Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante Describes Working with Flea

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ John Frusciante Describes Working with Flea

2022-08-01

The members of band member the Red Hot Chili Peppers standing in the sunlight for a promo shot.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Story by Anne Erickson, photo by Carla Jespersen

John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers says he and Flea would often engage in a “faceoff” when writing songs for the band’s latest album

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are back with not one but two new albums this year, “Unlimited Love” and “Return of the Dream Canteen,” they’ve also reunited with one of their chief band members, guitarist John Frusciante. With Frusciante back in the fold, he obviously had a major hand in writing the band’s latest effort.

As it turns out, there was often some tension during those writing session. In a new interview, he says that he and bass player Flea will often settle any disputes with a “faceoff” when they would pen songs together. As he explains, it was all in an effort to write better music.

“Flea and I, we’ve always done these things called ‘faceoffs,'” Frusciante told Guitar World. “If we’ve been jamming and maybe we’ve got a good verse that we came up with, but it needs another section, in the old days we used to literally put our foreheads next to each other and give each other kind of a mean look. And then it would be, ‘Okay, I’ll go outside. You can stay here.'” A little like two sumo wrestlers stomping before the battle begins, eh?”

He added, “We’d go in separate rooms, and I’d write a section and Flea would write a section. We’d both attempt to write a chorus or a bridge or whatever it was, and then we’d come back into the room and one guy would play everybody his part, the other guy plays everybody his part, and one of them makes it into the song. Or sometimes both of them made it into the song.”

The Peppers will spend much of this summer on the road in support of “Unlimited Love.” Expect to hear new songs off the album, as well as a range of classics. Find tour dates here.

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Anne Erickson

Meet the expert - Author, writer and editor Anne Erickson is a Detroit-based music reporter and radio host. She has written for the USA Today Network, Consequence.net, Blabbermouth.net, Loudwire.com and many more. Anne holds a master's degree from Michigan State University. Contact Anne at anne@audioinkradio.com.