Channel: Rock N' Roll True Stories

Category: Music

Tags: madonnajohn frusciantemother's milk red hot chili peppersstone cold bushunder the bridge red hot chili peppersfleaanthony kiedisrockred hot chili peppers saturday night livemusicrock n' rollsaturday night livechad smithinterviewdocumentarystory

Description: Red Hot Chili Peppers Tension Filled Saturday Night Live Appearance Saturday Night Live Appearance Controversy Videos youtube.com/results?search_query=rock+n+roll+true+stories+snl SIGN UP for 10 of the Craziest Stories in Rock N' Roll [Secret Playlist]: bit.ly/3vVPAEF Have a video request or a topic you'd like to see us cover? Fill out our google form! bit.ly/3stnXlN -----CONNECT ON SOCIAL----- Instagram: instagram.com/rocknrolltruestories Facebook: facebook.com/RNRTrueStories Twitter: twitter.com/rocktruestories Blog: rockandrolltruestories.com #rhcp #johnfrusciante #snl I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos. I;ve covered on my channel the times that musical guests were banned from SNL including Frank Zappa, The Replacements Fear and several others. The links to those videos are down below. But today I want to talk about the REd Hot Chili Peppers appearance on the show that wouldn’t result in the band getting banned, but rather a snapshot of the band struggling with each other. John Fruscinate would be the longest serving guitarist in the band having three separate stints with the group with his first happening from 1988-1992, 1998-2009 and more recently 2019 until present. By the late 80’s the Chili Peppers already had several guitarists included Jack Sherman and Hillel Slovak. Following the death of Slovak in 1988 Frusciante would join the band. Frusciante’s musical background differed greatly from his bandmates with Flea recallingin the book , Fornication: The Red Hot Chili Peppers Story, Fruiscante was and iquote “a really talented and knowledgeable musician. He [Frusciante] knows all the shit I don’t know. I basically know nothing about music theory and he’s studied it to death, inside and out. He’s a very disciplined musician—all he cares about are his guitar and his cigarettes.” In 1991 Red Hot Chili Peppers would release their fifth and breakthrough album Blood Sugar Sex Magik. It would establish the band as one of the biggest groups in the world, but the new success brought challenges namely insecurity, infighting and drug addiction. Frontman Anthony Kiedis would write in his 2004 autobiography Scar Tissue about Frusciante’s headspace at the time recalling “John would say, ‘We’re too popular. I don’t need to be at this level of success. I would just be proud to be playing this music in clubs like you guys were doing two years ago.” It was that attitude that also showed up during their live gigs with drummer Chad Smith telling VH1’s behind the music. John was just up there like he didnt’ give an f about anything and you can’t be in a band and not care and it’s gonna show and it did a lot of the shows were terrible.” In February of 1992 the band was invited to perform as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live with hosts Tom Arnold and Roseanne. Also appearing as a special guest that night was Madonna who appeared in a sketch.. John was in a terrible mood that weekend and almost came to blows with a crew member, was upset that madonna ignored him and spent little time with the band offstage. The Chili Peppers were scheduled to play two songs that night - Stone Cold Bush from their previous record Mother’s Milk, which went off without incident, except for one moment when you can see Kiedis kick John during the song. The group’s second song of the night, from their new album at the time Under the Bridge didn’t go so smoothly. Perhaps Frusciante was upset about the kick or just his general relationship with Anthony and the band. For that song By this point in time Keidis and Frusciante were barely getting along with Keidis remembering in his book “ Things deteriorated to the point where John and I didn’t talk on the bus, and if we ran into each other in passing, we wouldn’t even acknowledge each other. Getting back to the band’s performance of under the bridge. Keidis would rely on Frusciante to cue him in. Kiedis would recall in his book what happened as he was waiting for the guitarist to cue him in saying I had no idea what song he was playing or what key he was in. He looked like he was in a different world. We were on live TV in front of millions of people, and it was torture. I started to sing in what I thought was the key, even if it wasn’t the key he was playing in. I felt like I was getting stabbed in the back and hight out to dry in front of all of America while this guy was off in a corner in the shadow, playing some dissonant out-of-tune experiment. I thought he was doing that on purpose, just to fuck with me. Then towards teh end of the song Frusicnate provides backing vocals, but during their appearance on SNL the guitarist let out a piercing howl. The performance did little to stop the band’s commercial momentum. The performance setup the the song to be released as the second single from the album where it would end up going