Anthony Kiedis : Ressentiment et prière (Resentment and prayer)

John Frusciante

"When John left the band, I resented him for not being my friend and for abandoning our musical comradeship. But all the time that he was out of the band and going through his anguish, I prayed for him constantly. From going to meetings I'd learned that one of the reasons that alcoholics get loaded is because they harbor resentments. One of the techniques they teach to get rid of a resentment toward somebody is to pray for him or her to get everything that you want for yourself in life - to be loved, to be succesful, to be healthy, to be rich, to be wonderful, to be happy, to be alive with the light and the love of the universe. It's a paradox, but it works. You sit there and pray for the person you can't stand to get everything on earth that you would want for yourself, and one day you're like "I don't feel anything bad toward this person."

That was part of the reason I prayed for John. The other part was that I didn't want him to die a sad and miserable death, so I prayed for him almost every day. I would sit there and say, "Whoever's out there, whoever's getting this thought from my mind, could you please look after John Frusciante, because he needs it."

Anthony Kiedis, Scar Tissue, Time Warner Books, p. 397