Red Hot Chili Peppers without John Frusciante

[Raj]

It's been no secret that John Frusciante's membership in the RHCP has been shaky for years. He left the band for the first time following Blood Sugar Sex Magik due to heroin dependency, re-joined for Californication, once again quit following Stadium Arcadium during their "hiatus", and officially resigned from the group on December 16 to further is successful solo career.

Frusciante's public announcement on his official website:

When I quit the band, over a year ago, we were on an indefinite hiatus. There was no drama or anger involved, and the other guys were very understanding. They are supportive of my doing whatever makes me happy and that goes both ways.
To put it simply, my musical interests have led me in a different direction. Upon rejoining, and throughout my time in the band, I was very excited about exploring the musical possibilities inherent in a rock band, and doing so with those people in particular. A couple of years ago, I began to feel that same excitement again, but this time it was about making a different kind of music, alone, and being my own engineer.
I really love the band and what we did. I understand and value that my work with them means a lot to many people, but I have to follow my interests. For me, art has never been something done out of a sense of duty. It is something I do because it is really fun, exciting, and interesting. Over the last 12 years, I have changed, as a person and artist, to such a degree that to do further work along the lines I did with the band would be to go against my own nature. There was no choice involved in this decision. I simply have to be what I am, and have to do what I must do.
Sending love and gratitude to you all.

Where does the band go from here? It seems as if the rest of the group isn't going to allow John's absence to slow them down. For years RHCP has been my favorite band and many consider Frusciante to be the best guitarist, how do you think our beloved band will fare without him?

 

[Peachfuzz]

For years RHCP has been my favorite band and many consider Frusciante to be the best bass player, how do you think our beloved band will fare without him?

Flea is the best bass player!

Frusciante definitely brought a lot to the Chili Peppers, and to see him go will change their music completely. Blood Sugar Sex Magic was by far my favorite album, where Frusciante was a huge influence on the band. Without Frusciante, you get things like One Hot Minute and their earlier work like the Uplift Mofo Party Plan and Freaky Styley. One Hot Minute was not that great (Dave Navarro isn't very exciting as a guitarist), and the Uplift Mofo Party Plan was pretty awesome, though they're never going back to that style again.

 

[latinoheat]

Anything to get them out of there bland commercial pop, with the tacked on Frusciante solos stage they have been going through. Now they just need to get rid of Rick Rubin and then maybe we will get a decent album instead of Stadium Arcadium version 2 which is where they were heading.

Still i think we will get a half decent album which will get shit on no matter what for not having John in the band, then they will realise they will not be as successful and call it a day , they are all gonna be basically 50 when the next album arrives and Anthony is the only one who really needs the band anymore anyway.


Yea John did great things for the band and they would not be anywhere near as popular if not for him, but if not for the rest of the band he would be dead so they don't owe him anything.

 

[Bentendo1]

Flea is the best bass player!

Larry Graham, Les Claypool, Victor Wooten...

In terms of on stage performance the Flea is hard to replace, but they'll find someone who clicks eventually.

 

[latinoheat]

Flea hasn't left

 

[Peachfuzz]

Larry Graham, Les Claypool, Victor Wooten...

In terms of on stage performance the Flea is hard to replace, but they'll find someone who clicks eventually.

I was quoting dragonites and the mistake that Frusciante was the bass player.

 

[matty]

Anything to get them out of there bland commercial pop, with the tacked on Frusciante solos stage they have been going through. Now they just need to get rid of Rick Rubin and then maybe we will get a decent album instead of Stadium Arcadium version 2 which is where they were heading.

Still i think we will get a half decent album which will get shit on no matter what for not having John in the band, then they will realise they will not be as successful and call it a day , they are all gonna be basically 50 when the next album arrives and Anthony is the only one who really needs the band anymore anyway.


Yea John did great things for the band and they would not be anywhere near as popular if not for him, but if not for the rest of the band he would be dead so they don't owe him anything.

Man this is exactly how I feel; well done. Ditto everything mentioned

 

[Altmer]

Sucks, but RHCP haven't been good for a while now

 

[mattj]

Wait? Isn't he doing that Jazz Trumpet stuff now? He's pretty good!

 

[Kojax]

Anything to get them out of there bland commercial pop, with the tacked on Frusciante solos stage they have been going through. Now they just need to get rid of Rick Rubin and then maybe we will get a decent album instead of Stadium Arcadium version 2 which is where they were heading.

I'm interested in why you dislike Rick Rubin. Is it just his work with RHCP or his stuff in general?

To stay on topic, I enjoyed Stadium Arcadium, the only RHCP album I've listened to all the way through. Frusciante got some pretty cool guitar sounds, I'd be interested to see what his pedal board looked like/what equipment he used.

 

[Altmer]

Because RR stuff always sounds overproduced and shit.

RR's stuff was only good when he worked with Slayer in the 80s. And even the production is weird.

 

[Raj]

I've liked every album since BSSM except for One Hot Minute, of which I like a few songs. They just seem to change their style with each new album, but I wouldn't say their no good. They're just not as good as they were when the huge hits came out.

 

[Bam]

Hmm maybe if we can get flea to leave I can take his place!

He's by no means the most talented player out there (Wooten, King, etc. as bentendo pointed out), but he's done some great stuff and pretty much is the reason slap bass became popular and somewhat mainstream.

I'm kind of hoping their new guitarist will be closer to their roots, like back when they had Hillel Slovak. I dearly love Frusciante, he's made some amazing contributions to the band and is an amazing guitarist, but if they put out one more mellow-out-with-age album like SA, I'll go crazy (there were a feeew good songs on it but that's it).

Anyways, I'm soooo psyched for this album it's ridiculous. I'm sure they'll be able to pull it off. I think rhcp should get an award for their dedication, they've persisted through so much shit in throughout their existence!

 

[Altmer]

maybe if rhcp made good music like on bssm or californication