GUITARIST JOHN FRUSCIANTE REPORTEDLY QUITS THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

According to multiple reports, it appears guitarist John Frusciante has quit the Red Hot Chili Peppers and NME is reporting, the Peppers have already replaced him with session guitarist and good friend Josh Klinghoffer. Klinghoffer who toured with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the past, also has worked with artists including Perry Farrell, Tricky, PJ Harvey and Gnarls Barkley. News of Frusciante’s departure might not surprise their die hard fans as a source close to the band was quoted as saying “Mentally, John checked out a long time ago. He’s interested in doing his own thing, his own albums – the whole big rock band machinery just doesn’t appeal to him anymore.”

Red Hot Chili Pepper drummer recently caught up with Artisan News to get his thoughts on having John Frusciante back with the band after taking a few years off to recover from his drug addiction and how much he’s seen him grown musicially in the years after he found sobriety.

“Well he’s been in our group for over ten years now you know, again. He’s awesome, he’s a fantastic musician and he’s incredible. I mean everybody is though. Everyone has grown and everyone has gotten better as people, as musicians, as family members as brothers, you know everything. Just changing and it’s really cool. It’s a cool thing to see that I’ve grown up with these people.”

In 1998, John Frusciante successfully completed drug rehabilitation and rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers for their 1999 album “Californication.” Since then he has continued to record with the band and he has been a major contributer to their infectious blend of songwriting, helping them to acheive a level of main stream popularity they might not have acheived without him. John Frusciante also ranked eighteenth in 2003, on Rolling Stone’s list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.” It another bit of Red Hot Chili Peppers news, although the band was nominated for The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, the won’t be joining the class of 2010 as The Stooges, ABBA, Jimmy Cliff, Genesis, and the Hollies make up the 2010 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Also not making the final list were Kiss, Donna Summer and Darlene Love. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are currently writing songs for the highly anticipated follow up to “Stadium Arcadium” and time will tell if Josh Klinghoffer has the song writing skills to push The Red Hot Chili Peppers as far as John Frusciante did.rn