Frusciante joined the Chili Peppers at the age of 18 after the death of guitarist Hillel Slovak, and first appeared on their album Mother's Milk (1989). His second album with the band, Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991), was their breakthrough success. Overwhelmed by the band's newfound popularity, he quit in 1992. He became a recluse and entered a period of heroin addiction, during which he released his first solo recordings: Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt (1994) and Smile from the Streets You Hold (1997). In 1998, he completed drug rehabilitation and rejoined the Chili Peppers, taking them to major success with their albums Californication (1999), By the Way (2002) and Stadium Arcadium (2006). He left the Red Hot Chili Peppers again in 2009 to focus on solo work, and rejoined in 2019.
Frusciante's solo work encompasses genres including experimental rock, ambient music and electronica. He released six albums in 2004, each exploring different genres and recording techniques. In 2009, Frusciante released The Empyrean, which features Chili Peppers bassist Flea and guitarist Josh Klinghoffer. Frusciante also releases acid house under the alias Trickfinger. With Klinghoffer and Joe Lally, he has released two albums as Ataxia.
Frusciante was named one of the greatest guitarists by Rolling Stone and Gibson, and in a BBC poll. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2012.
Frusciante's musical style has evolved over the course of his career. Although he received moderate recognition for his early guitar work, it was not until later in his career that music critics and guitarists alike began to fully recognize it: in October 2003, he was ranked eighteenth in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Frusciante attributes this recent recognition to his shift in focus, stating that he chose an approach based on rhythmic patterns inspired by the complexity of material Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen produced. On earlier records, however, much of his output was influenced by various underground punk and new wave musicians.
In general, his sound is also defined by an affinity for vintage guitars. All the guitars that he owns, records, and tours with were made before 1970. Frusciante uses the specific guitar that he finds appropriate for a certain song. All of the guitars he owned before quitting the band were destroyed when his house burned down in 1996. The first guitar he bought after rejoining the Chili Peppers was a 1962 red Fender Jaguar. His most-often used guitar, however, is a 1961 Sunburst Fender Stratocaster that was given to him as a gift from Anthony Kiedis after Frusciante rejoined the Chili Peppers in 1998. He has played this guitar on every album since rejoining the Chili Peppers, and their ensuing tours. He also owns a 1955 Fender Stratocaster, his only Strat with a maple fretboard. Frusciante's most highly appraised instrument is a 1955 Gretsch White Falcon, which he used twice per show for the songs Californication and Otherside. Since 2006, he only uses it for the latter song, saying there was "no room for it", preferring multiple Stratocasters for the Stadium Arcadium tour. Virtually all of Frusciante's acoustic work is played with a 1950s Martin 0–15.
After leaving the Red Hot Chili Peppers, he switched to using a Yamaha SG as his primary guitar for his solo work. "With the Yamaha SG, I could play along with guitar players who were playing, say, Les Pauls, and feel like the sound matched what I was hearing on the record. ... People like Robert Fripp, Mick Ronson, Tony Iommi, and particularly John McGeoch from Siouxsie and the Banshees, who played a Yamaha SG, which is why I bought one in the first place". Frusciante has also noted his increased use of the Roland MC-202 for his electronic music, saying that he was at the point "where I thought as much like a 202ist as I did a guitarist ..." The MC-202 has been his primary melodic instrument in his electronic music.
With the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Frusciante provided backing vocals in a falsetto tenor, a style he started on Blood Sugar Sex Magik. He thoroughly enjoyed his role in the Chili Peppers as backing vocalist, and said that backing vocals are a "real art form". Despite his commitment to the Chili Peppers, he felt that his work with the band should remain separate from his solo projects. When he returned to the Chili Peppers in 1998, Kiedis wanted the band to record "Living in Hell", a song Frusciante had written several years before. Frusciante refused, feeling that the creative freedom he needed for his solo projects would have conflicted with his role in the band.
With No One
John Frusciante Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
With no one in between
You feel your fading dial
You know someone's happened
And you shouldn't feed these things
But let's go
Fading away your nights
You fade to white
Sorrow ate me, I'm not me anymore
Play these heavens one more time
I'm not yours and I'm not mine
Fly a ladder around
Rails succumb to run
Get up
Hear your fates that again reload
In John Frusciante's song "With No One," there is a sense of isolation and disorientation that is conveyed through his lyrics. The first verse, "Seal your wide shores/With no one in between/You feel your fading dial/You know someone's happened," creates a visual of someone closing themselves off from the rest of the world. The use of the word "fading" suggests a feeling of becoming weaker or less significant, while "dial" hints at the idea of time running out. The second part of the verse suggests that something has happened that has made the singer feel this way.
The chorus, "Fading away your nights/You fade to white/You lay me down as I go to the store/Sorrow ate me, I'm not me anymore," continues with this theme of something being lost or fading away. The use of the color white suggests a total lack of emotion or feeling, and the line "You lay me down as I go to the store" could mean that the singer is feeling numb and disconnected from reality. The final line "Sorrow ate me, I'm not me anymore" is a stark admission that something has happened to the singer that has fundamentally changed them.
The second verse, "Play these heavens one more time/I'm not yours and I'm not mine/Fly a ladder around/Rails succumb to run," is more abstract and open to interpretation. The idea of "playing heavens" could refer to experiencing a sense of peace or contentment, but the second line "I'm not yours and I'm not mine" implies a sense of detachment or disconnection. The last two lines could suggest a feeling of being trapped and the need to break free.
Overall, "With No One" touches on themes of isolation, disorientation, and loss. Frusciante's lyrics are open to interpretation, but there is a clear sense of someone trying to make sense of what has happened to them and struggling to find their place in the world.
Line by Line Meaning
Seal your wide shores
Enclose your boundaries and keep yourself isolated from others.
With no one in between
Without any intermediaries or distractions between you and your innermost thoughts.
You feel your fading dial
You sense the decline of your life ticking away, slipping from your grasp.
You know someone's happened
You realize that something significant has taken place and it has affected you.
And you shouldn't feed these things
You understand that it is not in your best interest to give energy to negative forces or emotions.
But let's go
Nevertheless, let us proceed forward and confront these challenges.
Fading away your nights
Your nights are growing increasingly dull and uneventful, gradually fading away into nothingness.
You fade to white
Your sense of self is blurring and losing its color and vibrancy.
You lay me down as I go to the store
You put me to rest while you run errands, suggesting a sense of detachment and neglect for the relationship.
Sorrow ate me, I'm not me anymore
Pain and sadness have consumed me to the extent that I feel like a different person entirely.
Play these heavens one more time
Revisit the sublime and divine experiences one more time to find solace and hope.
I'm not yours and I'm not mine
Neither of us truly belongs to each other or ourselves due to the transience and unpredictability of life.
Fly a ladder around
Use a tool or means of escape to rise above the mundane and reach new heights or perspectives.
Rails succumb to run
Even the most stable and steadfast elements of our existence can give way to change and motion.
Get up
Rise from your current state of being and take action to move forward.
Hear your fates that again reload
Listen to the forces and circumstances that are shaping your fate and accept them, ready to start anew.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: JOHN FRUSCIANTE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind