John Anthony Frusciante was born on March 5, 1970, in New York. He became interested in rock music at an early age. After his parents divorced, John and his mother moved to California when he was seven. When he was nine, his stepfather offered him his first acoustic guitar.
John taught himself how to play guitar, and for the next several years he would spend all his time practicing. In California, his interest in music grew and grew as he discovered bands such as The Germs. While at school, it was clear that John was an outsider, mainly because he would rather concentrate on music and that was his life.
In school, he heard many artists who influenced what he played on his guitar, such as Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa, among others. John became a big fan of a local band called Red Hot Chili Peppers when he heard them at 15 years of age. At this time, original guitarist Hillel Slovak was still in the band. At the age of 16, John left school and home to become a full-time musician.
He had even auditioned to be a guitarist for Frank Zappa but "chickened out" at the last minute. At a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, John met Hillel Slovak. Over the years, John also met Anthony Kiedis and Flea, and began to come in contact with them regularly. When Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose on June 27, 1988, Jack Irons, the Chili Peppers' drummer at the time, also left, as he and Slovak were best friends and Slovak's death was a huge shock to Irons.
Flea had jammed with John many times after Hillel's death and told Anthony that John was right for the Chili Peppers. The instrumental "Pretty Little Ditty" (the riff of which was sampled for Crazy Town's smash hit "butterfly") that appeared on the album "Mother's Milk" was born through the numerous jams that Flea and John had.
