10 Legends That Guested On Hard Rock Songs

10. L'Via L'Viaquez - The Mars Volta

Given their pedigree in the world of progressive rock, not many people would tell you that the Mars Volta really needs any more members. If you look through what Omar Rodriguez Lopez can do just by himself, bringing him into the prog rock world is enough to turn your brain to mush if you’re not paying attention. They were looking to go a little more epic on Frances the Mute, and that meant calling in some friends to help melt our faces.

Going through most of the album, L’Via L’Viaquez feels more like an event than a song, taking the basis of the track and stretching it out to nearly 12 minutes and building atmosphere for the last few minutes. It would be pretty easy to assume that the fiery fretwork going on here is from Omar, but some of these actually come courtesy of John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who was friendly with the band around this time. Flea also subs in as the bass player on this song as well, always giving the song the right push when it needs to before going off the rails along with John as Cedric Bixler-Zavala reaches in the back of his throat for those insane high notes.

This wouldn’t even be the last time that the world of the Peppers would cross paths here either, as Flea would eventually play bass on the side project Antemasque with both Cedric and Omar a few years down the line. We were already in for a kaleidoscope of noise, but hearing these solos feels like John is trying to open up your third eye all by himself.