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Michael Balzary, Hillel Slovak, and Jack Irons were three high school pals.
They had musical ambitions and together formed a band they named 'Anthym'. The
pals managed to score themselves a few gigs but many club owners hid the youngsters
backstage for fear of getting busted with minors on the premises. Anthym even
had regulars at the shows, none more of a regular than a guy called Anthony
Kiedis.
The four, who all attended Fairfax High school, became mates and Anthony even
began opening the bands shows by reading some lines from his poetry. Flea however
left Anthym to join the LA punk band 'Fear'. Hillel and Irons stayed on, renaming
the band, 'What is This?'.
Anthony, Flea, Hillel and Jack were reunited when they were asked to play for
a friend at the 'Rhythm Lounge Club'. A week before the show all they had was
a few funky bass lines of Flea's and one of Anthony's poems. Unperturbed, the
guys dropped some acid and headed on-stage under the name of, 'Tony Flow and
the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem.'
Within days, news of the bands performance had spread due to their rendition
of 'Out in LA'. Word reached as far as EMI. and within 6 months they had an
8 album record deal. They renamed the band the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The band
did their 1st out of town gig in Aspen at the Cathay Grand Club. Their most
notorious performance however was at the Kit Kat Klub. During the show the guys
performed surrounded by a bevy of beauties in various stages of undress.
Due to Hillel and Jack having prior commitments with their band 'What Is This?',
they had to choose which musical project they would follow through. Having already
spent 6 years on 'What Is This?', the two friends decided to leave the RHCP's.
Replacements came with Jack Sherman on guitar and Cliff Martinez, (former bands
included Lydias Lunch 13. 13 and Captain Beefheart and The Not wanting to be
outdone, the guys performed their encore of Jimi Hendrix's 'Fire', with socks
on their cocks. Word of the on-stage romp spread like wildfire, the guys were
trying to get their music noticed, not their physical attributes.
Andy Gill, from The Gang Of Four, was asked to produce the
debut album. The Chili's wanted a sound similar to the Gang of Four but Gill
had other ideas. The relationship between Gill and the band was at best-tepid.
At one stage it is rumored that Flea and Anthony sent Gill a pizza box with a
fresh turd inside.
The album was released but the Chili's weren't happy with the result. They wanted
no more to do with Gill. Lindy Goetz became the band's manager and, as a result,
they played more live shows than ever. Time on the road was tough in the band's
little van, and they often stayed in seedy hotels between gigs. 'What Is This?'
wasn't fairing as well in the stormy musical seas. It therefore was no surprise,
that in January 1984, Sherman was dumped for Hillel-they're old pal. was dumped
for Hillel-they're old pal.
It was during the coming months that the band's
experimentation with drugs took a new turn. Flea tired of it, but Anthony and
Hillel decided to up the pace. Hillel denied he had a problem, Anthony didn't.
The Master of Funk, George Clinton, (Funkadelic, Parliament and other derivatives
of the two), had been a big influence on the band and was asked to produce their
2nd album 'Freaky Styley'. Clinton moved the guys to his studios outside Detroit.
Here the band wrote and recorded 13 songs. |
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