playing prowess as a teacher, via the group’s new educational platform, Vulf Conservatory.

In an 11-minute preview of his new bass guitar course, Dart dissects his core slap technique, breaks down one of Flea’s slap-happy bass grooves, and explains why we all have Will Smith to thank for bringing the technique back in the 1990s.

“Flea would be playing very percussive, and a lot of dead notes,” says Dart. “So I really learned how to hit the strings without making any notes ring out. He was my first influence on the instrument, and his commitment to playing every note as if it were his last, and to holding it down in what is essentially a three-piece band – he inspired me as a kid and still does today.”

Accompanied by bandleader Jack Stratton, Dart goes on to showcase the main differences between Flea’s slap-style and that of slap bass specialist Victor Wooten. “This is a particular style of slap that is distinct from, say, a Victor Wooten style, where he is using his thumb more like a pick, slapping through the string and he’ll pull up and slap on the string on the way up, too. He’ll get a double slap that way, but I always did the bounce off, which is the Flea thing.”

Will Smith? "The two main slap basslines of our generation," says Stratton, "were Will Smith samples. Marcus Miller [Smith's Just The Two Of Us samples Miller's playing on the Grover Washington/Bill Withers track of the same name] and Freddie Ready on Forget Me Nots [Ready Freddie Washington's bassline from the Patrice Rushen hit is sampled on Smith's Men In Black]. 

"So we can thank Will Smith for bringing back slap bass."

Dart: "Well, just slap generally."

The online course – which features over 70 video lessons spread across 7 different lectures – takes students through a host of Dart’s bass influences, from Pino Palladino and Lee Sklar to Sting and Paul McCartney. Students are also met with topics like Grooving as a Solo, Using Scales to Compose, Improvised vs. Written Part, 3 on E and Finding Your Feel.

“To me, the one thing that you can’t skip on is developing great feel, because you’re going to play with a bunch of different drummers throughout your life," says Dart. "They’re all going to put the time somewhere else, and you should be able to always be the bridge between the drummer and the rest of the band and make it feel good. That’s a huge thing I think about when I think about what to practise. Stamina will come, and the vocabulary you can learn from listening to great bass players, but my advice is to always develop good time.“

Students who sign up will also learn how to play some of Vulpeck’s most famous songs, including Dean Town and Beastly, while also breaking down some of Dart’s own signature sounds and techniques.

The Joe Dart Bass Course is available now for $250 via the Vulf Conservatory.

One of the first things you’re taught as an aspiring guitar player – aside from string names and basic chord shapes – is that warming up is key to playing stamina. Without limbering up the fretting hand with some rudimentary runs, you’re at risk of increasing the likelihood of a small injury.

However, no matter how in-depth your warm-up routine is, you can’t legislate for impromptu cramps, which can strike out of the blue when you least expect them.

The inevitable nature of such spontaneous six-string injuries was made apparent during a Red Hot Chili Peppers gig in Australia last week, when Stratocaster master John Frusciante – who prides himself on having one of the most regimented warm-up routines around – was spotted stretching out his fretting hand in the middle of an intense guitar solo.

During a particularly energetic and speedy solo run around the pentatonic scale over Suck My Kiss, Froosh was snapped taking a brief reprieve from proceedings, removing his left hand from the fretboard and using his picking hand to pull at his ring and pinky fingers.

Despite the stretch, Frusciante’s pinky finger looked to have been put out of commission for the duration of the clip, with the electric guitar hero instead relying on the rest of his digits to bring the solo home.

Such is the caliber of Frusciante’s skills and stamina, anyone who missed the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment would have been none the wiser, with the 53-year-old instead plowing on full steam ahead with the rest of the blistering lead effort.

We can’t imagine Frusciante’s twinge was the result of a laissez-faire approach to warming up, because – as has been documented on numerous occasions – the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist takes his practice routine very, very seriously.

In a conversation with Guitar Player, Froosh revealed he spends “at least a couple hours of warming up in the morning, doing the exercises and stuff”, before making sure he plays at least four hours before the gig. Any less than that, and he’s “very unhappy”.

During the in-depth practice run-through, Frusciante also revealed he uses a Sous Vide – a machine used to cook meat in heated water – to soak his hands in an effort to loosen everything up.

“I also soak my hands in this thing that’s used to cook meat – a Sous Vide machine, which heats up water to a high temperature,” said the guitar titan, who took inspiration from Allan Holdsworth. “I started with it at 114 degrees Fahrenheit, but now I’m setting it to about 118. If I feel any tension at all, I soak my hands and my forearms for anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes, depending on what I feel I need. 

“I do that over and over for the four hours before we go onstage, at different times during my warm-up.”

This case is by no means the most devastating injury we’ve seen from someone behind the fretboard – many more examples, some of which involve blood, spring to mind – but it’s something you don't see every day, and a reminder to take care when cranking up your solo speed.

Despite this, we’re confident that Froosh’s fretting hand is in top notch health and suitably robust, mainly due to his extensive and serious approach to practice, which pays specific attention to individual finger strengthening. 

Not only that, he has a history of high-speed fretboard action, which became apparent when footage of a 17-year-old Frusciante unleashing his inner hair-metal hero emerged online.

More recently, Frusciante has displayed a suite of solo skills in recent months, culminating in an Eddie Van Halen-channeling live performance of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ EVH tribute track, Eddie.

In other Frusciante news, we recently got a good look at his gigantic new Red Hot Chili Peppers pedalboard, which has been deployed during the band’s ongoing tour.

Back in 2019, Dutch YouTube guitarist Paul Davids (the guy who recorded reverb in a nuclear power plant) produced a video in which he discussed his struggle trying to nail John Frusciante's Scar Tissue intro. 

Davids has an expert ear and after some diligent listening and tuning experimentation, came to the conclusion that the secret behind playing the song was in lowering the tuning of the B-string by around 13-14 cents. 

It resulted, he told viewers, “in something I wasn’t expecting... my guitar sounded way better – de-tuned!”

According to his tuner, Davids notes, his Scar Tissue tuning “should be super-out of tune. But when I'm playing these notes it sounds pretty good.” He then asks if this is what Frusciante did – and, furthermore, if he did it intentionally. 

It’s taken three years for Davids to get the answers but, finally, he has them. Recently, the song’s producer, Rick Rubin, raised the clip with Frusciante in an interview on his podcast, Broken Record.

“I remember seeing a a YouTube video,” says Rubin, referring to Davids’ post [around 24.35]. “Where... he's saying you detuned one string slightly and that's the only way to play the song – that anyone who plays the song plays it wrong because the secret is detuning. Is that possible?” 

“It wasn't done consciously – I just was out of tune,” responds Frusciante, with refreshing honesty. “It’s Scar Tissue that that’s about. My guitar tech told me about that.”

“I guess one of my strings was a little out of tune,” expands Frusciante. “But it sounded good, so nobody ever said [anything]. Like, you would have said if it hadn't sounded good.”

“I would have been the first one!” adds Rubin.

Rubin also comments that it’s a “fascinating video” – and he’s right. 

As Davids explains in the original clip, the effect is down to the accidental creation of a more accurate major third interval between the F# and the D in the intro. 

This is because most tuners operate on the principle of something called ‘the 12-tone equal temperment system’ (aka 12-TET) which essentially splits the difference between the notes in an octave. However, the true distance in cents between certain intervals can vary (up or down) quite a bit, depending on the note progression.

12-TET is therefore a handy method for ensuring you’ll be pretty much accurate on most things, but not the purest sound, when it comes to the math behind certain intervals.

Frusciante says he’s noted the phenomenon himself when playing along to old blues records. 

“You have notes [cents] in between what the the normal 12 notes that we all use,” says the RHCP man. “And there's a lot of good expression in there by using these notes that are in between, if they're exactly in between in a precise kind of way. So I guess [on Scar Tissue] I was out of tune in a way that really worked, because that doesn't sound out of tune to me!”

Davids has since responded saying the conversation and the fact the clip was seen by Rubin and Frusciante “blew his mind”.

So there you have it: Paul Davids was right. Frusciante is again proven to be a genius, albeit somewhat unintentionally. And all guitar tuners are lying to you... 

When Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, and then-guitarist, Dave Navarro, found themselves working with Alanis Morissette on the lead single from her 1996 Grammy-winning album, Jagged Little Pill, it’s said that they had only the vocals to work from. According to Navarro: “We basically jammed until we found something we were both happy with.”

During an interview with Produce Like A Pro’s Warren Huart, mix engineer Chris Fogel looked back at the making of the track. In doing so, he recalled that Flea’s bassline wasn't as precise as he would've liked.

Fogel was asked whether Flea and Dave Navarro worked together on the song. “They did. They were recorded at the same time,” he says. “It was recorded by another engineer, but the tracks were brought back to me to mix and we had to really time a lot of it. Particularly Flea. Flea was way out of time on this.”

"Did you have to push him back, was he a little bit more on top?” Asks Huart at 33:30 in the video below. “He was way on top, that’s exactly what it was. At some points he was a good quarter-note on top. And if he’s watching then I apologise! But, that is not your performance, that’s your performance timed quite a bit through the genius of the ADAT and the BRC [Big Remote Control].”

In November 2021, Flea posted a tweet in which he revealed how he ended up working on the song. Journalist and sports analyst Bill Simmons had announced on Twitter that his series Music Box was returning with a documentary about Jagged Little Pill. Upon seeing the tweet, one of Simmons’ followers questioned how Flea and Dave Navarro came to feature on You Oughta Know and tagged Flea in the tweet. Flea responded: ‘Cause of Jimmy Boyle.’

Jimmy Boyle remixed the song for the single release. In an interview for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, talent manager Guy Oseary recalled Boyle’s vision. "Jimmy just kept saying, ‘imagine what this would sound like with a stronger bass and guitar.’ So he had the immediate vision for it. He brought in Flea and Dave, they tried it and the rest is history.”

“Flea told Bass Player magazine in 1996. “When I first heard the track, it had a different bassist and guitarist on it; I listened to the bassline and thought, 'That's some weak shit!' It was no flash and no smash! But the vocal was strong, so I just tried to play something good. I showed up, rocked out, and split.”

While Fogel’s mix is the most widely known version of the song, the album also features an alternate take mixed by Boyle, who wanted a much angrier sound than Morissette had originally envisioned. "I had Dave Navarro and Flea come down and redo everything,” says Jimmy in an interview with Universal Audio. “We used the LA-2A compressor on Flea's bass. It was the thing that really made the vocals different as well. It made that really aggressive sound on her voice. That is the only product that could have given it that sound."

Jagged Little Pill is available to download from Amazon.

John Frusciante is regarded as one of the pre-eminent guitar heroes of the past three decades – a position he attained thanks to his melodic, tasteful playing style, which always bears the rest of his Red Hot Chili Peppers bandmates in mind. Yet, as he’s attested in interviews, his style had far flashier origins – and now we finally have evidence of his shred roots.

Newly unearthed footage, posted to YouTube, shows an apparently 17-year-old Frusciante shredding like you’ve never seen him shred before, performing with his pre-RHCP power trio IKE in San Fernando Valley, 1987 – the video was shared by Matthew Goodman, one of the founding members of the band, who has teased more videos from this era.

Wielding a Kramer-inspired electric guitar custom-built by LA’s Performance Guitar, Frusciante’s playing is, in short, unrecognizable, despite the fact he would join RHCP just one year later.

Frusciante’s high-gain solos run the gamut of ’80s guitar excess: two-hand tapping (both above and behind the fretting hand); harmonic squeals manipulated by a Floyd Rose tremolo; and legato – so much legato – with liberal use of wah-wah throughout.

The clip ends with the band covering The Surfaris’ Wipe Out, on which John deploys a Strat-style guitar for some quicksilver pentatonic licks.

Elsewhere in the footage, there’s a snippet of high-gain riffs over a slap bassline, which hints at Frusciante’s funk-metal approach on his first album with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, 1989’s Mother’s Milk – especially raucous opener Goodtime Boys.

Froosh would even wield that very same Performance SuperStrat at some of his earliest shows with the Chili Peppers – as documented in the below clip of Punk Rock Classic, recorded at Long Beach in 1988.

On a purely technical level, Frusciante’s ability – which, at the time, was inspired by the likes of Steve Vai, Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen – is undeniably impressive, but we think he’d agree with us when we say it’s hard to make out anything melodic over the relentless wailing.

The dramatic shift in Frusciante’s guitar style is something he discussed in our marathon interview with the RHCP guitarist last year.

“When I was 18 and the early part of being 19, I was trying to be impressive, because I could play fancy things, or because I could be intense,” he admitted.

“That never left, but I figured out pretty quickly that I couldn’t rely on that ability to be intense and I couldn’t rely on my technique – music doesn’t really mean anything to people unless you’re really giving something of yourself in it and putting yourself out there in a vulnerable way. Not trying to show people, ‘Hey, watch me, I’m good,’ but to give people a piece of your heart.”

This realization prompted Frusciante to rethink his approach – a change that ultimately benefited him and the Red Hot Chili Peppers as a whole.

“It was a switch that took place right after we got off tour for Mother’s Milk,” he explained.

“I just decided, if I keep going the way that I’m going, I’m never going to be happy with anything that I do, so I have to give up my ideas of what good is and I just have to try to be myself and figure out what that is – and stop trying to be what I think people want me to be, or what I think the Chilis are supposed to be. I have to try to just figure out: ‘Who am I?’”

While the 17-year-old John Frusciante is not the tasteful guitar hero he would go on to be, the footage does offer a fascinating insight into his level of technical self-restraint, which is lifted sparingly in his solo spots nowadays – most notably on last year’s Eddie Van Halen tribute, Eddie.

There’s a lesson to be learned for all guitarists here: technical ability is all well and good, but it must always be matched with a melodic quality that can resonate with audiences.

“Generally, when I put away all those ideas of trying to be ‘good’, or trying to impress people, a thing that I can’t explain from my soul started to come out of my playing,” Frusciante told us.

“People started liking my playing a lot more at that point; I started to mean something to people.”

John Frusciante has said he views the bass as the band’s lead instrument in a new 60 Minutes interview. 

Red Hot Chili Peppers were the somewhat unlikely subjects of a recent episode of the current affairs show and took the chance to discuss their remarkable, enduring connection.

“We’re all supporting each other at the same time,” says Frusciante early in the interview. “Everybody has different ways of doing that. I see the bass as the lead instrument the whole time. Flea doesn't see it that way. I see each song as being like a bass solo where I'm there to support it.”

The guitarist’s comments in the clip reflect those he made to Total Guitar last year.

“Too often people assume that a guitar player’s worth comes from their ability to draw attention to themselves,” Frusciante told Total Guitar. “To me, what [all the great players have] in common… is that they knew how to be a member of a band and make everybody else sound better.

“To me, it really doesn’t matter how much technique you have; the real skill in being a guitar player is in making the rest of the band sound good.”

60 Minutes host Jon Wertheim also underlines Frusciante commitment when he notes that the guitarist prefers to warm-up for four hours before a show.

Elsewhere, the footage documents the founding friendship of Anthony Kiedis and Flea – indeed the latter tears up, reflecting on their bond – as well as Frusciante and Flea’s (slightly less collaborative) concept of the ‘face-off’ songwriting technique. 

“We need a section. We've got a verse say and we need a chorus and in the old days we would start it out by going like that to each other,” says Frusciante, mockingly butting heads with Flea in the process. 

“We’d give each other a dirty look and then we'd go into other rooms, then we come in and each guy plays his section for the other guys.”

“We could either go home and like think of it at home,” adds Flea. “Or we can do it right then like, ‘We're gonna do a face-off right now and the part's gonna get done!’”

It's a technique that vocalist Kiedis comments creates an “unexpected moment of humility... whatever is the best for the song.”

Check out the full 60 Minutes interview in the clip above.