The strange night John Frusciante heard ghosts having sex at Rick Rubin’s house
The whole combination of sex, drugs and rock and roll isn’t just a saying; some artists truly took it as a way of life. While you might look at acts from the 1960s and ‘70s for having taken this to the extreme, there are plenty of acts since then who have kept the tradition going, and it’s probably fair to say, for better or worse, Red Hot Chili Peppers didn’t shy away from that facet of their existence.
Of course, this hasn’t always been a good thing for them, and their proclivity for such activities has come back to haunt them on a number of occasions.
This is especially true with the exploits of frontman Anthony Kiedis, whose promiscuous attitude to relationships and drug habits have landed him and the band in all sorts of murky controversies over the years.
However, you don’t have to believe every story or take it as gospel, and considering there was a lot of substance abuse happening at the time, memories or perceptions can probably be a little hazy and therefore inaccurate. Why would you want to believe their tall stories if you wouldn’t trust Kiedis and his cohorts in any other situation? That being said, there’s one particularly haunting one that might keep you entertained, regardless of whether or not you believe in the validity of it.
When the band went to record Blood Sugar Sex Magik at Rick Rubin’s mansion, they were already aware of how the place had a history of supernatural and magical encounters. Not only had the property in Laurel Canyon previously been owned by famed escape artist Harry Houdini, but plenty of people had died there in mysterious circumstances, fires had broken out and caused it to require rebuilding, and there were supposed curses that plagued the property.
However, guitarist John Frusciante wasn’t exactly deterred by this, it would seem, and came away from his time recording at the mansion with plenty to talk and fantasise about. Supposedly, when an otherworldly experience at the property confronted him, his encounter was much less frightful, and more erotic, claiming that he overheard the ghosts having sex.
“There are definitely ghosts in this house,” he claimed in Interview Magazine in 1991. “One of the rooms, the psychics said, has a very spiritually sexual vibe, and I actually heard a woman being fucked in there one day.”
You may have noticed that Frusciante mentioned psychics, and that’s because the Chilis actually went to the trouble of bringing in ghost hunters to see what was going on at Rubin’s house. However, the prevailing thought was that these individuals were charlatans, and that they were attempting to con the band.
“After a few visits, relations with the ghost-busters went sour,” Frusciante claimed. “The girlfriend of one of the psychics pretended to be possessed, and she said that some of us were going to get possessed. We didn’t know whether to believe it at first. Basically, they tried to scare us.”
In addition to complaining that they were being charged far too much money for a con, the guitarist claimed that he’d resort to violence if he ever saw any of them again. However, this might be because he’d established a good rapport with the ghosts by then. “Actually, the ghosts are very friendly,” he stated.
