The Darkness’ frontman Justin Hawkins often shares unpopular opinions on his podcast, Justin Hawkins Rides Again. He recently took aim at Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante, calling him “overrated” and comparing his guitar playing to child-like paintings.

The remarks came from a recent episode of the podcast called “How NOT To Write A Song”.

Hawkins said, “My issue with Red Hot Chili Peppers is that I get nothing from John Frusciante’s guitar playing. I feel like if we can call Mark Knopfler [of Dire Straits] an underrated player, I would describe John Frusciante as an overrated player. In fact, I have done that, more than once.”

“Somebody said to me it’s deliberately minimalist,” Hawkins continued. “Maybe it’s like that thing where you become a super-accomplished painter and start doing some naive child-like daubings, and that’s your phase. I think that might have been one of the things he was exploring, but it doesn’t stop it from being shit.”

Hawkins also made it clear that his opinion of Frusciante doesn’t come from a place of jealousy. “It’s always like, ‘You’re jealous because he sold more records than you have.’ And it’s like, well, Mark Knopfler has sold a lot more, more, more records than me, and I’m not jealous of him. I love his guitar playing. So that argument doesn’t really hold any water.”

You can watch the clip of Hawkins and guest Pat Finnerty discussing Frusciante’s abilities below.

Filed under: John Frusciante, Justin Hawkins