John Frusciante's big sabotage on live TV
After the unexpected big success of “Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic”, John Frusciante began to develop a dislike for popularity of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
When the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed "Under The Bridge" on Saturday Night Live, something important in the history of music happened.
During the live televised performance on February 22, 1992, John Frusciante, the guitarist of the band, sabotaged the song, playing long intros in different notes and octaves.
He was trying to purposefully throw Anthony Kiedis off while singing.
It’s with "Under The Bridge" that the band got its first widespread success, a success that Frusciante couldn’t handle.
His frustrations lead him to quit the band in the middle of the Japanese tour in May.
Frusciante decided to take a break, a self-imposed exile where he got deep into drugs.
Frusciante later said that the band's rise to popularity was "too high, too far, too soon. Everything seemed to be happening at once and I just couldn't cope with it."
Dave Navarro replaced him in the group, but in early 1998, the Red Hot Chili Peppers fired the guitarist.
When Dave Navarro and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were on the verge of breaking up, Flea told Kiedis, "the only way I could imagine carrying on [with the Red Hot Chili Peppers] is if we got John back in the band. "
At the time a sober Frusciante went back and joined the band till the next departure few years later.
