Classic interview with John Frusciante by a Dutch journalist done in 1994 when he was in depths of heroin, cocaine and alcohol addictions. Frusciante was the guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a great LA band that was a bit after my time. He quit in 1992, as he could not handle the band’s fame anymore. For the next five years, he holed up in his Hollywood Hills home as a recluse and became addicted to the three drugs above. He was also a heavy pothead. During this period, he also became very depressed.
At one point, two of his famous friends, Johnny Depp and Gibson Haynes, came out to see him and brought a video camera. They made a short documentary, Stuff, about his descent into utter depravity. This short 11 minute movie is both sad and sinister. Unfortunately, the recording quality is very poor. Come to think of it, Stuff is also an excellent anti-heroin commercial. Timothy Leary appears, sitting in the trashed out house, from 7:44 to 8:23.
His arms became badly scarred due to shooting up and the abscesses that followed. Some of these scars are now permanent. The walls of his home became badly scarred and covered in graffiti. Smile from the Streets You Hold was released in 1997, a poor album filled with screeching and coughing, showcasing his failing health. He has admitted that the album was released to get drug money. It was pulled from the market recently. On his second admission to rehab, he had a potentially lethal oral infection. It was cured only by pulling all of his rotten teeth. He got skin grafts to cover up his arm abscesses.
