Two Very Different Guitarists Who Influenced John Frusciante

Since his 1989 debut with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Frusciante has become one of rock music’s most iconic guitarists.

Videos by American Songwriter

After surviving a near-death drug addiction and quitting and rejoining the band multiple times, Frusciante became indispensable to the band’s defining work. Though they’ve made albums in his absence, the Los Angeles group is at its strongest when Anthony Kiedis, Flea, and Chad Smith have Frusciante standing stage left.

A range of guitarists have shaped his sound, including Johnny Marr (The Smiths), John McGeoch (Magazine, Siouxsie and the Banshees), and Steve Vai, among others. But two in particular seem to have been the most crucial to Frusciante’s playing style.

Eddie Van Halen

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have defined themselves as the quintessential California band. Anthony Kiedis has made no secret of his affiliation with the broader state of California and its more zoomed-in locale: Los Angeles. The evidence is clear: “Californication,” “Dani California,” and “Magic Johnson” all remain funky love letters to the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ hometown.

But the musical legacy of California fills the band as much as the seedy side of Hollywood in Kiedis’ defining poem “Under the Bridge.” Frusciante—knowingly or not—has accepted the mantle of Los Angeles guitar legend from Eddie Van Halen—most notably in “Eddie,” the band’s ode to the late guitarist. While Kiedis loosely details Van Halen’s rise within the LA music scene and its Sunset Strip, Frusciante pays tribute to his hero while still sounding like himself. In the outro solo, you hear traces of the early Van Halen records, how Eddie shredded effortlessly over bass and drums with his guitar hard-panned to one side of the speakers.

Most remember Eddie Van Halen for his two-handed tapping technique. Frusciante employed this, too. Listen to his tumbling guitar textures in “Don’t Forget Me” from By the Way. It may not be one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ most popular songs, but it’s one of Frusciante’s greatest guitar moments. Like Van Halen, there are many to choose from.

Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix may be the most singular influence on Frusciante’s guitar playing. His Fender Stratocaster and Marshall full stacks are the same (basic) rig Hendrix played through. He also took Hendrix’s Curtis Mayfield style of rhythm and blues and adopted it as his own. You can trace the chord-and-rhythm fills of “Under the Bridge” straight to “Little Wing.”

Occasionally, Frusciante quotes Hendrix directly, as in the guitar solo to “Dani California,” which borrows its melody from “Purple Haze.” Then listen to the pre-chorus riff in “Suck My Kiss” or the hyper-wah-wah jam in “Stone Cold Bush” for more examples connecting John to Jimi.

Hillel Slovak had merged punk rock with funk and Jimi Hendrix to establish a blueprint for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Frusciante was a fan and teenage virtuoso when he joined the group following Slovak’s death. Blood Sugar Sex Magik became a RHCP masterpiece and the first album where Frusciante developed his signature sound. Soon, kids were learning his riffs like he’d grown up studying Hendrix.

Photo by Barry Brecheisen/WireImage