New Red Hot Chili Peppers interview featured in the September 2011 issue of Q Magazine!
Q Magazine September 2011
Q:Why did he leave again?
Flea: You’d really have to ask him: probably a billion different little reasons. John is a very intelligent man and he’s doing what he wants to do. What more could you want for anyone?
Q:Did you have any sense that it was coming?
F: I’m open for anything to happen at any time.
Anthony Kiedis: It did not surprise me in the slightest. When the tour ended i knew that change was coming – and as the months went on, and i heard… things about John, then i knew it was a matter of time. But i never once felt like it was over for the band, just that John was going to bow out gracefully, which he completely did. It was for the good of everybody and a blessing for us all.
Q:So you never considered not continuing as the Red Hot Chili Peppers – given you’d now been through seven guitarists?
AK: Gosh. Do you know, i have not counted guitarists.. But no, speaking for myself, i did not. I think it would have been kind of quitting to do that, because i always think the best is yet to come.
F: I’d thought that if John did go that i would definitely not want to continue the band without him, But after he left, something kind of shifted in me and i found myself a really profound love fo the Chili Peppers and particually Anthony. You know, we’ve been friends since we were 15. We were inseparable. And even though are relationship has been really antagonistic… We’re very different types of people: we offend each other and we can both be a couple of self-righteous twat cunt-faces. But i really love the guy and he’s my brother.
Q:There was a precedent of One Hot Minute to consider, though. Not good, was it?
F: There might have been a little element of fear creeping in a while. But the thing is, Josh puts his heart into doing it and i knew if he did that then wee could’nt go wrong. God bless Dave Navarro, and he’s great, but his heart wasn’t with us. The whole process of getting that record done was like pulling fucking teeth in every way.
AK: It was weird period for sure. Musically it was odd because personally it was odd. I had kind of gone off the deep end and Flea was having his own personal struggles. God knows what Chad was doing, but it was probably in a darkened closet somewhere. And then, Dave Navarro is rather unusual and colourful character. All things considered, the fact we wrote songs and made a record was an accomplishment.
Q:Josh looks irriatingly young…
F: Oh, he’s going to get all the pussy.
Q:… But going on first impressions of the album, he appears to have brought some zip to the band…
AK: It’s kind of like starting over again without having to do 25 years of legwork.
F: The trickiest part of gettting together with Josh for me was also the best, which is that he’s completely different to John. There were things that i had come to expect John to do: he’s such a phenomenal musician that i was used to playing something and – bam! – John would hit it. He and Chad and I would lock in, and it was undeniably good. Josh is way different. He’d be floating around the outside with this ethereal, texture thing, It was like, ‘Whoa! When’s he gonna do that thing we know?’ And he didn’t. I had to consciously say to myself, ‘Dude, relax’…
Q:How was it for you, Josh- joining a band with such a shared history and having to fill someone else’s rather imposing shoes?
Josh Klinghoffer: I couldn’t begin to think that i’d ever replace [Frusciante]. So i could only resolve to and do something new with these guys.
AK: As beautiful as John’s shoes were, i don’t think that we ever expected Josh to be like him – just bring out some new shoes. Josh has incredible footwear.
Q:Twitter didn’t exist the last time you made a record. Flea – you tweeted the new album’s title three times in as many minutes last night..
F: Tweeting makes me want to suck my own cock! If you’re gonna drink a bunch of coffee, you either shit your pants or start tweeting. Chad knew this guy…
Chad Smith: Oh no, no, no!
F: What?! Well I knew a guy.. [To Smith] That better? This guy had to drink a bunch of coffee. He squat naked on a glass table under which these pervert guys would lie. Then he would do these big, gnarly, psychedelic, brown liquid shits on the table and the guys would lie these and whack off their cocks..
CS: It was called The Glass Bottom Boat.
F: A truly tangential part of the human culture that i feel gets too little attention. Humanity is full of great things, you know. It’s given us Bach, Charlie Parker, Da Vinci…. and The Glass Bottonmed Boat.
Q:There was evidently a degree of friction within the band after Scar Tissue came out..
AK: Shock, horror.
Q:In Hindsight, did you reveal too much?
AK: I could’ve revealed a lot more, I really could. It was my first foray into trying to tell the truth about myself… and in doing so you have to be hyper-conscious of not telling other people’s stories in ways they might not be comfortable with. In retrospect I made some msitakes along the way and I’ve made apologies for them.. It caused a little friction, but I feel like I was forgiven. By most.
Q:Did you ever finish reading Anthony’s book, Flea?
F:I never did, no. There will probably come a time when I’ll want to, but it still kind of freaks me out. Obvisiously it’s Anthony’s perspective on what happened..
Q:If the Chili Peppers’ story were a movie, what would be the dramatic high point?
AK: Oh, Jeez, come on! So much drama! But obviously Hillel’s death esd the biggest loss and turning point of our young lives at that point. To be 26 years old and lose your left heart ventricle was probably the most dramatic thing that’s ever happened to me in my life.. But i love our story, for better for worse, for the pain and the gain. We’ve all been little bitches from time to time, and we’ve all grown up along the way too.
F: All the stuff that’s gone down,it’s been difficult. But because of that difficulty there’s also been great opportunity for rebirth, each time. I have learned to be grateful for challenges, because I know, as hard as it is, something great always comes. The two things cannot exist without the other.
CS: What I do know is that I would not want Will Ferrell to play me in that movie.
Q:Any regrets?
AK: Not as i sit here before you.
F: Change all the complete fuck ups that I made? No. You come into this world and you have to make your mistakes in order to grow. I’ve done a lot of misbehaving. I’ve been a fucking rude, obnoxious, self-centered, self-righteous, asshole many times – and i’m grateful for it.
Q:Anthony, you wrote Scar Tissue about falling off the wagon during the tour for Californication- being holed up in an LA hotel with your then girlfriend, smoking crack and heroin 24 hours a day. How much blame over the years have you ascribed to your unconventional upbringing?
AK: Ermm… That was a little time bomb inside me that was always waiting to go off. Environment has has an influence, but i think that would have happened regardless of my upbringing. There was some demon in there waiting to have its time.
Q:Do you ever wonder how it is you’re still here?
AK: I never felt like dying was a good idea. I’ve just had a kid, so i’m looking for a long haul at this point.
Q:How was university, Flea?
F: I loved it and, honestly, I’d love to go back for years. I barely squeaked through high school. I was never an educated person outside my own personal growth process. The main thing i did was to analyse Bach; what he did is the pinnaclw of human achievement. Having, like, five different complex melodies all going at the same time, each one in itself the most amazing thing you’ve heard and all working together. The genius of it boggles the fucking mind. I liked being in a place where I didn’t have to feel guilt about picking someone’s brain.
Q:The Silverlake Conservatory is in its 10th year…
F: It’s a huge part of my life. It takes a lot to run it financially, but it’s an awesome thing. I was a troubled kid. I was on the street, breaking into people’s houses, on drugs- all this stuff. But the one thing that kept me together was, I went to school and I played in the jazz band, in the marching band. Music gave me a sense of discipline. Otherwise who knows what might have happened to me.
Q:You teach at the Conservatory, too. What’s the secret of good teaching do you think?
F: In answer to that question I want to tell a quick story… There was a kid I was teaching- he was, like, 10;it was during a period when the Chili Peppers took six months off and I was there throughout. I was teaching him the trumpet. He was a kid who had been tossed around from foster home to foster home and he had a very difficult time paying attention. I kind of befriended him so i’d go pick him up every morning- he was living in this really fucking rough orphange. He liked music, but didn’t really know anything about it. But he’d pick this trumpet up and he would not be denied. I’d see his little face, absolutely determined you get a sound out of this thing. That kid, the last I talked to him was a few months ago and he’d gotten into USC… [His eyes well up and he begins to sob].. And it’s so fucking beautiful. It means a lot to me. I get emotional about it. [Recovering himself] To put it in terms of teaching a little bit really goes a long way.
Q:You’re closing in on 50 now..
F: I am, but I’m also more aware than ever about each moment as it passes. I really feel joy and profound satisfaction in being in the moment.
AK: I like the idea of defying the convention of what it is to be in your 40’s, or 50’s or 60’s. Discovering surfing at this stage of my life is definitely going to keep me active till the day i die. So, yeah, I accept the challenge… In the same way that [the late American exercise and nutritional guru, aka The Godfather of Fitness] Jack LaLanne did – doing things in his 70’s that no man on earth could do: pulling tugboats across the San Francisco Bay with his teeth.
Q:How does your daily regime differ now from, say 15, 20 years ago?
AK: One hundred per cent.
Q:Meaning what precisely?
AK: Meaning 100 per cent.
F: I feel like I’m happier now that I’ve ever been in my entire life. I don’t think I ever completely loved who i was before and I’ve always beaten up on myself about it. My general relationships with people are a lot better as a result. But my basic thing is kind of the same. I get up do some form of physical expression.. I’ll go surfing. I ran the LA marathon this year. Snd then it’s a day of music and loved ones.
CS: Mines much different. Twently years ago it was all about escaping me. I would do anything to exit that – riding motorcycles, getting high, women, drugs.. That’s not who i am today. I’m a father, a husband.. I’m not perfect by any means, but i see progress.
Q:What’s to be made of Chickenfoot?
CS: I got to hear the Eddie Van Halen stories from Sam and Michael.
AK: I don’t believe I’ve ever heard Chickenfoot. [To Klinghoffer] Did you? [To Q]
Q: No.
AK: There you go: three men in one room who’ve not listened to Chickenfoot.
Q:What’s the ultimate high?
F: I always found slamming a quarter gram of coke would burst your fucking eyeballs…
CS: There’s this new thing out that’s supposed to be more toxic than crack.
F: We grew up in a drug culture and as a kid i did a lot of drugs. When i stopped, at first it was kind of boring. I was like, ‘God, this is flat.’ Then i started, thorugh other means, to have some really fucking trippy experiences- meditations, spiritual things. All these things [through which] I defientely got into an altered state of consciousness. There’s so many ways of getting high, drugs just get you there quicker. I still smoke weed once in a while but I’m basically pretty sober.
CS: The highest i ever got was having a near-death experience crashing my motorcycle. There’s this place on sunset Boulevard called Dead Man’s Curve.. I’d had one too many long Island Iced Teas and I came round the corner on my bike. I went into oncoming traffic and at the point I knew I wasn’t going to be able to pull it back in, the world completely slowed down. Everything was super-bright. I could hear the birds chirping. It was an incredible experience.
F: From all the descriptions that you hear from people getting enlightened, that’s what it’s like all the time.
CS: Nothing has ever beaten that. If you could live your life like that, without the impending car coming, it’d be the fucking greatest thing ever. But it only lasted for about three seconds and then- Bam! ‘Arrggghhh!’.
AK: I think dying is the ultimate high… I like [Comedian] Chris Rock’s definition of how he wants to die: driving 150mph while getting head from a Kardashain and listening to NWA’s first record at full volume.
Q:How would you want to die?
AK: In the back seat with the other Kardashian sister, of course.
Q:What’s the greatest low?
F: I’ve been real down in the past where i questioned the value of my existence. That’s the greates low. I’m pretty up right now.
Q:When did you last cry?
JK: Two years ago. My tear ducts never really work.
AK: I’m a crier- let me know if you need some tips. I could cry everyday, in a good way. If i just sit and think about my boy. But i sat on an aeroplane recently, coming from Hawaii to Los Angeles, with Rick Rubin just across the aisle, watching the Justin Bieber movie, Never Say Never. I cried about twice during that film and i wanted the world to know that! They were doing this very cheesy giveaway of concert tickets to 16-year-old girls. The cheesiness didn’t matter- it was the reaction of the kids. When you saw those little girls crying deliriously, I lost it. I decided to tell Rick afterwards and he said, ’ I was also sobbing during that point in the movie’. There you have it.
Q:Have you anything else to declare?
F: It’s all cool, man.
Many thanks to Going Inside on Tumblr for transcribing the interview.
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