Josh Klinghoffer has said there’s a “a slight disrespect” to the Red Hot Chili Peppers albums made without John Frusciante.
In a new interview with Guitar World, the guitarist opened up about the fan reception between the albums he made with the band, in comparison to the response to those featuring Frusicante.
Frusciante joined the band in 1988 following the death of their founding guitarist Hillel Slovak, and has been on and off with the band ever since. He has performed on some of RHCP’s biggest albums, including ‘Californication’, ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’ and ‘By The Way’.
Klinghoffer filled in for Frusciante in 2011 during an off period, going on to record two studio albums (‘I’m with You‘ and ‘The Getaway’) with the band until Frusicante rejoined in 2019.
Speaking to Guitar World, Klinghoffer was asked whether he was bothered by his records being somewhat overlooked in comparison to Frusciante’s – despite fans generally believing Klinghoffer’s albums to be of good quality.
“Not really,” he responded, theorising it was due to “the way John views the band when he’s not in it, and it makes sense to me. They have enough music that they don’t need to look to some of the other records”.
“But for anyone who connected with those albums, like ‘One Hot Minute’, or the two I made with them… I imagine it’s a little weird for me to be banished from the catalogue and the live performance,” he added.
He called Frusciante a “strong presence”, continuing: “He’s kind of the preeminent guitar player, you know? He’s the one who made the work with them where they experienced their global fame”.
Klinghoffer went on to say that he had listened to RHCP’s newer albums with Frusciante, ‘Unlimited Love‘ and ‘Return of the Dream Canteen‘, saying: “I listened to their new stuff one time when it first came out.”
He also addressed comments he made about the band on Brazilian podcast 5 Notas, where he claimed the Chili Peppers were “doing cooler music” while he was with them. “I made some comments in South America that people didn’t like – but I don’t think I said anything shocking,” he said. “I just said that I thought that what I was working on with them was cooler! But I don’t really keep up so much.”
When Guitar World added that the band “return to a specific type of sound” with Frusciante, Klinghoffer concurred: “They have their thing, their formula. I guess it’s so much more definitive to the main amount of Chili Pepper fans; you know, that’s just what the Chili Peppers are. It’s probably a testament to them that they can step out of that and do a good record with Dave Navarro. I like that record too [‘One Hot Minute’].”
Klinghoffer went on to say he noticed “a slight disrespect” to records made without Frusciante, saying: “Once John’s back in the picture, it’s like the other records don’t exist. That’s the only weird thing to me, because those records were important at the time, you know? They were important enough to go and play them around the world.”
We last spoke to the Chili Peppers in 2022 for ‘Unlimited Love’, where they spoke about their reunion with Frusciante. “Flea had put the idea [of rejoining] in my head,” he told us, “and I was sitting there with the guitar thinking that I hadn’t written any rock music in so long. Could I still do that?”
He added the Chili Peppers felt “fresh, like a new band”, adding there was a less competitive attitude that hekped foster creativity. “I put a lot less of my ego [into it] than I had previously and I think that was true with everybody. It wasn’t so much a competition thing as really wanting to give a part of ourselves to one another [and] being excited to listen to what the others were bringing in.
“Sometimes in the past, like on ‘By The Way’ for example, or [1989 album] ‘Mother’s Milk’, one person would feel stifled at the expense of another,” he added. “This time it felt very much like people who care about each other and are genuinely excited for everybody else to be the best that they can be.”
Since leaving the band, Klinghoffer was charged with vehicular manslaughter. After pleading not guilty, he narrowly avoided jail time for the crime.
Meanwhile, Dave Navarro has reflected on the “backlash” to replacing Frusciante in RHCP, saying: “Whatever magic John brought to the Chili Peppers, I didn’t have that style of magic”.
Navarro went on to describe himself as a “goth kid in a funk band”, adding: “If you had to narrow down what the disconnect was, I’d say that would be it … It became clear pretty fast that as much as we tried and as much as we wanted it to work, we weren’t coming from the same musical place.”