John Frusciante’s longtime guitar tech Dave Lee recently reflected on Frusciante’s choice to leave the Red Hot Chili Peppers for a second time in 2009. While speaking to Boss, Lee revealed that the guitarist’s exit from the band was anything but unexpected as he had been planning a hiatus two years before his departure.
“Everything shut down when he officially left in 2009, but the writing was already on the wall. I remember John and I were sitting in the dressing room at either the Reading or Leeds Festival in 2007, and he told me he was going to take two years off. He said, ‘After that, I’ll know if I want to be in the band.’ It was a bummer, but I understood: he had to do what he had to do,” Lee recalled.
“A lot of people don’t understand it. They’re like, ‘How can you quit the Red Hot Chili Peppers?’ For a lot of musicians, being in a band like the Chili Peppers would be the pinnacle. One in a million musicians get that kind of success. The chances are so slim, even for really talented people.”
When asked about the secret to Frusciante’s success, Lee replied:
“It sounds cliched, but it really is accurate: John was true to himself and his art. He refuses to let success, or the hope of success, guide his creative world. That’s the only way I can explain it. When John wrote ‘Under the Bridge,’ for example, he wasn’t trying to make a hit song; he wrote it because that’s what he felt like doing.”
Lee continued: “They had released ‘Stadium Arcadium’ to gigantic success, and he appreciated that. But he really does not make any music because he hopes it’ll make him money. And that is absolutely true. I’m a natural skeptic, and when I hear people say things like, ‘I don’t want to be a musician for fame and fortune,’ I think, ‘That’s bullshit.’ But this is a case where I literally witnessed it. For real. The dude walked away from the Chili Peppers after Stadium Arcadium. Now, what does that tell you? One thing’s for sure: he’s not there for the success.”
