John Anthony Frusciante

John Frusciante doing what he does best!

For me, a hero is a person who inspires; a person who does what they believe is morally right and not what the crowd thinks, and that person must be creative and strong willed; just like John Anthony Frusciante. John Frusciante is the current guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and also ranked eighteenth out of the top one-hundred guitar players by the Rolling Stone Magazine. Through out his life he has made many decisions, although not always the best, he has learned from them and followed his own will and not the crowd.

John Frusciante was born March 5, 1970 in New York City, NY. His father, John Frusciante, Sr. was a Julliard-trained pianist, while his mother, Gail Frusciante, was a vocalist. As a child John and his family moved a lot, from Los Angeles to Arizona, Florida, and finally settling in California after his mother and father had divorced. As John grew up he begun to have a stronger and stronger interest in music; mainly listening to different forms of rock. From Black Flag to Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, The Germs, The Clash; all of those bands and people would later influence him when he joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers. At the age of sixteen John dropped out of school, with permission from his parents, he then went got a job and an apartment and played guitar all day. At this point in his life his guitar was his life, it meant everything to him. Around the same time John also found out about Red Hot Chili Peppers, at this time the band had yet to explode, but he was already in love with their music. He would watch the band’s guitar player, Hillel Slovak, and aspire to be just like him; in every way. He would later say that Hillel Slovak was one of his heroes as a child. Later after Hillel Slovak died of drugs he got the opportunity to join the band of his dream, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and he was just eighteen years old.

John Frusciante

Around the time he joined the band, he started to become a drug addict, getting high and living what he thought was the “rock star” life style. From there he would make an album with the band and then later separate, because the fame and fortune was too much for him to handle all at once. Half way through a tour in Japan in 1992 John announced that he was quitting the band. He decided to take a solo route and make solo records. However they never were too successful. During this time John was a 24/7 druggy, he always high, and the albums reflect it, all of the parts were done by him, the vocals and guitar. For most of the songs from his solo album the lyrics make no sense, and are not understandable. John continued on like this for a while, staying in his apartment getting high, he said he did it because it made him feel good. Later something clicked in his head and he decided to try and get clean and rejoin The Red Hot Chili Peppers. They welcomed him back with loving hands and John then stopped using drugs and stayed clean. He also inspired the lead singer, Anthony Kiedis, to stop taking drugs too. From then on John turned his life around, he stopped all drugs and did more healthy things, he would start meditating and becoming more spiritual.

I picked John Frusciante as my hero because he was able over come his drug addiction that he had for many years. Not did he just stop his drug addiction he help other quit their addition too. He became more of a spiritual person, connecting with nature and meditating. It goes to show that when you really are set on doing something you really can do it. I also liked how even from when he was a teen and he told himself that he wanted to become an avid guitar player he did. Despite the fact he was constantly moving from place to place, and that his parents had split up, he did not let that stop him. He was and still is a strong willed person, that is very determined, and he achieved everything on his own with his own hard work. Finally the biggest reason he is my hero is he did what he believed was right, he did not follow the crowd ad he did what he enjoyed. He did not like all the fame that the band had so he quit, instead of just playing for the money, and the high life. Even though he made terrible decisions to do drugs it just shows that everyone is human and has some flaws; that nothing is impossible when you truly try. I believe all of these traits combined make John Frusciante a good hero, he was a strong willed person, one who had to overcome his own troubles and work hard, and help, but most importantly inspire others.