Californication is the seventh studio album by U. Californication marked the return of guitarist John Frusciante , who'd previously appeared on Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik , and shifted the band's style. The lyrics incorporated the sexual innuendos already associated with the band, but added themes including death, California, suicide, drugs, globalization and travel.
Californication is the Chili Peppers' most commercially successful studio release to date, with more than 15 million copies sold worldwide, and more than seven million in the United States alone.
Billboard The record marked a significant change in style for the band: Rolling Stone ' s Greg Tate noted that "while all previous Chili Peppers projects have been highly spirited, Californication dares to be spiritual and epiphanic".
In the years following his departure, Frusciante became addicted to heroin and cocaine, leaving him in poverty and near death. If you were a rock star, you were trying to put people on. I don't see it that way anymore. Flea suggested the group record an album with electronic influences, akin to Zooropa by U2. The majority of the music for Californication was written at Flea's makeshift garage studio in the summer of It took Frusciante several weeks to readjust to playing with bandmates, especially while recovering from drug addiction.
As Kiedis said: "Everyone was having fun. It was as if we had nothing to lose, nothing to gain. We didn't care; we were making music for the sake of making music. Californication was recorded at Cello Studios in Los Angeles , and took a little over three weeks to complete. Rubin had worked with the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their two previous albums, and Kiedis noted that there was some hesitation to reenlist him.
