See John Frusciante play first gig with Red Hot Chili Peppers in 12 years

The Red Hot Chili Peppers were reunited with John Frusciante for a private event in Beverly Hills in California on 8 February for a three-song set. The guitarist also joined Jane's Addiction for a performance of Mountain Song that saw him share the stage with one-time Chili Pepper Dave Navarro.

The performance was at a memorial for film producer Andrew Burkle, son of the billionaire venture capitalist Ronald Burkle. He passed away in January, aged 27.

Drummer Chad Smith was absent from the performance and was replaced for the allstar show by Janes Addiction's Stephen Perkins.

The Chili Peppers played:

Give It Away
I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges cover)
Not Great Men (Gang of Four cover)

The memorial was organised by the Tony Hawk Foundation, a charity organisation focused on improving access to skate parks for young people. Tony Hawk said that Burkle and his family were heavily involved in keeping the foundation going.

Frusciante's return to the Chili Peppers was announced in December last year with his replacement Josh Klinghoffer stepping aside after recording two studio albums during his ten-year tenure with the Los Angeles band.

Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.