Jack Sherman—the second guitarist of Red Hot Chili Peppers, who played on the band’s self-titled debut album and performed on their first U.S. tour—has died, as the band has revealed on social media. “We of the RHCP family would like to wish Jack Sherman smooth sailing into the worlds beyond, for he has passed,” reads a statement on the RHCP Twitter. “He was a unique dude and we thank him for all times good, bad and in between. Peace on the boogie platform.” He was 64 years old.
Sherman joined RHCP after the departure of founding guitarist Hillel Slovak. While Slovak co-wrote several songs on their Andy Gill-produced 1984 debut Red Hot Chili Peppers, he ultimately did not record on any of the album’s original tracks. Sherman would co-write on the debut, as well as the follow-up, Freaky Styley, but he was fired before recording began, after Slovak asked to return to the group. While he would make small appearances on Mother’s Milk and The Abbey Road EP later on, Red Hot Chili Peppers was the sole album on which he served as guitarist.
When RHCP were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, Sherman nor Dave Navarro were included among the inducted guitarists from the band’s history (Slovak, John Frusciante, and Josh Klinghoffer). “It’s really painful to see all this celebrating going on and be excluded,” he told Billboard at the time. “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.”