John Anthony Frusciante (IPA pronunciation: [fruƒQntej ]) (born March 5, 1970) is the guitarist of the Californian band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he has performed on five studio recordings (Mother's Milk, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Californication, By The Way and Stadium Arcadium), three greatest hits packages (What Hits!?, Greatest Hits, and Out in L.A.) and two live albums (Live In Hyde Park and Live at Slane Castle). He also has an active solo career, having released eight albums as well as collaborations with friends Josh Klinghoffer of The Bicycle Thief and Joe Lally of Fugazi.

Frusciante was born in Queens, New York, but moved to Los Angeles at age 12. He is of Italian-American descent and his father, John Frusciante, Sr., was a Juilliard-trained pianist, while his mother, Gail, was a vocalist who gave up her career to be a homemaker. Gail and some of her friends would go on to lend their voices to the Red Hot Chili Peppers' song, "Under the Bridge".

Frusciante's family relocated to Tucson, Arizona, and later Florida. After his parents separated, Frusciante and his mother moved to Santa Monica, California.[2] Frusciante became an avid music fan, growing particularly fond of Punk rock. Some of the artists he listened to at this time, such as Jimi Hendrix, the Ramones, Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, would influence his later musical career.

Even as a teenager, Frusciante was confident that he was a guitar prodigy who would become a rock and roll star. He has claimed that "voices in his head" since childhood, which he often refers to as "spirits", told him that he was going to be a rock guitarist before he had a proper awareness of what a rock star was. He left high school at the age of 16, after taking a proficiency test with his parents' permission, and with their support, he moved into his own place to focus on sharpening his musical skills.[3]

Frusciante first saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers in concert as a teenager and became a devoted fan, especially of the work of original guitarist Hillel Slovak. He learned every guitar and bass part from their first three albums. Slovak, however, died from a heroin overdose in 1988 and drummer Jack Irons left the band due to personal problems related to Slovak's death. Bassist Flea and singer Anthony Kiedis eventually regrouped to continue with the band.

Frusciante had become good friends with D. H. Peligro (drummer for the Dead Kennedys) around 1988, and they often jammed together. One day, Peligro invited Flea to jam with them. The chemistry between the future band mates bore fruit almost instantly, with Flea saying in the liner notes of a recent re-issue of Mother's Milk that that might have been the day that he first played the phenomenal slap bass riff to "Nobody Weird Like Me". Flea was impressed by Frusciante's skill, and since he was looking for a new guitarist (their current replacement for Hillel, Duane "Blackbird" McKnight, was not working out for the band) he called Anthony Kiedis over to watch Frusciante play. It was a unanimous decision: Frusciante was in. Frusciante was about to sign a contract with Thelonious Monster at the time (and had actually been playing with them for two weeks), but Flea and Kiedis immediately fired McKnight and hired Frusciante. Drummer Chad Smith would join the band two weeks prior to recording their first record together.[4]

Around this time, Frusciante also auditioned for Frank Zappa's band but left before the final try-out because Zappa strictly prohibited illegal drug use among musicians in his band. In an interview, he said, "I realized that I wanted to be a rock star, do drugs and get girls, and that I wouldn't be able to do that if I was in Zappa's band."[2]

When Frusciante was asked to join the Chili Peppers he was thrilled, claiming to have "boot marks five feet high on the wall in my room for months after that call."[5