Why did John Frusciante intentionally sabotage Red Hot Chili Peppers on ‘SNL’?
Saturday Night Live has a long history with musical guests, welcoming the likes of Nirvana, David Bowie, Paul Simon, Radiohead, Lana Del Rey, Patti Smith and countless others onto their stage over the years. While some of their musical acts are among the lesser-known variety, others are mammoth stars. Truly, they can run the gamut.
In addition to some fantastic performances, SNL has also welcomed some hijinks to the stage—we’re talking everything from Lana Dey Rey’s hiccupy first live performance to the scandal of Sinéad O’Connor ripping up a picture of the pope on live television. The show has seen as much controversy as it has powerful musical performances and as many banned artists as triumphant ones.
That said, it might not shock many to learn that John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers once tried to sabotage his own band on the iconic stage of Saturday Night Live. In the early 1990s, the group was on the rise, and a slot on SNL was a clear signal of their growing dominance in the rock world. But what does it mean to sabotage a performance—and why would Frusciante do it?
Of course, this wasn’t the first time that Frusciante looked to upturn the fortunes of his band and his bandmates in an apparent act of commercial defiance. In fact, this is just one example of a habit he made a part of his stage routine around that time as he struggled to align his own values with the skyrocketing market value of the band.
After the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, which catapulted Red Hot Chili Peppers to massive success—selling seven million copies in the US and over 13 million worldwide—John Frusciante struggled with the attention and pressure that followed. He preferred the experience of promoting their previous album, which had more modest success and less spotlight. Frusciante became disillusioned with what the band was becoming. He hadn’t joined to chase record sales or play by the industry’s rules—he’d joined to be part of a rock revolution, and the growing fame felt like a betrayal of that purpose.
Frusciante’s discomfort with the band’s mainstream success manifested in his resentment toward their global hit ‘Under the Bridge’—a track that remains one of their most popular. It’s not unusual for artists to grow frustrated with their biggest songs; these are often the ones they struggle to connect with over time. But to actively sabotage the song? That was something else entirely.
So, what happened?
Most artists might simply groan or roll their eyes when it’s time to play their biggest hit live—but Frusciante took it to another level. During numerous performances prior to his SNL showing, he had deliberately tried to throw Anthony Kiedis off by playing extended intros, hitting wrong notes, and shifting into different octaves and keys without warning. The result left the entire band scrambling to keep up, with Frusciante clearly set on derailing the song from the inside.
When the band was invited to be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live in 1992, though, Frusciante clearly saw an opportunity to make his point on a grand scale, so he did the same thing he’d been doing at smaller shows but in front of millions.
Anthony Kiedis resented Frusciante for the performance and even wrote about it in his book Scar Tissue. Regarding the live show in question, the frontman said: “I had no idea what song he was playing or what key he was in. He looked like he was in a different world […] We were on live TV in front of millions of people, and it was torture”.
Kiedis added: “I started to sing in what I thought was the key, even if it wasn’t the key he was playing in. I felt like I was getting stabbed in the back and hung out to dry in front of all of America while this guy was off in a corner in the shadow, playing some dissonant, out-of-tune experiment. I thought he was doing that on purpose, just to f*ck with me.”
Even though the song is an indisputable hit, John Frusciante is one of many artists who seemed to tire of their most popular tracks quickly, joining the likes of Kurt Cobain and Paul McCartney with his attitude towards some of their own radio-friendly jammers.
If you want to watch the full performance and see what went down for yourself, you can check it out below, in all its punk glory.
