Anthony Kiedis and Flea talk to The Daily Record about the secrets of the Red Hot Chili Peppers longevity. Published November 11th, 2011.
Red Hot Chili Peppers keep the Magik alive by performing each show like it’s their last…
"We want to honour the things that put us where we are and that keep us there." - Anthony Kiedis
THE RED Hot Chili Peppers return to Scotland for the first time in four years on November 12th, 2011 to play a show at the SECC. And despite being together for almost 40 years, the Red Hot Chili Peppers still think every gig they play is their last.
The band, from Los Angeles, are Eighties survivors. Their first gig in 1983, as young schoolboys, was meant to be a one-off. But the group, then calling themselves Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem, were asked back. And even multiple personnel changes failed to stop their ascent to be one of the world’s greatest rock bands.
Singer Anthony Kiedis, 49, revealed the secret to their longevity. He said: “It’s still one night only – that’s what it feels like. That’s why it happened. We never thought about being a rock and roll band. We only wanted to play one night, that’s how we keep it alive. We all have a different type of intelligence and we want to honour the things that put us where we are and that keep us there.”
Original bassist Flea, drummer Chad Smith and new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer play a sold-out gig at the SECC in Glasgow on November 12th, 2011. RHCP last played in Glasgow at Hampden Park in 2007, a year after they played T in the Park. The rumours are, they will play T in the Park next year.
Another secret to RHCP’s success is they don’t think about what lies ahead. Luck gave the band a start and they have continued to work with what life throws at them.
Flea, 49, real name Michael Balzary, said: “I met Anthony when I was 15. We did mad shit and got into a lot of trouble, but we always had our own ideas and kooky concepts.
“We constructed our own ways of thinking, our own way of being friends and how we wanted to fit into the world. That’s how it all started.
“One day we were out at some weird water park in the valley and we’d smoked a joint and couldn’t get home.
“We saw this guy driving down the street who was in our geometry class at school and he pulled over. We didn’t know it but he gave us a ride in his Datsun B210 and we hit it off.
“He played guitar and had a band and he was the one who told me to play bass. That was Hillel Slovak – our original guitarist.”
In August this year, the Red Hot Chili Peppers 10th album, I’m With You, went to number one in the UK. The second single from I’m With You, Monarchy Of Roses will be released on November 14th, 2011 and will feature an animated music video.
After so many years together, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have a catalogue of unheard music but any anthology is still a way off. Flea admitted: “When we’re 90 we might release it. We just want to put out the records that make sense to us now.”
A Billboard review from 1985 said RHCP weren’t suitable for all audiences. But the band, who began in the LA punk scene and went through a funk metal phase, have survived to become international big sellers with records like 1991′s Blood Sugar Sex Magik. RHCP hit their commercial peak with 1999′s 16 million-selling Californication and showed their melodic side with 2002′s By The Way. Stadium Arcadium marked the end of an era with the departure of John Frusciante.
Some older fans felt they’d sold out. But Anthony Kiedis argued: “I think the audience became suitable to us over the years. We never made a decision to become more suitable, the audience slowly accepted us for who we are.
“At the start, we really were crass and brash and unpalatable for the masses. But I really loved that Billboard review – I think that got us signed.
“That was the show when my girlfriend – who looked like a canary who had become a peacock – came out in the middle of the set while I was dancing with this naked girl. She hated that, so she climbed on stage, punched the girl, then threw me down and tried to kick me in the balls.
“But I would not stop. I wouldn’t let the band down. We were playing Foxy Lady and I finished the song.”
Of course, their off-stage antics, drug abuse and womanising have made them as famous as their music. But the group aren’t shy of hard work and have long known that a band can’t tap into the rock and roll clichés then roll up at a recording studio and write a new album.
Flea said: “Igor Stravinsky sat at his piano every day. Some days it was boring and rubbish and his wife was chewing his ear off – it was mundane.
“The same thing goes for Nick Cave. He goes to work. Every day. Nick Cave is the greatest living songwriter. He is the greatest, it’s between him and Neil Young.
“You have to get in and do it. There are great moments of creativity that are like falling in love, they’re erotic and free falling, but sometimes it’s not fun. It’s work.”
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