- published: 23 Jan 2014
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Josh Adam Klinghoffer (born October 3, 1979) is an American multi-instrumentalist, who is best known as the current guitarist and backing vocalist for the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Klinghoffer replaced his friend and frequent collaborator John Frusciante, who left the band in 2009. Klinghoffer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Red Hot Chili Peppers on April 14, 2012, becoming the Hall of Fame's youngest-ever inductee.
Klinghoffer also fronts Dot Hacker, and was a member of Ataxia (alongside Frusciante), The Bicycle Thief and Warpaint. He most commonly plays guitar or drums, and sings backup as well as lead. He has also both recorded and toured as a session musician with Gnarls Barkley, Sparks, PJ Harvey, Beck, The Butthole Surfers, Golden Shoulders and Vincent Gallo amongst others.
Dropping out of formal education at age of 15, Klinghoffer became involved in performing and recording music in Los Angeles at an early age. Klinghoffer describes himself at this time as "[the] little music dork who lived around the corner, dropped out of high school, and was just playing guitar all day long." In 1997, at the age of seventeen, Klinghoffer joined The Bicycle Thief, the then-current project from former Thelonious Monster frontman Bob Forrest. Red Hot Chili Peppers vocalist Anthony Kiedis noted that, "Bob [Forrest] has always had a very keen sensibility about finding extremely talented and down-to-earth people who just want to get to a kitchen and write a song." The band's subsequent studio album, You Come and Go Like a Pop Song, marked Klinghoffer's first recording experience. Regarding bandmate Forrest's notorious drug addiction, which arguably stalled Thelonious Monster's commercial success, Klinghoffer stated at this time that he: "Pretty much had enough confidence in myself to know that I wasn't gonna be 'the next Bob Forrest'."