Red Hot Chili Peppers

A potent combination of L.A. skateboard cool, tattoos, thrash, and funk, the Red Hot Chili Peppers overcame personal problems to emerge as one of the early '90s premier bands with 1991's BloodSugarSexMagik (#3) and "Under the Bridge" (#2). Their over-the-top performances and a sometimes excessive obsession with sex have inspired accusations of both sexism and criminal behavior.

After meeting at L.A.'s Fairfax High, Flea, Slovak, and Irons, with Kiedis as MC, formed the band Anthem School. Kiedis, the son of actor and Sunset Strip personality Blackie Dammett, already had show-biz experience after playing Sylvester Stallone’s son in the 1976 film F.I.S.T. Flea, an Australian-born, New York–raised musical prodigy, departed to join the L.A. punk band Fear, as well as act in Penelope Spheeris’ Suburbia (1983). (He later appeared in such films as Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho [1992] and Joel and Ethan Coen’s The Big Lebowski [1998]; he also voices the character Donny in Nickelodeon’s animated series The Wild Thornberries.) Irons and the Israeli-born Slovak then formed What Is This?

In 1983 the Chilis played their first show, an impromptu one-song jam at an L.A. club. The group went over well enough to be asked back (for two songs) and soon became a popular Hollywood club attraction. The band’s self-titled debut - with Flea, Kiedis, Cliff Martinez, and Jack Sherman (What Is This? had other contractual obligations) - was produced by Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill. The album stiffed; Irons and Slovak returned, and the band took to the road, sometimes appearing onstage wearing only strategically placed tube socks.

Freaky Styley (1985), produced by George Clinton and with guest appearances by funk horn players Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley, improved matters musically if not commercially. More rock-oriented, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (#148, 1987) sold better, and contained the band’s signature tune, “Party on Your Pussy.” Any optimism was shattered by the 1988 death of guitarist Hillel Slovak from a heroin overdose. Disturbed by Slovak’s death and Kiedis’ heroin addiction, Irons quit. An interim band with P-Funk guitarist Blackbyrd McKnight and Dead Kennedys drummer D.H. Peligro did not take hold. Kiedis recruited a Chili Peppers fan, guitarist John Frusciante, and auditions brought Chad Smith. This version of the band recorded Mother’s Milk (#52, 1989). With videos for “Knock Me Down” and their cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” on MTV, it looked like the Peppers were about to break through.

The band’s lifestyle came under some attack, though, with Kiedis convicted in 1989 of indecent exposure and sexual battery in an incident following a concert in Virginia. The next year during a taping of an MTV Spring Break special in Florida, Flea and Smith jumped offstage, with Flea grabbing a woman and carrying her on his shoulders, and Smith spanking her. The two were charged, and Flea was found guilty of battery, disorderly conduct, and solicitation to commit an unnatural and lascivious act; Smith was found guilty of battery.

The Chili Peppers’ next album, BloodSugarSexMagik, produced by Rick Rubin, was written and recorded in a mansion the band claimed was haunted. It sold over 4 million copies, leading to their headlining Lollapalooza in 1992. Just prior to the tour, John Frusciante left the band and was replaced by Arik Marshall. Marshall lasted only a year and, after many auditions and one false start with Jesse Tobias, was replaced by former Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro. The 1995 release One Hot Minute (#4) went platinum, but failed to generate the excitement of BloodSugar, precipitating a fallow phase in the band’s career. Flea joined Navarro for a 1997 reunion tour of Jane’s Addiction, and Navarro and Kiedis slipped back into old drug habits. Navarro quit the group in 1998 to pursue solo ambitions, casting the future of the band in doubt. Instead of breaking up, however, the Chili Peppers invited Frusciante to return, the guitarist having recovered from a severe drug addiction. The subsequent album, Californication (#3, 1999), was a commercial and critical triumph, with a hit single in “Scar Tissue” (#9, 1999) and a major tour that included a fateful show at Woodstock ’99, where the group had the dubious distinction of performing as a fiery melee erupted.

By The Way was released in 2002 and found Frusciante digging into the complexities of multi-tonal, layered guitar tracking. One year later, a Greatest Hits collection was released followed by the much more ambitious double album Stadium Arcadium in May,2006, which garnered some attention from the 2007 Grammy Awards as the group took home Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song (“Dani California”), Best Rock Performance By a Duo Or Group With Vocal and Best Producer (Rick Rubin).

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)