John Frusciante recalled his early days in Red Hot Chili Peppers during a conversation with Flea on his podcast ‘This Little Light.’ The guitarist shared his initial fears of being fired by saying:
“There was always this feeling like, ‘Something bad is happening right now,’ and I was scared all the time, always scared of getting kicked off the band the first couple of years. I had a terrible feeling in my stomach about this for the first couple of years. Nobody said anything to make me think that they would do that, but it was a feeling where the phone would ring; I would hear your voice. I would get nervous for a second, ‘He might be calling me up to fire me.'”
Although Flea shared that there was never a thought of firing John, the guitarist had to find confidence in his playing, he continued:
“I knew I wasn’t as good as I was capable of being, or I knew I wasn’t as good as what had been instilled in me to think that I could be, but I didn’t realize that by stopping trying, that was going to be the way to open the door to be as good as I could be and it never occurred to me.”
John also revealed that the ‘Mother’s Milk’ tour allowed him to move past his fears by adding:
“I guess the confidence came from being on tour for ‘Mother’s Milk’ because I felt accepted by our audience. We had gotten more successful, and I had a certain confidence. I guess a part of me just felt like, ‘You can let go now; you can stop trying to be this other thing.'”
The fear of getting fired was way back when, however now, after John’s return to the band in 2019, the band is currently on their 23-date world tour for 2023 in support of their latest studio albums, ‘Unlimited Love’ and ‘Return of the Dream Canteen’ until late November. You can get more information about tickets here.
You can listen to John Frusciante’s conversation with Flea on his podcast below.
