Learn how to master John Frusciante’s exemplary rhythm-playing approaches on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ classic Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

BY CHRIS BUONO

John Frusciante onstage in Germany during the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour, February 12, 1992

ON SEPTEMBER 24, 1991, three albums were released that would go on to change my world. Two were from bands out of Seattle, and the third from Los Angeles. Care to guess which albums? Here are some hints: Both bands from Seattle named their albums with words spliced together to form one perplexing title. One was a colloquialism that a youthful grunge culture with no spellcheck at the ready blindly accepted, while the other was a snarky play on words meant to scoff at a Montrose song. The L.A.-based band named theirs with not a care in the world for syntax or for spelling all the words properly. Despite all three bands disregarding the written word, this trifecta would go on to sell in the millions, define a generation and basically change everything for everyone. Give up? It was Nirvana’s Nevermind, Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

For me, the latter’s impact was so great that it altered my own artistic trajectory almost overnight and set me on a path that I still enthusiastically follow nearly 30 years later. This is due, in large part, to the fearless playing and composing of a then 21-year-old guitarist named John Frusciante in his first tenure with the Peppers. Together with his bandmates — vocalist Anthony Kiedis, drummer Chad Smith and bassist Flea — and lauded über-producer Rick Rubin, Frusciante created this seminal suite of well-written songs that featured some of the phattest and funkiest riffs and grooves ever. Armed with vintage Fender Strats and Jaguars, mythic Marshall amps, such as the 100-watt Super Bass and the beefy 200-watt Major heads, and an array of scrappy pedals, including a Boss DS-1, an Ibanez WH-10 wah and a pivotal Boss CE-1 analog chorus, Frusciante wrote the manual for ’90s funk guitar that still invaluably informs today’s players. Blood Sugar Sex Magik is not only the album that made the RHCPs superstars, it’s also the one that made every aspiring rock and pop guitarist (including yours truly) grab a Strat, take an ad out in a local music rag and start a funk band. Whether you had an established connection to funk music or you were a clean slate, after hearing Blood Sugar Sex Magik you were hooked and wanted to sound like it. In this lesson, I’m going to show you what I did to do just that.