$WHACKD

Halloween night in 1993 at the Viper Room in LA... or what I like to call, "the night Hollywood died."

You basically have a who's who of early 90s punk/grunge/drug scene at this place. Johnny Depp, River Phoenix, Jaoquin Phoenix, Samantha Mathis, Flea, John Frusciante, Bob Forrest, Butthole Surfers, Anthrax, and more. A lot going on.

So the story goes... River didn't even want to go to Viper that night, but his gf and friends got him to come out. It was possibly on a verbal invite from Flea telling River that he could probably jam onstage that night that got him to decide to come out.

By all accounts. John Frusciante was an absolute shit show that night, even upon arrival. High as a kite... puke on his clothes. He too was told he could play onstage that night. Granted, he walked out on the Chili Peppers a year prior, and Flea was present. Had to be weird.

So the accusation is that John mixed up a bunch of drugs in a drink and slid it to the pissed off River after he was told he could not play anymore after John even got a few minutes and basically puked on the mic... and River drank it down, immediately exclaiming wtf was that. and the rest is history.

That's where it gets funny. Stories do not line up from live witnesses. John was with River and everyone as they awaited the ambulance (why would he stick around if he had bad intentions OR if anyone around felt the same way). Also, River had an undeniable problem with hard drugs at that point in his life.

Anyway, John really had nothing going for his life at this point. He was in there 3/4 a dead man anyway, 2 more lines away from death himself. River was the golden boy, sitting in the corner with his loved ones. John and River were good buds. They had recorded a few songs together, still can find those online today.

I feel like someone in the club made that drink, if we want to go with that story. Someone who was not John. By all accounts, that was a waste of drugs, a literal kill cocktail with no opportunity to even let the narcotics enter the consumer's system as intended. By most accounts, any shit head addict wouldn't do that to a stash.

There is an odd story of "someone else" being at the club that night, with a shit ton of drugs in the bathroom. I think this figure gets ID'd as John too often, if it was a real person. I think there were bunches of ppl doing drugs in the bathroom, but when we know John walked in puking, prob did some bathroom drugs, and walked out puking.. theres not a whole lot of drug usage and facilitation time there.

So... someone wants John gone. The lowest person in the damn club. And one of the richest. The shot gets to him and his head is in the 4th dimension, where he loves to live anyway, and holds the cup... figures its got good stuff depending what was said to him... but knowing he doesnt want it... slides it to the person next to him. His buddy, Riv. And of course since he was fucked up, he really didn;t realize either. But, after River fell... he did. That's why John went into hiding and really into a personal hell for the next 5 years. He knew something happened. I think it haunts him every day, sadly. We all loved River. I think.