On February 22, 1992, in the studios of Saturday Night Live in New York, one of the most controversial moments in the history of the Red Hot Chili Peppers took place. What should have been a normal television appearance to promote “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” instead turned into the antechamber of John Frusciante's first farewell to the band.
The group opened the performance with “Stone Cold Bush,” but from the first few minutes it was clear that something wasn't working. Frusciante appeared distant from the other members of the band, so much so that Anthony Kiedis even half-kicked him on stage. The situation worsened a few minutes later, when the Red Hot Chili Peppers started “Under The Bridge”. The guitar introduction, normally delicate and melodic, was completely distorted. Frusciante improvised dissonant chords, out of key and very far from the original version, creating an alienating atmosphere that left both the audience and his companions dumbfounded. During the song he also got the backing vocals wrong and, according to Kiedis' story, he even turned up the volume on his guitar to the maximum, further increasing the chaos.
Below is the video of the unfortunate one performance.
Years later, in his autobiography “Scar Tissue”, Anthony Kiedis remembered that performance like this: “He seemed to be on another planet. He started playing things I had never heard before. I had no idea what song he was playing or what key it was in. It seemed like he was in a different world.”
The singer also said that Frusciante, in the following years, continued to maintain that he had not deliberately sabotaged the performance, explaining that he had simply experimented as if the band were in a rehearsal room. Kiedis, however, never shared this version: “According to him he was simply experimenting, as if we were rehearsing. He's wrong, because we weren't rehearsing: we were on live TV in front of millions of people. And that stuff was torture. I thought he was doing it on purpose, just to spite me.”
Whether it was voluntary sabotage, an artistic gesture or simply a reflection of the profound discomfort the guitarist was experiencing, that performance has over time become an authentic cult among fans. There are those who consider it a brilliant provocation, others a demonstration of Frusciante's unpredictable talent and others, however, the clearest sign that his relationship with the rest of the band had now reached the end of the line.
The breakup occurred a few weeks later, during the “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” world tour. Overwhelmed by the sudden popularity and increasingly crushed by addiction problems, Frusciante decided to leave the group after a concert in Saitama, Japan, returning to the United States and interrupting his collaboration with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
After difficult years, marked by drug addiction, the guitarist managed to detoxify himself and rejoined the band in 1998. The return immediately brought back the creative magic that had characterized the previous years and gave birth to “Californication”, released in 1999 and destined to become the greatest commercial success of the group's career. Two more seminal albums followed, “By The Way” in 2002 and “Stadium Arcadium” in 2006, as well as a decade of tour triumphant throughout the world.
However, in 2009 a second farewell came. Through his official blog, Frusciante announced that he wanted to leave the Red Hot Chili Peppers again to dedicate himself completely to his solo projects and musical experimentation. His place was taken by Josh Klinghoffer, who remained in the band until the guitarist's sensational return, announced in December 2019.
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
