Red Hot Chili Peppers

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RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

Formed: 1983, Los Angeles, California

Members: Michael "Flea" Balzary, bass (born Melbourne, Australia, 16 October 1962); John Frusciante, guitar (born New York, New York, 5 March 1970); Anthony Kiedis, vocals (born Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1 November 1962); Chad Smith (born St. Paul, Minnesota, 25 October 1962). Former members: Jack Irons, drums (born Los Angeles, California, 18 July 1962); Arik Marshall, guitar (born Los Angeles, California, 13 February 1967); Cliff Martinez, drums; Dave Navarro (born Santa Monica, California, 7 June 1967); Jack Sherman, guitar; Hillel Slovak (born Haifa, Israel, 13 April 1962; died Los Angeles, California, 25 June 1988).

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)

Hit songs since 1990: "Under the Bridge," "Give It Away," "Scar Tissue"

Through three drummers and a revolving lineup of guitarists, the core of the Red Hot Chili Peppers remained vocalist Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea. Their innovative mix of funk, punk, rap, and rock shattered musical barriers and established a large cult following by the end of the 1980s. In the early 1990s, they became superstars and their music gracefully matured into the new millennium, despite countless obstacles. The group's evolution from reckless, party band to mellow, sensitive rockers was shocking but organic,
and a great testament to their talent, creativity, and appeal.

In the late 1970s, the four founding members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers were high school classmates at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. During school, Michael Balzary, who soon changed his name to Flea, played trumpet and loved jazz music. Guitarist Hillel Slovak introduced him to rock and punk and taught him the bass. The two formed a band called Anthym with drummer Jack Irons. Aspiring actor and poet Anthony Kiedis occasionally read some of his work before their shows.

After Flea left to join the punk band Fear, and Slovak and Irons continued as the renamed What Is This?, the four reunited in 1983 as Tony Flow & the Miraculous Majestic Masters of Mayhem. Their music was influenced by the raw and aggressive but musically adept punk of contemporary Los Angeles bands like Black Flag, the Minutemen, and X, as well as the ambitious 1960s and 1970s funk of bands like Parliament-Funkadelic and Sly and the Family Stone and artists like Stevie Wonder. With spastic energy and outrageous antics, the buzz their live show created turned to frenzy when they performed an encore one night wearing nothing but socks on their genitalia. They were signed to EMI Records, but Slovak and Irons left the band to return to What Is This?, their longer-running and more serious project.

Guitarist Jack Sherman and drummer Cliff Martinez played on their self-titled debut, Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984). The band felt the album failed to capture their onstage vigor, so they asked Parliament-Funkadelic leader George Clinton to produce their follow-up, Freaky Styley (1985). With Slovak returning and two of James Brown's band members, saxophonist Maceo Parker and trombonist Fred Wesley, contributing horn parts throughout, the 1985 effort is the Red Hot Chili Peppers album that most resembles the 1970s funk that influenced them. It became a sizable hit on college radio and indie-rock scenes, but it still failed to capture the unbridled punch of their live show.

Jack Irons's return to the band on The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987) marked the only album with all four original members performing. Producer Michael Beinhorn, most noted for his co-production on Herbie Hancock's electronic, jazz-funk fusion album Future Shock (1983), was finally able to capture the band's intensity on record. By abandoning the more conventional use of horns, they developed the uncharted blend of Flea's inventive slap-bass funk, Slovak's raucous but understated guitars, and Kiedis's rapid fire rapping. Just as the Red Hot Chili Peppers' music was coalescing, their personal lives were shattered by Slovak's death from a heroin overdose on June 25, 1988. The event caused Irons to leave the band for the last time and created an uncertain future for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The Golden Lineup Comes Together

After some time off, Kiedis and Flea decided to re-form the band. Upon hearing eighteen-year-old John Frusciante play guitar at an audition for the band Thelonius Monster, they discovered he was heavily influenced by and had perfected Hillel Slovak's style. His addition to the band was obvious. Replacing Irons was more challenging, but after auditioning several drummers, they settled on Chad Smith.

The revamped group reentered the studio with Beinhorn and recorded Mother's Milk (1989). The album's first single, "Knock Me Down," was an upbeat but sobering homage to Slovak, and became their first modern rock hit. A rambunctious cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" followed with similar success, and the album became the Red Hot Chili Peppers' commercial breakthrough. By March 1990, it was certified gold and led to a contract with Warner Bros. Records.

For the first time in the band's history, the same four members remained when work for their fifth album began. They chose a new producer, though, Rick Rubin. His work with Run-D.M.C., Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, and L.L. Cool J made him largely responsible for the popularization of hip-hop. He had also worked with the intense, heavy metal band Slayer. Rubin, who would produce their next four albums, and the band turned a supposedly haunted mansion in the Hollywood Hills into a recording studio and emerged with the masterpiece Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991).

The playful party romp "Give It Away" was the lead single and became a wildly popular anthem. Its repeated instructions "What I've got you've got to get it put in you / Reeling with the feeling don't stop continue" are indicative of the overt sexual energy that oozes out of tracks like "Suck My Kiss," "Apache Rose Peacock," "Sir Psycho Sexy," and the steamy "Blood Sugar Sex Magik." In a similarly playful vein, the wicked and mysterious "If You Have to Ask," "Funky Monks," and "Mellowhip Slinky in B Major" boldly blaze uncharted trails in funk. "The Power of Equality" and "The Righteous and the Wicked" show a more socially conscious, but equally energetic side. The most notable new facet revealed on the album, though, is the gentler, more melodic reflections found on "Breaking the Girl," "I Could Have Lied," and "Under the Bridge." The latter relives Kiedis's battles with drug addiction and was a monster smash, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and selling over half a million copies. Its success propelled the album to number three on the album chart, peaking almost eight months after its release. Eventually, the landmark work sold more than 7 million copies in the United States. Due to its tremendous range and innovation, it is regarded by some to be one of the best albums of the 1990s.

The group's massive popularity became extremely difficult for the young Frusciante to handle, so he coped with hard drugs and erratic behavior. He abruptly quit the band in May 1992, just weeks before they were to headline the traveling alternative music festival, Lollapalooza. The band continued on with replacement guitarist Arik Marshall and completed the highly successful tour that also included alternative rock heavyweights Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, industrial metal mainstays Ministry, and premier gangster rapper Ice Cube.

Neither Marshall nor his brief successor, Jesse Tobias, were an apt fit for the band, so in September 1993, Dave Navarro joined. As a member of seminal rock group Jane's Addiction, his guitar work balanced ferocious heavy metal riffs with atmospheric psychedelia creating a unique, influential style. To assimilate with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, his playing was often more reserved on One Hot Minute (1995). The album had a daunting task: following up a brilliant, multiplatinum smash, after a four-year absence, with a new guitarist. Considering the odds, it was a successful effort with hits "Warped," "My Friends," and "Aeroplane." Despite quality live performances, the band's creative chemistry was questionable with Navarro. Another recovering heroin addict, his supposed relapses and desire to pursue other projects led to his departure from the band in April 1998.

The Golden Lineup Reunites

Magically, the same month, John Frusciante returned to the group after his near-death experience with heroin addiction. Clean, sober, and revitalized, he brought a renewed sense of hope to the future of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. As a result, they released the largely successful Californication (1999). Though the album has a fair amount of sexually charged, up-tempo grooves, it also reveals a surprising amount of maturity through softer, sweet-harmony ruminations. In fact, the singles "Scar Tissue," "Otherside," and "Californication" all crossed over to the Adult Top 40 chart, in addition to having major success in modern rock and Top 40 radio, and on MTV. Reaching an older audience was an astonishing progression for a band best known for hyperactivity, nearly naked performances, and recurring drug abuse. The band's mellowing progressed further on By the Way (2002). The beautiful effort demonstrated Kiedis's most accomplished vocals and elegant harmonies from John Frusciante.

Despite multiple lineup changes, drug addiction, and death, the Red Hot Chili Peppers repeatedly established themselves as one of rock's most original bands. Both their party funk and soothing ballads are truly unique and immediately recognizable. Though each incarnation of the group made solid contributions to the band's and alternative music's progression, the lineup of Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante, and Chad Smith established itself as the most cohesive and accomplished.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Freaky Styley (EMI America, 1985); The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (EMI America, 1987); Mother's Milk (EMI America, 1989); Blood Sugar Sex Magik (Warner Bros., 1991); One Hot Minute (Warner Bros., 1995); Californication (Warner Bros., 1999); By the Way (Warner Bros., 2002).