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Red Hot Chili Peppers are a Californian rock band who have combined aspects of funk and hip-hop with rock and roll, pioneering funk metal. The band started in 1983.

One critic has summarized their lyrics as "sex, good times, rock and roll and more sex" with some truth, though some of their biggest hits, such as "Under the Bridge", have been considerably more introspective. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of their sound is the bass playing of Flea, whose flashy, slap-heavy playing not only provides a groove but is also the source of many musical flourishes. They are also well known for playing bare chested.

Red Hot Chili Peppers' label were originally signed to an EMI subsidiary known as EMI Belfort. Epic Records offered the band a contract where each member would be paid a million dollars, but only if Epic would release them from their contract with EMI Manhattan by paying them off. Epic and EMI Manhattan hit a wall in negotiations, the deal fell through and the Red Hot Chili Peppers signed with Warner Brothers Records. Their breakthrough record Blood Sugar Sex Magik as well as all subsequent records were released on Warner Brothers Records and were produced by Rick Rubin.

Their earlier work was a fusion of funk and punk rock with a party attitude. After the sobering death of guitarist Hillel Slovak, the Red Hot Chili Peppers would also lose Jack Irons, which would lead to the addition of current members, John Frusciante and Chad Smith. It was after the death of Hillel that the band had their most success.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are busy recording a new album. A release date is widely anticipated in early Autumn.

History

The 80's

The band was formed in 1983 under the name Tony Flow and the Miraculous Masters of Mayhem and was originally not meant to be a permanent project. They formed when Anthony Kiedis's friend Gary Allen from Gary and Neighbour's Voices needed a band to open for them. He suggested to Anthony that he front a band with his two best friends Michael Balzary (who played bass and is commonly known as "Flea") and Hillel Slovak (who played drums). Jack Irons joined the three of them on drums.

Anthony has said the following about their beginning influences in his autobiography: "All of us had latched on to the energy of Defunkt and the raw edginess of Gang of Four and, of course, the cosmic freedom implicit in Jimi Hendrix's guitar playing, so we would channel all those influences. But mainly, we wanted to do something based in funk, because What Is This had nothing to do with the funk."

'What Is This' was the band that Slovak and Irons were in and is one of the reasons that the band decided not to take this show too seriously. For them this was a one-off. For this one show they wrote a song entitled "Out in L.A." which included refrences to Flea, Hillel, their friend Tree and the many hijinks that Anthony would get up to in L.A. They performed their song to a 30-odd crowd and were asked by the promoter to play again the following week with new material. They agreed.

The band began to play more frequently and became more serious. They decided upon a proper name "Red Hot Chili Peppers" and concieved a strong repetoire of songs which included "Get Up and Jump", "Police Helicpoter", "Nevermind" and "Green Heaven".

The band began to make their name known on the L.A. music scene and landed themselves a record deal with EMI/Enigma, however, Anthony and Flea recieved a call moments after hearing about this stating that Hillel and Jack had quit the band. They had gained a record deal with "What Is This" and had chosen to stay in that band. This news was crushing to the two of them but they chose to continue and find replacements for the recording of their first album. They picked up Cliff Martinez as their new drummer and Dix Denney as guitarist.

Denney did not last long in the band however, Anthony and Flea fired him shortly after joining because he couldn't apply himself properly to Hillel's parts.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Freaky Styley and The Uplift Mofo Party Plan provided little commercial success, but their electric live performances definately caught the attention of the music world. Their sound was dominated by Punk and Funk influences. Funkadelic/Parliament maestro George Clinton even produced their second album Freaky Styley.

Original guitarist Hillel Slovak died from a heroin overdose in 1988. With him left original drummer Jack Irons, devasted by the death of his best friend. Slovak was replaced by the vituoso teenage guitarist John Frusciante and Irons - by experienced jazz-drummer Chad Smith, and the new members helped them become a commercially more successful band. Mother's Milk provided the Peppers first form of real success. It included their cover version of the Stevie Wonder song "Higher Ground" and singer Kiedis' song about Slovak and drug addiction, "Knock Me Down". One of the gimmicks that Red Hot Chili Peppers came up with at this time was coming out for encore performances naked, save for strategically-worn socks enclosing their genitalia.

The 90's

The beginning of the 90's saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers get their final breakthrough. With the release of their 5th studio album in 1991, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the Chili Peppers finally reached complete stardom. Instrumenal in the success of the album was producer Rick Rubin (previously known for his work with Run DMC and the Beastie Boys) who soaked in all the creative energy of the band and produced one of the greatest and most influential albums of the 90's. The band had matured from their cocks and socks and as musicians they improved greatly. Flea started to approach song writing differently by instead of having his incredible bass playing on top of the song, he decided to play for the song. Nevertheless his bass playing was as usual, absolutely phenomenal. John Frusciante also matured and finally found his place in the band as one of the more important creative elements of their music. His guitar playing became signature and he was becoming regarded as one of the best around. As for the rest of the band, Anthony Kiedis was still writing his sexed up lyrics and Chad Smith was pounding the drums as hard as ever. The albums biggest hits was the Chili Peppers style funk-rock-rap hit "Give it Away" (which won a Grammy in 1992) and the soulful ballad "Under the Bridge" which was for weeks number one on the Billboard Charts.

Following their new life as super-stars, John Frusciante began to have problems handling it being in a band and also he increased his drug use. Thus he quit the band in 1992. After trying out guitarists Arik Marschall and Jesse Tobias, the Peppers settled for ex-Jane's Addiction guitarist, Dave Navarro. The 1995 album, One Hot Minute, with Dave Navarro on board didn't prove as successful as its predecessor. Once again the Peppers breached new musical ground with a more Rock influence from Navarro. In 1996, Flea won the award for "Best Bass Player" and 2 years later, because of musical differences Dave Navarro left the band.

As a result, the band was in obscurity for a while, unsure of what was to come. However, things changed for the better after John Frusciante finished spending some time in rehabilitation to try to get rid of his awful heroin habit. To top that off, he then reconciled with his former bandmates and return to the fold. With his help the band released the mega successful album, Californication. Hits from the album include, "Around the World", up-tempo bass groove dominated song, "Otherside", a beautiful rock song, and the title track Californication - a slower more melodic song and the Grammy Award winning song "Scar Tissue" which show-cased Frusciante's heavy influence on their new trademark sound. Californication confirmed the Chili Peppers place as one of the biggest bands of all time and their place as the undisputed Kings of Funk/Punk/Rock.

The 2000's

Following further touring of their smash album Californication and their picking up of the Grammy for best rock song for "Scar Tissue" the Chili's sat down to record their 8th studio album, By The Way. The album was a great contrast to all the previous Chili's albums, containing more soaring melodies than their more accustomed funky grooves. The song "By the Way", a more typical Peppers song with a strong chorus and a groovy bassline in the verse, became soon very popular. Its success was followed by the release of the single "The Zephyr Song", a very pop-similar song, and then the mega hit "Can't Stop", a funky song that relates more to the roots of the band.

In 2003, the band released its Greatest Hits as an album. The album consisted of 14 songs from the Mother's Milk to By The Way as well as 2 new songs, "Fortune Faded" (also released as a single) and "Save the Population".

In the Summer of 2004 the band embarked on a tour of Europe, playing in stadium sized venues, their first tour of playing venues of this magnitude. New songs were revealed at these shows to the delight of fans, these songs were "Leverage of Space", "Rolling Sly Stone" and "Mini-Epic". The shows played at Hyde Park in London were recorded and compiled to form the band's only live album to date Live in Hyde Park. The album was released very quickly after these shows (about a month and half) and included two of the new songs "Leverage of Space" and "Rolling Sly Stone". The songs included on the album draw heavily from the albums Californication and By the Way with little material included from before Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The concerts held in England by the Chili Pepper's have gone into the record books for having made the biggest amount of money ever out of a music concert event.

It has recently been revealed that the band are finishing up work on their ninth studio album with the final vocals tracks being recorded. The songs that were debuted last summer are said not to be included on the album. John Frusciante has recently said the following: "There's heavier stuff than the band's ever done, and there's also a lot of beautiful, soaring melodies, I feel like everybody's taking their instrument to a new level." He has also cited that his favorite track off the album is entitled "Only 18". The band spent seven months writing and rehearsing before entering the studio to record. Flea has also said the following: "There are also a lot of fucked-up aspects to it, all kinds of flaws and dirt that I like to hear on records." The band played a free concert in Las Vegas to celebrate the city's 100th aniversary with Weezer on July 2nd. Two new songs were played at this event, apparantly called "21st Century" and "Ready Made".

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 In the Summer of 2004 the band embarked on a tour of Europe, playing in stadium sized venues, their first tour of playing venues of this magnitude. New songs were revealed at these shows to the delight of fans, these songs were "Leverage of Space", "Rolling Sly Stone" and "Mini-Epic". The shows played at [[Hyde Park]] in [[London]] were recorded and compiled to form the band's only live album to date ''[[Live in Hyde Park]]''. The album was released very quickly after these shows (about a month and half) and included two of the new songs "Leverage of Space" and "Rolling Sly Stone". The songs included on the album draw heavily from the albums ''Californication'' and ''By the Way'' with little material included from before ''Blood Sugar Sex Magik''. The concerts held in England by the Chili Pepper's have gone into the record books for having made the biggest amount of money ever out of a music concert event.
-It has recently been revealed that the band are finishing up work on their ninth studio album with the final vocals tracks being recorded. The songs that were debuted last summer are said not to be included on the album. John Frusciante has recently said the following: "There's heavier stuff than the band's ever done, and there's also a lot of beautiful, soaring melodies, I feel like everybody's taking their instrument to a new level." He has also cited that his favourite track off the album is entitled "Only 18". The band spent seven months writing and rehearsing before entering the studio to record. [[Flea]] has also said the following: "There are also a lot of fucked-up aspects to it, all kinds of flaws and dirt that I like to hear on records." The band played a free concert in [[Las Vegas]] to celebrate the city's 100th aniversary with [[Weezer]] on July 2nd. Two new songs were played at this event, apparantly called "21st Century" and "Ready Made".
+It has recently been revealed that the band are finishing up work on their ninth studio album with the final vocals tracks being recorded. The songs that were debuted last summer are said not to be included on the album. John Frusciante has recently said the following: "There's heavier stuff than the band's ever done, and there's also a lot of beautiful, soaring melodies, I feel like everybody's taking their instrument to a new level." He has also cited that his favorite track off the album is entitled "Only 18". The band spent seven months writing and rehearsing before entering the studio to record. [[Flea]] has also said the following: "There are also a lot of fucked-up aspects to it, all kinds of flaws and dirt that I like to hear on records." The band played a free concert in [[Las Vegas]] to celebrate the city's 100th aniversary with [[Weezer]] on July 2nd. Two new songs were played at this event, apparantly called "21st Century" and "Ready Made".
 ==See also==