There’s a certain subset of Red Hot Chili Peppers fans who are very upset that the band don’t perform any material created with guitarists other than John Frusciante — and that includes the group’s former six-stringer Josh Klinghoffer, who has said that he feels “slight disrespect” that the Chili Peppers don’t play any of his material live.
“Once John’s back in the picture, it’s like the other records don’t exist,” Klinghoffer told Guitar World. “So, you know, that’s the only weird thing to me. Because those records were important at the time, you know? They were important enough to go and play them around the world for people.”
He said that he feels “a slight disrespect to the records that aren’t the John records,” which the band never draw from during live shows.
“I guess it’s particular to the way John views the band when he’s not in it, and it makes sense to me. They have enough music that they don’t need to look to some of the other records,” Klinghoffer said. “But for anyone who connected with those albums, like One Hot Minute [with Dave Navarro], or the two [2011’s I’m with You and 2016’s The Getaway] that I made with them, yeah… I can only imagine that it’s a little weird for me to be completely banished from the catalogue and the live performance.”
He acknowledged that RHCP’s work with Frusciante is better-known than any of the material the group created with other guitarists. “He’s kind of the preeminent guitar player, you know? He’s the one who made the work with them where they experienced their global game,” Klinghoffer said of Frusciante. “They have their thing and their formula. I guess it’s so much more definitive to the mass amount of Chili Pepper fans, you know, that’s just what the Chili Peppers are.”
Of Klinghoffer’s two albums with the band, The Getaway in particular has aged well, with a sleeker, more synth-y sound that is unique in the band’s discography. It yielded a fairly successful hit, “Dark Necessities.”
Klinghoffer’s latest album under the name Pluralone is out on June 12 through Org Music.