I think he is immensely creative all the time but I'd say he was at his most creative when he did his first two solo albums (Niandra LaDes and then Smile...). He was going through so much crap what with his drug addiction and feeling compelled to and then actually quitting RHCP. You can feel his pain through his music during this time period. I'm not saying that drugs and internal struggles are necessary for good music (in fact, I am more than happy that John is clean and still here to make amazing music) but it is just that John has an uncanny ability to express his feelings through his music and that time period was obviously a very important one his life (just by listening to those two albums). I also just really dig the 'rawness' of the recordings for those albums.
I think he is immensely creative all the time but I'd say he was at his most creative when he did his first two solo albums (Niandra LaDes and then Smile...). He was going through so much crap what with his drug addiction and feeling compelled to and then actually quitting RHCP. You can feel his pain through his music during this time period. I'm not saying that drugs and internal struggles are necessary for good music (in fact, I am more than happy that John is clean and still here to make amazing music) but it is just that John has an uncanny ability to express his feelings through his music and that time period was obviously a very important one his life (just by listening to those two albums). I also just really dig the 'rawness' of the recordings for those albums.