4.11.07
25.9.07
Edmonton, Canada, October 27th 2003 (e-mail to close friends)
Subject:Damm
Sent:Monday,October 26th, 2003 8:48PM
When I got off bed this morning in Edmonton in a luxury room in a very nice hotel, I looked in the mirror in shock and I thought "Good Lord".
I am staying at the *********** hotel, same hotel the Peppers are staying at. It was this morning that I analyzed the situation after the events of last night. I went down to the lobby from the 6th floor where my room was. The elevator door opened to the marble tiles of the reception desk, and there was Louie, Flea and John Frusciante. I go up to Louie first thing and he seems happy to see me. So he hugs me and says "Barbara" and I completely forgot about Flea and John. Flea looks at me and says "good to see you again". He really meant it. And all I could say is "Is it?". I'm such an idiot sometimes.
Anyways, Louie forgot John and I already knew each other and introduces us, and John says hi, and I ask him "you don't remember me, do you?", and he says yeah, that I'm the girl that gave him the shirt and he apologized for how tired he was in June when we talked. What a sweet and amazing guy. He's such a child. So, they look like they're rushing and Louie says "We're going to the movies right now, do you want to come?" So next thing is that we're totally squashed in the taxi, I am in between John and Louie, Flea in the front seat and the girl who gave me the flight ticket to Canada for only 100 bucks, is on the other side next to Louie. We rush into the movie theatre and we go and see Kill Bill, the latest Tarantino movie. It was so great. Louie says we have to sit boy-girl-boy-girl-boy, so I sit in between John and Louie and Flea doesn't give a shit and sits in the row in front of us. And two very tall Edmontonians come and sit right in front of John and I, huge guys blocking the view, so John, logically, moves 10 sits to the left! It was so funny to see them watch the movie. Flea was screaming "holy shit" when the school girl was about to beat the shit out of the main actress whose name I just can't remember right now. The wife of Ethan Hawk. How could I forget her name... Anyways, at the end of the movie it was like being with small kids.The end credits start rolling and they sit fascinated watching them. And John points out to the screen and says "there he is", just like a little child, and I say "who?" and he says it's his lawyer. Louie comments how Hollywood people watch all the credits to see all of their friends names in the screen. So we take a cab back, after I had to stuck the enormous bag of pop corn up my ass because nobody wanted pop corn. So in the taxi Flea goes on how people in Japan are going to love that film because of the blond chick kicking ass. So I go up to the room, John is in the elevator with us, and we talked about something I can't remember, I step off on the sixth floor and he says "give me a hug" How sweet! I adore John, he's undescribably sweet. Then I want to go back because I have Flea's birthday present and Louie is coming down the hall. His room is just across ours, so he shows up into our room and then says that maybe we should go to his room because he might get phone calls. Of course all this time I was wondering where Anthony was, and as if Louie had read my mind he said that he stayed in Vancouver because he wasn't feeling well. But he's coming today. And then we hung out and I saw his kids pictures, such cute kids!, and drank water because he's a recovering alcoholic. So he asks how am I going to make it to Calgary next day and I say that I have no idea. So he says that they might be able to give me a ride, but he needs to ask the boys to see if that's fine with them. So then we all go to sleep. And I haven't seen Anthony yet. We're still in the hotel, the show will be in a few 6 hours. I can't wait. Heh, Louie said that John is not the most sexual person. How funny is that. Gotta go now. Barbie the girl
Subject: Re:Damm Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 12:19 PM
Louie offered a ride to Calgary today. He called at 2 am to my room when I was sleeping, and then he says "oh, go back to sleep". Hmmm. Yesterday's show was incredible. Louie told me to wait in the hotel lobby at 5 before the show, so I figured, I am going to have a ride to the show. I did. I sat in John's and Anthony's tour bus (Flea goes in the other bus and Chad just flies) next to John who was lying on his bed playing the guitar and talking and telling me all kinds of nice things. It was like my own private JF serenade and it was rapture at its most.
We entered the venue parking lot and there were this couple of girls with a "we love the RHCP" and started screaming like hysterical and John just bursted out laughing. Everyone laughed. When I arrived to the venue, Bill (the head of production) jumped all over me "What a fucking surprise Barbara!" (or something similar in a very funny Spanish). The guy hugged me like a puffy teddy bear, then it was Lisa, the production assistant, who I thought didn’t really like me. She was like "hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" and I just couldn't believe it. She was so nice, so I asked how her father was and she said that much better and thanked me for asking. Then we were just hanging out around, said hi to everyone and got fed. It's just so nice, I was going to buy something from the vending machine and Bill comes up and says "girl, girl, girl, there are plenty of drinks in the production office". Then he makes me come to his office and makes me sit to try his chair. It's a vibratig chair. Heh. Well, then I was inside the band's dressing room for a while but I decided to get out, and John comes after me and says "Barbara, you can stay here" but I tell him I've been around way too much, so he smiles and turns around. Anthony was going to arrive to the venue from the airport and I never saw him coming. But he was incredible at the show. It was such a good show. Today we're off to Clagary and Louie said he was going to ask the boys if it was ok to give me a ride. I can't believe it. And Flea is just a bit funny sometimes. Hmmm. Off to Calgary. Barbie the girl.Next entry I will transcribe the bus conversation I had with John :)
To be continued.
23.7.07
Albuquerque, NM june 21st (final part)
So as tempting as it was to remain in the bus the whole night, it was the last show of the tour and in spite of the exhaustion and AK's bed looking cozier than any other bed in the world we jumped out of the bus and hanged out in the heat awaiting the show.It was a sad day. I was suffering from an emotional concoction of disbelief and excitement and exhaustion and early nostalgia of the times that were being and soon will no longer be. Sigh.
We laughed at Snoop's lyrics for the last time and spoke to his roadies for the last time. And while we were trying to figure out which side of the stage we would be taking I ran into AK while he was making his way to the stage, the show about to start, and he smiled to me and held eye contact and we both went our way.
We decided to take Flea's side for some reason because we were mostly always on John's side which is where most of the "side stage action" takes place.
It's on John's side that the band goes on stage and gets off, where Louie is standing watching over the band, bringing them their tea/water/towels/whatever they may need. This night there were barely any people sidestage.
So I think I didn't enjoy the show much and besides, something happened to Anthony's earpiece that he was pissed off most of the show to the point he just ripped it off and threw it away. I had never seen him that angry on stage before.
But to me the highlight of the show was almost at the end when Flea looks at me (I was standing quite close to Tracy, his tech) and he comes and stands right in front of me, staring at me in the eyes and plays his bass for me! He went on for like a minute or so, I think I was crying, it was such an incredible moment...
When the show was over they had built a big catering tent and had drinks inside for the crew and guests, so we went in to drink a little water and we just wanted to thank and say good bye to everyone who took such good care of us.We sat down in one of these round tables and the girl sitting next to me asks me if we got the backstage passes through a contest or if we knew somebody, so I said we knew somebody. She had the same kind of passes we did so I asked her if she won hers and she said she knew somebody too, so I asked who and she said she was Flea's sister. That was sooo funny. She was such a sweet down to earth girl.
Then while I was speaking to her, Flea walks in with this Harry Potter plastic glasses on (he looked so cute!) and comes to talk to his sister who is standing near me. He's talking to her and when he spots me he introduces me to his sister and tells her that we've been going to all the shows.
He looks at me and asked me if I liked the show and then he says "Thank you for coming to all the shows". I couldn't have been more utterly elated. I love Flea. I wanted to hug him for ever and ever and forever more. I think I told him "thank you for the music" or some cheesy/lame line like that. Then I was wondering whether his glasses had erm… well… glass but it was just the plastic frame and then he told me that they were Harry Potter glasses because the book had just come out and he asked me if I knew Harry Potter, so I said I did and he told me that his daughter loved it. What happiness. Then he gave me a hug before he kept talking to his sister.
After that, Louie came over and had a little talk with him too and said they were leaving in the afternoon next day.
Then we left the tent and I saw Anthony, almost in the shadows, getting on his bus. He wasn't part of all that "after show festivity" in the catering zone, he didn't even walk in there, just took his food into his bus.
Next day Geli and I were at the Albuquerque airport on our ways home. Geli was going to spend some Summer days in California and I was going back home to Mexico. We saw Gage standing in the drop-off area and went to talk to him. He was waiting for Chad and Anthony. When they arrived Chad and Gage went into the airport and Anthony came over. Can't really remember what he said, but he looked just so beautiful. He went up to Geli and said to her "oh, come on give me a hug" and Geli, German as she is, gave him this semi-‘I’m-not-bothered-hug.
Then he hugged me. He held me long in his arms and I do remember I was hugging tight and sincerely. Oh my God.
No words can describe that moment.
I said the deepest thank you very much I could have ever pronounced, close to his ear while we were still hugging.
Then we went through the security scan and they held Gage, Chad and Anthony in a room and the airport police was inspecting their laptops. That was weird. As I was crossing the metal detector they made me take my sandals off! and when I was on the other side Anthony asked me if I was hiding some potential Mexican weapon in my shoes. I laughed a lot and we continued walking and talking until he said he had to wait for Gage and Chad who were still in that room.
I told him I had to go and made my way to my gate.
I sat down in the waiting area in my gate and observed them walking around the airport, just like average people. Nobody noticed them and I was quite shocked because I thought people were going to jump on them. Only 3 teenagers who walked past them noticed and one of the girls was noticeably excited and went up to say hello to them. And that was that. I was numb for the longest time, sort of in an emotional comatose state. Then the nothing.
When I got home, after a couple of days of plain rotting on the couch in a rather "this really didn't happen" state of mind, I got an e mail from Geli. She said she and Louie and John were in the same flight to California, and she finished her e mail saying "and guess what John was wearing"...
After that I kept on rotting in the couch for another month or so, wondering how was I supposed to live my life the way I lived it before after living it through all of this.
To this day, this experience as a whole remains one of the most intense moments of my existence, one of those things that make life so worth living and just so passionate and exhilarating that drive your heart mind and soul to the edge of a blissful insanity , up and down from the south hemisphere of the Earth to the next contiguous galaxy and back times 11 and through all these materialized angels and human entities, sharing it all, the joy, the absolute happiness and delirious anxiety and even the lowest of lows where you sweat life from each and every pore of your body. I will never forget.
And still not over.
To be continued...
25.5.07
3.5.07
Albuquerque, NM, june 21st (part 5)
So many things happened in Albuquerque...
So, before even getting to talk to John, we were on the bus with Anthony just before he went to get his Ozone. He was wearing a white tank top and grey shorts and flip flops. He seemed much different than the day before. Even his facial expression was different and he looked at me from head to toes.
"You´re wearing a see through" he said with a strange look.
"What?" I thought.
I was wearing a knit-army-green-long-sleeve-jumper that had some holes in it which made it a bit transparent. I was wearing a jumper in a very hot weather and a long denim skirt and knee length boots.
After 3 weeks road tripping America, it was the only clean pieces of clothing I had left. That and my underwear. I think I told him that it was the ventilation system of my jumper, to which he asked why was I wearing a sweater in such weather. I told him that when we left Colorado it was cold (and in fact I had been cold during the night) and I thought it was a better answer than saying I didn´t have any other clean clothes anyways.
"Don´t you check the weather channel?" he asked.
I didn´t reply to that. We woke up at 7 am, had a quick shower, 3 coffees and drove for 6 hours from Denver Colorado to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It didn´t cross my mind to check the weather in Albuquerque to pick my clothes even if I had any clean items left.
I seemed to be pretty wrapped up and he seemed to be very inquisitive about it.
Ever since, I have only told this to my friend Geli since she went through all of this with me, but for a long time I suspected Mr. Kiedis wrote "Eskimo" inspired in our encounters during that tour. In the lyrics he mentions the people and things we talked about, like Jesus Christ, Bush, the literature references (Oscar Wilde, but we talked about another Bristish poet, William Blake) the busted knee bit, and the most obvious reference to my homeland "somewhere in Mexico".
Right after this day in Albuquerque, the Chili Peppers would go home to L.A. and work during the Summer in a couple of songs to put out with their Greatest Hits album later in the Autum, and eventually, would release the single "Fortune Faded" with two B sides, one of which was "Eskimo". So when I got myself with a copy of the "Fortune faded" single and heard the lyrics to Eskimo my heart almost jumped out of my chest. The timing of the release made sense to me to think the lyrics might have something to do with our conversations. I have never found out surely though because I'm uncertain of when they actually recorded the song.
Back to the tour bus, "Round 2" was a little bit of a shock for me. Although my friend Geli did warn me a couple of weeks before that "guys talk" just like we girls do, I never really thought of Anthony as a "regular guy" for whatever reason, but the truth is that he's as much of a guy as the guy next door, and indeed, like Geli said, "Guys talk too". Anthony knew what I had been talking about and who I had been talking to on the tour, and I was in disbelief when he enquired about me talking in Spanish to his tour manager. I just couldn't help laughing. I had this hilarious/amusing mental picture of a world famous mature rockstar gossiping in a totally teenage style with the guys around about "the girl doing the documentary" and how she said something to Louie in Spanish. It made my entire year.
I asked him what he was going to do when he went home.
"I am going home and the first thing I'm gonna do is kiss my dog, he's gonna jump all over the place like a big freak, he's 105 pounds and he gets about this high off the ground, just pshhh, and then I'm gonna go swimming in my pool which is clean with ozone instead of chlorine, just like me, and then I'm going to visit my friends and ride my vespa, my motor scooter, and go to my favorite eating holes"
B: What kind of food?"
AK: Real food. Real living food. So I'm going to do that and then I'm going to settle in the comfort of my own bed, my own pillows and my own sheets.
At a point I was so incredibly exhausted I kind of lost my will to ask any questions and just let the conversation go wherever it might, but he did all the asking then. He asked if we "have sugar daddys" and "who is funding your operations and paying for your femenine products" and just kept having a laugh about pretty much everything. He asked if we were sharing the driving and if we had strange tendencies whilst driving long distances in a small vehicle and all that silliness of the sort.
This time we didn't have as much time to talk, but then the most amazing and unexpected thing happened as he was ready to leave. "OK, I'm gonna go and do my thing. You're all welcome to stay here, the door will be locked so you'd be here the whole night but... you might want the rest"
To be continued.
So, before even getting to talk to John, we were on the bus with Anthony just before he went to get his Ozone. He was wearing a white tank top and grey shorts and flip flops. He seemed much different than the day before. Even his facial expression was different and he looked at me from head to toes.
"You´re wearing a see through" he said with a strange look.
"What?" I thought.
I was wearing a knit-army-green-long-sleeve-jumper that had some holes in it which made it a bit transparent. I was wearing a jumper in a very hot weather and a long denim skirt and knee length boots.
After 3 weeks road tripping America, it was the only clean pieces of clothing I had left. That and my underwear. I think I told him that it was the ventilation system of my jumper, to which he asked why was I wearing a sweater in such weather. I told him that when we left Colorado it was cold (and in fact I had been cold during the night) and I thought it was a better answer than saying I didn´t have any other clean clothes anyways.
"Don´t you check the weather channel?" he asked.
I didn´t reply to that. We woke up at 7 am, had a quick shower, 3 coffees and drove for 6 hours from Denver Colorado to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It didn´t cross my mind to check the weather in Albuquerque to pick my clothes even if I had any clean items left.
I seemed to be pretty wrapped up and he seemed to be very inquisitive about it.
Ever since, I have only told this to my friend Geli since she went through all of this with me, but for a long time I suspected Mr. Kiedis wrote "Eskimo" inspired in our encounters during that tour. In the lyrics he mentions the people and things we talked about, like Jesus Christ, Bush, the literature references (Oscar Wilde, but we talked about another Bristish poet, William Blake) the busted knee bit, and the most obvious reference to my homeland "somewhere in Mexico".
Right after this day in Albuquerque, the Chili Peppers would go home to L.A. and work during the Summer in a couple of songs to put out with their Greatest Hits album later in the Autum, and eventually, would release the single "Fortune Faded" with two B sides, one of which was "Eskimo". So when I got myself with a copy of the "Fortune faded" single and heard the lyrics to Eskimo my heart almost jumped out of my chest. The timing of the release made sense to me to think the lyrics might have something to do with our conversations. I have never found out surely though because I'm uncertain of when they actually recorded the song.
Back to the tour bus, "Round 2" was a little bit of a shock for me. Although my friend Geli did warn me a couple of weeks before that "guys talk" just like we girls do, I never really thought of Anthony as a "regular guy" for whatever reason, but the truth is that he's as much of a guy as the guy next door, and indeed, like Geli said, "Guys talk too". Anthony knew what I had been talking about and who I had been talking to on the tour, and I was in disbelief when he enquired about me talking in Spanish to his tour manager. I just couldn't help laughing. I had this hilarious/amusing mental picture of a world famous mature rockstar gossiping in a totally teenage style with the guys around about "the girl doing the documentary" and how she said something to Louie in Spanish. It made my entire year.
I asked him what he was going to do when he went home."I am going home and the first thing I'm gonna do is kiss my dog, he's gonna jump all over the place like a big freak, he's 105 pounds and he gets about this high off the ground, just pshhh, and then I'm gonna go swimming in my pool which is clean with ozone instead of chlorine, just like me, and then I'm going to visit my friends and ride my vespa, my motor scooter, and go to my favorite eating holes"
B: What kind of food?"
AK: Real food. Real living food. So I'm going to do that and then I'm going to settle in the comfort of my own bed, my own pillows and my own sheets.
At a point I was so incredibly exhausted I kind of lost my will to ask any questions and just let the conversation go wherever it might, but he did all the asking then. He asked if we "have sugar daddys" and "who is funding your operations and paying for your femenine products" and just kept having a laugh about pretty much everything. He asked if we were sharing the driving and if we had strange tendencies whilst driving long distances in a small vehicle and all that silliness of the sort.
This time we didn't have as much time to talk, but then the most amazing and unexpected thing happened as he was ready to leave. "OK, I'm gonna go and do my thing. You're all welcome to stay here, the door will be locked so you'd be here the whole night but... you might want the rest"To be continued.
2.5.07
Some Denver pictures (june 20th 2003)
I've always thought this set of photographs have a sort of papparazzi feeling to them.
It was such a sunny and beautiful day but what I remember clearly was me feeling freezing cold. Mr. Kiedis was beyond any coolness I could have ever possibly imagined.
29.4.07
Albuquerque, NM, june 21st 2003 (part 4)
JF: I just don't want to listen to that albumB: You don't.
JF: I know how it would sound to me, it would sound totally unbalanced, you know, despite Rick Rubin's balanced production and Flea's talented song writing and all that I know that Dave Navarro, as far as just a band chemistry they were just off balance because I'm the one that by me being in the band puts that balance there between the four of us. I'm extra sensitive to how off that was with Dave Navarro, you know, it's just... it was off. (looking at me and smiling widely) Sorry.
B: OK (laughing)
JF: I mean, I'm not putting it down, it's just like what I said about God, it's like, if you like that album I'm glad you like it for you, you know, but I don't have to...
B: No! I just really, really wondered, I mean the thing is that I feel like there's a very, very special chemistry between Chad, Flea you and Anthony that has no comparison, and and then it felt like... for instance her (pointing at my friend Geli) she can tell you because she was like "I love this album" she loves, like... I have to tell you she wasn't really...she's is not really into the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Geli: Now I am, now I am.
JF: (looking at me) What does she like?
B: (at Geli) What do you like?
JF: You are because of this tour?
G: I am because of this tour.
JF: Oh because of this tour.
B & G: Yeah
G: I think the singles aren't exactly the best songs on the albums, you know what I mean?
JF: Yeah
G: Like the stuff you hear on the radio is not the best of the album.
JF: Yeah...my friend Ian was saying that to me recently, he was saying it's kind of like... you have that sometimes when good people are popular, what they're known for isn't really what they're best at, you know, I guess that's just the way it is when you're dealing with the masses (he laughs) but it doesn't bother me because for the people who go after... That's how I am, I'm always a big fan of B sides, you know
G & B: Yeah!
B: They're the best.
JF: To me the B sides that we had after slash record so far, I like them better than anything on the record, you know, and the other B sides I think I like even better than those, and that's how I am with Nirvana, with Nirvana it's the same thing I don't like their hit songs and they're one of my favorite bands and, like "Smells like teen spirit" is the only hit song that there is that I really love a lot and mostly the songs that I really love of them were like, B sides and you know, songs that were hidden in albums and stuff, same thing with Oasis and same thing with REM.
B: You like Oasis?
JF: Mmhmm, but I especially like B sides where there's more than their records. (Sighs) I don't like their new record. I liked the first couple of records.
B: I really never liked them.
JF: Yeah. I don't blame you.
B: I just don't...
JF: No, I don't blame you.
B: I just think their personalities are something...
JF: Yeah, you're right, you're right.
B: ...awful. Maybe I'm wrong because I really don't know them personally...
JF: No you're right, they're idiots. But they write some good songs.
(I laugh)
They're idiots with good songs.
B: They're always like fighting and I think they're just trying to make a show out of...
JF: You're preaching to the choir.
B: hmm?
JF: You're preaching to the choir, I agree with you but I still think they've written some good songs.
B: Have you been to Mexi... you have been to Mexico but have you seen anything about Mexico?
JF: Not really.
B: No? Not a place that really fascinates you...
JF: Not really, but I'm just not like that, I'm not a person who is into places, you know, I like my living room, to me that's the place that I'm the most fascinated with and if I can get a recording studio together that'll really be the place that I'm the most fascinated with, you know, I'm not the kind of person who goes on a vacation or goes visits a place.
B: Sorry, there's an ant in your pants
JF: You wanna know about my scars... Oh an ant (he flicks the ant).
G & B: Yeah!
B: They're the best.
JF: To me the B sides that we had after slash record so far, I like them better than anything on the record, you know, and the other B sides I think I like even better than those, and that's how I am with Nirvana, with Nirvana it's the same thing I don't like their hit songs and they're one of my favorite bands and, like "Smells like teen spirit" is the only hit song that there is that I really love a lot and mostly the songs that I really love of them were like, B sides and you know, songs that were hidden in albums and stuff, same thing with Oasis and same thing with REM.
B: You like Oasis?
JF: Mmhmm, but I especially like B sides where there's more than their records. (Sighs) I don't like their new record. I liked the first couple of records.B: I really never liked them.
JF: Yeah. I don't blame you.
B: I just don't...
JF: No, I don't blame you.
B: I just think their personalities are something...
JF: Yeah, you're right, you're right.
B: ...awful. Maybe I'm wrong because I really don't know them personally...
JF: No you're right, they're idiots. But they write some good songs.
(I laugh)
They're idiots with good songs.
B: They're always like fighting and I think they're just trying to make a show out of...
JF: You're preaching to the choir.
B: hmm?
JF: You're preaching to the choir, I agree with you but I still think they've written some good songs.
B: Have you been to Mexi... you have been to Mexico but have you seen anything about Mexico?
JF: Not really.
B: No? Not a place that really fascinates you...
JF: Not really, but I'm just not like that, I'm not a person who is into places, you know, I like my living room, to me that's the place that I'm the most fascinated with and if I can get a recording studio together that'll really be the place that I'm the most fascinated with, you know, I'm not the kind of person who goes on a vacation or goes visits a place.
B: Sorry, there's an ant in your pants
JF: You wanna know about my scars... Oh an ant (he flicks the ant).
B: So you just like your living room.JF: Yeah, and recording...
B: ...Music.
JF: Yeah, I like wherever me and my guitar and my cds and my records are.
19.4.07
Coming back
I am flying back to the UK today as I've been 3 amazing weeks in Australia. Beautiful country. I only went to the Peppers shows in Adelaide, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney and the rest of the time I traveled to really beautiful nature places like the Whitsunday Coast, Fraser Island and the red centre. Anyways, I'll be coming back home and finish the John conversation. Finally!
Love,
me
Love,
me
31.3.07
Albuquerque, NM, june 21 2003 (part 3)
B:There's a question you might not like but I'm just really really curious.
JF:Yeah
B: Why aren't you playing any One Hot Minute songs?
JF: Why, because you like that album a lot?
B: No, I'm just really wondering, not because I like that particular album, it's just something that I've been really wondering
JF: Right, well, I've never listened to the album. What I have heard I didn't like.
B: What did you hear?
JF: Like, the songs on the radio I heard like, whatever the singles were, I know there was a couple points when I was in the car and I heard it on the radio
I guess I heard the fast one and I heard "My friends". The fast one "Warped", is that what it's called?
B: Yeah, that was the fast one.
JF: So, you know, I don't like either of those songs when I heard them and nobody seems to be offended by that I don't like them, they don't seem to be so
crazy about the album themselves, and you only got so much time on the set to play your music and you know (smiling) maybe if the set was like 50 hours long
I'd do a One Hot Minute song, and the thought for me of me going up there and playing Dave Navarro's guitar parts is just a joke. I mean, not that they'd
expect me to... they'd say you know, do your own thing, you don't have to do what he's doing but like, I don't wanna hear it, you know, I mean you don't
wanna look at your ex boyfriend having sex with somebody... if you got back together with your boyfriend would you wanna see pictures of him having sex
with the girl he was with before you? in between? (smiling so much)
B:Not really! (laughing)
JF: Well, I guess that's how it is for me, I just don't want to listen to that album (laughs)
NOTE: This interview still continues and I am sorry it's taking me so long to post the whole thing.
Right now I have to catch my plane, I am flying to Australia for some shows there. I'll see you there Aussies!! Sorry I left it unfinished again. I promise the rest is really worth the wait.
Bye!!
JF:Yeah
B: Why aren't you playing any One Hot Minute songs?
JF: Why, because you like that album a lot?
B: No, I'm just really wondering, not because I like that particular album, it's just something that I've been really wondering
JF: Right, well, I've never listened to the album. What I have heard I didn't like.
B: What did you hear?
JF: Like, the songs on the radio I heard like, whatever the singles were, I know there was a couple points when I was in the car and I heard it on the radio
I guess I heard the fast one and I heard "My friends". The fast one "Warped", is that what it's called?
B: Yeah, that was the fast one.
JF: So, you know, I don't like either of those songs when I heard them and nobody seems to be offended by that I don't like them, they don't seem to be so
crazy about the album themselves, and you only got so much time on the set to play your music and you know (smiling) maybe if the set was like 50 hours long
I'd do a One Hot Minute song, and the thought for me of me going up there and playing Dave Navarro's guitar parts is just a joke. I mean, not that they'd
expect me to... they'd say you know, do your own thing, you don't have to do what he's doing but like, I don't wanna hear it, you know, I mean you don't
wanna look at your ex boyfriend having sex with somebody... if you got back together with your boyfriend would you wanna see pictures of him having sex
with the girl he was with before you? in between? (smiling so much)
B:Not really! (laughing)
JF: Well, I guess that's how it is for me, I just don't want to listen to that album (laughs)
NOTE: This interview still continues and I am sorry it's taking me so long to post the whole thing.
Right now I have to catch my plane, I am flying to Australia for some shows there. I'll see you there Aussies!! Sorry I left it unfinished again. I promise the rest is really worth the wait.
Bye!!
11.3.07
BACK FROM VACATION
Dear silent people from Hungary, Croatia, Australia, the long and wide USA, China, Japan, Philipines, Denmark, Finland, Sweden. France, Brasil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Korea, Spain, Portugal, Serbia and Montenegro, Lithuania, Poland, and of course my dear UK which is my home now:
I'm on holiday so I won't be blogging for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow I'll be on a remote tiny beautiful island of white sandy beaches, turquoise waters and mind blowing calmness in my Mexican homeland with barely no communication, no banks or cash machines and I imagine not much internet access, and even if there was, well, I don't want to spend my days in paradise sitting on a computer. I'll be wearing my sombrero, flip flops, and sun glasses, and a lot of mosquito repelent. I'll be back last week of this month with the rest of the John conversation (sorry I couldn't finish it before going) and the best moments and photographs of my tour experience with the most amazing rock band in this planet and this galaxy and beyond.
Bless all of you.
Much love.
9.3.07
Albuquerque, NM june 21st 2003 (part 2)
B: I’m sorry about the expression but when I see you on stage I feel like you’re having orgasms when you play your guitar and I think it is amazing how you keep on studying and studying music.
JF: Yeah well I guess at a certain point I practiced guitar so much when I was a kid, at a certain point I feel like to practice and to get better became something that was effortless, it didn’t feel like something that was a job or it didn’t feel like something that was a chore ever since I first started getting better at learning songs and stuff, practicing is as flowing of a thing as I guess sex is supposed to be you know, for me, I get more of those kind of feelings from playing guitar than I do in real life, like, at a certain point I became so united with the guitar that I feel like that’s… me and my relationship with music that’s the kind of sexual activity that I can really enjoy, you know. In real life there’s so much other stuff attached, it doesn’t even come close to how it is when playing music, so I guess that’s why it looks like that because that is what it is in a lot of ways.
B: How do you picture yourself ten years from now?
JF: Ten years from now?
B: ok, five
JF(smiling beautifully): Ten’s ok , I’m fine with ten.
B: Ok maybe that’s too far away because I don’t even see myself then.
JF: I can’t say though, like I don’t really have any answer for that . Some times I have images of myself but it’s really hard to say, I know what I’m gonna be doing tomorrow and I know what I’m gonna be doing the day after that, even that is kind of a stretch, but it’s too hard to say as far as… ‘cause you’re always wrong anyways when you say stuff like that , I notice whenever I tell people what my plans are for August…
B: Yeah, tomorrow you were flying to DC and now you’re not.
JF: Yeah, yesterday I would have told you I was going to DC and now I’m not, so it seems like the degree towards that is just even more so when you’re talking about five years from now or ten years from now, I really can’t say and I’m not a person who has goals either, you know , I have projects, you know, right now I know I wanna record all these songs that I’ve written up till now and all the ones that I really like, I really wanna do that, I really wanna put together a studio so I can not have to pay for studio time and studios and I can have my own place, that’s a project that I have before me, but I have no idea and I wouldn’t want to put any kind of demand on ten years from now, I’m not one of those people who says “I wanna have this amount of money in this time” …
B: I was more wondering if you saw yourself still making music and do what you’re doing now
JF: It’s very hard for me to imagine being alive without making music, it’s hard for me to imagine enjoying life without making music, anything’s possible but it seems very unlikely to me and I just hope that as I get older I can get music that’s suitable for whatever period of my life it is, like, if I’m 60 years old I wanna be making music that’s much more abstract and I don’t want to be one of these guys, you know, trying to pretend like they’re 20 when they’re 60, you know what I mean, I don’t want to go for some time with a false image of myself , I wanna be making music that’s more abstract and that’s not pop music, I don’t see myself making pop music at 60 unless I’m a producer or something, even then it’s hard to imagine .For me the idea of slowing down it’s kind of… and I know that happens to people when they get older.
B: I know that you’ve been jamming together with the guys from the Mars Volta, there seems to be a great chemistry there. I heard you were hanging out together in Stockholm.
JF: Yeah well, they’re my friends , in the last year or so I became really good friends with Omar the guitarist of the Mars Volta, we have those moments together that only two guys with guitars can understand, you know, where we’re up till 5 or 6 in the morning talking and playing our guitars together and stuff and we’ve developed a closeness that’s based around that so, he sometimes comes on stage with us and I went up on stage with them in New York at the last show that they did with Jeremy who died. I’m very sad about Jeremy dying, he was a great artist to me, his role in the band was a feminine role and then every instrument and Cedric’s vocals were going through him and he was playing more a feminine role and the band… he did it from out in the audience and nobody was looking at him, they look at the stage and himself was looking at the stage and it was kind of a thankless job in a way but some people do well in not having to be in the spotlight anyways but I’m sad about him being dead but I’m glad that they’re gonna go on playing and stuff. But it was fun we got to do two tours with them when Jeremy was alive and that was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to seeing Omar when I get home. He wants to show me this movie…
B: Which movie?
JF: El popo, is that what it’s called?
B: El popo?
JF: Topo, el topo!
B: Ah, El topo. He wants to show you that?
JF: Yeah
B: Why?
JF(grinning): He loves it, he thinks it’s great.
B: Have you seen any other Mexican films?
JF: Yeah, I’m a big fan of Luis Buñuel, so I’ve seen all his Mexican movies that he made.
B: He’s Spanish though
JF: Yeah he’s Spanish but he made movies in Mexico for a long time, he didn’t make many movies in Spain and he made a few in France but mostly he made movies in Mexico and I like those movies a lot.
B: which ones?
JF: I’ve seen Nazarin,
He tries to remember the name of another of his films…
JF: I’m spacing out, I can’t remember…
B: Have you seen the one he did with Dali?
JF: Un chien Andalou? Andalutian dog ?
B: Did you like it?
JF: I think it’s great, yeah.
B : I really enjoyed that movie.
JF: (still trying to remember)… I like that movie a lot, I have a poster in my house, but I must be tired, I can’t believe I’m spacing out on the name…
B: you don’t remember.
JF: It’s just, I’m very tired, I’m drawing a blank and the camera isn’t making it easier.
B: You don’t like cameras?
JF: No, when you’re stuck though, and you’re having a blank and you know that everybody is watching and you look like an asshole ‘cause you mention the director and you can’t name his movies, right?
We laugh
B: It’s really hot now. Are you warm?
JF: I’m ok… (smiling beautifully) Susana, El Bruto.
B: huh?
JF: I’m just naming Buñuel movies.
I laugh
How do you feel when you go on stage and all these people are just going wild?
Good, it feels good. I used to really separate myself from the audience, you know, I used to like, to turn my back and face my amplifier or face Chad and just closed my eyes get into my head. I still do those thing but for me what’s become more important than that is the connection and the exchange with the audience, you know, playing for the audience, trying to let them know that I’m trying to send some good feelings and some love in their direction and stuff, and they’re reciprocating, the feelings that I get from them are very important to me, you know. When I first joined the band it seemed that it was very much a matter of impressing the audience and I was 18 years old and I was thinking more in terms of impressing the audience which is really a dead end because technically nobody really wants to watch somebody who’s trying to prove something to them or…the best kind of state of mind you can be in as a performer is to not really care what anybody thinks of you , you know, and to do what’s best for yourself, so then I had the period of only playing for myself and nobody else and I would say I learnt a lot during that period but you can’t really go on doing that for that long because it gets boring because when you’re the only person that you’re playing for, you become similar to a tree falling in the woods with no one around to hear it, your playing doesn’t actually exist in the world the way that music… it’s almost like your music is half empty at that point and I felt myself getting more and more emptied out by only playing to myself and that was when I quit the band, after that, that was my solution to that .And since I joined again, fans have been so nice with sort of accepting me back, making me feel like there’s a place for me in the world and make me feel like people care about me and that’s inspired me to gradually feel more and more like they’re as much of a part of the music as we are, you know, and when I go out and when I hear the noise they make or when I see the smile on their faces it makes me feel so happy inside and I just wanna give every bit of energy I have inside me to them. It really has become an important part of my life to have that exchange with an audience, of really giving myself to them and really getting what they give back to me, you know, so yeah, it’s a good feeling.
JF: Yeah well I guess at a certain point I practiced guitar so much when I was a kid, at a certain point I feel like to practice and to get better became something that was effortless, it didn’t feel like something that was a job or it didn’t feel like something that was a chore ever since I first started getting better at learning songs and stuff, practicing is as flowing of a thing as I guess sex is supposed to be you know, for me, I get more of those kind of feelings from playing guitar than I do in real life, like, at a certain point I became so united with the guitar that I feel like that’s… me and my relationship with music that’s the kind of sexual activity that I can really enjoy, you know. In real life there’s so much other stuff attached, it doesn’t even come close to how it is when playing music, so I guess that’s why it looks like that because that is what it is in a lot of ways.
B: How do you picture yourself ten years from now?
JF: Ten years from now?
B: ok, five
JF(smiling beautifully): Ten’s ok , I’m fine with ten.
B: Ok maybe that’s too far away because I don’t even see myself then.
JF: I can’t say though, like I don’t really have any answer for that . Some times I have images of myself but it’s really hard to say, I know what I’m gonna be doing tomorrow and I know what I’m gonna be doing the day after that, even that is kind of a stretch, but it’s too hard to say as far as… ‘cause you’re always wrong anyways when you say stuff like that , I notice whenever I tell people what my plans are for August…
B: Yeah, tomorrow you were flying to DC and now you’re not.
JF: Yeah, yesterday I would have told you I was going to DC and now I’m not, so it seems like the degree towards that is just even more so when you’re talking about five years from now or ten years from now, I really can’t say and I’m not a person who has goals either, you know , I have projects, you know, right now I know I wanna record all these songs that I’ve written up till now and all the ones that I really like, I really wanna do that, I really wanna put together a studio so I can not have to pay for studio time and studios and I can have my own place, that’s a project that I have before me, but I have no idea and I wouldn’t want to put any kind of demand on ten years from now, I’m not one of those people who says “I wanna have this amount of money in this time” …
B: I was more wondering if you saw yourself still making music and do what you’re doing now
JF: It’s very hard for me to imagine being alive without making music, it’s hard for me to imagine enjoying life without making music, anything’s possible but it seems very unlikely to me and I just hope that as I get older I can get music that’s suitable for whatever period of my life it is, like, if I’m 60 years old I wanna be making music that’s much more abstract and I don’t want to be one of these guys, you know, trying to pretend like they’re 20 when they’re 60, you know what I mean, I don’t want to go for some time with a false image of myself , I wanna be making music that’s more abstract and that’s not pop music, I don’t see myself making pop music at 60 unless I’m a producer or something, even then it’s hard to imagine .For me the idea of slowing down it’s kind of… and I know that happens to people when they get older.
B: I know that you’ve been jamming together with the guys from the Mars Volta, there seems to be a great chemistry there. I heard you were hanging out together in Stockholm.
JF: Yeah well, they’re my friends , in the last year or so I became really good friends with Omar the guitarist of the Mars Volta, we have those moments together that only two guys with guitars can understand, you know, where we’re up till 5 or 6 in the morning talking and playing our guitars together and stuff and we’ve developed a closeness that’s based around that so, he sometimes comes on stage with us and I went up on stage with them in New York at the last show that they did with Jeremy who died. I’m very sad about Jeremy dying, he was a great artist to me, his role in the band was a feminine role and then every instrument and Cedric’s vocals were going through him and he was playing more a feminine role and the band… he did it from out in the audience and nobody was looking at him, they look at the stage and himself was looking at the stage and it was kind of a thankless job in a way but some people do well in not having to be in the spotlight anyways but I’m sad about him being dead but I’m glad that they’re gonna go on playing and stuff. But it was fun we got to do two tours with them when Jeremy was alive and that was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to seeing Omar when I get home. He wants to show me this movie…
B: Which movie?
JF: El popo, is that what it’s called?
B: El popo?
JF: Topo, el topo!
B: Ah, El topo. He wants to show you that?
JF: Yeah
B: Why?
JF(grinning): He loves it, he thinks it’s great.
B: Have you seen any other Mexican films?
JF: Yeah, I’m a big fan of Luis Buñuel, so I’ve seen all his Mexican movies that he made.
B: He’s Spanish though
JF: Yeah he’s Spanish but he made movies in Mexico for a long time, he didn’t make many movies in Spain and he made a few in France but mostly he made movies in Mexico and I like those movies a lot.
B: which ones?
JF: I’ve seen Nazarin,
He tries to remember the name of another of his films…
JF: I’m spacing out, I can’t remember…
B: Have you seen the one he did with Dali?
JF: Un chien Andalou? Andalutian dog ?
B: Did you like it?
JF: I think it’s great, yeah.
B : I really enjoyed that movie.
JF: (still trying to remember)… I like that movie a lot, I have a poster in my house, but I must be tired, I can’t believe I’m spacing out on the name…
B: you don’t remember.
JF: It’s just, I’m very tired, I’m drawing a blank and the camera isn’t making it easier.
B: You don’t like cameras?
JF: No, when you’re stuck though, and you’re having a blank and you know that everybody is watching and you look like an asshole ‘cause you mention the director and you can’t name his movies, right?
We laugh
B: It’s really hot now. Are you warm?
JF: I’m ok… (smiling beautifully) Susana, El Bruto.
B: huh?
JF: I’m just naming Buñuel movies.
I laugh
How do you feel when you go on stage and all these people are just going wild?
Good, it feels good. I used to really separate myself from the audience, you know, I used to like, to turn my back and face my amplifier or face Chad and just closed my eyes get into my head. I still do those thing but for me what’s become more important than that is the connection and the exchange with the audience, you know, playing for the audience, trying to let them know that I’m trying to send some good feelings and some love in their direction and stuff, and they’re reciprocating, the feelings that I get from them are very important to me, you know. When I first joined the band it seemed that it was very much a matter of impressing the audience and I was 18 years old and I was thinking more in terms of impressing the audience which is really a dead end because technically nobody really wants to watch somebody who’s trying to prove something to them or…the best kind of state of mind you can be in as a performer is to not really care what anybody thinks of you , you know, and to do what’s best for yourself, so then I had the period of only playing for myself and nobody else and I would say I learnt a lot during that period but you can’t really go on doing that for that long because it gets boring because when you’re the only person that you’re playing for, you become similar to a tree falling in the woods with no one around to hear it, your playing doesn’t actually exist in the world the way that music… it’s almost like your music is half empty at that point and I felt myself getting more and more emptied out by only playing to myself and that was when I quit the band, after that, that was my solution to that .And since I joined again, fans have been so nice with sort of accepting me back, making me feel like there’s a place for me in the world and make me feel like people care about me and that’s inspired me to gradually feel more and more like they’re as much of a part of the music as we are, you know, and when I go out and when I hear the noise they make or when I see the smile on their faces it makes me feel so happy inside and I just wanna give every bit of energy I have inside me to them. It really has become an important part of my life to have that exchange with an audience, of really giving myself to them and really getting what they give back to me, you know, so yeah, it’s a good feeling.
6.3.07
Albuquerque,NM, june 21st 2003
I couldn´t get any sleep after the Denver show. I was lying in bed wondering if everything had been a dream. Anthony´s words kept echoing over and over in my head.
We drove to Albuquerque on the last show day. We were supposed to meet Anthony early at the venue for the "round 2".
I lost probably around 4 kilos on those 3 weeks, that has to be one of the many side effects of eating gas station food.
The coffee at the gas stations though, was a different thing. We got addicted to the French Vanilla coffee in the Shell´s stations.
My sun tan was gone, and in spite of having been so close to Anthony, the emotion of the beginning of the tour was fading. I was too tired.
We arrived to New Mexico and eventually Albuquerque. One of the ugliest places I have ever seen. The venue was in fuck´s end, at the top of a dry, dusty and dead bit of land in the middle of the desert. Geli was freaking out. We drove through Albuquerque running into prohibition after prohibition and threats upon the law breaking. We were kind of scared of being there.
We got off the car and started walking down to the venue. As we were descending the hill approaching the backstage access a little golf cart came over and picked us up and drove us into the backstage area. That was proper VIP treatment
We drove to Albuquerque on the last show day. We were supposed to meet Anthony early at the venue for the "round 2".
I lost probably around 4 kilos on those 3 weeks, that has to be one of the many side effects of eating gas station food.
The coffee at the gas stations though, was a different thing. We got addicted to the French Vanilla coffee in the Shell´s stations.
My sun tan was gone, and in spite of having been so close to Anthony, the emotion of the beginning of the tour was fading. I was too tired.
We arrived to New Mexico and eventually Albuquerque. One of the ugliest places I have ever seen. The venue was in fuck´s end, at the top of a dry, dusty and dead bit of land in the middle of the desert. Geli was freaking out. We drove through Albuquerque running into prohibition after prohibition and threats upon the law breaking. We were kind of scared of being there.
We got off the car and started walking down to the venue. As we were descending the hill approaching the backstage access a little golf cart came over and picked us up and drove us into the backstage area. That was proper VIP treatment
The band weren´t there yet and we needed to find a good place to drink a beer in the shade because it was a really hot day and the sun was burning everything underneath it, including my brain.
Somebody from the Snoop crew walked by and we said hi. We were pretty familiarized with everyone, even Snoop´s crew. The guy, whose name I can´t even remember asked us if we wanted to check out his tour bus. It sounded a bit dodgy,not to say REALLY dodgy, but we couldn´t stand under the sun one more minute because the beer would get warm.
Plus I was very curious to see their buses.
It turned out that Snoop´s people were pretty nice guys too. Geli and I sat in there, and they even lent Geli a nail clipper because she broke a nail or something. They were really funny. Another guy came into the bus with some merchandise t shirts and there seemed to be some problem with them.
Somebody from the Snoop crew walked by and we said hi. We were pretty familiarized with everyone, even Snoop´s crew. The guy, whose name I can´t even remember asked us if we wanted to check out his tour bus. It sounded a bit dodgy,not to say REALLY dodgy, but we couldn´t stand under the sun one more minute because the beer would get warm.
Plus I was very curious to see their buses.It turned out that Snoop´s people were pretty nice guys too. Geli and I sat in there, and they even lent Geli a nail clipper because she broke a nail or something. They were really funny. Another guy came into the bus with some merchandise t shirts and there seemed to be some problem with them.
Geli and I got really excited because by the end of this tour, we ended up really loving Snoop´s crappy music. We had to. Either that or shoot ourselves in the ass after listening to him one night after the other. I loved to see Geli lip synching to Snoop´s speech. I just loved it, it was really hilarious. The t-shirts were printed with Snoop´s coolest lyrics "Smoke weed, get drunk and fuck". We sooo wanted a t shirt. We asked them if we could have one and they were happy to give us one. But suddenly the RHCP buses arrived and we just jumped off very quickily. Sorry Snoop's people. And we forgot our free t shirts . 
We waited for more than 10 minutes. Flea saw me from the distance and waved at me. Geli and I were sitting under the sun, checking out this and that when John came close to where we were and just stood there leaning against a wooden pole. There was nobody else there.
"Hi John" I said. He said hi and smiled as wide as the universe.
There is something incredibly unique about John´s smile that makes you want to protect him from all the evilness of the world.
"Are you the girls making the documentry?" he asked.
"Aren´t we the popular ones" I thought. Even John knew about us! We hadn´t talked to him at all during the whole tour. I didn´t think people would be talking about us (think again)
"Yes we are" I said.
"Do you want me to be in it". John said.
"Bloody fuck". I thought. "Would you mind?" I said
John is a true angel walking our Earth and I love him. Not that Anthony wasn't what I expected him to be, he was absolutely wonderful and more, but for a long time after all this insanity I wished it was John I had fallen in love (or whatever that feeling was)with . He's the kind of man that can bring sunshine to your heart in the stormiest day.
"Are you the girls making the documentry?" he asked.
"Aren´t we the popular ones" I thought. Even John knew about us! We hadn´t talked to him at all during the whole tour. I didn´t think people would be talking about us (think again)
"Yes we are" I said.
"Do you want me to be in it". John said.
"Bloody fuck". I thought. "Would you mind?" I said
John is a true angel walking our Earth and I love him. Not that Anthony wasn't what I expected him to be, he was absolutely wonderful and more, but for a long time after all this insanity I wished it was John I had fallen in love (or whatever that feeling was)with . He's the kind of man that can bring sunshine to your heart in the stormiest day.
We sat down on that sunny day to have a little chat:
B: ...(we must have been talking about films before) have you seen happiness?
John (trying to clip his microphone): what am I doing wrong? …no I haven’t seen happiness… is it ok if the microphone is inside, you think?…
Geli: yeah…
B: Is it?
JF: I don’t know…I think it should be like this (he clips it to his shirt) even though it doesn’t look right.
John (trying to clip his microphone): what am I doing wrong? …no I haven’t seen happiness… is it ok if the microphone is inside, you think?…
Geli: yeah…
B: Is it?
JF: I don’t know…I think it should be like this (he clips it to his shirt) even though it doesn’t look right.
B: I’m going to fix it...
B: So you haven't seen happiness, that's a very strong and sad movie.
So, how are you, are you very tired?
JF: I’m tired. I’ve been working really hard for the last couple of years. I haven’t really taken any breaks…I can’t remember…I guess the last time I wasn’t really doing anything was a few months before we started writing BTW and then I went on a solo tour for my solo record and then the day I got home we started writing BTW and I’ve been working all through that and the second I had a spare moment I started recording my solo record and I did that during all my breaks
B: But you’re doing one solo album right now, aren’t you?
JF: Well, I finished the one that I was working on and that’s coming out in September and now if I do recordings is not for an album, it’s just to record my songs because I wanna have all my songs recorded, it’s my goal to have all my songs recorded, you know, ‘cos I have a lot of songs, they’re just in notebooks until I can record them in a studio and I just feel like it’s my responsibility as a song writer to record everything that’s good that I write, so.
Geli: What do you mean by that though, so people won't be able to buy that stuff?
JF: For me at the moment that part is secondary because there’s already an album that people can buy but what’s more important for me is just that I know that with my life that I’ve done the best that I can do that I know I’ve used my time well. To have a bunch of songs and then to sit around and not record them to me just seems like not doing your function as a person, so people buying it will take care of itself , but me recording it is something that I have to do to in order to make anything happen, so… I was gonna go record a few songs in DC tomorrow but I changed my mind at the minute, I’m gonna do it another time because I feel all the time now the way I usually feel at the end of the day after recording for 12 or 14 hours, that’s how I feel now when I wake up, so I’m gonna give myself a couple of weeks of just sitting around my house I think it’ll do me some good and then I don’t have to take a break for another couple of years.
B: What makes you happy most in life?
JF: What makes me happy?.. hmm…well, Anthony makes me happy, Flea makes me happy, my friends all make me happy and I’m happy when Chad is beating the hell out of his drums while we’re on stage, I’m happy listening to the Incredible String Band, and I’m happy listening to Fairport Convention. Led Zeppelin makes me happy, music, and Godard movies.
B: Dark movies?
JF: Godard movies, Jean Luc Godard movies.
B: Oh, have you seen Breathless?
JF: Yeah
B: How did you like that?
JF: It’s great
B: Which one is your favorite?
JF: I think… band of outsiders! Band of outsiders, I personally like any of the B&W ones though.
B: I love Breathless that’s my favorite
JF: I like Anna Karina a lot, she’s not in breathless, so I prefer the ones that she’s in.
B: But you’re doing one solo album right now, aren’t you?
JF: Well, I finished the one that I was working on and that’s coming out in September and now if I do recordings is not for an album, it’s just to record my songs because I wanna have all my songs recorded, it’s my goal to have all my songs recorded, you know, ‘cos I have a lot of songs, they’re just in notebooks until I can record them in a studio and I just feel like it’s my responsibility as a song writer to record everything that’s good that I write, so.
Geli: What do you mean by that though, so people won't be able to buy that stuff?
JF: For me at the moment that part is secondary because there’s already an album that people can buy but what’s more important for me is just that I know that with my life that I’ve done the best that I can do that I know I’ve used my time well. To have a bunch of songs and then to sit around and not record them to me just seems like not doing your function as a person, so people buying it will take care of itself , but me recording it is something that I have to do to in order to make anything happen, so… I was gonna go record a few songs in DC tomorrow but I changed my mind at the minute, I’m gonna do it another time because I feel all the time now the way I usually feel at the end of the day after recording for 12 or 14 hours, that’s how I feel now when I wake up, so I’m gonna give myself a couple of weeks of just sitting around my house I think it’ll do me some good and then I don’t have to take a break for another couple of years.
B: What makes you happy most in life?
JF: What makes me happy?.. hmm…well, Anthony makes me happy, Flea makes me happy, my friends all make me happy and I’m happy when Chad is beating the hell out of his drums while we’re on stage, I’m happy listening to the Incredible String Band, and I’m happy listening to Fairport Convention. Led Zeppelin makes me happy, music, and Godard movies.
B: Dark movies?
JF: Godard movies, Jean Luc Godard movies.
B: Oh, have you seen Breathless?
JF: Yeah
B: How did you like that?
JF: It’s great
B: Which one is your favorite?
JF: I think… band of outsiders! Band of outsiders, I personally like any of the B&W ones though.
B: I love Breathless that’s my favorite
JF: I like Anna Karina a lot, she’s not in breathless, so I prefer the ones that she’s in.
B: You spend a lot of time studying music don’t you?
JF: You mean when I was a kid?
B: No, all the time, all I hear from you is that you’ve been listening to African music, South American music, you know, music from everywhere…
JF: Yeah I’m always trying to find out about new music, from my stand point I think the Earth is a really incredible place, the amount of music that there is, is amazing you know, you can go your whole life obsessing on music and still be finding out about new stuff when you’re 60 years old , 70 years old, it seems like there is an infinite amount of music here right now and to me any planet that gets it together to make that much beautiful stuff for your senses and for your ears and stuff is really doing a good job. A lot of people complain about the planet and complain about things but I don’t think you’d get that much beautiful things if there wasn’t an ugliness on the other side of it. I think anything that’s ugly in the world has to be there to make as much beautiful things as there is in the world, that seems really obvious to me and I feel really grateful to be living this life, it’s a good planet.
B: Do you believe in God?
JF: I believe in the lack of such questions, I don’t think there’s any reason for… for me in my life I have no place for any sort of image of God. I appreciate that other people do, and for them I’m glad that their God is there for them but for me is like when I drive through the country I look out the window of the bus and I see all these houses and I know that every single house is the centre of the universe for the people who live there, they think that house is being the center of the world and for them it is the center of the world but at the same time it doesn’t mean that everybody else’s houses are also the center of the world, it’s a bunch of things at once and to me that’s what God is, it’s one thing for one person, it’s another thing for another person, and another thing for another person times the whole world. Everybody in the world who has the need to have a God to believe in or to be faithful to or whatever their reasons are, I personally don’t have a place for it in my life, so lucky me.
B: What do you think it’s the most beautiful place you’ve been to?
JF: The most beautiful place I’ve been to?
B: Can you mention one?
JF: It’s hard to say, as far as nature goes I’ve been to really beautiful places like Costa Rica and Big Sur, California, Australia, I’ve seen really beautiful nature places like that but I like to see like just nice architecture, nice shades of buildings and stuff, I like walking down the street in Vienna, I have good memories of being in Vienna, Austria.
B: I’ve heard so many things about Vienna but I’ve never been there
JF: It’s a nice place, (grinning wonderfully and continuously) it’s the kind of place you can imagine just stopping everything, getting yourself a little apartment, smoking hash all the time, living café life
(we just laughed)
B: How about London? We lived there for some time, how do you like London.
JF: I like London. It’s a nice place, so much music that I love comes from London or from England, I really like it there just because of that alone it makes me think it’s a great place.
Geli: You’re going to England next right? Where are you going in England?
JF: V Festival
Geli: Where is that?
JF: It’s a couple hours away from London.
Last time I was in London I had a good time because I got to record with one of my heroes, Brian Eno.
B: who?
JF: Brian Eno
B: Ohhhh Brian Eno, he’s the U2 producer, isn’t he?
JF (grinning) : That’s what he’s known for now but that’s not what I think when I meet him
We both laugh
B: You don’t like U2?
JF: I li… U2 is fine but for me my image of Brian Eno goes back to when I was like 11 years old before he ever… before U2 existed.
B: But most of his work now is based on U2?
JF: No, he makes his living from U2, but he does work on other than U2 solo records, collaborations with people, museum installations, the way I think of him is the producer of the three best Talking Heads albums, he was in the band Roxy Music, and he’s made tons of incredible solo records and he produced Ultravox and he’s just always been a really inventive person, he’s always been inspirational to me, and for me he’s made some of the most ground breaking records that have ever been made so it’s always nice when you can hear those.
B: What do you listen to lately?
JF: I listen to different things for different reasons and different times, I mean, if it’s a nice sunny day and I’m gonna drive to the grocery store or something I like to put on the album Slade Alive!, the live album by the group Slade which I think is one of the most powerful live albums that anybody ever did, there’s something about driving in the daytime on a sunny day that really makes me feel great, but if it’s night time and I’m just relaxing I could put on an album by this guy called John Hassel which is also something that was a collaboration with Brian Eno called “Dream theory in Malaya”, that’s a good album for mellowing out and relaxing, letting your brain go wherever it might. But I have a huge record collection, I listen to different things for different reasons
JF: You mean when I was a kid?
B: No, all the time, all I hear from you is that you’ve been listening to African music, South American music, you know, music from everywhere…
JF: Yeah I’m always trying to find out about new music, from my stand point I think the Earth is a really incredible place, the amount of music that there is, is amazing you know, you can go your whole life obsessing on music and still be finding out about new stuff when you’re 60 years old , 70 years old, it seems like there is an infinite amount of music here right now and to me any planet that gets it together to make that much beautiful stuff for your senses and for your ears and stuff is really doing a good job. A lot of people complain about the planet and complain about things but I don’t think you’d get that much beautiful things if there wasn’t an ugliness on the other side of it. I think anything that’s ugly in the world has to be there to make as much beautiful things as there is in the world, that seems really obvious to me and I feel really grateful to be living this life, it’s a good planet.
B: Do you believe in God?
JF: I believe in the lack of such questions, I don’t think there’s any reason for… for me in my life I have no place for any sort of image of God. I appreciate that other people do, and for them I’m glad that their God is there for them but for me is like when I drive through the country I look out the window of the bus and I see all these houses and I know that every single house is the centre of the universe for the people who live there, they think that house is being the center of the world and for them it is the center of the world but at the same time it doesn’t mean that everybody else’s houses are also the center of the world, it’s a bunch of things at once and to me that’s what God is, it’s one thing for one person, it’s another thing for another person, and another thing for another person times the whole world. Everybody in the world who has the need to have a God to believe in or to be faithful to or whatever their reasons are, I personally don’t have a place for it in my life, so lucky me.
B: What do you think it’s the most beautiful place you’ve been to?
JF: The most beautiful place I’ve been to?
B: Can you mention one?
JF: It’s hard to say, as far as nature goes I’ve been to really beautiful places like Costa Rica and Big Sur, California, Australia, I’ve seen really beautiful nature places like that but I like to see like just nice architecture, nice shades of buildings and stuff, I like walking down the street in Vienna, I have good memories of being in Vienna, Austria.
B: I’ve heard so many things about Vienna but I’ve never been there
JF: It’s a nice place, (grinning wonderfully and continuously) it’s the kind of place you can imagine just stopping everything, getting yourself a little apartment, smoking hash all the time, living café life
(we just laughed)
B: How about London? We lived there for some time, how do you like London.
JF: I like London. It’s a nice place, so much music that I love comes from London or from England, I really like it there just because of that alone it makes me think it’s a great place.
Geli: You’re going to England next right? Where are you going in England?
JF: V Festival
Geli: Where is that?
JF: It’s a couple hours away from London.
Last time I was in London I had a good time because I got to record with one of my heroes, Brian Eno.
B: who?
JF: Brian Eno
B: Ohhhh Brian Eno, he’s the U2 producer, isn’t he?
JF (grinning) : That’s what he’s known for now but that’s not what I think when I meet him
We both laugh
B: You don’t like U2?
JF: I li… U2 is fine but for me my image of Brian Eno goes back to when I was like 11 years old before he ever… before U2 existed.
B: But most of his work now is based on U2?
JF: No, he makes his living from U2, but he does work on other than U2 solo records, collaborations with people, museum installations, the way I think of him is the producer of the three best Talking Heads albums, he was in the band Roxy Music, and he’s made tons of incredible solo records and he produced Ultravox and he’s just always been a really inventive person, he’s always been inspirational to me, and for me he’s made some of the most ground breaking records that have ever been made so it’s always nice when you can hear those.
B: What do you listen to lately?
JF: I listen to different things for different reasons and different times, I mean, if it’s a nice sunny day and I’m gonna drive to the grocery store or something I like to put on the album Slade Alive!, the live album by the group Slade which I think is one of the most powerful live albums that anybody ever did, there’s something about driving in the daytime on a sunny day that really makes me feel great, but if it’s night time and I’m just relaxing I could put on an album by this guy called John Hassel which is also something that was a collaboration with Brian Eno called “Dream theory in Malaya”, that’s a good album for mellowing out and relaxing, letting your brain go wherever it might. But I have a huge record collection, I listen to different things for different reasons
To be continued.
2.3.07
Denver, CO (VOL IV)
Anthony asked me to remove his microphone because he had to go, which I kindly did. 
We got off the bus and Anthony was going to get his Ozone. He was even going to let us in there but he asked Sathari and she said no. I guess because the ozone treatment is still illegal in some parts in the US.
The funniest thing happened when we were hanging out around the backstage entrance. The band travel in their tour buses except for Chad who is flying to all the venues due to special circumstances. So Chad flies on show day and is driven to the venue. When he arrived to this venue, he was walking very self assured into the backstage area and the security woman asked him to show her his pass. I could not believe it! Chad said "I'm the drummer of the band!" I wanted to laugh so much. The woman turned around to ask us wether that was true or not. That was hilarious. "Yeah, he's the drummer" and she let him in. I think he was a little bit shocked but he was laughing too. Bless his soul.
I can't remember what the show was like. But I think it was good :
Blackie was backstage with James, Anthony's brother.
We got off the bus and Anthony was going to get his Ozone. He was even going to let us in there but he asked Sathari and she said no. I guess because the ozone treatment is still illegal in some parts in the US.The funniest thing happened when we were hanging out around the backstage entrance. The band travel in their tour buses except for Chad who is flying to all the venues due to special circumstances. So Chad flies on show day and is driven to the venue. When he arrived to this venue, he was walking very self assured into the backstage area and the security woman asked him to show her his pass. I could not believe it! Chad said "I'm the drummer of the band!" I wanted to laugh so much. The woman turned around to ask us wether that was true or not. That was hilarious. "Yeah, he's the drummer" and she let him in. I think he was a little bit shocked but he was laughing too. Bless his soul.
I can't remember what the show was like. But I think it was good :
Blackie was backstage with James, Anthony's brother.Right after the show Geli and I waited for Anthony at his request. We stood outside his tour bus and waited for him to come out. I will never ever forget the way he looked at me. He was walking up the steps and he was staring at me in the eyes as he kept walking. And he was smiling at me. It was a very subtle smile. He didn´t look anywhere else or stopped smiling.
"We came to say good night".I told him
He asked if we were heading back to our hotel. And we kept looking at each other´s eyes. Right behind him was Louie. ¨But you´re coming to Albuquerque tomorrow, right?¨said Louie. And that´s when the eye contact got broken.
He asked if we were heading back to our hotel. And we kept looking at each other´s eyes. Right behind him was Louie. ¨But you´re coming to Albuquerque tomorrow, right?¨said Louie. And that´s when the eye contact got broken.
What happened in round 2 was the last thing I would have ever expected. It was round 2 where he knocked me out, and eventually happily enlightened, I realized of the whole and unavoidable ultimate truth: Anthony Kiedis is just another man. Woaw.
27.2.07
DENVER, CO (VOL III)
We just talked and I started feeling more and more comfortable in spite of the uncomfort and ice sweatiness of being in front of most beautiful, intelligent, witty and charismatic man I had ever met. He seemed to be having a good time, sometimes with me, most of the time out of me.
But I didn’t care because making him laugh and seeing him laugh even if he was making fun of me was the most soul warming sensation I’ve ever felt right up to that moment. I felt it from the very surface of my skin, through the blood stream bombing my heart, to the very bottom of the structure of my bones. That silly non sense conversation was an ultimate spirit triumph.We were both laughing when he must have realised that we had been there for about 20 minutes and I wasn’t asking anything that seemed important, or related to his work, nor the band. So he asked.
AK: So what did you really want to know, what were you thinking of asking me?
B: the truth?
AK: So what did you really want to know, what were you thinking of asking me?
B: the truth?
AK: the truth
B: I never thought of asking you anything, I just wanted to talk to you, like we are now.
AK (smiling): Ok, that’s fine.
B: I was trying to come up with some questions but there was really nothing I wanted to ask you, just like, have a talk.
AK(smiling): I got you. I love my panther head.
Two nights before, in Oklahoma City, I had given him a Mexican handcraft made by a Mexican Indian tribe called huicholes. The hand craft is made of really colourful little stones, forming ethnic patterns and it was a beautiful piece of art with the shape of the head of a panther.
He really loved it and I tried to explain to him the origin of that and about the Indians and their costumes and traditions.B: I never thought of asking you anything, I just wanted to talk to you, like we are now.
AK (smiling): Ok, that’s fine.
B: I was trying to come up with some questions but there was really nothing I wanted to ask you, just like, have a talk.
AK(smiling): I got you. I love my panther head.
Two nights before, in Oklahoma City, I had given him a Mexican handcraft made by a Mexican Indian tribe called huicholes. The hand craft is made of really colourful little stones, forming ethnic patterns and it was a beautiful piece of art with the shape of the head of a panther.
B: Have you ever heard of the route of peyote*? (*peyote is a cactus type of plant with hallucinogenous/psychotropic properties which these Indians eat in a ritual to communicate with their Gods and have hardcore hallucinations.)
AK: The route of peyote?… Are you talking about Don Juan and his faithful side kick?
B: No, I’m not talking about that, no.
AK: Carlos Castaneda?
B: Carlos Castañeda? No, I’m not talking about him either.
AK: You just want to get fucked up, on peyote?
B: what me? No, I’m asking you if you know about the rituals they do…
AK (biting his index finger): Ohhhhhhhh . (he makes a really funny confused expression) Is that when they blow it up their nose?
B (now making fun of him*) : Yes (*they eat it, not blow it up their nose. actually, you can’t blow a cactus up your nose)
AK: Is it?
B: mmmhmmm
AK: Did you do it?
B: Yes
AK: You did it!!
B: Several times.
AK: Several times? She’s an addict!! (smiling a lot) did you find your animal spirit?
B: I did
AK: What was it?
B: A panther
AK: WOOOOAWW
B: Yeah. I have one on my back
AK: Cool
B: Yeah
AK: How long did it last each time?
B: Four years.
AK (suspicious now): Stop! How long were you under the influence?
B (I had misunderstood the question): Oh...(I laughed)
AK : Large dose for her, she needs some!
B: hahaha
Anthony laughed so much:
AK: (making signs with his hands) Bring in the truck!B : I’m lying.
AK: You’ve never tried it…
B: No
AK: I know, you seem like such a priss, you’re a Barbie, you wouldn’t try that…
B: such a what!!
AK: A priss.
B: what is a priss?
AK: A priss? It comes from the word pristine, pure, like the virgin Mary.
B(not pleased): oh, ok.
AK: Although I heard she had some problems with that stuff for a while.
B: Virgin Mary?
AK: Yes
B: Please tell me…
AK: She was into finding her animal spirit. She went on a rampage… with the Indians.
B: I always thought of that but not from virgin Mary, but from Jesus.
AK: Oh, he was a Party- O too. One of the original ravers apparently, they found a missing chapter and seems Jesus was raving heavily in the … (makes a pause and looks me dead in the eyes) hmm earlier teens of his life.
We bursted out laughing, and he reached and grabbed my knee! I was totally in my glory.
AK: baggy pants and everything.
After the little knee grab, I kind of felt like giving the gesture back in a more subtle way. The microphone became my best friend for life.
B: I need a second to fix your microphone, is that ok?
AK: yeah
Geli: She enjoys this
B: I enjoy it yeah.There was my confession, which came out naturally, warped in what could only be a dream, but wasn’t. Then we talked for a bit more about the White stripes, his ozone ritual, and just pure sillyness in general. Then Anthony asked Geli if she could tell on the camera how nice I looked in the light.
So Geli asked him if he wanted to sit "in the light" too and he said ok! and sat right next to me and we talked some more. My heart wanted to jump out of my chest. I was able to look at his eyes from so close…
After a while he looked at his watch and jumped, realising that he had a show to do. He said he had to go.AK: “Maybe I can give you a round 2”
B: minutes?
AK : No, “a-round - 2” like in a boxing match , and this would be round one, and we can reconvene at a later time, maybe… after I play for a little while.
He offered round 2. I didn’t ask for it and definitely didn’t even insinuate it either. I can’t describe with any kind of discernable language what I felt like. I was floating in the middle of an anxiety of the heart, the uncertainty of life after an overdose of delighted bliss and the danger of the secondary effects of eternal hopeless love. Anthony, with his vicious hunger to have control, with his twisted sense of humour, his amusement and joy to stupidize lost-in-drooland people, his not so twisted sense of humour, his way with words, his beauty, his laughter, his seriousness before serious matters and his non seriousness before serious matters, his brilliance and intelligence, his charm and charisma, all of him , all of Anthony Kiedis, every single bit of him made everything worth it.
He offered round 2. I didn’t ask for it and definitely didn’t even insinuate it either. I can’t describe with any kind of discernable language what I felt like. I was floating in the middle of an anxiety of the heart, the uncertainty of life after an overdose of delighted bliss and the danger of the secondary effects of eternal hopeless love. Anthony, with his vicious hunger to have control, with his twisted sense of humour, his amusement and joy to stupidize lost-in-drooland people, his not so twisted sense of humour, his way with words, his beauty, his laughter, his seriousness before serious matters and his non seriousness before serious matters, his brilliance and intelligence, his charm and charisma, all of him , all of Anthony Kiedis, every single bit of him made everything worth it.
Making Anthony smile
To be continued...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
