![]() ![]() But eventually, Kiedis joined his friends in a band. While his friends were working on their musicianship, Kiedis first tried to make it as an actor and-fun fact- shows up in an after-school special. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Athletes on stageįlea and Kiedis found kinship with two other outcast classmates: Hillel Slovak, a guitar player, and Jack Irons, a drummer.She goes "Michael-"You came home and- you said, 'I- Mom, I met somebody that I've never been able to talk to like that before.'" You know? Someone I could really talk to and that I felt heard by. Like, how much trouble can we get in without going to jail?įlea: We were just little street urchin, petty thievin', runnin' around in the street, tryin' so hard, yearning so much to figure it out like how can we matter? My relationship with Anthony is a profound thing for me. Jon Wertheim: What was the friendship born of?Īnthony Kiedis: We both came from broken homes, slightly- atypical homes, non-conventional homes. Long before they were bandmates, Kiedis and Flea were best mates at Fairfax High. Anthony Kiedis was a transplant from Michigan, living with his father. Flea spent his early years in New York before heading west with his mom. Not palm-lined movie star Hollywood, but the seedy one from the 70s. Their story begins on the pavement of Hollywood. Kiedis is a local fixture on his motorcycle Flea, at Laker games and in his retro ride.įlea: Yea, look, I'm an LA boy. Still based in greater Los Angeles -it's the city they live in, the city of angels-they're not just from the area, but of it. And I think having that vision is- a big part of why the Chili Peppers have managed to maintain for so many years and for us to- at least to ourselves, we still feel relevant and vibrant. Jon Wertheim: You see yourself on this continuum?įlea: I do. Within their psychedelic circus-and this might be a band's secret superpower-there's no clear ringleader. Frusciante is widely considered to rank among rock's greatest guitar heroes, Chad Smith is regarded as one of today's great drummers, Flea's name is synonymous with virtuosity on the bass. To understand their enduring appeal, start by listening to their four-decade-long list of bangers, that cut a ridiculously wide musical swath. Yeah, I see each song as being, like, a bass solo where (LAUGH) I'm- I'm there to- I'm there to support it. Jon Wertheim: You see him as the lead instrument? It's- it's- everybody has different ways of doing that, you know? I see the bass as the lead instrument the whole time. ![]() John Frusciante: We're all supporting each other at the same time. In L.A., we met them at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip, one of their early haunts, where they told us: just as they connect with audiences they connect with each other.įlea: Like, like the way jazz players play and the way that basketball players play, just like, telepathically, and understanding when to go, and when to move, and when to do what. We saw them in Nashville and at the Austin City Limits Festival, the last stop of their most successful year of touring ever: north of $200 million gross–as remarkable a fact as this: a founding member was celebrating a milestone: a 60th one … All intensity and improvisation and happy chaos, they are as much a band for the eye as for the ear. The Red Hot Chili Peppers warned us: the stage is no place for boundaries. As we first showed you last February, 40 years on, they persist selling out stadiums worldwide rocking and relevant for far longer than anyone would possibly have predicted-not least themselves. How then to explain the durability of the Red Hot Chili Peppers? They started in the 80s, swiveling among genres -funk, punk, rock, rap - an underground L.A. Add drugs, death and demons and you have a breakup (or a breakdown) waiting to happen. ![]() Creative tensions, clashing egos, the grind of touring-none of it screams stability. ![]()
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