Jack Sherman, a former guitarist and songwriter for rock icons Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP) who played and recorded on the band's 1984 self-titled debut album, has died, Rolling Stone reports. He was 64. No cause of death has been confirmed.
On Friday (Aug. 21), the group confirmed Sherman's death on its official social media accounts, writing on Instagram, "We of the RHCP family would like to wish Jack Sherman smooth sailing into the worlds beyond, for he has passed … He was a unique dude and we [to] thank him for all times good, bad and in between. Peace on the boogie platform."
Sherman, who joined RHCP in late 1983 when he replaced founding member and original guitarist Hillel Slovak, can be heard on The Red Hot Chili Peppers, the group's only album to feature him on guitar. He also co-wrote a majority of the group's second album, Freaky Styley (1985), but he was replaced by Slovak who'd rejoined the group in early 1985 and ultimately recorded the guitar parts on the LP. (Following Slovak's death due to a heroin overdose in 1988, RHCP cycled through a number of guitarists, including Dave Navarro, Josh Klinghoffer, DeWayne McKnight, Arik Marshall and Jesse Tobias; longtime on-again, off-again guitarist John Frusciante rejoined the group last December.)
Sherman would later partially rejoin RHCP to record background vocals on a couple of tracks off the band's 1989 album, Mother's Milk, including "Higher Ground," a cover of Stevie Wonder's 1973 hit that earned the act its first-ever GRAMMY nomination, for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, at the 1991 GRAMMYs.
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Elsewhere, Sherman featured on albums from Bob Dylan, George Clinton, Peter Case, Tonio K. and others.
While RHCP were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2012, Sherman was not included as part of the induction ceremony, Rolling Stone notes.
"It's really painful to see all this celebrating going on and be excluded," Sherman told Billboard in 2012. "I'm not claiming that I've brought anything other to the band ... but to have soldiered on under arduous conditions to try to make the thing work, and I think that's what you do in a job, looking back. And that's been dishonored. I'm being dishonored, and it sucks."
