Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP) are an American funk rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1983. Blending the musical genres of punk rock and funk, the band created a unique musical style that saw numerous imitators over the next few decades. Originally consisting of members Anthony Kiedis, Michael Balzary (aka Flea), Hillel Slovak, and Jack Irons, the band's lineup experienced several changes over the years following the death of Slovak. The band entered the mainstream spotlight in 1991 with the release of its highly successful album Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The group went on to release several more critically acclaimed albums, including Californication (1999), By the Way (2002), Stadium Arcadium (2006), I'm With You (2011), The Getaway (2016), Unlimited Love (2022), and Return of the Dream Canteen (2022). RHCPs have sold more than 120 million albums and earned three Grammy Awards and twelve Grammy nominations over the span of the band's career. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

Background

The original lineup of the Red Hot Chili Peppers first assembled in the early 1980s as the band Tony Flow & the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem. Consisting of vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bass player Michael Balzary, guitarist Hillel Slovak, and drummer Jack Irons, the quartet attended Fairfax High School together in Los Angeles, California. The group's early career involved playing live gigs along the Sunset Strip. The band members honed their talents during this period while also embracing what became their trademark gimmick: playing their sets completely naked apart from a tube sock covering their genitals. By 1983, the band had made headway within the Los Angeles music scene. The group changed its name to Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Balzary began exclusively referring to himself as Flea.

The band's growing popularity attracted the attention of record companies. By the end of 1983, the Red Hot Chili Peppers had signed a recording contract with EMI. Slovak and Irons later left the group to focus on their other band, What Is This. The other members recruited guitarist Jack Sherman and drummer Cliff Martinez to fill in and began recording their first album. The band's self-titled debut arrived in 1984 to a lukewarm reception. The Red Hot Chili Peppers garnered a large cult following over the following year, however, and received much airplay on college radio stations. Slovak and Irons returned to the band in 1985, and the group issued another album, Freaky Styley, that year. Album sales remained less than stellar. Fans of the group's enthusiastic live performances found the band's recorded albums lacking in energy. Some band members also experienced drug addiction problems, with Kiedis and Slovak regularly using cocaine and heroin. Kiedis entered rehab in 1985 but relapsed shortly after completing the program.

It took 1987's The Uplift Mofo Party Plan for the band to find its way onto the album charts. In early 1988, the band released the Abbey Road E.P. That June, the group lost guitarist Slovak to a heroin overdose. After Slovak's death, Irons permanently left the group. Kiedis and Flea decided to continue with new guitarist DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight and drummer D. H. Peligro. These new additions were later replaced by guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith. The new lineup turned out Mother's Milk in 1989. The album became a hit with the help of MTV, which regularly played the music videos created for several of the record's songs. Eager to capitalize on their growing popularity, the band members retreated to a mansion-based recording studio in 1990 to begin work on their first album with the Warner Bros. label.

Continued Career

The band's fifth studio album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, was a massive success upon its release in September 1991, and sold more than seven million copies in the United States. The album included the hit songs "Give It Away" and "Under the Bridge." Despite its success, the band continued to experience the turmoil of addiction. Frusciante developed a hard drug habit and abruptly quit the band in 1992. The group experimented with a few guitarists before deciding on Dave Navarro as a replacement. The Red Hot Chili Peppers took an extended break over the next three years before returning to the studio to record One Hot Minute, released in 1995. By this time, Kiedis had experienced another relapse, which accounted for much of the album's delayed release. Although it was a hit, the album did not reach the same critical heights as its predecessor. After a lengthy tour, Navarro left the band and a sober Frusciante was asked to rejoin.

The band's next release, Californication, was an instant hit upon its arrival in 1999. The group toured in support of the album and headlined the Woodstock '99 music festival, although the event ended in chaos after a riot broke out. The Red Hot Chili Peppers eventually began working on another album, By the Way, released in 2002. This was closely followed by a greatest hits release in 2003. The band then spent the next three years working on what many critics considered its masterpiece, Stadium Arcadium. Released in 2006, the two-disc, twenty-eight-song record topped the album charts. The band embarked on a two-year tour soon after. At the end of the tour, the members announced they were taking an extended break from music.

During their time apart, the band members individually pursued various creative projects. Flea studied music theory at the University of Southern California and continued to play music with other groups. Kiedis became involved in a television project. Smith and Frusciante also produced music outside the group. Frusciante announced his permanent departure from the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2009. The band's secondary guitar player Josh Klinghoffer assumed the lead position for the group's next release, 2011's I'm with You. Over the next three years, the group toured the world to support the album. In 2014, the Red Hot Chili Peppers appeared alongside Bruno Mars as part of the half-time show for Super Bowl XLVIII. That year also saw the band members back in the studio to work on their eleventh studio album, The Getaway, released in 2016. The group embarked on another tour beginning in January 2017. In 2020, Frusciante returned to perform with the band for the first time in over ten years. That same year, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers announced two new albums in 2022, Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen, with Frusciante returning for both efforts. That same year the band embarked on an extensive international tour in support of Unlimited Love that concluded in July 2024.

On August 11, 2024, the band closed out the Paris Olympics Summer Games in Los Angeles, California, along with singer-songwriter Billie Eilish and rapper Snoop Dogg as a figurative, musical version of pass the torch. The band performed their 2003 hit, "Can't Stop," which quickly rose to the top of the Billboard charts, spending three weeks as the number one song of the Modern Rock Tracks.

Bibliography

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