Ex-Chili Peppers Guitarist Done With Bands

Ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante revealed to Billboard this week why he quit the band for a second time in 2009. He explained, "I had always wanted to do electronic music and I had only dabbled in it throughout the 10 years or whatever it was that I was in the band after rejoining (in 1998)." He added that it wasn't until the Chili Peppers decided to take a two-year break after its 2006-2007 tour that he realized he did not want to go back, saying, "I just knew that I didn't ever want to be in the band again. And I didn't actually quit until several months after we were already on the break, but I knew I wanted to quit months before the tour was over."

Frusciante maintains that he's grown more as a musician in the past few years that he ever could have if he had stayed with the Chili Peppers, saying, "When you get in a band, especially a band that's popular . . . you basically stick to proven formulas and things that have proven themselves able to sell to people. And by doing that very little growth takes place over a period of years."

Frusciante will release a new EP of electronic music called Outsides on August 27th, but has no plans to perform any of it live, saying, "I have no interest in playing live. I really don't think of myself as a performer anymore. It was never something that came naturally to me. It was something that I adapted to, but it was never really an expression of who I was."
The Chili Peppers replaced Frusciante with longtime friend and occasional collaborator Josh Klinghoffer in 2010, releasing their 10th studio album, I'm With You, in late 2011. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, but Frusciante did not attend.