The Red Hot Chili Peppers had a name for their practice of playing onstage nude: "Rock out with your cock out." Though, in truth, their cocks were not out; they were covered with tube socks. "Not just over the cock," frontman Anthony Kiedis told Rolling Stone in a 1992 cover story, "but over the cock and balls." Photographer Mark Seliger wanted to shoot the band covered in red paint, but the Peppers -- whose album Blood Sugar Sex Magik had given them their first chart-topper after nine years together -- weren't having it. "We just weren't in the mood to be covered in sopping-wet red paint," Kiedis later told Rolling Stone. The band, he said, wasn't getting along very well at that time; shortly after, guitarist John Frusciante quit. "There's the famous photo of them walking across Abbey Road with the socks on," Seliger says. "So we extrapolated from that idea. Visually, they were so on top of their game. They were so willing to go way out there." Kiedis, whose bandaged hand was the result of a mountain-bike jump gone wrong, explained the timelessness of their nude escapades. "It was just a gag," he said. "And it was a good gag." (Posted Sep 30, 2004)
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