Love, Death, and every day sports
Red Hot Chili Peppers interview with Berliner Zeitung – German Newspaper.
Published December 1st, 2011.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are the masters of rebirth. Personally and musically. Except for the 31 year-old, new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer – who replaces the legendary John Frusciante – they are all men short before their 50. Men, which enjoyed extensive sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. But also men, which are Fathers of altogether 8 children. Men in a enviably good shape, which are able to stand half-naked on stage, without appealing disconcertingly.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers - Masters of Rebirth
RHCP Singer Anthony Kiedis is contented with himself, the band and the new album. “I think we did a good job”, he said in an interview: “Flea had some great ideas for the album. One of them was to play for a whole year just to write, rehearse and jam. Without finding a new unit to release pressure. This has helped us to create a host of good ideas for songs. ”
Josh shines
The exciting thing about the current occupation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, of course, is the new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, the only conceivable, while natural replacement for John Frusciante. Both guitarists have long been close friends, Josh Klinghoffer has played on most of John Frusciante’s solo albums, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers have known Klinghoffer since he was sixteen years old, first as a fan and later as a friend, and most recently the band’s new guitarist.
Wiping all doubts aside, drummer Chad Smith says the pressure on Klinghoffer could be too big: “It is clear there is pressure because Josh is the new kid. But not from us, from the outside. Josh is amazing, he is an acoustic architect who leads us into new realms. Josh shines! ”
Once before, after their big success with the 1991 album “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”, the band had to replace John Frusciante. He didn’t like the success and stardom, Frusciante prefered to play smaller clubs instead of big concert halls. At that time, Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction joined the band, according to Flea, however, made a lousy job.
“Dave has never given his heart to us. That was the problem, because he’s a great guitarist, but he never trusted in us. He wanted neither our love nor our support. Maybe that how it works in other bands, but we need to flourish mutual love. With us he was not even halfway there, a huge difference compared to Dave, with whom I’ve played with Jane’s Addiction. He has never felt safe with us, was paranoid, for whatever reason? But that is completely different from our current situation with Josh Klinghoffer.”
Shy at giving interviews
The vowed and beloved Josh Klinghoffer is really shy at giving interviews; he answers only with half sentences and generalities, he avoids the microphone constantly. Only the question of what it meant to him, now playing for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Josh Klinghoffer maintains a clear answer: “It is an honor for me, a huge joy. When I dropped out of high school at 15 to just play guitar, I was a fan of the band, now I play with my heroes. This is more than a dream come true, as far as I would have never dared to dream. The Peppers are good people who watch each other. I admire them, and now that I am with them every day, I get to know them even better. This is really big!”
It is also important that Klinghoffer has the necessary stable smell, like most members of the band he’s from Los Angeles. “The city,” says Anthony Kiedis, “has a large share of what we represent today as a band. For years Flea and I literally lived on the streets and in the backyards of LA. We were dirt poor, and when you’re so closely connected to the life and death in the streets, you become one with the city. We feel love for the energy that the city creates. All these people, which are to concerned with LA daily, their thoughts, their hopes. They all came to make their dreams come true. And no matter if they make it, we profit from their presence. Like on all the other albums this city inspired me this time, too. During the song ‘Happiness Loves Company’ I sing ‘Young lovers keep it pumping in the street of LA.’ There you go.”
No other rock band talks about love so much during the course of an interview. The love for each other, for the city, for the universe and especially the music, according to Flea: “I love music. The animalistic sense, academic technology, the physical relationship, the power of music, you feel good. Music is unlimited fascinating every day. This morning at breakfast I heard Ravel, what incredibly great music.”
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are healthy in 2011, driven daily to feed, mostly vegan, sometimes even by means of a form adapted to the personal blood type diet. They have leaned in and out of pain after their first guitarist Hillel Slovak died of a drug overdose in 1988. They defeated their demons; currently none of them are addicted to drugs.
Remain Forever Young
All the trials and tribulations of the first two Red Hot Chili Peppers’ decades leads Flea retrospectively back to the immense pressure that the outer and the inner, “I don’t know if you can go through life without having to prove something to yourself and the surrounding world. But I remember how unhappy I was at the time when I wanted to show everyone. An incredible waste of energy. Now I’m much happier with my new, orange-black Triumph Bonneville, and the fact that I still have a lot of sex. Otherwise, I jog every day, and when Anthony calls me, we go surfing. Life is good.“
Flea seems like someone, that moved on from every aging process. “I wanna keep on being a boy forever”, he says. “You have to grow up in so many areas of life. You have to bear responsibility in your job, your relationship, as a father. And you even shall grow emotionally and spiritually. But exactly that it is when you experience again your inner child, the fresh mind, the insouciance. Let me say it like this: Horray for the cocks!”
Flea looks like someone has left behind him the aging processes. I want to stay a boy forever,” he also says. “In life you have to grow up in so many areas. You have responsibilities in your job, in relationships, as a father. Then you should also grow emotionally and spiritually. But exactly that it is when you experience again your inner child, the fresh spirit, the lack of concern. So, let me say this: Hooray for the cocks! ”
The Red Hot Chili Peppers will play at O2 World in Berlin, Germany on December 4th, 2011.
Source: www.berliner-zeitung.de
Thanks to lira for sourcing and translating the article.
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