After the release of “Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic”, John Frusciante began to develop a dislike for popularity of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He would become distant on stage and resented the hit song “Under The Bridge” so much that he would play long intros, play in different notes and octaves and tried to purposefully throw Anthony Kiedis off while singing.

The most famous incident of Frusiante sabotaging “Under The Bridge” was during a live televised performance on Saturday Night Live on February 22, 1992.

Kiedis said,

“It felt like I was getting stabbed in the back and hung out to dry in front of all of America while Frusciante was off in a corner in the shadow, playing some dissonant out-of-tune experiment.”

Frusciante used a guitar distortion pedal for the ending verse and screamed his harmony vocals into the microphone both of which weren’t typical in live performances of “Under The Bridge.” Looking back on the incident, Frusciante was probably pissed that Kiedis intentionally kicked him in the back of the knee during the first song they performed on SNL that night “Stone Cold Bush“.

The intentional kick that Kiedis never mentioned happens at around the 3:25 mark.

A few months later, John Frusciante left the Red Hot Chili Peppers after concert at Tokyo’s Club Quattro on May 7, 1992. Which prompted Rolling Stone Magazine to digitally remove him from the bands cover photo. Click photo of link below to read about that story.