Red Hot Chili Peppers Announce the Return of Guitarist John Frusciante
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are in a bittersweet transitional period, but fans are thrilled to hear that a familiar face will be coming back into the fold in the not-so-distant future.
On Sunday (Dec. 15), the Angeleno rock act announced that Josh Klinghoffer, the guitarist who’s been playing in the group for the last decade, will no longer be rounding out their quartet. In a statement posted to Instagram, the band writes that they’re “parting ways” with Klinghoffer — who plays on two RHCP albums, 2011’s I’m with You and 2016’s The Getaway — and that they’re “grateful for our time with him, and the countless gifts he shared with us.”
The silver lining: Klinghoffer’s place will be filled by John Frusciante, who joined the band following the death of original guitarist Hillel Slovak in 1988 through 1992, and again from 1998-2009. These periods correspond with some of the most significant stretches of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ history, with Frusciante appearing on 1991’s Blood Sugar Sex Magic, their mainstream breakthrough, and 1999’s Californication, which earned RHCP a Grammy for best rock song with the LP’s single, “Scar Tissue,” in 2000.
Frusciante’s career is dotted with prolific solo work in rock and electronic, with 14 studio albums to his name, as well as collaborations with the Mars Volta and other artists.