Red Hot Chilli Peppers guitarist John Frusciante has confirmed his departure from the mutli-chart topping rock band, because he’s “changed.”

Frusciante revealed that he had actually left the band over a year ago, but made the announcement official this week on his blog johnfrusciante.com.

The wild-haired virtuoso stresses that there remains no bad blood between him and his RHCH brothers, saying that his reasons for leaving are simple.

“When I quit the band, over a year ago, we were on an indefinite hiatus. There was no drama or anger involved, and the other guys were very understanding. They are supportive of my doing whatever makes me happy and that goes both ways. To put it simply, my musical interests have led me in a different direction.”

“Over the last 12 years, I have changed as an artist , to such a degree that to do further work along the lines I did with the band would be to go against my own nature. There was no choice involved in this decision. I simply have to be what I am, and have to do what I must do.”

The guitarist, voted 18^th out of 100 in Rollings Stone’s “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” in 2003, has had a roller coaster ride with the Chillis, quitting the band at the height of their stardom in 1992 during his bleak, drug-fuelled days (they were so bad that his teeth had to be removed and replaced with dentures due to an oral infection), to release a few hit and miss albums, before rejoining the group in 1998, crafting some of his finest work on 1999’s Californication.

Plans for a new Red Hot Chilli Peppers album are in place, with session guitarist Josh Klinghoffer rumoured to take Frusciante’s place.

- Carley Hall