During a recent interview with Rick Rubin on the Broken Record podcast, current Red Hot Chili Peppers bandmate John Frusciante discussed how he had to re-audition to join the band without knowing about it. Rubin produced the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ latest studio album ‘Unlimited Love’ which came out April 1st. The group revealed why this bandmate was fired recently.
During the podcast, it was revealed how when fellow Red Hot Chili Peppers bandmates Kiedis and Flea were on the hunt for a new guitarist after the death of Hillel Solvak, the group was looking into DeWayne “Blackbyrd” McKnight and Dead Kennedy’s D.H. Peligro. With that, a secret “audition” was put together. Credit to Ultimate Guitar for the following transcription.
“But he’s like, ‘I’m not sure where that’s going with Blackbyrd or if it’s working out. And so I told Bob he could have your number. But I also told him that I have first dibs on this guy. If we decide we want them in the Chii Peppers, I’ve got first dibs and you can’t be angry if I take him.
“So I talked to Bob, I go down to the Thelonious Monster rehearsal, and I auditioned for them and they hired me right away. But the thing about that rehearsal was, Anthony Kiedis was there at that rehearsal, and Flea and he must have talked, Flea was like, ‘You should go check this guy out.’ And so Anthony was watching the whole time.
“So I auditioned, and they hired me. Then Anthony left there and went to Flea. And then they both called me up at like six o’clock in the evening. And they were like, ‘We’ve been talking a lot about it, and we’ve decided we’d like you to be the guitarist to the Chii Peppers. Is this what you want?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I want this more than anything in the world.'”
