Guitarist John Frusciante was a crucial member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers during their mainstream breakthrough. But at the height of their fame, he walked away from it all. He didn’t return until 1999, contributing to Californication and the Chili Peppers’ comeback. Frusciante has left and rejoined the band several times over the years. While his current tenure seems to have stuck, it’s a curious situation overall. What made the guitarist leave the band he helped make famous twice? And what made him want to return?It begins in 1984, when Frusciante first discovered the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He grew close with Hillel Slovak, idolizing and studying the guitarist’s style and learning all he could. Frusciante wasn’t initially familiar with the Chili Peppers’ funk-rock style. But through his friendship with Slovak, he quickly learned. He also had instant chemistry with bassist Flea, which helped when he auditioned for the Chili Peppers after Slovak’s death in 1988.Frusciante contributed to Mother’s Milk in 1989, then Blood Sugar Sex Magik in 1991. By then, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were breaking through, bolstered by a more polished studio sound and a little less acid in their funk. However, while RHCP were touring Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Frusciante quit the band unexpectedly. John Frusciante Felt Called To Quit Red Hot Chili Peppers After Their 1991 Breakthrough Album, but Couldn’t Explain Why“I had a weird premonition that I should quit immediately after I finished my guitar parts on [Blood Sugar Sex Magik],” John Frusciante told RAW Magazine around 1993. “I’d say to myself, ‘I know you don’t have any reason to, but you’ve gotta quit the band’.”He continued, “But I couldn’t bring myself to do it, because I knew [the band] wouldn’t let me. It wouldn’t make sense to them. But I had this feeling that the road was really gonna f**k with me. The road had been f**ing with Flea for so many years, and it’d be bad of me to have quit then, but I was sure I should do it.”According to Frusciante, tensions ran high within the band, especially between him and Anthony Keidis. “The unity hadn’t been good with the band for ages,” he said. He and Keidis hadn’t spoken over the past couple of tours, and didn’t interact on stage. Frusciante felt the pull to quit, but didn’t want to leave Flea behind.“So Flea took me to the park and said, ‘Is there anything you like about being in the band?’, and I said, ‘No, I’m just in the band ‘cos I love you. I love playing with you, and I don’t want to just leave you, but there’s nothing I like about being in the band,'” Frusciante admitted. “He understood, but he didn’t think about it for the next year. So when I quit it was a shock. To them, it seemed like it was getting better as far as the getting along went. But I didn’t wanna do it anymore.”For Frusciante, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ rise to fame was a main cause of his unhappiness. He liked some things about being in the band, mostly playing with Flea and drummer Chad Smith. “But,” he said, “the popularity thing bummed me out.”He recalled a conversation with Hillel Slovak where the guitarist asked, “‘Would you still like the Chilis if they got so popular they played the LA Forum?'” Frusciante answered, “‘No. It would ruin the whole thing that’s great about the band. The audience feels no different from the band at all.'”For Frusciante, the Band’s Mainstream Popularity Went Against the Heart and Soul of Their MusicAt 17, before joining the Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Frusciante couldn’t imagine the band getting so big that they’d play stadiums. That didn’t mesh with how he or other fans interacted with the music, how they felt it all. So, when the Chili Peppers started breaking into the mainstream, leading to festival slots and stadiums, that didn’t sit right. “I couldn’t picture the band playing the LA Forum, and when we got to that point of popularity it bugged me for that and a number of other reasons,” he recalled. On May 7, 1992, Frusciante refused to go on stage, announcing that he was leaving the band. The Chili Peppers were in the middle of touring Japan, but Frusciante adamantly flew back to California the next morning.But while touring, he had developed an increasingly serious drug problem. Upon returning home, he fell into a deep depression, spending the next several years living isolated in his Hollywood Hills home. His h****n use then increased as a way to self-medicate the depression.“I was very sad, and I was always happy when I was on drugs,” he told Spin in 2002. “Therefore, I should be on drugs all the time. I was never guilty—I was always really proud to be an addict.”In 1998, however, he quit h****n cold turkey, then went to rehab to address his other substance abuses and health issues. He came out with a new approach to life, becoming deeply spiritual and self-disciplined. But around the time John Frusciante was getting back on his feet, the Chili Peppers were struggling.After bringing in guitarist Dave Navarro in 1993, they put out the poorly received album One Hot Minute in 1995. Around 1998, the band fired Navarro and considered breaking up for good. Instead, Flea visited Frusciante and asked him to rejoin the band, which he tearfully accepted. With Frusciante back in the fold, the Red Hot Chili Peppers started work on Californication, which would herald a comeback for the iconic funk-rockers.Photo by Ian Dickson/RedfernsThe post Why John Frusciante Walked Away From the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Height of Their Breakthrough appeared first on VICE.