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John Frusciante in concert with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2006. Picture from wikipedia.org.

The newest rumor circulating around the blog-o-sphere is that the guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Frusciante, has left the band. This wouldn’t be the first time that Frusciante has left the Chili Peppers, as he went on an indefinite heroin hiatus in 1992 before quitting cold turkey and returning to the band in 1998 to record the album Californication.

The story originally broke on musicradar.com, when an unnamed “source” gave details about the Chili Peppers looking for a new guitarist. From the story:

“Josh Klinghoffer has been playing with the group for a couple of months now,” says the source. “Optimistically, the Peppers are trying to lock down a replacement for John, who has apparently quit.

“Mentally, John checked out a long time ago. He’s interested in doing his own thing, his own albums – the whole big rock band machinery just doesn’t appeal to him anymore.”

Josh Klinghoffer touring with PJ Harvey in 2004. Picture from wikipedia.org

Klinghoffer helped the Chili Peppers on their 2007 Stadium Arcadium tour as a second guitarist. He’s also toured with Beck, the Butthole Surfers and Gnarls Barkley in the past.

If the news holds up as true, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Frusciante has been somewhat distant in recent interviews, including a Musicradar.com podcast when he couldn’t come up with an answer for almost 30 seconds when asked about the status of the band, then saying that they had “no plans.” Frusciante has always had a prolific solo career, having released several side projects like those he did with Klinghoffer and Joe Lally of Fugazi as Ataxia and has worked with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta on a number of projects. Here’s to hoping that he hooks back up with Lopez and can churn out something like the jam session they had back in 2004.

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