Blood Sugar Sex Magik Tour and John Frusciante's Departure
Before the Blood Sugar Sex Magik Tour began, Kiedis saw the music video for The Smashing Pumpkins' "Rhinoceros" on MTV. He then called the band's manager and asked him to accommodate The Smashing Pumpkins for the tour. Several days after the Pumpkins confirmed they would accompany the Chili Peppers, former Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons called and asked the band to allow his friend's new group, Pearl Jam, to open for them on the forthcoming tour. The first show following the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik was at the Oscar Meyer Theater in Madison, Wisconsin, which was met with positive reactions from the Milwaukee Journal: "the audience was a swirling mass of airborne cups, ice cubes, shoes, shirts, pogo dancers, body-passers and stage divers. And it wasn't purely a boy's club in the moshpit—many females bought into the mayhem, stripping down to their bras and flinging themselves about madly as the band tore through 'Higher Ground', 'Suck My Kiss', and 'Give it Away', which was Goth-ed up by Frusciante when he added a riff from Black Sabbath's 'Sweet Leaf'."
Blood Sugar Sex Magik began receiving heavy radio play and massive sales in the middle of their U.S. tour. Frusciante, who preferred the Chili Peppers to remain in the underground music scene, entered a state of denial and depression because of this. According to Kiedis, "He began to lose all of the manic, happy-go-lucky, fun aspects of his personality. Even onstage, there was a much more serious energy around him." Frusciante was slowly slipping away from the band altogether, and began to form grudges against his band mates. He saw the band's newfound popularity as shameful.
Onstage tension began to grow between Kiedis and Frusciante. Kiedis recalled an argument after a show in New Orleans: "We had a sold-out house and John just stood in the corner, barely playing his guitar. We came offstage and John and I got into it." With the Peppers now playing shows at arenas rather than theaters, the promoters of the tour decided that Pearl Jam should be replaced with a more successful act. Kiedis contacted Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, and asked him if Nirvana would replace Pearl Jam on the tour—an offer Grohl accepted. The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, however, refused to play with Nirvana as he once dated frontman Kurt Cobain's wife Courtney Love. The Pumpkins were, therefore, taken off the concert bill and replaced with Pearl Jam. Their first show with Nirvana was at the L.A Sports Arena. Kiedis considered their act to be "raw energy; their musicality, their song selection, they were like a chain saw cutting through the night." When the Red Hot Chili Peppers finished touring with Nirvana, they traveled to Europe, where Frusciante, in need of someone to connect to, brought along his girlfriend Toni Oswald. Kiedis said that "John had broken our unwritten rule of no spouses or girlfriends on the road." Briefly interrupting the European-tour, the Chili Peppers flew to New York City and performed on an episode of Saturday Night Live. The band played "Under the Bridge" as the second number; a performance that Kiedis felt was sabotaged by Frusciante:
| “ | was experimenting the way he would have if we'd been rehearsing the tune. Well we weren't. We were on live TV in front of millions of people and it was torture. I started singing in what I thought was 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. | ” |
The band took a two-week hiatus between the European and Japanese legs of the tour, which began in May 1992. Minutes before the Chili Peppers were scheduled to perform in Tokyo, Frusciante refused to go on stage, claiming he quit the band. After half an hour of coaxing, Frusciante agreed to play the show, though he asserted it would be his last. Kiedis recalled of the situation: "It was the most horrible show ever. Every single note, every single word, hurt, knowing that we were no longer a band. I kept looking over at John and seeing this dead statue of disdain...And that night, John disappeared from the topsy-turvy world of the Red Hot Chili Peppers." The band hired guitarist Arik Marshall to complete the rest of the tour, which included Lollapolooza and several European festivals. Marshall, however, was fired at the end of the tour.
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