So it’s official now,  after a whole year, John Frusciante finally announced that he left Red Hot Chili Peppers for real. And he is not coming back, because he wants to concentrate more on his own work:

I really love the band and what we did. I understand and value that my work with them means a lot to many people, but I have to follow my interests. For me, art has never been something done out of a sense of duty. It is something I do because it is really fun, exciting, and interesting. – John Frusciante

You can read the whole blog entry on his MySpace page as well as his official blog.

No one can tell for sure who is going to be his replacement as a new guitarist for the band.  As you already heard, it could be John’s apprentice Josh Klinghoffer. Feeling are mixed and I am not sure what to make out of this. I hope it’s for the best and as you can see he had his own reasons, and it wouldn’t be the way it used to if he forced himself to do something he didn’t feel like doing… It’s really sad to think they will never play together again though.

Let’s make a little break from all the rumors and what ifs, and while we’re waiting for official news, let’s enjoy Chad’s company. Here is yet another interview with Chad Smith done by Francisco Fernández, from Argentinian Red Hot Chili Peppers website – FunkyMonks.ar I am just going to post some parts of this interview, related to Red Hot Chili Peppers, and you can read the whole thing on Francisco’s website – FunkyMonks.ar, or you can also download and listen the whole interview here:

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Chad, we know that the Chili Peppers are performing on the 29th of January, Neil Young tribute concert… are you going to play a new song apart from Neil’s cover? Is there someting you can tell us about the concert?

CS: I think it’s for the Grammys and around that time they do as always, honor an artist, this year is Neil Young and a lot of people are going to be doing Neil Young songs, he’s gonna be there, obviously. So we’re just really honored to be able to play this great music, we’re just gonna do one song, ’cause like 20 people are playing, bunch of different people, I don’t what song we’re gonna do yet but ? wrote Neil.

I don’t want to bother you with questions of the Chili Peppers, but we have heard rumors about the band situation for almost three years and we would like to know what plans the band has after this concert

CS: Well, we’re writing songs right now, you know, we’re gonna make another record and it’s going really well, we have a great time, we just needed to take a break, we’ve been playing… you know, being a Chili Pepper is a full time job [laughs]. You know, we write songs, we record them and then we go on tour on tour for a long time. We did that for ten years pretty straight, and we just thought it was time to take a break and do other things and live our lives, be with our families and come back fresh with your batteries recharged and once again make new music. That’s why we took the time off, we’re not breaking up or anything, it was just a break and now we’re back and everybody is really happy to be back playing.

That’s great! Well we heard that you have recorded four new songs with the Peppers. By the way, congratulations. Some of them have pianos and it seems to be something different from what you have been doing all these years. What can you tell us about the new sound of the band?

CS: Well, I can’t talk too much about it because it’s really in a early stages, you know, we write music for a long time and get a lot of different things before we end picking what, you know, it’s going to be songs and what’s gonna end up on CD’s. So I don’t want to say “Yeah, there’s gonna be piano”, we’re just doing whatever feels right and whatever people in the group wants to bring to the table. You know, it’s gonna be different. Always different, a very honest representation of what we’re doing at the time. So that’s what I can say…

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The question that’s been bothering all true Red Hot Chili Peppers fans still remains unanswered. Has John Frusciante really left the band? Has his apprentice Josh Klinghoffer replaced him in the studio? And if all the previous assumptions are true, when will they officially go public and say so… Or deny, just give us any kind of closure so we can stop assuming things. We can’t know. What I can do now is give you more has John Frusciante left the band rumors from a few different sources and you get to decide for yourself if you want to believe that or not. I begin to winder if any of this is making any sense at all but it seems like the rumors won’t go away. Can “just rumors” last this long?

The newest piece of info comes from musicradar.com, where they state that John Frusciante is no longer working with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but they won’t give away the source, saying it’s a source close to the band:

“Josh Klinghoffer has been playing with the group for a couple of months now,” says the source. “Optimistically, the Peppers are trying to lock down a replacement for John, who has apparently quit. Mentally, John checked out a long time ago. He’s interested in doing his own thing, his own albums – the whole big rock band machinery just doesn’t appeal to him anymore.”

The news that Frusciante has quit can hardly be viewed as surprising. During a podcast interview with MusicRadar earlier this year, the guitarist was lost for words during a routine question about the status of the group. He paused for nearly 30 seconds (later edited) before awkwardly stating that the Peppers had “no plans.” – says Joe Bosso from musicradar.com

These rumors resurfaced again when Chad Smith in a recent interview refused to talk about John: “I was told to stay away from John questions“

Two other sources also posted the same info recently. Buzzbands.la owned by a former LA Times states:

I hear the Red Hot Chili Peppers are writing music for a 10th album, but without John Frusciante. Guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who toured with the Peppers as a second axeman (and who also has played with Gnarls Barkley, Beck and PJ Harvey), is involved.

Read the whole article on Buzzbands.la

Buddyhead.com, an independent record label also puts the same “rumor” on their blog:

Looks like John Frusciante up and quit on his homeboys. Cuz our buddy Josh Klinghoffer is the new guitar player in Red Hot Chili Peppers. Drinks are on you dude. Better figure out what sock size your dick is STAT.

Read the whole article on Buddyhead.com

That’s all for now. I think it’s best to wait for an official announcement, which should be out some time soon, because as you can see these so called rumors are getting way out of control. Let’s hope for the best and stay with the band no matter what their decision is, they must have their own reasons!

A few days ago I got the book Me And My Friends by Tony Woolliscroft from www.abramsbooks.com and even though it’s rather old news and those of you who wanted it probably bought it already, I felt I had to write a few words about the great journey this book led me through. I simply couldn’t put it down until I reached the last page and then I had to go over some of the most interesting parts again. Me And My Friends will take you right to the core of the Red Hot Chili Peppers hurricane that will rock your world.

The book is written through the eyes of Tony Woolliscroft, the band’s personal photographer, who followed them since their Mother’s Milk tour and was a big friend with all the band members, Chad especially, who even helped him with the book. Me And My Friends is a perfectly balanced mixture of words and pictures, composed in such way you can almost feel the movement and the energy of their adventures.

The book consists of six chapters, named after their albums – Mothers Milk, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, One Hot Minute, Californication, By The Way and Stadium Arcadium. The foreword is written by Chad Smith, who joined Red Hot Chili Peppers at about the same time as Tony – the photographer.

“I hope you see his passion for his art, for music and for people. We’re still growing with him, letting him capture the good times and bad times, happy and sad. But what we are most proud of is that he captures the love” – Chad Smith

From then on, they got to really know, respect and trust each other, so as an outsider, Tony was able to get as close to them as possible. Looking at those pictures from their early days made me feel like I’m really getting to know each and every one of them, and Tony’s comments and funny little personal stories behind every photo make them even more entertaining and alive. The book shows all the aspects of the band’s life, the way they grew as musicians and as people, along with the chemistry they have between them, which is perfectly portrayed.

Tony managed to capture all the entertaining moments, and crucial people that helped create Red Hot Chili Peppers world. He captured their wild rocking live performances on the stage, yoga exercises backstage, chill out times before and after the shows as well as some personal moments that only he was allowed to record.

“He’s braved a typhoon with them in Japan, captured Anthony Kiedis walking off the edge of a skyscraper hotel roof in Venezuela, witnessed John Frusciante’s remarkable private comeback show in Washington, and had drumsticks affectionately thrown at him by Chad Smith during a live performance for taking pictures of Flea’s naked girlfriend”

“When I first saw the Peppers I was mesmerized, I really was. I’d seen nothing like these guys. Sparks seemed to fly off stage between each band member. Their workrate was phenomenal. Nonstop. The energy, God, it was infectious.” – Tony Woolliscroft

So if somehow, by mistake, you missed to buy this book, I suggest you to think about it again and check it out on amazon.com where you can buy it . If you want to peek at some pictures that were used in the book before you decide to buy it, you can visit this photo gallery on nerve.com.

Enjoy yourselves, I know I did !

That’s right, yet another interview with Chad Smith where he talks about his music and all three bands he plays in: Meatbats, Chickenfoot and Red Hot Chili Peppers. After everything that he’s been working on lately, no wonder he is the center of attention!

antiMusic: Considering I would imagine when it’s time for the Chili Peppers to do their thing, you spend a lot of time jamming out with Flea. What do you get from this band that is different than that kind of experience — just less of a familiarity?

Chad: Well, we all live in L.A. which is great, you know. We play whenever we can and everybody’s cool with that. Luckily, it’s not like some other bands where it’s “OK, you can’t do it. We’ve got to get somebody else”. There’s no pressure. I think maybe the other guys would like to be able to play a little bit more and travel. Once the record comes out hopefully people will get into it, and I would like to do too. But uh, I just gotta say no to things at some point. (laughs) I have a family at home, and I can’t travel as much as I used to. I’ve traveled a lot with Chickenfoot since May and my wife is very patient… but I have a feeling that she would be really upset if I said, “Hey, I’m going to Japan a week after I get home.” So, you know, we’ll play wherever we can. It’ll just make it that much more special you know. It’s not like we’re some big huge touring band, with 59 people working for us. It’s not like a Chili Peppers thing. It’s just the four guys. We set up our own stuff. And we go play. It’s cool. I like that. It’s so different from some of the other situations that I’m in. I start playing with these guys, just for the love of it and that’s great. Really. It’s good for me to play to 90 people and with no singing, no light show. You’re just there. It’s all music and that’s what it’s all about. It’s why I started playing. And I want to continue to do that. It’s fun and I want it to be fun and stay fun. When it’s not going to be fun anymore, then I’m not going to do it.

This is just a part of the interview where he talks about Red hot Chili Peppers, and the importance of his other two bands and how he sees his role in every one of them. To read the rest of this great interview by Morley Seaver, go to MorleyViews. Enjoy!