The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in 1983 in California by a vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bass player Michael Balzary (more known as “Flea”), guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons. Their music is a blend of alternative rock, funk rock, punk rock and psychedelic music. About 60 million copies of the band’s albums are sold all over the world. The band has a record number of singles, holding for a long time at the top of Billboard Modern Rock Chart. They have 9 studio albums, the most successful of which is “Californication” of 1999.
From its first inception the team named Los Faces (then “Anthem”) was performing garage rock, studying the heritage of MC5 and The Stooges. After graduating from school, Kiedis entered California University UKLA, Flea tried himself in a hard rock band Fear, and Slovak with Irons founded What is this?, with which the formation of The Red Hot Chili Peppers began (the title is the parody of a popular American pop band of the 70s, Chilly Willy And The Red Hot Peppers). The first gig was at Los Angeles strip club “Kit Kat”, and was remembered by the audience for the naked members, covering their genitals with socks. Powerful funk core, The Red Hot Chili Peppers were performing, had made an impression on the representatives of “EMI America” company. Soon, the band signed to them, despite the fact that Slovak and Irons had contract commitments before What Is This? Kiedis invited guitarist Jack Sherman and drummer Cliff Martinez, and in April 1984, they saw the release of the first debut album, produced by Andy Jill from Gang Of Four. The second album was recorded by Slovak and Irons. The song “Party On Your Passy” became a real hymn for the band’s fans, but they were still far from a commercial success. The third album, in December 1987 got in American Top 150, revealed that the sound of The Red Hot Chili Peppers became harder, and released on May 16, 1988 “The Abbey Road EP” became one of the most famous releases in the rock history – album cover parodied The Beatles’ album cover “Abbey Road”: the musicians, crossing the road, were photographed naked. In a month Slovak died with heroin overdose, and Irons, shocked by his death, fired from the band. They were replaced by John Frusciante (guitar) and Chad Smith (drums). That lineup has recorded a powerful album “Mother’s Milk” (US-52) that has been in charts for 8 weeks and went gold by March 1990. In 1991 there was a classic “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”, the producer of which was Rick Rubin. In this album the musicians were away from funk core, the sound was more flexible and lyrical, due to what the album reached American Top 5, and rap funk “Give It Away” and ballad “Under The Bridge” became the favourite songs by million people. In May 1992 while 4-day touring across Japan, Frusciante announced about his departure from the band. The band was joined by Zander Schloss, Arik Marshall and Jesse Tobias, until in September 5, 1993 The Red Hot Chili Peppers added Dave Navarro from Jane’s Addiction. The albums “One Hot Minute” and “Aeroplane” turned to be energetic, powerful and finished. Red Hot Chili Peppers could reasonably believe to be the classics of American alternative rock. Then the band was attacked with misfortunes: during their performance at Japanese rock festival, the typhoon began; Kiedis, and later Smith got into a car accident; Flea had health troubles because of the drugs and so on. To finish all that, in April 1998, Dave Navarro quitted the band. However all that troubles were for the band’s benefit: John Frusciante, having released two solo albums, returned to the band. The style of this musician corresponded with the whole conception of the band. They managed to overcome creative and everyday crisis, and in 1999 the album “Californication” became one of the loudest events of that time (by December it went platinum twice in the USA). It turned out to be the most “ballad” in their discography (“Scar Tissue”, “Porcelain”, “The Velvet Glove”, “Road Tripping”), however the musicians love for funk bass and rap, probably, will die with Kiedis and Flea (“Around The World”, “Get On Top”). Highly professional musicians, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, don’t think to refuse their constructive beliefs, and that’s great! Surely they don’t perform naked any more, but the love of fans and high positions at charts is the best result of their popularity. Unexpected, dynamic and immediately recognizable music by The Red Hot Chili Peppers will be liked by rap lover, metal fan and punk-rocker.
