The world recently witnessed John Frusciante shred at the age of 17, when footage emerged of him performing with his hard rock band IKE. Now, he has shed some light on even earlier musical endeavours, as he has described the first song he ever wrote: a punk song called "I'm Going to Kill José."
Frusciante appeared on today's episode of This Little Light, the podcast hosted by his Red Hot Chili Peppers bandmate Flea. He explained that, after learning guitar briefly at the age of seven or eight, he picked the instrument up again a few years later, around the age of 11.
"There was a day that came along after I had been into new wave and punk for a while, and I felt a lot of frustration building up in me," Frusciante told Flea. "I was angry at some kids that I was playing baseball with, so I wrote a song about how I wanted to kill this kid José. 'I'm Going to Kill José' was the name of the song; he was a really bratty kid. I kept writing songs that one night."
He didn't know how to play guitar, but Frusciante speculates that he probably tuned the guitar to an open tuning. "I think I must have tuned it so that you could hold one finger down and it sounded like a chord, because I was inspired enough that I wrote a whole cassette tape," he remembered. "I filled up a cassette tape with little punk songs."
Unfortunately, the world will never hear "I'm Going to Kill José," or any of those other songs Frusciante wrote on that fateful first night. Flea asked Frusciante if he still had the tape, and the guitarist responded, "No, no, no. I would have recorded over that to record prank phone calls like a year later."
Listen to the episode below; the discussion of "I'm Going to Kill José" happens within the first few minutes. The rest of the near-two-hour discussion goes deep on the origins of Frusciante's guitar playing, and the various music lessons he took throughout his youth.
Frusciante recently released a couple of new electronic songs with his project Trickfinger, although they're only available as a download with some rather expensive merch.
Frusciante appeared on today's episode of This Little Light, the podcast hosted by his Red Hot Chili Peppers bandmate Flea. He explained that, after learning guitar briefly at the age of seven or eight, he picked the instrument up again a few years later, around the age of 11.
"There was a day that came along after I had been into new wave and punk for a while, and I felt a lot of frustration building up in me," Frusciante told Flea. "I was angry at some kids that I was playing baseball with, so I wrote a song about how I wanted to kill this kid José. 'I'm Going to Kill José' was the name of the song; he was a really bratty kid. I kept writing songs that one night."
He didn't know how to play guitar, but Frusciante speculates that he probably tuned the guitar to an open tuning. "I think I must have tuned it so that you could hold one finger down and it sounded like a chord, because I was inspired enough that I wrote a whole cassette tape," he remembered. "I filled up a cassette tape with little punk songs."
Unfortunately, the world will never hear "I'm Going to Kill José," or any of those other songs Frusciante wrote on that fateful first night. Flea asked Frusciante if he still had the tape, and the guitarist responded, "No, no, no. I would have recorded over that to record prank phone calls like a year later."
Listen to the episode below; the discussion of "I'm Going to Kill José" happens within the first few minutes. The rest of the near-two-hour discussion goes deep on the origins of Frusciante's guitar playing, and the various music lessons he took throughout his youth.
Frusciante recently released a couple of new electronic songs with his project Trickfinger, although they're only available as a download with some rather expensive merch.
