Background and career
Josh Adam Klinghoffer (born October 3, 1979) is an American musician best known for being the guitarist for the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers from 2009 to 2019, with whom he recorded two studio albums, I'm with You (2011) and The Getaway (2016), and the B-sides compilation I'm Beside You (2013). Klinghoffer took the place of his friend and frequent collaborator John Frusciante in 2009, after a period as the band's touring rhythm guitarist. At age 32, Klinghoffer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2012, making him the youngest inductee at the time. Following his departure from Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2019, Klinghoffer became a touring and session member of both Pearl Jam (since 2021) and Jane's Addiction (2023). As a multi-instrumentalist, Klinghoffer fronts the alternative rock band Dot Hacker. He is also a former member of the bands Ataxia, Warpaint and the Bicycle Thief, and has both recorded and toured as a session musician with notable artists including PJ Harvey, Beck, Iggy Pop, Elton John, Butthole Surfers, Vincent Gallo, Sparks, Golden Shoulders, Cate Le Bon, the Armed and Redd Kross. Additionally, Klinghoffer releases solo materials under the pseudonym of Pluralone, originally a working title for the group Dot Hacker. He has released four solo albums, To Be One with You (2019), I Don't Feel Well (2020), This Is the Show (2022) and A Drop in the Ocean (2026) plus multiple non-album singles and B-sides.
Josh Adam Klinghoffer was born on October 3, 1979 in Santa Monica, California. Klinghoffer took drum lessons when he was nine, and taught himself guitar and keyboards. He is distantly related to Leon Klinghoffer, who was murdered during the Achille Lauro hijacking. He dropped out of high school at the age of 15 in 1995, focusing more on a career in music.
Klinghoffer became involved in performing and recording music in Los Angeles at an early age. Klinghoffer described 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'." It was during the recording of Bicycle Thief album that Josh, at age 17, first met John Frusciante, who came in to record a guitar solo. The two eventually began to hang out and listen to music together at Frusciante's home. In late 1999, the Bicycle Thief opened for Red Hot Chili Peppers, as the latter toured in support of their seventh studio album, Californication.
Klinghoffer and the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante began writing together in 2002, with the hopes of recording and releasing an album under a band name. This album was eventually released as a John Frusciante solo release in 2004, entitled Shadows Collide with People. Regarding this decision, Frusciante stated: We had written the song "Omission" together and this song came about through collaboration. He played keyboard and I played guitar and both of us had the ideas for the vocals. [...] We sat there and scribbled our parts onto a piece of paper and when we were ready we got back together again and sung our ideas together and they fit perfectly. At that time we thought that we'd do many songs together, just like this one. As time went by, this album became more of a solo album with which he's helping me. [...] We'll do further projects where we'll work together, but we realized that these were my songs and it therefore had to be a solo album. During the first six months of 2004, Klinghoffer continued to assist Frusciante in the studio. Klinghoffer's drums, bass, vocals, keyboards, and/or guitar can be heard on the full-length albums The Will to Death, Inside of Emptiness, and in 2009's The Empyrean. 2004's A Sphere in the Heart of Silence is also credited to both musicians, and features several tracks with Klinghoffer on vocals, lead guitar, synthesizers and sequencing. He plays drums along with Frusciante and Fugazi bassist Joe Lally in Automatic Writing and AW II, under the name Ataxia. Frusciante commented on his relationship with Klinghoffer in 2004 stating: "He's simply a very talented person and has been a very close friend for the past four years. He's one of the very few people who I really like to spend a lot of time with. In many respects he's the person who is closest to me, and with whom I can speak honestly about everything. His opinion is very important to me and I value it a lot." In 2004, Klinghoffer also appeared on the Thelonious Monster album, California Clam Chowder.
In addition to infrequent live appearances with the band, Klinghoffer appeared on Golden Shoulders' first two albums, 2002's Let My Burden Be and 2004's Friendship Is Deep, playing bass guitar. He returned to play bass guitar, drums, electric guitar, mellotron, organ, and synthesizer on 2009's Get Reasonable, and electric guitar and piano on 2019's Could This Be the End.
Klinghoffer was a touring and session musician for Gnarls Barkley. Klinghoffer appeared on the band's second album, 2008's The Odd Couple and was part of the band's touring lineup to support their first two studio albums which also included an opening slot for the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their Stadium Arcadium tour, a tour Klinghoffer would eventually join as a backing musician in 2007.
