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The Latest Breaking News from John Frusciante

"He sang it to me and I thought it was beautiful. But he was emphatic: 'No, this isn't what we do!'" The story of the classic song Red Hot Chili Peppers didn't want to record and its unexpected impact on Middle America

People thought the Red Hot Chili Peppers were just zany frat boys who sang about sex and partying – until they released a gentle and heartfelt ballad about heroin

Louder

"I just wanted to apologise for selling your guitar." How an act of kindness in the darkest of hours bonded Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante and Jane's Addiction's Dave Navarro forever

How drugs, guitars, and a life-changing act of charity brought two of alternative rock's greatest musicians together

Louder

“Getting a Germanium Boy into Brian May’s hands pronto is a top priority”: Dirty Boy’s pedals are loved by the likes of John Frusciante and Neal Schon – is the Queen guitarist next?

The future’s bright for the boutique guitar and pedal brand. Its CEO tells us its story so far and why he believes he has just what Brian May needs for his tone

Guitar World

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“I never heard from John. He sold the guitar once he got out of rehab. And that was that – I never saw it again”: The incredible story of the Les Paul that Dave Navarro bought for his Guns N’ Roses audition – and ended up giving to John Frusciante

We ask Navarro about the Gibson that featured on the cover of GW's March ’96 issue, and it opens up a whole lot of memories for the former Jane’s Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist

Guitar World

“John Frusciante called me and said, ‘I’m sitting in a hospital and I don’t have a guitar. Can you loan me one?’” That time Dave Navarro lent John Frusciante a Les Paul – only for the Red Hot Chili Peppers legend to sell it

Frusciante would eventually make it up to the Jane’s Addiction guitarist with a gift of his own

Guitar World

“Jim Carrey stormed the stage mid-song to air guitar his right leg like a maniac”: From David Bowie going rogue to George Harrison x Paul Simon, EVH and SRV – the 50 greatest guitar moments in SNL history

Saturday Night Live has presented some of pop-culture's most iconic moments in musical history. We document its legacy in guitar

Guitar World

“Whatever magic John brought to the Chili Peppers, I didn’t have that style of magic”: Dave Navarro was the odd man out when he replaced John Frusciante in the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But 30 years later, he has no regrets

Emerging from the wreckage of Jane's Addiction, Navarro turned down a spot in Guns N' Roses in favor of a band he felt more of a connection with. The resulting album, One Hot Minute, was polarizing, but the guitarist sees it as a “difficult but valuable” part of his career

Guitar World

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John Frusciante and Dave Navarro are the household names, but plenty more guitarists made their mark with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Here’s our guide to all of them

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

Guitar World

“I almost cried when I first saw John Frusciante live. But when I got involved in extreme music, people would say, ‘Don’t mention RHCP’”: How Arve Isdal carved his own extreme metal path with Enslaved – and became Norway’s answer to Slash

The blues-schooled shredder shows off some unlikely examples in his guitar collection, explains why he quit an Iron Maiden icon’s band and shares the fate of his supergroup with Dani Filth, Rob Caggiano and John Tempesta

Guitar World

“I said, ‘It’s really beautiful – why would you say it’s not for the Chili Peppers?’ And he said, ‘That’s not what we do’”: How the Red Hot Chili Peppers broke new ground to create their life-changing hit

One of the greatest rock ballads ever recorded

MusicRadar

“My friend found me a replica of John Frusciante’s Strat for €28,000. Spending that kind of money is ridiculous. It doesn't do anything for me”: Richard Z. Kruspe on why guitars are like kisses, reverse kill-switches – and the riff that launched Rammstein

Fresh from launching his new RZK-III signature model, the German fire-raiser discusses the Custom Shop guitar that changed his thinking on collecting –and how he manages to live and let live with colleague Paul Landers

Guitar World

“Such an emotive player... so cool. I’ve always been really impressed”: As he names his 5 favourite guitarists, who could Finneas be talking about?

“She’s really a guitar hero of mine,” he says

MusicRadar

“I can’t believe how complicated the parts she’s playing are. You just never know how those are coming to be in the studio”: FINNEAS reveals his surprise guitar hero whose playing left him scratching his head

Alongside Nile Rodgers, St. Vincent, John Frusciante, and George Harrison, a more niche choice rounds up his top five guitarists list

Guitar World

“It’s become a bad habit. I bought a 1955 Tele and turned it over to carve my initials into the back. My friend screamed, ’Don’t do that!’” Kirk Hammett on his favorite Metallica solo and tone – and his most prized purchases from other guitar heroes

The Metallica great is celebrating his remarkable guitar collection in a new Gibson book. He explains how he came to own prized guitars from John Frusciante and Michael Schenker – and why he doesn’t cut cash deals anymore

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“I don’t think I have the agility on the neck to do a traditional guitar solo – I’m more from the Kurt Cobain school”: Interpol frontman Paul Banks on making landmark records, his favorite John Frusciante solo and why he’s no fan of the Fender Twin

As the New York band celebrate 20 years of sophomore classic Antics, we catch up with Paul Banks to find out what gear he used back then and now, and how solos can be used as a surrogate vocal

Louder

"Countless musicians and friends lost everything." Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Jarvis Cocker, Primal Scream, Red Hot Chili Peppers duo and more donate unreleased songs to new benefit album to aid Californian wildfire relief

The newly-released Los Angeles Rising compilation also features previously unheard music from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gary Numan, Devo and more

Guitar World

“When I pull up, Ed is standing there with the wah. He goes, ‘Why does John Frusciante want a piece of crap like this?’” Eddie Van Halen’s tech helped John Frusciante track down a rare wah pedal – but the guitar hero didn’t approve of his gear choice

Van Halen may not have been especially fond of the vintage wah, but he did take the opportunity to share some valuable guitar tech advice with Froosh’s camp during the handover

Guitar World

“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”: That time John Frusciante wrote in to Total Guitar magazine to share his thoughts on music theory

It was 2006, one hot summer, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitar hero had some things he needed to get off his chest about theory, and why he had learned “immensely” from reading Total Guitar

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Guitar World

“When he saw the guitars, he goes, ‘John’s going back to the Chili Peppers.’ I said, ‘No way is he ever going back’”: John Frusciante’s former guitar tech on the moment he realized the guitarist could be rejoining the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Top-tier guitar tech Dave Lee reveals how he got to know about Frusciante's plans to return to the Chili Peppers

MusicRadar

“Right up there with the most iconic Fenders of all time… A ton of work went into this one”: The Fender Custom Shop unveils $20,000 replica of John Frusciante’s 1962 Strat, forensically replicating every ding and dent of the RHCP guitarist’s original

Masterbuilt by Paul Waller, featuring pickups hand-wound by Abigail Ybarra and an Ilitch Electronics onboard hum-cancelling system, Frusciante’s Stratocaster is the Custom Shop at the height of its powers

Guitar World

“I’ve had many other Strats – I’ve never found one better than that”: John Frusciante’s first-ever Fender signature guitar is here – and it’s a $20k Custom Shop replica of his iconic 1962 Stratocaster

Fender Master Builder Paul Waller has painstakingly recreated the Red Hot Chili Peppers icon’s legendary sunburst Strat, which features all the relic’d cosmetics and electronics upgrades of the original

Louder

"I went over to John's house, and he just started sobbing and said he wanted to do it": The story of the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Flea thinks is the best they ever made

The Red Hot Chili Peppers were unravelling, but they pulled together, kept it together, and recorded their masterpiece album: Californication

Guitar World

“Delivers the OG of bold chorus sounds. We’re thrilled to authentically bring that tone back to pedalboards”: Warm Audio debuts its take on the revered vintage chorus beloved by John Frusciante

The vintage revivalist has offered an updated version of Boss’s legendary CE-1 unit, alongside a new pedal format 1176-style compressor

Guitar World

“As a player, I like to get down on my knees, turn delay knobs and make a bunch of noise. That does not work for Guns N’ Roses”: Dave Navarro on the time he turned down joining Guns N’ Roses

After Jane's Addiction split in the early 1990s, Navarro's six-string services were on the market. At the same time, GNR were also looking for a replacement for the outgoing Izzy Stradlin

Guitar World

“I saw Adrian Belew playing fretless guitar with King Crimson and I got hooked. I began wearing out my wooden fingerboards – the glass fingerboards solved that problem”: Fretless glass-necked guitar pioneer Ned Evett on the risks of being a true original

Ned Evett has shared riffs with Joe Satriani, John McLaughlin and Sting, and modded a guitar for John Frusciante – but it’s been a brutal journey, and he understands why others haven’t followed him

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