10 Legendary Rock Albums That Were Originally Very Different

The quality of any good Red Hot Chili Peppers record sometimes comes down to the guitarist that they're working with. Even though One Hot Minute is looked at as one of the band's weaker efforts because John Frusciante had left the band, Dave Navarro still did a great job bringing some edge into the Peppers' sound, with some songs even verging on metal territory like Warped and Shallow Be Thy Game. If the band went in another direction though, there's a good chance this album could have been a much bigger disaster.

Then again, putting a guitarist audition sign in the middle of LA Weekly probably wasn't the wisest move either, with the Peppers getting different calls from fans hoping to jam with their idols. As they started to properly go through different guitarists for the slot though, there was one incarnation of the band that had Buckethead in the band, who they thought was good but just not the right fit to blend with their funk rock style.

Once that started not clicking, Chad Smith had suggested to give Navarro another try, with him being well past his drama in Jane's Addiction and already well versed in the world of rock and funk music. That's not to say it deterred Buckethead by any stretch, who seemed to go back to his home planet and continued to pump out some of the most nutty instrumental music the rock world had ever seen. The Peppers were all about keeping things simple though, and having a guitarist that intricate could easily have broken them by the time the album was finished.