Bandsplain - Red Hot Chili Peppers with Brittany Spanos and Joseph Patel

Episode Date: June 17, 2021

Do you ever get scared that when you do psychedelics, your brain will break and you’ll get stuck in that place forever and never be normal again? That’s what happened here. Our brains broke somewhere along the way researching for this Red Hot Chili Peppers episode, and we will never be the same again. Fuck it, FOUR* HOUR BANDSPLAIN. *Nearly.  Featuring Rolling Stone staff writer Brittany Spanos (@ohheybrittany on Twitter) and writer and Sundance-winning producer of Questlove’s upcoming documentary Summer of Soul, Joseph Patel (@jazzbeezy on Twitter). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's with this band anyway? I don't get it. Can you please explain? Wait, like, Bansplane. Welcome to Bansplane. I am your host, Yossi Salick. This is a show where bright-minded writers come on to explain cult bands to me and to you. Today's episode is about red hot chili peppers. If you've never heard red hot chili peppers, clearly you are not addicted to

the shindig. Here is what red hot chili peppers sounds like. My guest today is Brittany Spanos, a staff writer at Rolling Stone and known dreamer of Californian-Welcome to the show, Brittany. Thank you so much for having me. Brittany, I just want to like get one thing out of the way right off top. How old are you? I'm 28. Okay, love this journey for us. A 28-year-old red hot chili peppers mega fan is, what a dream. We're going to unearth some deep truths today about the never-ending reach of the chili peppers. Yeah, the universal appeal of the chili peppers. That's generous.

Brittany, let's just start right off the top. Why don't you give me a little overview of who this band is? it might be a little complicated. Yeah. So we can do it together if you like. Yeah. They probably have one of the most complicated origin stories of any band that I've heard. Yeah. I mean, they've been through so many guitarists and even just like drummers early on.

But I think it's sort of, you know, we'll get into that later about how the guitarists have shaped a lot of the changing sound of the chili peppers. But essentially at the core, it was Anthony Ketus, Flea, who have been the. the backbone of the band for many decades now met in high school along with the original guitarist Tilel Slovak and the original drummer Jack Irons. And Anthony Keita sort of came from this, you know, his father, Blacky Dammit, was this actor in L.A. grew up in Michigan briefly and kind of had this like very all over the place kind of childhood. And Flee and him have been kind of childhood best friends for so many years and again have built up this very L.A., very healthy. California band that has gone through so many different sounds, again, affected by the fact that they have had many different guitarists with many different backgrounds who have shaped the sound of the band. But for a lot of people, the introduction was the funk rock chili peppers. And it's still a big part of who they are at the very core. Shout out Fairfax High School, which is where they met on what is now streetwear row here in beautiful Los Angeles. And then doing all this research, I was like, oh yeah, like these are the streets that I

I also like as a child, like, you know, my parents moved to West Hollywood from Iran in 1979. And like, again, they probably were neighbors with the Chile peppers. And just like their songs are homages to L.A. and obviously California a lot of the time. And you can kind of hear that in the music. Like even though he came there and like fully embodied the life, like there is a bit of like, you know, putting it on a pedestal or like this like. forever in awe of this place, even though he came to, like, be such a part of it. Yeah. It's not the most overwhelming part of it. I would say it's like, you know, kind of a 85% California and there's like the 15% of Michigan impact and influence on there. But yeah,

there's like something both like kind of quaintly Midwestern about some of the ways that he talks about life and about his sort of dating experiences, his history, his childhood. But the Californianess comes from the entire band because that's sort of just where they grew up together, where they formed, where their careers started, and kind of what affects kind of the sound and how they feel connected to the music industry and the music scene. We're getting fucking deep and philosophical here, right off fucking top. I think the band would appreciate. Brittany, why don't we start with this song? I think here's one thing about the Red Hodge. Pepper is that, and you noted this before we were recording, they have four albums that are different than what I think most people associate with red hot chili peppers. It's early. It's early stuff, but it's like four full albums of early stuff that gets kind of progressively closer to

like the main sound of the chili peppers that everyone knows. I really want to play out in L.A. because that was the first song I think they wrote together as a band before they were even a band. And they performed it in L.A. under the moniker Tony Flo and the miraculously majestic Masters of Mayhem. Not as catchy. Not quite as doesn't stick as much. Why don't we hear out in L.A.? You are listening to a music and talk episode where full songs and talk segments live together in gorgeous harmony only on Spotify.

Guess what? You can also create your own music and talk show for free with Anchor, Spotify's podcasting platform. Get started at anchor.fm slash music and talk. That's anchor.fm slash music and talk. Okay, that was out in L.A. Brittany, okay, here's what I'm thinking, because I basically got like really curious about how a band that sounded like that, A, got signed to a major label, which they did, that album was put out by EMI. Also, like, where that sound even came from.

Yeah. To, like, contextualize the, like, landscape of the time. Like, okay, the big rock music of like 1983 was like hair metal, like warrant and poison and rat. And then stuff like heart and sticks and foreigner, Van Halen. Like you get Hall and Oates. And we can ask Joseph, who will know more, but it was like nothing like this, right? Like the rock music of the time was nothing like this. Looking around and being like, where did this come from?

And it really truly came from like punk. Like there was like a pretty thriving punk scene in L.A. And, you know, Flea being obsessed with funk music and the whole band. And Anthony Keita's having seen Grandmaster Flash and being like, I want to do that, you know, because he's like kind of rapping. Yeah. There is like that element of the L.A. hardcore scene, right? There is that kind of like mossiness to it. There is that roughness around the edges, that punkness.

is so apparent in the early albums. And still, again, kind of comes up as a bit of a through line as things progress. But it's like that funk that makes it so weird and so different that anything else happening in that scene. I'm not even sure there's like an easy answer to how they, I think they had a manager that was, that had a deal with EMI that was able to get them signed. I'll tell you how. Again, I went deep. Well, and it made me really inspired because it was like, it's like, like a thing of another time, right? They were just a really fucking compelling and charismatic

live band and it got them booked on like a bunch of shows around LA like, you know, the iconic club lingerie, which were a lot of punk bands came out of. They were, okay, first of all, gorgeous, but also like insane. Like their like charisma and energy levels were like off the charts. And they played a show at Kit Kat Club, which was a strip club. And for their encore, they did the very first appearance of the now like, you know, totally associated with them, socks on cocks. And that's where their manager was at that show. And, you know, he was like, this is going to be, like, they have star power, you know, like.

And so he got them signed on just literally the string. Clearly not of the music, but of just like them, you know, like they just had something. And I think it's so cool. Like you can't really imagine that being a thing anymore in like. Yeah. Right? Like, it's like if you didn't go viral on TikTok, babe, it's not. happening for you. Yeah. Yeah, I think especially for a rock band, I don't think that would happen now. But I do think

there is that still at that level of like, a shock factor that does appeal to labels, you know? Totally. Like that kind of, they're able to kind of garner that attention. But, but yeah, I mean, for them to still be doing it so locally and to still kind of like not yet have that kind of global takeover that they eventually would have to get signed, that's definitely a huge rarity, especially then, like, you know, albums just wouldn't get put out if they weren't hits for a very long period of time in the record industry. Totally. You can really hear in this album, like, they ended up having to have the drummer from The Weirdos play on it because the original Chili Peppers were in a different band, Hulul and Jack, and they went off to do that. And you can, like, hear that punkyness like we talked about.

And Flea was also, like, in a punk band before this. He was in fear, who I just learned today played Saturday. live. Did you know this? They look very frightening, but they're really very nice. Our Halloween night guests, ladies and gentlemen, Fia!

John Belushi loved them, and he like made S&L let them play, and they got banned from it afterwards, which is like that's like they were ever going to play it again. Like, whoop, like it's like a fun. Anyways, that's a detour that we don't need to care about. So this album was produced by Andy Gill of Gang of Four, because they loved Gang of Four.

and they basically just asked for him to produce it. He didn't like them. They were on a bunch of drugs. We can't, right? We can't tell the story of red hot chile peppers without talking about how they were on a bunch of drugs. Yeah, pretty much every album, there's some drugs, either recovery or actively being involved in it. Yes. But I want people to understand that, you know, even though this is like, oh, it's an early album.

Like, it's not like it was an early album when no one heard it. Like, there was a video on MTV from this album for the song True Men. don't kill coyotes. We can just hear a clip of it. And there was a single and like EMI put money behind it. So like it did they were, you know, they were reviewed in Billboard for their show and I, Glenn O'Brien, fucking icon on the very first issue of Spin Magazine called them the best rock and roll band in the country. Based on this. So it's like, you know, like even though it's like kind of a forgotten one of the forgotten albums, like, it actually made a pretty big impact that year. And I think it was

probably because it didn't sound like anything else. Yeah. And it's definitely one of the earliest moments of rap rock as well. A hundred percent. You know, we would get that popularized more with Rundamsie and Aerosmith working together. Yeah, that was in 1986. Yeah, that was one of the first, one of the first artists to really make rap rock a part of what they were doing, like part of their sound. And not just kind of a moment, you know, a big, you know, a big single that they were throwing out there. Like, it was just kind of inherent in the combination of funk and punk kind of led to Anthony scatting and inherently rapping on a lot of these. Totally. Well, okay, so what happens next?

Yeah, Freaky Stiley is the next album, which they got George Clinton to produce. Mm-hmm. That's my favorite of the early era in terms of, I think it's a little bit more again, you know, that Clinton production is really great. And I think they get to a higher level of that funk rock messiness that they were going for in the first album and has Catholic School Girls role and a Dr. Seuss, like, story that turns into a song, Urtle the Turtle, which is just so ridiculous and also very appropriate for a lot of Anthony's lyricism over the course of his career. All his songs are basically Urinal the Turtle. Dealing with different subject matters, but the same level of lyricism, which we're not mad at here at Bandsplan. Yeah. You were talking about their being influenced by Parliament Funkadelic, which I feel like is something that happened kind of later in their formation, which is kind of crazy considering that, like, they sound so much like that.

But then, like you said, they asked for George Clinton. Do you think we should hear Catholic school girls? Like, do you feel like that's a good representation of like hearing the George Clinton influence on this album? Yeah. I love that song a lot. Okay, cool. Let's hear Catholic School Girls rule off Freaky Stiley. Okay, that was Catholic School Girls rule.

This song I learned had a music video, but it had nudity, so it was only played on Playboy TV. Hi, I'm Patty Lott's bringing you the best. and adult entertainment here on primetime Playboy for Monday, June 10th. I didn't even know Playboy TV existed. Oh, yeah, big time. Big time back in this is a huge part of my young formation. We don't have to get into that today, per se. I'm interested.

Like, as a fan who I assume didn't come straight to Friggy Stiley, what was your first introduction to Red Hot Chili peppers? Like, what album? My first introduction, I mean, the same way that you mentioned earlier, it's kind of like one of those bands that was just always on. Especially like listening to the radio in the 90s and the early 2000s. Like I remember hearing like California on the radio all the time. And by the way, was I think, you know, kind of at the beginning of me watching MTV a lot. So that was a huge song for me and I really loved it.

I would say Stadium Arcadium is the first official kind of. moment of fandom for me. That album came out when I was 13, 14. Yeah. That sort of was the beginning of me going back and listening to a lot of the earlier chili pepper stuff. But when you were like getting into badage of yours, were they in your world considered cool or uncool? They were pretty cool. Like it's funny to think about now to think of a band that was at that point in their career so deep in it. Oh yeah. I mean they were in their like late 40s. Like yeah. And it was like them and like Green Day. Yeah, like, were like the two biggest bands at that time. And like, it was, it's kind of funny in retrospect to think about like how, how long they, both those bands have been around. And then

suddenly they were having teens like, like I was at that time, just obsessed with them. It's crazy. I mean, this is going to be the meat and potatoes of this episode because I'm very interested in how these bands endure for generation after generation of young people. But I think you, you said something that really, I think is so important to the Red Hot Chili Pepper's story in general, which is MTV. Because this band is so visually exciting and appealing. We're backstage outside the Red Hot Chili Pepper's dressing room with the man of many drums, Chad Smith. Chad, what's going on in the dressing room? Oh, it's crazy. It's wacky. It's insanely. It's incredibly, unbelievably exciting.

You know, they dressed crazy. They had really crazy antics. Oh, fuck up. Chad beat me up. They were always on MTV. Another fine chili have ever said, how'd it go? Well, it was weird. They were like easy fodder for press. What songs are you expecting to say?

What are you going to say? Let's go back again. You said, suck my kids. They were fucking crazy. They did interviews all, you know. The mother fucking world. F.T.W. Insane.

Dora me for Solakita. They were press darlings. and they were really cool to photograph. But anyways, this was a long, we even took a side track to getting back to, okay, what did you feel when you came back then to like these first few albums and heard them? I like them. I feel like also because I was listening to a lot of, you know, punk and metal and, you know, harder rock at that point.

I did like the albums for a little bit. They aren't ones that I returned to very often. feel like the 90s chili peppers have been the most enduring for me. And I think for a lot of, you know, there was such a big shift in not only their sound, but how they perceive themselves and how there's a lot more just like spirituality that they get into. But it's, you know, it's just like silly, really young dudes being really young dudes and like, you know, on the early albums and just injecting cocaine. Clearly troubled. Like it's just troubled pretty boys. which, you know, is like fun, but also not the thing that I'm like returning too often.

Totally. But they are like really fun albums. You know, they're really good albums. Okay, so the third album was called the Uplift Mofo Party Plan just for posterity. So we get the timeline, right? It came out in 1987. They wanted Rick Rubin to work on it. He said no because most of them were too fucked up on drugs, namely Anthony.

This is also right after the... this album, Halel Slovak dies of an OD. Yeah. And, you know, the drummer left, Jack Irons, who was also one of their best friends, couldn't handle it and left. This had such, I would say, like, this impact lasted the rest of their career, you know, like, it opened a space for John Farshanti to join, which we'll get into. But also, it's just like the specter of Halel, you know, is, or if, or you can look at it as a good way, probably, like, you know, the smiling soul of Halel is, like,

still always kind of there. Yeah, I mean, you know, when you especially go back on those first three albums, like so many of the songs are about the friendship that the band has. Like these were four best friends who were making music, having, you know, what should have been the time of their lives, like doing this and having fun, but were completely and utterly destroyed by addiction.

Hillel, it was part of that. He was, you know, the formation of the band. He was their best friend. grew up together to lose him really began like a very multi-decade of still ongoing grappling with grief that happens in in their music. There's a lot of loss that happens over the next few years after that even that really sends Anthony especially into this like huge reckoning of his own lifestyle where he continues to go through and try to recover and it takes them a really long time as it does, you know, when you have been using drugs for, at that point,

in half his life, you've been using drugs since he was a really, really young kid, partying with his, you know, partying his very Hollywood dad. Taking him to the rainbow room, yeah. Yeah. And it was just part of his life. It was just normal to him for a really long time. It wasn't so much that I lost the guitar player. I lost a human being that I loved and that I shared my life with,

who was a very sensitive, loving, creative person who also had the disease of addiction. after halal, I think there's, there are other losses that we will get into later because they are such a big part of the music and of the lyrics on the albums. But grief follows them for a long time. And as much as the chili peppers are silly and they have like a lot of innuendos. And it's, you know, a lot of songs about California and like scatting. But like, and there's a lot of grief there. There's a lot of like this, you know, impenetrable loss of friends, of people that they love, of their brothers, of people that, you know, matter a lot to them. Totally. Hillel is sort of the first domino to kind of go down in this re-emergence of the chili peppers and kind of re-examination for a lot of them of for the entire band of who they are and what they sing about. 100%. So John Frasanti joins through the Dead Kennedys drummer that they had recruited because Jack Irons left, D.H. Peligro.

And John Frasanti, I mean, tell me about him, Brittany. The most, I think the most iconic chili pepper song, I feel like a lot of people agree with this, based on the reaction that people had when he rejoined the band in early 2020, are really due to him and really due to the sound that he brings to the band that kind of plays with, you know, fleas, really funky bass line that he keeps going. And, you know, these kind of like sometimes silly, sometimes superphilis. philosophical lyrics and, you know, later Chad Smith strumming, you know, that John kind of brought a little bit of a darkness to it. Totally.

And a lot of his playing, his production, his writing. He kind of, I think, elevated a lot of the philosophical parts of the chili peppers. And he just brought a new type of musicianship. I think there was a little bit more levity in his playing and the way he kind of approached songs. Yeah. I think I think Halal Slowback was clearly like such a devotee to funk music and to like Captain Beefheart. and that stuff and it's great and you hear it. But yeah, to your point, like, John Fashanti, A, was very young.

Like, I think he was... Yeah, he was a teenager. Yeah, he was like maybe 18, 17 when he joined the band and the, you know, the guys were a bit older, like, in their 20s. But so he brought this, like, enthusiasm, but he had the reverence for funk, but he also did have this darkness and this, like, real gift for melody. And that might have been the missing piece to, like, like you said, like, flees super like amazing funky bass lines and Anthony Kedis's, I don't know, exuberant rap

scat singing. And this kind of brought it together in this like really beautiful way. He was also like a mega fan of the peppers. So he was also like joining his favorite band, which is crazy. We should hear a song off Mother's Milk. What song do you want to hear off Mother's milk? Because it's a great album. Yeah, this is also the first album of Chad because Jack Irons, the original drummer, left after Halal died. Yeah. And they fired Dij Pelligro because he was too much of a drug addict. Because at this point, Anthony Kitas was on one of his first sobriety stints. Yeah.

So what song do you want to hear from Mother's Milk? I would say higher ground was a big breakthrough for them that Stevie cover. I think it showed a little bit more maturity in their approach to music. I think there was, again, this kind of renewal and a little more. That Frusante melody, I think Chad adds so much, he elevates so much of the hardness of a lot of the songs. but that cover is such a great cover. You know, it's like really just like it's such a great tribute to Stevie. And I think that for a lot of people, made them kind of see and respect the chili peppers in a whole new way.

Totally. Okay. Let's hear higher ground off mother's milk. Okay. That was higher ground off mother's milk. Two things. One is that when I listen to these albums, I am struck by the fact that if you're Anthony Kiddis can sing in a band.

I can also sing in a band. And also that this album, okay, so this album was not critically well received. None of the early ones were, I mean, with the exception of the aforementioned Glenn O'Brien saying they were awesome, but that's because Glenn O'Brien was punk and thought they were like very cool, new version of punk. I would love to read for you just a quick little. blurb from the spit magazine review of this. Regrettably, their lumpy stew of speed metal, funk, and street punk posturing does not improve with age. The Mishapen end product sounds like the mothers being savagely mugged by a gang that includes James Brown, Stevie Wonder, and the Ramones. So they did not like it.

They didn't like this album. Oh yeah, sorry, three things. And the third thing is, Fun fact, Crazy Town did sample a instrumental track off here for Butterfly. Really? The track is pretty little ditty. Yeah. Obviously a John Frucianti moment. Oh, my gosh. Brittany, do you know much about what in general the press reaction was to Red Hot Chili Peppers around this time?

I mean, I don't know specifically, but I know that they still aren't really super. They have not always been the most respected or liked band critically. I think they've been, you know, as you mentioned, well covered because they've always been really huge. But they've never been the most, you know, even when I bring them up at work, I get some. Because I bring them a whole lot. There's some truckles of, really? People are wrong. This album went gold, which is also kind of insane if you think about that.

Yeah. And I, you know, I think that especially playing higher ground next to the earlier songs, like, and of course this is not like, not to disrespect our long lost Hillel and Jack and, you know, everything that they did. But again, they were all super young. They were all just riding on a lot of drugs. And they were all just kind of like playing to have fun. It sounds like a band. Like I think, you know, when you hear Fichonte and you hear Smith on there, like, it's like a band together. Like they sound like they're jelling super well.

It sounds like really, really cohesive and it sounds so much more mature than a lot of the earlier stuff, which again was like super messy, super raw. But this just like sounds like a complete band, like really, really jelling and really kind of accomplishing the thing that they need to accomplish. Totally. Producer Dillon is like still confused as to how they got so big. even at this time. And, you know, I think we talked about it a little bit earlier. MTV had a lot to do with it. They also toured crazy.

They toured a lot. And this was back again when you could build up a big fan base just by touring. And they toured in just like bigger and bigger rooms. And they opened for, you know, they opened for Run DMC a couple of times. They opened for Oingo Boingo early on because Oingo Boingo was like an L.A. band from their scene at like a huge arena. Like, you know. And they still have remained such a big touring band.

Totally. They are on the circuit. They are like out playing shows constantly. Like every album they were doing stadium tours. Early on, I think their whole thing was like when they made their first demo, they were trying to capture their live show sound. They were that kind of, you know, no fish, but yes, fish.

You know, like they were just like, the experience is seeing us live. The music is kind of secondary. And obviously that changes with, uh, with John Fashanti and the song started to take hold. But like from the, you know, the nucleus of the band was like, we want to just fuck shit up live. And I think that's probably stuck. I actually like some of the stuff on the first four albums, like particularly Mother's Milk, which we'll get to. But they're not, you know, we've sort of talked about how they're not that well known, especially to like modern day people who think of red dot chili peppers. I think they're like super integral to understanding the band and especially their DNA. And also I'm just obsessed with the like myth. of red hot chili peppers. So I am going to bring on a very special guest, Jen expert, Gen expert. That just works. Gen X expert. Joseph Patel, who is going to come right now and help us contextualize those a little bit. Welcome to the show, Joseph. Hello. Okay. Here's the thing. Brittany and I were talking, and while Brittany has pointed out several times in the way she says in the

90s with this tone that makes me want to suicide, that she's younger than me, I'm. I'm still also younger than you, which means I wasn't there, but you were there, Joseph. So I want to hear, especially when you told me that, like, these are your albums. Like, you don't even, like, dignify past Mother's Milk. I stopped listening to them right after Blood Sugar Sex Magic came out. I realized that was probably my red hot chili pepper's limit, which is funny because that's their biggest album, well, the one that got them popular, I don't know for a fact that it's their biggest album. I think Californication might actually be their biggest album, surprisingly. Yeah, but it's the one that basically made them like household names, right? And, and, and,

and living with that album, I didn't like it as much as Mother's Milk. And then I just kind of got tired of them, the more popular they got, which is the kind of thing you do when you're young and you feel like people have discovered your secret stash. Or when you're Gen X, because that's literally the hallmark of being genis really. I like the earlier stuff. Yeah, no, it's so funny, but I will say, but, you know, there's a thing that happens when you fall in love with the band, which is, you know, usually the people, people fall in love with the bands that they came of age to. Totally. So there is a little bit of that with Red Hot Chili Peppers for me. It was, you know, I discovered them when I was in high school, and yes, thank you, Yasi, for making me feel old. I'm simply paying it forward here.

I discovered them in high school But it was like But it's still like I still listen to Freaky Stiley and Mother's Milk On a semi regular basis And I think those records are still excellent You've made two interesting points there

Which I think Brittany and I talked about A little earlier and I talked about with Dylan Because Dylan I think is even younger than Britney Britney's favorite album is Californication Correct It's a tie between Californication Stadium Arcadium Okay, yes. Dylan's favorite album is, by the way, which to me is literally insane. And mine is blood sugar, sex magic. But it's all to your point, Joseph, because these are the albums that we came of age with, right? Here's what I want to understand. And it's something Brittany and I were kind of trying to get to the bottom of when we were like unpacking these first four albums. And when I, in the past three weeks have been in like a deep Khole of research and exploration, including one night where I did do psychedelics and come home by myself and listen to two full hours of red hot jelly peppers. And I had some deep realizations, which we'll get to later in the episode. But how did you find this band?

Because pre-mother's milk, I think, at the very least, like it's not like they were on the radio. Yeah, I mean, so I grew up in California, Northern California, and, you know, I was in high school a kid that hung out with various different groups of kids, right? The kids who hung out in the library, the skater kids, the goth kids, I was able to go in between all these little groups. but red-out chili peppers mainly got introduced to them through my skate friends.

And, you know, the one thing that that band did really well musically is that they wore their influences on their sleeve really obviously. And there are very few bands of that time that you could find that synthesized, you know, a love of old funk music, of hip-hop, of punk music. of punk music into one thing. And there wasn't a band that sounded like them that we discovered at the time. And so it was, you know, you go to the skate park or you're hanging out with your friends after school and it's the soundtrack, that and Fishbone.

Dreadlocks and Mohawks, Fishbone united the divided communities of America. They made it okay for black kids to slam dance. Totally. Do you think Fishbone was as good as Red Hot Chili Peppers? Better. And do you think that they didn't get? big because they're not white.

Yeah. Fishbone was the better band on record and live. And yeah, I think it's simply they weren't, they were white. Sucks. Fishbone was like the Fishbone T-shirt. Yeah. With the red, yellow, and green logo and the fish bone. That was, in terms of like, signifying.

Anybody you saw wearing that shirt was the coolest person on the planet. And like, I had a photography teacher in high school who wore a fishbone shirt to school and instantly the coolest person in the school. And I think the Red Hotch River was going for that with their little logo thing, right? Totally. Yeah. But I think they would even tell you that Fishbone was the better band. Yeah. When you do your Fishbone episode.

You can come. I could do that for hours. Fantastic. I would say this. I'll break down the four albums real quickly. The first album, self-titled album, that I, I, I, I discover them after they put out Freaky Stiley. So I'm a sophomore in high school.

And the first album is, it's a bunch of kids. It's not really a real band. It's not a real record. It's like kids who are figuring out their instruments. But there's some moments on there where you're like, okay, if me and my friends started a band, this is what it would sound like. And so you kind of like, you know, you kind of fell in love with it. Okay. But Joseph, real quick.

And again, a thing, and I want to hear your quick take on this because you are a tight. of the industry in the music biz. That album of four kids who don't know what they're doing was put out by a major label. Like, they got signed on the strength of that, which to me is insane. I mean, it is insane, but I think there's a little bit of Beastie Boysitis happening around that album. Right? It's like Beastie Boys are huge.

Some record exec in L.A. is like, oh, this is the California version. I can sign this. I think it's a little bit of that. But then they do Freaky Stiley, which is crazy as a second album, Because it's like it's produced by George Clinton. They're still teenagers, I think, or at least two of them are. It sounds like a parliament funkadelic offshoot. It's a really cohesive album.

Yeah. It's very sophisticated in how it's recorded and how it sounds. And I love that album. George Clinton's fingerprints are all over that album. But it's a really good, refined record. And I think that, whoever, whatever A&R exec signed them was like, oh, yeah, oh, good. I've got something here. Yeah.

Also, what's happening in L.A. at that time is, like, a very vibrant skate culture, very vibrant drug culture, punk teens hanging out on Fairfax. Like, I think the music soundtrack's that. Uplift Mofo Party Plan is probably not as good of a record. It's definitely not a progression off a freaky stiley. But it feels like, to me, in hindsight, a prototype for what Mother's Milk would be. To me, Mother's Milk is like, I think it's their best album. and it's a sort of fully realized form, and it's the sort of last unself-conscious record they make. What I'm hearing is that you hate John Farshanti is what I'm hearing.

No, I love John Fashanti, actually. I think he's a genius. And I think, in fact, I think he was too smart for that band, which is why I'm sorry that it turned to drugs for him. But I think he probably heard Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic, and was like, I can't do this for the rest of my life. That's not true. And he loved Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic. he was extremely proud of it, and I'm going to go on record here to defend his honor. He just simply didn't want to be famous because he's an angel fall into this earth from heaven.

That's true. Brittany, you also, well, your favorite album of the first four is freaky stiley, like admittedly as someone who's just not that well-versed on funk music or parliament funkadelic, is that a red hot chili peppers album or is that like a George Clinton album? And that's why it's so good. I mean, George Clinton is sort of the basis of so much of their taste and kind of what inspired, especially Flea's bass playing. Like that is in every album. That's like even without George Clinton producing it, like Flea doing like this parliament funcademic really funky baseline is on every, every single major chili pepper song. So he's sort of like helping mentor them to a really cohesive and, you know, their first really good album. But, like, it's, you know, still kind of, it's because he influenced them so much.

And I feel like it's kind of a give and take of both. But, yeah, I think that's so much of a basis of what we hear in the chili peppers for years to come. George Clinton had a lot of spinoffs off of parliament, Funkadelic. You know, there's Bootsie's band, obviously. Put sellers here! There's the parlettes. All of those spinoffs sound like extensions. of the mothership.

And freaky stiley is a little bit like that, right? If the mothership were to adopt a group of white kids to make parliament punkadelic music, this freaky style is what that would sound like. You could tell about the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And for a kid in high school, it was really exciting. You're obsessed with music and you're listening to all these different things. And then there's this band that comes around that is doing punk, funk, and hip hop. And they're covering boys in the hood in their live show.

And it's fun. Like, as a music junkie, you're like, oh, like they love music just like we love music and they wear it on their sleeves. And that was really, really exciting. Yeah. It makes sense to Joseph that you're from California. And this is one of your favorite things because they really sound. They're like the most California band I think I've ever heard. Even more specifically the most L.A. band I've ever heard. Like I was talking to a friend. Chris Chang, shout out Nicknance. And he was just like, every input that I've ever experienced as like a teen in L.A. is in this band. Like, like you're saying, rock, punk, funk, skateboarding, drugs, a bit of cholo. Like, literally anything that I came, like, the valley, the beach. Like, it's all somehow, like, in one group of people.

And it's, like, mesmerizing because you're just like, wow, I feel really seeing. Yeah. Brittany, while we have this rare creature, Gen X-Men here with us, do you have any questions that you have for Joseph about these early albums or about any early Red Hot Chili Peppers' lore or trajectory? I guess I'm curious kind of like how you sort of look at, like, especially since Halal Slovak is such a big part of, I know, a big influence on so many of their songs that come out. after he passes and obviously the formation of the band, his friendship with Anthony and Flea and just like was such a big basis of so many of the songs. Like, can you talk a little bit about his guitar playing and sort of how that inspired some of the early songs and kind of the imprint that he left on those albums?

Yeah, it's weird because I don't think I ever felt that this early as a listener. By the time I discovered them, I knew that he was the guitarist. then Hurdy died of a heroin overdose. And I don't know if I knew what that meant as a high school kid. But to me, it was always Anthony and Flea. And it wasn't until John Fruciani comes in the band where I'm just like, he's a genius, divine guitarist. And I thought blood sugar, sex magic would be an incredible album

if Anthony Kedis weren't in the band. Like, if... Joseph! I know, I'm so sorry. If they... You need to leave. Like the three of them, Chad Smith, Flea, and John Frasciani, if they were a band, they would be one of the world's greatest bands in the world. I completely, and with my whole chest, disagree with you.

And it's like, this is a magic combination of people. And that includes whether you like it or not, one Mr. Anthony Kedis, the author of Star Tiss, the poet, the genius that he is. But it's obvious his impact on Anthony and Flea and almost the ghosts hangs over John Fersciani. Chad Smith is just happy to be Chad Smith. But like two songs that they do knock me down, which to me is the first song where it's like, oh, this is a band that actually could do singles, right? It's like a proto single. And then my lovely man off blood sugar sex magic versus one of, is maybe my favorite song off of blood sugar sex magic are both sort of hello. Slovak songs. And I think those are really, really good. And you can tell how much he meant to the other

members in the band through those songs. Yeah. That's, listen, the whole thing here is that this band is based on a tender and pure bromance that is transcendent. And that includes Anthony Kedis, that includes Halel, that includes John. John, however, in my psychedelic reveries, I realized he is, See, the thing is, this band, they have their songs that are just their songs. They're like, oh, yeah, this is their vibe. Then they have, they have songs where you're like, oh, you're channeling God. And then there's just John Pruchante, who's just literally not of this planet. Like, the other men are just vessels, but John is like perhaps an angel.

This first solo album is brilliant. It's incredible. He's a gene. And you can tell he's just not cut out to be on Earth. Like, he's too pure and tender to, like, experience life on Earth. So do you remember it was after he left the band, and I think Dave Navarro joins as a guitarist. Yes. And there's that news crew tracked John Furchiani down.

It's really upsetting. And it appears on MTV News, like Kurt Loder throws to it. A year before I quit, like they knew I wanted to quit. And it's John Fersiani totally just gone. Right on, yeah. Skeletal. Yeah, skeletal, one-tooth, making music in his bedroom. It was the most heartbreaking thing.

He just says, he's like, I'm a junkie. I like shooting heroin. Like, he flat out just said that. He's like, so what. Yeah. Yeah. It was really, it's really heartbreaking. Yeah.

I'm going to shift the combo with this question, though. And I think this will be the last question we ask you. Another realization that came to me deep in my psychedelic journey was the red hot jelly peppers are poised for a huge revival. I can feel it. We can all feel it. It's happening. Like, it's in the fucking ether. it's in the culture and I know why.

Because this is the horniest time in recent history. And who is the horniest band of all time? Red hot chili peppers. She wants to know if I'm still a slut. Other side. It's already in the lyrics. It's in every lyric. Literally every song is about him kissing a virginity

or someone chugging his whatever. Like literally every song is about fucking. Or it sounds like. like it's fucking or it's eluding to fucking, sad about something that they can't fuck anymore, dreaming of a new fuck. And do you guys not agree that this

confluence of the time that we are in, which no one can disagree, that's the horniest time and this horniest band, it's about to be on, baby. Yeah. I love that theory. Everyone seems to be kind of

down with the red hot jelly peppers. People are ready to say they don't like the music, but they always really like them. That's why I was so, I was genuinely shocked and like, it was amusing and also kind of like sweet how my entire timeline on every single social media platform exploded when John Fruciante rejoined the band. Like when that was announced, it was like the most exciting day in a way that I had never experienced with any sort of like random 90s rock revival music news where like every. People I didn't know love the chili peppers were freaking out that John Fruciante was back. And there's just something, like, I think especially for millennial listeners have, like, a huge relationship with them. And I think that it's, you know, again, like that sort of nostalgia touring and everything.

We are, I mean, there will be a chili pepper sound that goes viral on TikTok. I would be shocked if it doesn't happen. Skate culture is super big on TikTok. Chili peppers are, again, a soundtrack to so much of that. We've already seen the pop punk revival. If Travis Barker can still be in the news constantly, why can't Anthony Kedis? That's so, that's so right. That's so right.

What if party on your pussy is the song that goes viral on TikTok? Then it really will be like, the horniness is overwhelming. You got to make a dance to it. Okay, Joseph, back to speaking of, back to Mother's Milk. Like, tell us a little more about Mother's Milk. because I do have some questions, specifically the fact that, like, how did they have such a huge hit with a cover? Like, I think that, again, is, like, a thing of the past. It did kind of continue into the early 2000s, Alien Ant Farm. But, like, it's not really a thing anymore.

Yeah, that's a great cover, too. It's so good. Like, Stevie Wonder covers are all, like, sort of, I think you can't fuck up a Stevie Wonder cover. Well, maybe you can, but, but, like, they didn't fuck that up. I don't think. And I know somebody out there is listening probably thinks that's Sacralage. But it's a really. good cover. But like, I don't know. I just, there's so much on Mother's Milk that I felt meshed like the stuff they did really well with this, with a glimpse of what they would do in the

future. Totally. Again, and their, their music obsessed people, you get that from the intro, you get that from the Jimmy Hendricks cover on the B side. You get it from the Stevie Wonder cover. I loved Taste the Pain because it was in the movie Say Anything when Zach and Ione Sky first get, in the car and the stereos turned up really loud. I mean, Sky, the ex-girlfriend of Anthony Kedis. On my high school graduation day in 1990,

I lied to my mom and went out with two friends who didn't graduate high school and we drove to L.A. to see the Red Hot Jolie Beppers at Headlined the Hollywood Bowl and slept on the beach and drove back the next day. And like, but they were headlining the Hollywood Bowl. And it was, you know, it was in it, And it was sort of like a, I think it was a homecoming show for the end of their tour or something, but it was like seeing them in their native environment doing that album was incredible.

Like it really was like, oh, this is, this is what falling in love with the band should feel like. Also, Mother's Milk had the cover with the naked titty. Sure. And I bought the shirt and I wore it to high school the next day, maybe the most defiant moment I can remember in high school and I wasn't a really defiant kid in high school. Did you get detention? And I got pulled out of class. and had to turn the shirt inside out. And my parents were very upset.

Okay, well, we're coming close to the end of our time because Joseph is an extremely busy and important man who has to go promote his gorgeous film, his documentary film. Summer of Soul or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised. That's right. But before we let you go, do you have parting words and or can you tell us your favorite song off of Mother's Mom? I'll say Taste the Pain.

Okay. Joseph, thank you, King, for joining us, enlightening us. I'm giving us your wisdom of your years. Just call me old. I did already, like several times. Yeah. Okay, let's hear Taste the Pain. Okay, that was Taste the Pain.

Now, I think we're alone now. It's just me and you, Brittany. Brittany, guess what? It's time. It's time for what is in my own. opinion the best red hot chili pepper's album blood sugar sex magic baby now we're cooking with gas they finally got fucking rick reuben which i don't bear after many failed attempts to give rubein he was finally like okay you're not as fucked up i'll do this they were also on warner brothers

at this time they had left m i this there was a big bidding war for them um and they signed with warner brothers um why don't we hear a song just to kick it off yeah what song do you want to off blood sugar sex magic. I kind of want to hear Give It Away now. Please. Brittany, yes, please. I feel like it's a good representation of the fact that they were still really funky, but it was getting better.

Like it was like they had, you know, again, Frischante, they had Chad. It was a new level of the funk that they were at. Yes, a new look. Let's hear Give It Away Off Blood Sugar Sex Magic. That was Give It Away Off Blood Sugar Sex Magic. Can I just say that song fucks? No one can argue that that song that song fucks. I would love to just...

I definitely won't argue. No one can. I would love to read you just a quick bit of the poetry of Anthony Kedis in this song. My mom, I love her because she loved me. Long gone are the times when she scrubbed me. Feeling good my brother going to hug me. Drink my juice, young love, chug-a-lug-lug-me. Brittany, we were talking earlier about, yeah.

Well, everyone could let that sink in. How We came to Red Hot Chili Peppers. This was the first album I knew about. I was, let's see, 91. Yeah, I was nine years old. And I lost my goddamn mind. I heard give it away. I'm like running around like, fuck yes.

Just like a little nine-year-old girl, like head banging. It was like the goddamn most glorious thing I'd ever heard in my whole young life. I mean, up until then I hadn't heard a lot. I was like listening to Madonna or whatever because that's what my mom liked. And this was just like, what? I'm alive. It was, I mean, I didn't know about songs fucking yet because I didn't really know much about fucking. But I, you know, this music is libidinal, you know, like, and not just in a sexual sense, right?

Like, it's like in every sense, libidinal. Like, this band is libidinal. Like, that's what what makes people love them. watched Funky Monks by any chance? A long, long time ago. Wowsers, Funky Monks. You guys, if you haven't watched Funky Monks, it's on YouTube. It is the documentary of the making of Blood Sugar Sex Magic at the Harry Houdini Mansion. We run on Pure Emotion. That's what we're all about. And we're making an amazing, amazing, groundbreaking, revolutionary, beautiful, artistically heightened, incredible record. Brittany, I want to ask you a question, but I just have to get this

off my chest because I wrote it down a quote from, again, the poet Anthony Kedis, if Baron von Munchausen had ejaculated the four of us onto a chessboard, I would say Rick Rubin would be the perfect chess player. Okay, do you feel like we've added for Shanti and that did elevate us, right? But like, Rick Rubin might have been the real missing ingredient. Oh, yeah. This era was like Rick Rubin peak producer, right? And I think just like there's so much more discipline to them now and there's so much more experimentation, but also, again, it's like that continuation of maturity.

Like they're a band that we're constantly watching come of age even well into, however they're like 50 now. Yeah, at least. At this time, they're almost 30. Like they're like probably 28, 29. Fleer already had a three-year-old daughter. Yeah. And it's kind of like watching a band to go through this extended adolescence. where they're still growing up.

And what I love about this album is there's like they're still that funk, there's still that punk element. It's, you know, way cleaner now. It's way more put together and thought out. And there's still that silliness. There's still the innuendos. But there's also like these incredible ballads on the album too. There's this incredible like kind of seriousness to it.

There's a lot more reflection. But also just to before before we get to those, like I just looked up with give it away. is about because like most of Anthony Kedis's lyrics, it is pure nonsense. It's just a lot of words that he is just screaming into a mic. This is his unique contribution to music and maybe his ultimate legacy. Which makes them great, which is like the best part of all the songs, right? Like, they're a band that I've never, there are some songs where I do think very, you know, where I love and kind of, you know, really love the lyrics. I love the kind of story behind them. But most for actually the pepper songs, I'm like, I don't even want to know.

A clue. But I love reading the meaning behind this because you cannot tell what the song's about, but it apparently was like a really just like philosophical quote from his former girlfriend, Nina Hagan, this punk rock singer. Shout out Nina Hagan, a fucking goddamn icon. And it's so cool that she dated Anthony, or rather that he dated her. They wrote a song for her too, actually. Yeah. And she was Angeline's best friend. So true L.A. icon. And they apparently give it away just kind of came from this quote that she had given him. And, or is it? Basically, she explained, if you have a closet full of clothes and you try to keep them all, your life will get very small. But if you have a full closet and someone sees something I like, if you give it to them, the world is a better place. Like, that is such a deep thing to come to inspire it. The most,

ridiculous jumble of words in music history. And I love that about their actual life. There's always some weird kind of like spiritual meaning behind the most kind of insane lyrics that I think he does produces. And that is a perfect example. No, Brittany, 1,000 fucking percent. I think that's like another hallmark of this band is that people don't talk about. They were very smart. Like they were they're deep as fuck.

Deep as fuck, super intelligent. Anthony Kitas was like a straight-A student. They read a lot of books in the funky monks documentary. Frasanti quotes William Burroughs. The world is nothing but allies and enemies. And it's important to understand a lot of the time your worst enemy is your ego. They're very intelligent. And they were real, I mean, you know, a lot is made of the bad side of doing drugs.

But like, you know, they also did a bunch of asses. and mushrooms and expanded their minds. I wouldn't let anything at all that I thought wasn't directly aimed at helping my creativity come out. They were essentially hippies, like the next gen of hippies. Like Anthony Kitas wanted free love. I mean, he also wanted to fuck everybody and all the women with the alabaster skin. And he did.

But, you know, they were like, they were just like these, they were viscerally experiencing life all the time. and that, like, animated and fueled them, and you can really hear it in the music. I think even Funky Monks, Anthony Kudis says that he's, like, sexually aroused by playing live music with Rana Hot Jolie Peppers. You're, like, literally, like,

like anything and everything turned him on, which is fucking cool, you know? Yeah. A lot of the times, you know, I'll get an erection when I'm working on something or writing, like, playing guitar. But, okay, speaking of ballads, and back to the dark side.

You know, at this point, Anthony has struggled with a heroin addiction on and off for some time. He's clean during this, but should we hear under the bridge? Yeah, I mean, that is the, again, this is a band that started to produce a lot of really great ballads. And, you know, would for many years. I think a lot of their albums have, like, really great moments of balladry on there. And this is one of the first truly exceptional ones that they make. And also a huge hit. This is Under the Bridge.

That was Under the Bridge. God damn gorgeous, beautiful song about the city I live in. The City I Love, Los Angeles. Yeah. And about drugs. Being addicted to drugs. Scoring drugs, Under a Bridge. And a great vocal performance by Anthony.

Yeah. Honestly, yes. Yeah. Brittany, even though you came to at Hot Chili Peppers ostensibly through Californication, looking back on the whole catalog, what is the best album to you? Is it this one? I think the best album is Californication to me. That is the best Chili Peppers album.

This is the generational divide. This is where we stand on two sides of the bridge. Yeah. No, no under. Under and over the bridge. Okay, I hear you. I mean, did California Aishton have the song Suck My Kiss on it?

The answer is no. And that's fine. We don't hold it against it. I do think we should, just to drive the point home of this album, maybe play one more song, don't you think? Yeah. This is such an important album. What's another song that you want to hear?

It doesn't have to be a suck my kiss. I think my favorite chili pepper song It kind of changed it a little bit But this has been a consistent favorite of mine Is Breaking the Girl Which I think is probably One of their best songs about a woman Not Danny California then

You would say Not the best one You know I mean Dan California is about a lot of things Totally But yeah like this one is I really love It's again a great ballad

I think I'm also just a sucker for ballads Generally not just for the chili peppers But I do think they do a really good rock ballad same okay here is breaking the girl that was breaking the girl such a fucking good song yeah just taking a moment with myself the tour for this album is the tour i most in my whole life regret not being able to go to um again mostly because i was 10 years old but uh the opening bands for red hot chili peppers were nirvana pearl jam and the smashing pumpkins all three of them could you imagine could you help your mind around a dream lineup like

would die. Brittany, what was the critical reception to this album? Do you know? Because this album is, like, largely the one that, like, broke them into, like, mainstream popularity. I don't know the immediate critical reception, but, I mean, in the, in terms of its legacy of it, I know it's the one that kind of is, for a large amount of people, like, consider it the best.

Yeah, the correct people. And it's still considered kind of part of the rock lexicon of the 90s is looked at one of the, you know, Grace Elms of All Time, but also one of the greatest albums that kind of marks the 90s and what it is. A hundred percent. They did, you know, like in 92, they were on the cover of Rolling Stone, you know, even if Rolling Stone maybe did or didn't review the album. Yeah. So this album came out in September of 91.

Yeah. So as a longtime bands playing listeners know and to the horrible dislike of producer Dylan, almost every episode, I have to situate myself around Nirvana, Nevermind. Because as far as I'm concerned, that is the center of my musical world. Yeah. I mean, if you're talking about music in the 90s, you got to center it around. Never mind. It's before and after. Thank you. And funnily enough, they came out the same day, which is insane, if you think about it. Yeah. And then if you think also about the reception, if you look at what really was the big turning point for the chili peppers under the bridge was that turning point. And there is a grunginess to that song. There is sort of that, you know, it's not as purely grunge as we get from Nirvana, from Poldram from Soundgarten. But there is sort of that gloominess to it, that kind of like Seattle sound element of it. Totally. That I think also may have helped kind of propel them and kind of fit them into that world a little bit more when that was kind of the dominating sound of the time.

Yeah, 100%. I think this is a good time to talk about soul to squeeze too because soul to squeeze wasn't on this album. It wasn't on any album. It was on the cone head soundtrack. but it came out in 1993. I'm different from other girls. I know. That's why I love you.

What do you make of soul to squeeze? I love it. But I think I want to hear me... It's one of my favorite songs. Yeah, totally. To me, it's like a little bit of like the marriage of the ballad and everything that's good about the peppers, like, the spirituality, the sort of like, I don't know, it has a very like... ethereal quality to it for me. Yeah, I think it feels like the spiritual older brother to scar tissue.

Like there's like this similar kind of journey element to the lyrics. Like I'm on this road. Like I'm, you know, trying to like figure this out. And, you know, we're seeing a lot of reflection, which is why I picked up breaking the girl too. Because like that's a song about like him kind of looking back in his childhood and being like, well, I learned a lot about how to treat. women because I saw how my dad treated women. And like, I think Solis Squeeze, you kind of see him doing a lot more of that same reflection. And then you get the best Chili Peppers Bridge, which is just him just saying more words. And we love, we love to hear it. Like, I'm on a roller coaster, but I'm on

my feet. Take me to the river on your shore. Like what, sure. I've been coming back, baby. I'll be coming back for more. It's really so beautiful. Why don't we hear it? Yeah. Let's hear Soul to Squeeze. That was Soul to Squeeze. While we were listening, Producer Dylan did message me and say, this song fucks. And I had to correct her and say, no, this song makes love. I'll just let that hang there. I'm very sorry. Brittany, I was just remembering that in my speed reading of scar tissue, Anthony Kedis' famed memoir of 2006,

he at some point says that he, when Flea first tried to kick him out of the band for being too fucked up, he said, no, I need to be the James Brown of the 80s. Two-part question. Do you feel he achieved being the James Brown of the 80s and the second part being, what do you think he was trying to be in the 90s? Who or what? I feel like it's like, you know, wanted to be James Brown of the 80s.

He wanted to be the great performer. You wanted to be, you know, this person who had a lot of presents. And there was, you know, yeah, he had a lot of presents. He definitely was sort of like this, like, really dynamic. vibrant lead singer, this really vibrant kind of performer. In the 90s, though, I mean, I think that so much of what the music is saying when Anthony and the band are trying to do is like really just keep their shit together. Yeah. And again, like, I think that's like, I think there was so much of them just trying to maintain that uniformness of being a band.

Yeah. I don't even know that there was even a goal for. him, but it did feel like the songwriting was getting stronger and did feel like he was just, like, really looking back on his life a lot. Totally. And you see that come to head in scar tissue, one of the best rock memoirs of all time because it's just like so thorough. Totally. But like right after Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic, you know, we lose John.

Yeah, he leaves the band. Other guitarists come in. You know, another guitarist will play on the next album they're going to talk about, like, it's just kind of a bad. I think they're just trying to keep the band together. I think they're just trying to be a band. Do you feel that that Flea can be credited with all the music? a lot of the heavy lifting of keeping the band together. That's kind of like the general consensus,

right? Oh, yeah. Flea is definitely so much, so much of like the beating heart of the chili peppers. Like he is kind of that moral compass, I feel like, for them in a lot of ways. And I think was the connector between them and a lot of people and a lot of, you know, even just like other people who weren't necessarily in the band, but were kind of loosely connected to them. Like, even look at the collaboration with Gus Van Sant on the Under the Bridge video. Like that kind of comes from Flea working on my own private Idaho and like being this great connector for so much of the artists that surround the chili peppers for their entire career. Yeah, even the punk the punkness of Red Hot Chili Peppers comes primarily from Flea.

You know, he was in fear. He was really like out in the punk scene. He lived in a punk house with Lawrence Fishburn, fun fact. Lawrence Fishmore lived in a punk house swiftly. But yeah, I think, you know, that's exactly right. Like, he was the glue that held this band together for so many years. Yeah. The band was a big prompt for him to stay sober. And I think also the band being so much a vehicle for these great friendships was as important to that. And more important than just the career. Yeah, totally. I mean, they talk about it, I think, in both their books, but even more fully, like he really talks about, like, you know, he, just loved he just loved doing it and like all of the other stuff was fine and great and gravy but like

he like he just loved living that like living in those moments of playing music and playing music with his best friends and like it was very pure um well speaking of pure john frisanti's poor poor pure young heart could not handle uh could not handle the fame and the pressure and he did succumb to his own addiction like you said he left the band he did a Right, so old to squeeze with the band, you can hear it. I want to talk about John Fashanti leaving the band because it was very impactful. And I think people are really obsessed with him because he's not just because he's like a preternaturally gifted guitar player and songwriter and et cetera, et cetera. But also because like he does really feel so outside of earth, like outside of the contemporary world.

Like he joined his favorite band. Yeah. Like he was like the biggest Red Hot Chili Peppers fan and he got to be in it. And all he wanted to do was play music with them. but he had no aspirations to be famous or rich. And he says in an interview, I didn't want the band to get bigger. Like, actively didn't want it. I wanted them to stay the same size because that's what I liked.

And it didn't pan out that way. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's just someone who, like, makes music for the sake of making music. Like, he just really loves making music. Even when he left the band and he was doing solo stuff at different times in his career, it wasn't necessarily to be famous, like in the way that a lot of people, when they depart a band, they're like, they want to get their own fame.

They want to get their own recognition. He just like making music. Like, I remember there was a period. I think this was like maybe like five, six years ago, like post-Stadium Arcadion when Klinghofer joined the band. And he was like releasing just like weird electronic music on SoundCloud just for fun, like because he was bored. Just for funzies.

So, I mean, he just like really liked making music. And he was really young. He was the youngest member of the band. Yeah. There's antiketis' recovery. There's like a lot of grief hanging over the band. There's just like a lot of changes happening at once, like very rapidly. And I'm sure that affected him in a lot of ways where you probably just like couldn't keep up with everything else that was going on, along with his own sort of like he's, you know, exploring drugs. And he's doing that and is becoming very addicted to. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's just important to mention because. when we get back to like how he gets back into the band he didn't really leave on good terms like I don't mean like it's not like they fought but like there's like a very iconic um in a bad way is there a way to say iconic infamous infamous yeah and because it's the red hot chili peppers I think it worked out

totally perfectly because they're like immune to bad things happening or whatever you know what I mean like in this sort of context yeah they played s&L once again the red hot chili peppers And John Fruciandu was like so fucking overt at this point. And like he played under the bridge in a completely different way in a different key, I think. And Anthony Kitas had said like it was a hard song for him to sing because he's not an amazing singer. Yeah. When you watch it, you can see him like looking at John and being like, what the fuck are you doing? Yeah.

They're on national fucking television and like now the song's in a different key. And it turns out fine and people loved it. Like the reaction was like, how cool they like freaked the song. They made it weird. Like everyone was just like, we love this. But like they were mad. You know, they were just like there's like a clip from I think some documentary where like they're taught. Flynn, maybe Chad or talking about how like he just was showing up on stage and not trying anymore.

And like that's like as you know being a fan like their whole thing is like they give like 200% to like every show and every whatever. And so like it's almost like when you like force someone. to break up with you. Yeah. You're like, you just act badly until, I mean, and then you left.

But anyways, then, you know, in comes in David Navarro. Dave Navarro, who was the guitar player for Jane's Addiction, another iconic L.A.

band that was good friends with the Chili Peppers. I'm not really on the greatest terms with those guys personally. And if you've seen that band live, you know goddamn well that they're amazing musicians.

And together, they wrote One Hot Minute. Brittany, how do you feel about One Hot Minute? One Hot Minute is maybe the most hotly contested, debated, you know, talked about Red Hot Chili Pepper's album. I, yeah, a lot of people really hate it. I don't hate it. I think it's a perfectly fine album. I think kind of similar to the 80s output, it's, you know, it's kind of like listening to Fleetwood Mac without Stevie and Lindsay in it, right?

Like, it's like, I don't need. If it doesn't have John Fruchante on it, it doesn't really feel like the chili peppers, but it is really fun. I love Dave Navarro. I think he's such a great and super underrated guitar player. I don't think that. I think he's become such like a public figure, you know, and such like, you know, he is a leader in the live moss mentality. But like, he is a pioneer of the live moss philosophy. He's a thought leader for Liv Moss.

You know, like, he is a really great guitar player. the band becomes so malleable to who they're playing with at the time. And I think working with Dave kind of made them a little more psychedelic, a little, you know, they're a little old James addictiony. And I think that is fun. And, you know, I think it's a decent enough album. But because it's sandwiched between two of their absolute bests and those bests are so much made by the inclusion of Frusante, Like, you know, it kind of, it falls by the wayside. But I think the, the hatred of One Hot Minute is unwarranted.

Yeah, listen, justice for One Hot Minute. I think it's great. I like the slight shift, you know? Like, it's also like, you know, who knows? Like, there's a lot of different, there's so many different reasons this album sounds the way it does, right? Like, the obvious one being Navarro, although there's some speculation, and this is full speculation because I, credits-wise Navarro is credited with every song on this album. And I think that, you know, whether or not that's true, that also is just like a nod to like how egalitarian the red hot chili peppers have always been. Like that's just how they're always going to do every song. It's always going to be credited to all four members. But you can hear, you can still hear for Shanti's influence, even if it's like a bit subdued in some of these songs. And it leads me to believe he might have had something to do. If they were old songs, if they picked back up, I don't know. Yeah, for sure.

And also, you know, this, we had Alex Papanima on an episode recently, and beforehand we were chatting about hot chili peppers. And he made the point that, like, grunge becoming so big, like we talked about, did bring a certain level of austerity and did sort of, like, shift things away from funk in music in general. And maybe that had something to do with it, you know, like, we'll never know. We weren't there. But I love this album.

And I think this has some of the most like poignant songwriting by or lyric writing at the very least by Anthony Kitas on here because the songs, you know, have a lot to do with him relapsing, secretly relapsing. And when looked through it at that lens, I think it's really beautiful. I really want to hear my friends because I think that is a pretty interesting lens into what's going on with the band in general at the time. with Anthony Kedis. And, you know, I would make the argument that you can hear some for Shanti in this song. Yeah. Let's hear my friends. And then I have some questions for you, Brittany.

This is my friends off one hot minute. That was my friends. Brittany, do you, do you feel like, because like we were just kind of talking about like how, you know, Navarro obviously changed the sound of the band with this album. But in some ways, it never fully went back, right? Even if Frasanti came back, you know, there's not as much scat wrapping. I don't even know if there's any scat wrapping. Yeah. That sort of went away with blood sugar sex magic. Definitely.

There's some sort of that silliness, the innuendos, of course, like will remain in the chili peppers and come back. But this was beginning of a really dark sort of musical period for them. I think like this and, you know, Californication. Like it comes back a little bit in the 2000s with, by the way. and saying, you know, those albums have a little bit more of, like, the rapping and kind of the innuendos and all of that. But with this album, it not only had Anthony relapsed in secret, and that's so much of what the album was about, but similar to what happened after Halel died, two more close friends of the band had passed away, River Phoenix, who, you know, was referenced on Give It Away,

his close personal friend to flee had been with, had been close friends with Anthony for many, many, many years well before they were famous. And Kurt Cobain. You know, you have these two not only, you know, close personal friends, but huge, huge, huge public figures who passed away and had publicly struggled with addiction, Riverhead overdose, correct committed suicide. Like this was a really dark period, I think, for a lot of people. And especially for this band who would continue referencing River and Kurt in their music for years.

Well, Brittany, as this is another thing, Alex Papadamus brought up when we were talking, you know, John Fashanti was with River Phoenix the night he died. And the fact that there's a lot of songs about River Phoenix throughout the band's career, especially with John returning, isn't that surprising to me, considering that they were close and that, you know, Flea was there the night he died too. Flea was playing the Viper Room. And I think River was supposed to perform with them. There's like, and he ended up being late. and he couldn't play it's a whole thing um but yes back to your point like yeah a lot of darkness has befallen the band so a lot of grief a lot of grief and also the like party was over like in some senses of like their friendship not that they're not friends anymore but like you can really hear on

this album the disconnection between them like i think anthony kitas had said in an interview that like I don't think he even really properly understood how much John Fershanti fit into their band, like, you know, hand in a club until he was gone. And he had, you know, Dave Navarro came from a different kind of band where it was like everyone wrote their own parts, you know. And red hot chili peppers were always, you know, 100% collaborative, you know. And so realizing that that wasn't the case with every guitarist, I think really like fucked him up and maybe. didn't feel really disconnected from what he had always known and, you know, Flee had to

like pick up a lot of the slack because those two were off doing their own thing and they were both like secretly unbeknownst to everyone else doing a bunch of fucking heroin and it was a rough time for the peppers. And there was a lot of pressure writing on this album. Like Blood Sugar Sex Magic was huge.

They won a Grammy. I mean, for a hard rock song but still a Grammy. Yeah. I mean, it was you know, that was their biggest album yet. And, you know, They would go on to make bigger stuff, but at that point, if you think about too, it's like, that's their biggest album. It's not even their debut. That was their fifth album. They've been doing this for a while. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, this album, which has no reason to blow up. It's like, no, you know, there's no, there's no expectation, really that Red Hed Chilipers are all of a sudden going to become one of the biggest bands of, you know, of that decade. But, you know, in rock, become one of the best selling bands of all time. Yeah, 10 years in. Yeah, they were doing perfectly fine. They were, you know, they had some, like, middle,

milling hits. They had a huge touring career. Like, there was no expectation for blood sugar sex magic to do well, but there's a huge expectation for one hot minute to do well. And I don't know even how much they've spoken about. I can't even recall if it's mentioned in scar tissue. But, like, I'm sure that also had a huge effect, not only, you know, again, Fruchante was struggling with the fame,

but I'm sure with ketis. Like, he was no longer probably using the drugs in the way they did in the 80s, where it was to party. For fun. It's like a crutch. This is his life now and he's, you know, it's completely new. Yeah. And I wonder how much they worried about fitting into like the changing musical landscape, you know, with this album.

I do want to hear your track choice off this album because I also love it. There's a lot of really great hooks in the Chili Peppers catalog. And I do think they have a really great penchant for kind of a little pop. happier writing that we hear more so. But I think airplane is just like a really kind of classic moment of that for them. Okay. Let's hear aeroplane off one hot minute. Okay. That was Aeroplane. I feel, Bernie, I feel like that's actually like a really like, like where it really worked, right? With the two sides. Like, because like no one's taking fucking funk music away from flee over his goddamn dead body. And you heard in this song.

And Navarro's like reverence for like Jimmy Page and like, you know, Carlos Santana or whatever. Like that works here. Like that soloing, you know, this sort of combo like this does really sound like red hot chili peppers. But also you can really feel Dave Navarro's influence in a really positive way, I think. Yeah. It's not the same sort of thing we've heard from Kitas, especially in the 90s. But like just a little more like a little more James Brownie. That's him doing the little James Brown performance.

Yeah. Yeah. I was like, okay, you achieved the James Round of the mid-90s. Also, I think we should just before we move on, let's hear a clip of the one, the first time Flea wrote and sang a song on an album. Kind of important. I'm a pacifist. Can fuck your shit up. I think that is not only very cool, but also such a fucking hallmark of the fact.

that this band was sort of falling apart and Philly was like, fine, I'll fucking write a song. Put on the goddamn album. So, you know, Anthony and Dave are doing tons of heroin separately, unbeknownst to each other. And things start to get kind of rocky. And also the things that we talked about before, like the songwriting wasn't as smooth with Dave and et cetera, et cetera. And like before they go to make their next album, they like asked him to leave. And I mean, one hot minute, just it didn't do as well as blood sugar sex magic. Like, it just, yeah, it was not as kind of this massive really just like, you know, numbers thing.

But like it just kind of was a blip in both of their careers like David, you know, coming off of Jane's addiction, everything that was going out with them. Like, but I think it was flea who ended up asking him to leave or maybe the full band. Yeah. Yeah. They went to like Hawaii or something. Yeah. I don't know. my facts are muddled from reading too many biographies.

And that, because that was 95 when one hot minute came out. And even though it is like a very melodic and like accessible album, I do still think it was different than everything that was popular at that time in rock music. And so it kind of makes sense to me that it didn't perform as well. This is also like the rise of like, you know, Dave Matthews band and Chin Blossoms and like a different alt rock was like kind of. of taking the mantle. And pop punk, you know, Green Day blowing up. And Pop Punk, exactly. A lot of lighter fair from grunge. Yeah, for sure. And like Blood Sugar Sex Magic again,

wasn't, wasn't grunge, but it was like easily fit in with like under the bridge sort of fit into that scene very easily with it. But, you know, it was just as a different. They were kind of at that point a little bit past that 90s prime of what was popular then. Yeah. And so, so They fired Dave Navarro. And they don't make an album for a while. They almost break up. They almost break up. Yeah.

And they asked him to leave in 98. So it was like, you know, they were trying to make albums, I think. And it just was not fucking working. Yeah. But because they're trying to make this album, they're like, okay, well, we still want to make it. And I don't remember which one of them in the memoirs. I feel like they both said it. Well, one of them was like, I don't want to do this unless John.

back. Like I don't want to do the band anymore unless we, unless John comes back. Yeah, I think it was Flea who ended up sort of saving him because John's life had taken a really sharp turn after he left the band because of his addiction. He had no money. He was really struggling. It was not good. So Flea was the one who sort of pulled him out of this hole that he was in and helped kind of get him recovered and back in the band. Then they start to make a new album right? And then we what that album was. California Cation. That's right, baby.

California Cation is their highest selling album to date. Yeah. Let's hear a song off of it, and then I want to ask you why you think that is. Let's do scar tissue. Yes. Same title as The Glorious, 2006 by the Poet, by the Poet, Anthony Kutis. Okay, this is scar tissue. Okay, that was Scar Tissue.

tissue. I love the little factor that sarcastic Mr. No-it-all is a reference to Dave Navarro because apparently he was very sarcastic. And this band is all about earnestness. Yeah. That's a banger. Yeah. That song's last. That's so good.

You can also write, it's like John Friate's back bitch, like that fucking the intro little guitar part like Frichonte core. I mean, the entire album is just so it is so much of John Fuchante's influence. on it. Like, it's such a strong statement from, I mean, it's a, you know, I think there's,

the band is giving they're all in this album, which makes it great. But it does really feel like they are giving Fruchante a lot of time to shine. And a lot of his direction is really taken to heart and kind of used for the best possible way. Because you kind of see him experimenting a lot with his guitar playing. It's just like their most virtuosic album, I feel. And great from start to finish. 1,000% that's amazing. I have a theory once again brought about by a recent listening to this album on Psychedelics. I think this is their higher power album.

Because, you know, if you think about John and Anthony are both like sober, sober now, right? They're really like might fuck around and turn my will and my life over to a power greater than myself. That's what the album sounds like to me, right? Like does that sound like that to you? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It's so reflective in a way that they kind of tease on blood sugar sex magic and they kind of start to get to with one hot minute. But like californication, like they're laying it all out there.

Like every single song on there is really just like digging deep into like relationship troubles like this like, you know, kind of inner demons of like dealing with addiction with dealing with like falling out with friends dealing with loss in different ways. And such a tribute to kind of the lives that they. built for themselves in California and also burnt down repeatedly. Like it's just so much is there. And there is sort of those elements are brought back again of like these moments where I feel so much about the friendship, which is so important and crucial to the chili peppers and their story and why they even exist in the first place is like, these are just like four friends.

Like it's always been a collection of four best friends, which again is like another reason why, you know, Dave, is still such like a part of their lives. have such a kinship with him and with Jane's addiction. But like he was, you know, he was definitely like a higher done for a project and to kind of replace this, whereas Frusante is so much, someone that they care deeply for and is a part of your lives. You have sound like road trip in, which is like road tripping with my three favorite allies. It's just kind of like sweet stuff like that in there. Road tripping with my two favorite allies.

Yeah. But yeah, it's like really a very soul-bearing album. And just like a really emotional listen that is the kind of stuff I like. And also kind of still has some of those ridiculous lyrics. Like, you know, it's California. Yeah. It's just every opportunity for Anthony Kedis to rhyme something with fornication. Silver Swing quotation, Western Civilization, a final location. Yeah. Constellation.

The doctor's piece of funk rock. Yeah. You, like, you talked about road trip and there is, have you watched that Californication documentary? No, I haven't. Oh, it's so good. It's like you're like night and day, like who these people are in terms of like, like, they're fucking doing yoga before every show. They're praying. They're drinking green tea and having little ceremonies.

They're like meditating every day. Like, this is a recovery album. Like that's like it so feels like it. And it feels like you see it in the dock and you see how they're like thriving. And like I think it's also I also associate this album with like the turn of the century, which I think kind of turn like there was like an optimism that like came in around that time that was like the 90s as a decade are kind of known for like, you know, sarcastic Mr. No at all irony. Like it's very like. But the 2000s was like it was a shift. to like something lighter and more optimistic and also just like more sparkly.

And to me, this album like makes so much sense in that time. Yeah. What californication began for them and they still carry so much. Like the party band element, like they have these wacky lyrics, but I had no idea for so long about like all the past stuff until I read scar tissue when I was like a teenager. I'm like, I was like, oh, that's an experience that they all had. Like they had a much different life than I realized that they had experience. for a decade prior to this, more than a decade.

Oh, my God, totally. And also impossible for them to be this band without having that experience, right? Yeah. That's why, like, I just wanted to get so deep into the history because, like, I think this band can't exist without, like, you said it so eloquently, like, this, like, history of grief, this, like, trajectory of grief, but also, you know, this lived experience of, like, both a lot of suffering, but also a lot of living, a lot of, like, being in life and being these open wounds.

And you know what? Another thing I love about this band, I'm obsessed. I've become red hot chili-pilled. It's over for me. There's no other bands. Like a song like right on time on this album is still so like that's their DNA. It's still there.

It's like funky, scatty. Anthony's in there doing his thing. Flea's bass is like, you know, like it's like they never, they never like completely change course. They just seem to like evolve. a bit, you know, but they keep that like nucleus of what it was that they love and the influences

that they have are always kind of still there. And I really respect that. Yeah, it's like so ingrained in them. It's just kind of, it is so much that that growth that happens and kind of like, you're literally watching a band of adult men come of age with every album. Like it's like they're kind of like constantly having these moments of like realization and like sort of reflection on their lives that's sort of, you know, it's because they are very much, they're growing, they're flawed, there are things, mistakes they still make with themselves, with the people around them, with each other. And it's so fascinating to watch that because, I mean, especially as someone who covers pop music often,

and it's the coming of age album usually happens when you're like 18. That's when you're supposed to like make your 18 to 21 is like when you're supposed to make your, I'm an adult album. And like the chili peppers are still not adults. Like they're still like figuring it out. And that's why I also kind of loved about them. is that they're still kind of childish and boyish. And that's a big part of their aesthetic.

But it's like it's just constant coming of age for them. Totally. Also a big thing of their approach to life, I think is being like childlike and curious. They're like 38 years old. Yeah. Yeah. I think we should hear another song off this album because it was their biggest album and it's huge. And like I obviously want you to pick it because this is one of your albums.

What song do you want to hear? Other side because I do really love Other Side. Okay, this is Other Side. That was Other Side. God damn, glorious, beautiful fucking banger. I feel like I'm really showing how much I just am obsessed with all the power ballads in the Chili Pepper's catalog. No, that's okay.

They're really good. That's kind of what I was trying to hint out earlier when I sounded like I was on a meth-addled rant about when I took the psychedelics and listened. I do feel like it's like two distinctive classes of song, right? It's like these like really beautiful transcendent songs that like exist in this different plane. And then there's like the other like really funky, fun party songs. But they are like two separate things.

And you know, people like Joseph really like I think that resonates with them more. And then people like you and me who are just spiritual beings connected with God have an easier time just like wiping out to this beautiful music. Other side also is like specifically about. recovery, right? This song is like literally, like, I'm on the other side of addiction. Like, put my life in a paper cup, you know, the ashtray is filling up and I'm spilling my guts. It's like, that's therapy, you know? Yeah. And she does want to know, am I still a slut? The answer to that was probably yes. Again, the chili peppers still to this day, they've just never been critically

well received. And this album wasn't that different, right? Or was it? This album, it has been retroactively received. Like, it did make the 500 greatest albums list twice for Rolling Stone. The first one was 2003, so that was only a couple years later that people were reviewing it. They got some cents knocked back into them, is what you're saying? Yeah. But it was

definitely, like, mixed. Like, it definitely was semi-well received, but it wasn't as well-received as, like, blood sugar sex magic was. Right. I did say the LA Times gave it two songs, which it's like, really babe? Yeah, it's like not... This is your... Bad reviews.

Yeah, but it's not great. It's not good. Yeah. They were never like a five-star ban for people. I've never heard or seen in an interview. And again, I know I've said this a thousand times, but I literally have been living inside the Red Hot Jelly Peppers for weeks. So I've seen a lot of interviews. They never talk about that, which like fits in with their whole vibe, right?

Like, I don't think they fucking cared. Like, I literally don't think it occurred to them to care about, like, critical or deception. Like, no. Just not a thing. I mean, they're selling out tours constantly on new albums, like on the, on people wanting to hear new stuff. And there are like, there are the bands that kind of stay critically acclaimed for their entire careers and stay sort of like on that level and like are constantly, you know, people are just admiring them as like the greatest in the world. Radiohead. Yeah, radio head. You know, you look at like Bruce Springsteen. And you look at like a lot of these acts that are sort of like on that sort of elite tier of both critically and culturally favored.

And then you have so many acts that fall into this like really great group where they've never really appealed to critics in that way, especially. David Matthews band. Dave Matthews band. I've been thinking about this a lot with like pink who like doesn't really get like a lot of great critical reviews, but like similar to the red hat chelie peppers. Maybe the only time anyone's going to compare pink to the rat chili peppers is like she continues to have completely successful singles, completely like number one album. She's only gotten bigger.

And I can sell out a tour in literally any city in the world. No matter where she goes, someone, there are going to be thousands of pink fans. That's the same thing with Red Hat Chilli peppers. It doesn't matter. Like, you can give them a two-star review on every album coming up. And there will still be thousands of people in every city in the world that will want to go see the chili peppers. My arm hair just stood up, Brittany, because I feel like you just made such. I am just fighting for Red Hat Chilli peppers rights constantly.

Well, you just made it like really like powerful. comparison because I think pink is really similar to red on toilet peppers. I think in the spiritual sense, right? Yeah. Which is like I think what we're talking about here a lot is like, I don't know. I don't want to speak for you. But like for me anyways, it's like how much I admire just them as artists and their approach to life in the world. And I think pink really seems to share a similar thing. She just does whatever the fuck she wants. She's extremely talented. People love it. The critics don't cover her. She doesn't. I don't really ever see press on her. unless it's like watch her perform at the Billboard Awards or whatever.

But she's fucking killing it. And she's, you know, just marching to the beat of her own drum. But it works for people. Yeah. And there's just like a huge, huge back catalog of like, oh, wait, there are like a million hits here that you kind of forget that there's like so many number ones that like just like took over the zeitgeist for so long. And it's the same way with the chili peppers. Like they both, you know, there are so many of these acts that like you kind of forget have. dominated the cultural conversation for like way longer than anyone anticipated they would and will

continue to be very successful. So they don't have to care about the critics. They don't have to care about like whether or not they're getting five-star reviews in every publication. And their fans don't have to care either. I'm going to cry because and I, I want you to know that two weeks in a row now I've brought up the red hot chile peppers and therapy. And it's because of what we're saying right now. I think like this as like they are they are now my religion. They are my spiritual approach to life because that's that's like you can extrapolate that to anything in life. Yeah. It's like just like do you. Yeah. And like there's so little ego involved. And I think that maybe people would disagree with that from the outside. Like no, clearly there's like, you know, this is an ego man. And it's like they're so not. Right. Like they're just like they just seem to love to do what they do. And Anthony Echidus loves to be shirtless. They all love to be shirtless. And they should be because they look great. And I were. I respect that. And I fucking respect the hell out of it.

Okay. So in the interest of producer Dylan, whose favorite album, again, I must point out is, by the way, California Cation, you know, fucking is huge. It's also, again, I don't think we made this small point, which is that 1999 is also just before Napster. Yeah. And everything after, which means that it's like kind of impossible to sell 16 million albums after this. So they just really slide in right under the, before that. Now, you know, they've had this huge thing. What direction do they go next? I mean, this album has always been, like, very poppy to me. Like, you come off this, like, really sobering album where it's, like, just, like, all these personal demons being laid bare.

But, like, the lead single is the title song, like, by the way, and can't stop in these kind of silly nonsense songs. Anthony Keyes is just like yelling out phrases and words repeatedly. And very old school chili peppers. But yeah, I mean, this is like also a new sort of MTV era where videos are like really, really, really important and sort of being a part of that kind of TRL aspect. And like they were fitting in. They were silly. They were fun.

Like, you know, you have these songs and these videos and these visuals because they all are kind of natural performers. Like they were able to sort of marry the fact that they were. this like, you know, 90s, I mean, for the sake of how successful they were in the 90s rock band, but like that were able to fit right in next to a Britney Spears video or an in sync video and have like kind of super catchy nonsense rock songs that have really fun videos and visuals to go with them. Literally show me another band that was able to, for three decades, be culturally relevant. in like a really real super like not not retro like they weren't a nostalgia acts like I would say them and green day are on that parallel and i you know they have it's kind of a weird parallel for i mean this green day was a couple years after for their big break obviously but like yeah that weird parallel like around this time like millennials like really loved both those bands and they were still putting out like hit albums for like teenagers that were gravitating towards them. Exactly. It's the same thing that we were sort of talking about before

with Californication, that they are eternally childlike. Same as Green Day, I think. It's not disingenuous. It's not like they're trying to be like, hey, fellow kids, you know? Like, it just works because they are being genuinely who they are, which is this like childlike forever teen. Homs can relate. And so they're able to connect. We should hear a song off, by the way. And this is weird, but I would love to start with Can't Stop. Absolutely. You know who is addicted to the shindig? Producer Dylan.

Yeah. And you and also meet. Everyone listening is now addicted to the shindig. Okay. This is Can't Stop, Op, by the way. That was Can't Stop. And if anyone was wondering, has the horniness subsided? The answer is, no, there is a lyric here.

I'll get you into penetration. Is the lyric. somehow gotten hornier. They simply get hornier with age and I respect it. They are firing on all cylinders on this song. Like it is like the mixture. It's kind of the perfect midpoint of as a song, whereas Californication is like the perfect midpoint as an album in their career. Like this song, I feel like as a single is like the perfect midpoint because not only is it kind of that classic like early chili peppers funkiness and like that sort of like nonsensical lyricism, but like at some points the lyrics can be kind of poignant and kind of spiritual. I mean, it's a lot about like sex and just

random shit, but like there's also some things that are kind of like this life is more than just a read through. Like there are like moments of like that kind of higher energy moment for the band. There's flees bass playing. Friante's harmonies even more than the guitar, which his solo is like chef's kiss like beautiful. But yeah, like it's just I mean, Chatsman's drumming. Like it's really just like this is a a hot song, again, the video, really important to this era and to kind of Chili Pepper's fandom in the 2000s, like, they're just doing a bunch of random goofy shit with, like, weird objects in like a Mark Romanek directed video and like having fun. Yeah, you know what?

I will, I'll just say in defense of AK. I think sex to Anthony Ketus is spiritual. Yeah, absolutely. That sounds gross. I think it becomes more spiritual to him as his writing and. his age progresses. Like, the way he talks and sings about it, like, and even the way he writes about in scar tissue. Like, it's very spiritual to him as he reflects on it.

Let's hear another song off this album because now we're really in the zone. Yeah. And I almost cried listening to that other song and I want to get back to that place in myself. So what song do you want to hear? I want to hear the title track because I love it. The first chili pepper song I really loved. And it's, again, one of those songs where it's a little song. softer than Can't Stop, where there's still that ridiculousness.

But I've always found the chorus very, like, tender and sweet. Great. I want to honor your entry point into the Red Hot Chili Peppers and do this right here, right now. Let's hear, by the way. That was, by the way, wow, wow, we will. I used to think that the chorus was so romantic. And I was, like, 10. So I really didn't know what he was saying.

But I was just like, you know, by the way, I tried to say I'd be there. I was like, oh, that's so sweet. Waiting for Blackjack, Dope Dick, Pond Shop, Quick, Dick. Little did you know. Little did I know what was coming back. But I always just thought the way he sang it was so sweet. And like, I was like, that seems nice. Who's Danny?

I had just started DJing around this time. And I liked to think that, you know, skin that flicks is such a little DJ. I was just like, that's me. You know, I really do you want to play Zephyr. Because I think it's an important song. Yeah. I love that song. Is this song actually called Fly Away on My Zephyr, a full title?

It's just the Zephyr song. Okay, here is the Zephyr song. Okay, that was the Zephyr song. Producer Dylan has said that this song is the heavens opening via a blimp to God. It's true. Okay, we haven't talked too in depth about Anthony Kedas' singing voice. I think now it might be a good time. Number one, I just wanted to mention a realization I had, which was that, like,

I feel so close to this singing voice because it's been around my whole life. I realize that there's like a, like a, just like a, not, nostalgia's not even the right word. Just like a comfort, like a feeling of like, I know this person because I've heard their voice. Yeah, like primal producer Dylan says, daddy question mark. Um, no, just kidding. But also like, you know, people have wondered why his voice got better as time went on. Because, you know, would you say in the beginning he was maybe not a traditionally good singer? And I don't even know if he is to this day.

I've heard like sort of mean takes on it, which is like, oh, like auto tune happened and blah, blah, blah. Which I don't know. Again, I don't know. I can't speak to that. But like, I also do think like there's something to be said for singing for 30 years. Yeah. Like taking vocal lessons and just getting. better because you did it all the time. Having seen the chili peppers live several times

in recent years, it's really, it's all him. I don't think there's a significant amount of auto tune more than, you know, what's usually put on there. But it's really, they are a touring band. Like, they have been touring since they started. Like, they have been playing shows regularly. And that just changes your voice fundamentally. Like, I think about this a lot with like Taylor Swift, for example, an artist I really love. And I've been listening. to since I was like 15. And her voice has changed drastically since she was a teenager because she tours a lot because you're singing a lot. It's like practicing, doing more of the same thing in the same way that like, you know, Fruchante's guitar playing has gotten better, like,

flees bass playing. Like it's just Chasmid's drumming. Like it changes because any of those bands from that era and especially bands who stay as successful as they've stayed are just on the road constantly. Like they're performing two-hour shows every night like $150. days a year for in support of an album, like, and no longer doing drugs. So it's like really just about the craft. Like that definitely just changes how you play, how you sing. And it makes it better. Big Malcolm Gladwell energy. Yeah. I also think that there's something to be said for like, not all voices have to be good. Where are you? They can just be interesting. And that does a lot of work too, you know? Yeah. I might only be saying this to reassure myself who,

definitely whose voice falls more on the side of interesting than good. But as my therapist says, that is okay, and I should sing. But like so many of our favorite rock singers, right? Like, I would say majority of the best rock singers of all time can't really sing. Courtney Love is not a strong singer. And I love... Kirkland couldn't really sing. Yeah.

You know, it's usually men, which this is what I like. When there are women who do it, I'm really into it. But it is traditionally, like, when you start listening to it. like male rock singers who can't sing it's like Bob Dylan Baba it's all men because they can get away with it right um but yeah like we said court like Liz Fair is not a particularly like strong singer but I love her voice and and only she could sing her songs you know Selena Gomez can't sing but she has bops for days like you know I think that's like there are so many people it's really again about performance it's about attitude it's about at least kind of like carrying the note to a

degree you know like that's really all you got to do is just okay Brittany I will learn how to carry the note to it yeah Yeah, like you just got to kind of be in a key and stay there. But I do also love the way like he kind of within almost every song shifts perspective a bunch of times. And he's like he's talking to a lover. Then he's talking to this. And then he's talking to his bandmates. And like in this particular song, like it jumps all over the place.

But there's like that fun little line that's like, do it up. It's on with Stella. What a way to finally smell her horny. But that lyric is addressing John because Stella Schnoble was his girlfriend at the time. And her dad, famous artist Julian Schnabel, did the cover art for the by the way album. There you go. Little tidbits of knowledge. We haven't even gotten to Stadium Arcadia.

So everyone who's still here, God bless you. Brittany. Tell me about Stadium because this is a classic album. Classic double album, right? Yeah. So even though this is kind of the longest stretch that they've had. Fruciante in the band, a three-album stretch. They almost broke up after, by the way, because we didn't feel as, like, heard in their

recording sessions. So there was a little bit of that tension once more, so they took a little bit of time, even though, like, you know, again, like, at that time, you probably would have expected them to come back after, by the way, with, like, an album, like, a year or two later. Right. But with St.a. Mercantia, that came on 2006, that album, very, very formative to me as a human being and as a music listener. It is a double album. It's kind of, you know, the platonic ideal of a band that is as deep in their career. Literally, like, at this point, how many, I'm terrible math,

like two decades since their debut at that point. And it's kind of just like a perfect sort of like, we can do whatever the hell we want now and make a double album that is like, you know, it's it's not for anything else other than they just like wanted to make this like huge ass album like it's really saying much but it's super fun like it's a mixture there are these like really great tender ballads on there there's also like these massive massive fun radio rock hits like it is just like it is kind of timeless in that sense where it doesn't sound super 2006 like if you told me a band released this album this year, I'd be like, yeah, sure, like, that makes sense. And it's just there, but it's also just so good from start to finish.

Like, there's no, like, that big emotional weight that follows so many other albums. But, like, they've made it this far and somehow get even more respect and bigger and better with this. Like, you know, it's, again, two decades in. And this album spawned a lot of hits when, I think I won a Grammy. I won five Grammys. Yeah, which is wild. And I mean, you know, you have songs like Danny California, Tommy Baby, Snow Hale, huge singles all over. Like literally could not escape them, never wanted to escape them anyway.

But it's just like, you know, and we talked about Green Day earlier, like this was the same thing happening with them. For some reason, these bands in 2006 were bigger than they had been when they first broke through in the 90s and like had achieved mainstream success. Like people were carrying younger fans were gravitating to them. they were non-nistalgia act at all, like, and still aren't, I don't think. But like, yeah, that's, you know, Brittany, you just had something that I think, is, you were saying it about this album, but I think you could say it about almost every album since maybe one hot minute. Yeah. They, none of them sound like they're of the time that there is, you know, right? Like, like, I think one hot minute could come out today. Yeah. And people would be like, cool. Like, they wouldn't think it was weird. Same with Californication. I think that album. could totally come out today. By the way, if that single release was released today, it would hit number one. Because they didn't even at their own time really, like, fit squarely within a trend that was happening. So, like, it doesn't matter. Like, I think that is, that might have something to do with, like, also, like, the longevity of the band, which is, like, they're always just doing their thing and it fits into the one genre, which is their genre. Green Day is a little different because I think Green Day you can attribute their success to the fact that Pumpunk never died.

died. Poppuck was born and never died. It just kept mutating and evolving and like new crops of bands popped up and popped up and and Olivia Rodriguez made a pop punk song and we're not going to talk about it. But it's never going to die. So Green Day was able to kind of ride the wave, you know. Because teens are always angsty. But also teens are always horny. And so right, actually, poppers are always horny. They don't need a genre to be horny. Like they literally just like are in their own thing doing. something that like there's never a crew there's not really a scene of other than when they first started there's never a scene of bands that matches the chili peppers at any given point in what they're doing like there are bands that were influenced

by them you can attribute so much of like rap rock and you know some some elements of new metal to the chili peppers but like they weren't doing that when those things became popular like they had moved on like you were doing californication when like rap rock was at its biggest like they were like actually we found a spirituality and And, like, we are chill and on the ocean and thinking about life. We're viving, babe. Speaking of vibing, should we hear a song? Yeah, I mean, Danny California is, like, again, that perfect combination of, like, this song is so ridiculously huge and, like, such a great pop song, such a wonderful radio rock single.

And also had a great video. Like, it was still very MTV at that time. They were still super fun. They did this, like, very nostalgic video where they kind of, like, dressed up in different eras and, you know, paid tribute to a lot of their heroes. They kind of, you know, they did, like, a Beatles thing. They did, like, Kirk Cobain thing. Like, they end as themselves.

But it's kind of that perfect combination of here are these, like, four guys who are also incredibly charming, but also make really catchy and ridiculous singles. Let's hear, Danny California. That was Danny California. and you know what? I too am a lover, a baby, and a fighter. So I do feel seen by that song. Also, simultaneous release.

I don't think at the time it penetrated it, for lack of a better word, my understanding. But now I'm like truly the horniest. Oh, yeah. They literally cannot help themselves. It's in everything. Just crooning simultaneous release. But also there's like so much of a narrative in this song too, which is like very unlike the chili peppers. to them to tell a story in the process.

Like there is no random scatting of, you know, things that rhyme. And like it's just kind of, I mean, some of the stuff is kind of just like because it rhymes. But like there is like a little bit more of a narrative, a story happening. And, you know, that's kind of fun to hear from them. And the way that's still like they're doing that, but it's still them. It's still very, you know, it doesn't sound like any other band. Yeah. And I do.

You're right. I love that this is. like a narrative about Danny California. But like I think you said this at some point that this is just an amalgamation of like every woman that Anthony Ketus has ever been with, which judging by scar tissues had really famously bad taste. Oh yeah. And women. Also, I would love to take this opportunity to shout out my friend Jane, who shares an ex-girlfriend with Anthony Kitas, which I think is fucking cool. Since we haven't mentioned it, why does Anthony Ketus not age? Because I think this is the time where I started to be like, babe, what the fuck?

Like, it's been, you've looked the same for 20 years. Yeah. What's happening? My crush on Anthony Ketus has persisted since the age of 10. So I really have no way of understanding it. I met him in real life ones. Luminousin as a human being. And it's just like you, I don't want to harp too much on the fact that you injected cocaine into your veins for like many, many years. But like, why do you look like this?

Again, I eat one gluten. and I am aged three years for months, and this man just nothing. He's just a donut. Multi-millionaire rock star, and they just live on a different plane of existence. You know, right. If I was living in Malibu and having someone come give me my daily IV drip of youth juice. If I had Californication money, I would live forever. Babe, I would be buying stem cells off the black market, making a smoothie every morning, and fucking calling me the goddamn day.

We cannot leave stadium or stadium. It is a double album. They did the work. We can't leave it without playing another song. I'm going to go with a deep cut for this for my second song. Oh, okay. Love it. Because it's actually my favorite chili pepper song.

And again, because I love a chili peppers power ballad, I think like I always play the song for people when they are like, I hate the chili peppers because I think it's just such a tender song. It's impossible to hate it. It's wet sand. I just find that song to be so beautiful. and it's just an absolutely sublime piece of music. I love wet sand.

Let's hear it. This is wet sand. Okay, that was wet sand. What a beautiful song. Yeah. It reminds me a lot of breaking the girl. Yeah. And it still has that sort of like the drums that make it like unmistakably a chili pepper song.

But then it is this like very sweet ballad. There is a song on this. on this double album that once again, don't ever tell me that this band has changed because there is a song called Humpty Bump, which, you know, we'll play a little clip right now. That's right. That's my people. They're still the exact same Fairfax High party monsters.

They've just going up a little bit, but they're still humping to bump. Okay. Okay, so this album, like we said, it did really well. It won five Grammys. It's sold well. It's like, again, top in the charts. They did like a 6,000 date tour.

But at some point in this tour, John Fuchante leaves. Yeah. I do know that Josh Klinghoffer, who did take John's place, was his, like, protege. Yeah. So, you know, there was like some grooming maybe of him to like maybe ultimately do that. I really don't know. Yeah. Yeah.

I see now there's like a message they put on his MySpace. Wow. Wow. Wow. In 2009 where he explained that he was just there's no ill will and that he just wanted to work on some solo stuff and decided to leave the band. Yeah. I mean, that makes sense. Again, just pure speculation.

But that's like another, you know, so many. years of road dogging. And getting even bigger. Yeah, 98 to 2007. That's almost 10 years of like touring and like playing music. Maybe he was just tired. Yeah. And he's allowed.

Probably just like tired. Like, you know, the fame was a lot the first time. I'm sure like after a few more years of it, he's like, I'm good for now. Like I can dip. I did it before. Yeah. I'm in a better place now. You know what I was thinking while we were talking about.

these next three albums and like maybe why I was just like thinking like oh why was it okay this time and like I do think that like being famous during the 2000s was much different than being famous right the 90s still had a bit of a monoculture whereas like now the internet is here so like as famous as red hot chili peppers were they were still like if you weren't like a close pay attentioner you probably couldn't have fucking pick John for shodang out of the lineup You know what I mean? Yeah. So it wasn't the same level of like, it's insane.

They're like on the cover of every magazine. Like that just wasn't the vibe in the 2000. And it's definitely like, you know, there's a huge difference when you're the new hot thing versus like when you're more established. And like yeah, when blood sugar, sex magic came out, like they there was no precedent for them to be as famous as they were at that point. Like they had been steadily releasing music for years and like you had been. been, you know, they had done well, like, as Joseph pointed out, they were playing Hollywood Bowl. Like, they were like, they were doing fine. They weren't on MTV, but they were a working band. And when you're the next big thing, there is so much pressure on that to stay and

on that to kind of, you know, the press around it is just so different than when you're like, already kind of established, you're rejoined the band. And also they're older. Like, there's no kind of like, you know, expectations for them and the way that we place expectations on a really, you know, young artist these days and forever. Like, you know, it's just a different, different thing. Like, they can literally, if they stop releasing music after Californication, like, they would have been able to do a bunch of tours doing their old hits if they wanted to. A thousand percent.

Yeah. Okay. So I'm going to really need your help now because I'll be really honest. and I do feel ashamed of myself for this. I don't think I even knew that they put out albums after Stadium or Acadium. I know they took a long break, right? Yeah. You know, after Frasanti leaves, they like, you know, this is when Anthony Kedis finally has a kid.

And Flea is like taking music theory classes at USC and he starts his, the Silver Lake Music School, Music Conservatory. Yeah. So they're all kind of off doing this. their thing. Like you said, Pichonti was doing solo music. What happens after this break? So around like 2000, I believe it's like early 2010, maybe late 2009, they end up hiring Klinghoffer full time. And they make a live return. They start playing shows again. And after they start touring with him, they start recording the first of two albums that we get with their new guitarist, which is like what the, like fourth guitarist I guess fourth full-time guitarist oh god yeah at least maybe yeah the fourth um guitarist on on recorded albums um yeah so they start working on i'm with you and i'm with you and i feel the same way about i'm with you and go away where it's like they're not albums i return to too often

there's some songs that i'm like kind of bang and like are fun it's very much it's a radio rock album from a band that really doesn't need to do much anymore if they did not want to. You know, like they really, like, babe, you could just do yoga and surf and meditate in Malibu, and it would be fun. They don't have much to reflect on anymore. Like, it's kind of, they've reflected. And it's just kind of like, there's like some of that groovy funkiness of the chili peppers. There are the ballads.

But it's really just meant to be kind of these like radio rock staples to get them back out on the road, which is what they do with Klinghofer. they tour a lot in support of these albums and they play festivals and they are at this point a legacy rock band where they can literally play anything. They can headline whatever they want. If they wanted to headline the return of Coachella next year, Coachella will have them. Like, God, I hope they do. Let's hear a song off I'm with you. What's your favorite song from this? The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie is really fun. Like there's kind of that like Danny California-esqueness to it. It's like a good, single for them. And really, again, just one of those songs that you can tell is just like built to be a radio rock hit. There's not much that they're trying to really say about themselves at this point. But it's just a fun song.

Okay, let's hear the Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie. Okay, that was the Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie, which I did realize while we were listening. I do know that song. And regardless of the fact that I was not aware that an album came out, inescapable, this band. And that song, I'm going to say it's slap. Yeah. That, that, uh, is it cowbell? What's happening? Yeah, a cowbell in the back. Yeah, it reminds me of that, the house of jealous lovers. That really good. Is it a faint? Yeah. Like, it has that same kind of energy. Yeah. It's like, they called it a really good dance song. Like, they literally, it was just about this like really funky baseline. Um, and it's a really good dance song. Like, it's fun. I remember hearing that. I saw them on that tour and I was just like, this is fun as hell to dance. Yeah. I was like, this is fun as hell to dance. Yeah. I was like, at first kind of like, I want to just like hear a stadium arcadian, which I didn't get to see live. But like, I was like, oh, this is good.

This is great. I will eat some mushrooms and fucking dance that song. Don't threaten me again with a good time. Okay, Brittany, we've gotten to the last extant Red Hodge Lake Evers album. I didn't spend a lot of time with that album. I'm such like a Frusante fan. I think there is such a missing. And I don't want to disrespect Josh Klinghoffer because I think he is such a

of guitars, like, seeing him live, like, he really brought, like, a really great, like, originality to his own playing of things that, you know, people associate with Fursante or Dave Navarro. And, like, he was really great at that. And I think he's a super strong guitar player. And you hear that on Rain Dance Maggie and on these albums. But, like, there is just, like, a little, like, there's a thing that's just missing from, from the Chili Peppers without John. There's, like, a certain level of, like, dynamic nature to the way that. they composed the guitar parts and the melodies on the songs that you're missing without him. Yeah.

We haven't mentioned, but just know everybody that every other album that we talked about between here and Blood Sugar Sex, Magic, was produced by Rick Rubin. But the getaway wasn't. They, the Danger Mouse produced this album. Yeah. Which I think is kind of, I don't want to say funny, but interesting. Yeah. Strange, interesting choice. I guess Danger Mouse was like a hot off of, um, of the gorilla.

and whatever else. Also a little bit later. It's like 2016 for this album. Yeah. So like not even hot off of... Yeah. I'm sure there's just like... Again, like they could just...

I think Rick Rubin was just like such a good fit for so long. And like they, you know, were making super massive stuff with him. And at this point it's like they don't really need to make anything that's like necessarily meant to be massive. It will end up doing very well. I'm sure they just wanted to experiment a little bit. And they were very busy also, if you look between I'm with you and the getaway. Like they were doing, they played the Super Bowl with Bruno Mars.

They, you know, were getting touring, headlining a lot of festivals. I think they did Coachella a few years ago and Alpluza, things like that. Yeah. It was like a really like particularly busy time. Rock and Roll Hall fame was maybe it was after this actually. But around, oh, generally around this time. like they're getting inducted in it. Like there's a lot of them sort of settling into the new class of classic rock

where suddenly all of those early 90s hits were being considered classic rock radio at this point. Okay. Well, I mean, it's not, I don't agree with it. But like it was like a weird time where those like that like nostalgia like time frame was like condensing really fast. And so like all of a sudden. in, I would go home and I'd turn on classic rock radio and like, it would be like chili peppers. And it's like, I don't know.

It would be like Nirvana and the chili peppers. And it's like, okay, like that's a little, it's a little soon to be calling them classic rock. I don't consider them that. But like, it's like, leave me alone. Jesus. Yeah. Let me live.

Why don't we hear a clip of dark necessities? That was the single just to like give people some context. Before we. move on. I just, I do want to point out, and I think it's like just wrapping up from like what we've talked about. Like, the enduring fandom of the chili peppers did not, like, regardless of whether Brittany or I engaged much with this album, like this album debuted at fucking number two on the Billboard 200 chart right behind Drake. Yeah. So just like wrap your minds around that people. Like, nothing was waning for this band, you know, like.

So they're still as big as ever at this point. Speaking of enduring fandoms, that's right, Brittany, it is the time. It is the time where we hear from real life fans. Are you ready? Yes. Let's do it. The chili peppers. I love those breaks.

I love the palpable energy you feel when you listen to their music. I understand people not viving with them once they started singing. about all things California. But how could you not like a band that sounds like a combination of all things, P.Funk, Prince, Van Halen, and pretty much anything extreme in between? It just became my transportation

to California. I would listen to it, and I would just be in California. I was growing up in New Jersey, and that's where I wanted to be. This free spirit, this L.A. vibe that everyone kind of wants. It's magic hour on a week night,

getting stoned and drunk. It captured such a feeling, and it's so emblematic of the times and of L.A. and Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard in the total glory days. If you don't like the culture of the band, that's okay. I totally get it,

especially if you're from Southern California. Like, it probably almost feels like they're making fun of you in a way, and even if you're not and you want to play a coup by making fun of how often they mention in California, I totally get it. A lot of that hyper-confidence is pretty, pretty toxic and I don't connect with all of it, but I do still feel the kind of sense of liberation that Anthony Ciotis expresses when he runs around on stage or when fleas completely

naked at Woodstock or when they have socks on their dicks. It just still seems so brave. The mythology around them is so amazing and sorted and compelling. And in conjunction with the music, It really feels like a fictional universe. My Red Hot Chili Peppers phase started in the middle of a deep astrological manifestation period, where Anthony Keita started appearing in my dreams wearing nothing but a sock being totally ready to rock. He started asking me questions like, are you ready to manifest the ultimate reality? The band Red Hot Chili Peppers is I understand it is this endeavor that was born out of these experiences of loss and grieving and broken families. and this kind of spiritual seeking to try and heal where they were coming from.

And for me, as a listener, blood sugar sex magic is the place where I really hear that endeavor coming through at its purest. Ethereal Anthony Keats helped me dig into different parts of my psyche, letting me know that life is a journey best worth living by being vulnerable and being your true self. I instantly got into the orbit of freaky styly, up with mofo party plan, and of course blood sugar sex magic. You're like, what the hell is this music? Like, and it's dumb as hell.

It's just objectively dumb, you know, some of these lyrics. Like, we don't have to pussyfoot around that. Honestly, it makes sense that as a preteen-teen-teen-stage girl, the music resonated so much with me because those were the girls that Anthony loved and still loved today. Like, the lyrics, the feeling he just understands teenage girls. And as a teenage girl, it just something clicked. As we all know, the red hot chili peppers are all about sex and masculinity

in a way that's very confusing to a young girl, but also enticing. I'm just going to say that the sexcapades that Anthony Kedis talks about in scar tissue do not age well. John Fashante is coming up with all of these fully realized. complex rock guitar parts. He's playing these killing solos. His tone is perfect. He's like, he's so dialed in, but he's coming from this artistic place

that seems really dangerous in this specific way, like actually detrimental to the self, to the player. I just don't have a way to explain to other than that they're musically original and a mix of everything blended together and just godly level musicians. The solo at the end of scar tissue is so beautiful but so pained. And it's evocative because it's so haunting. And hearing that for the first time as a kid completely transformed the way I experienced all music from then on out.

Lee is holding everything down. He's just this eternal grounding presence. So much love. so much compassion. I just don't think there is a better basis ever than flee. I guess we're my gateway to hearing music in terms of

emotion and texture. And I love them very much. They really just got to the vital spot. And I think that's the thing that's so beautiful about this band is that connectivity, that that's the center, that's the spiritual core, is this

idea of fraternity, true fellowship, musical freedom. And when they are really at their best, if you're open enough to receive it, you can hear all of that coming through. I mean, I'm open enough to hear it, and I think you are too, Brittany.

Also, I cannot believe that it took me this fucking long to mention that Anthony Kedis is a Scorpio. Flee is a Libra, obviously. John Frischanti, that's sensitive sweet soul. He is a Pisces. Yep. Chad Smith, also a Scorpio. Dave Navarro, a Gemini, and Rick Rubin, who I think is important, also a Pisces. Astrology is real. If you didn't think astrology is real, look at the star signs of the Red Hatchelay Peppers members and associates.

Literally, like, if Anthony Kitas wasn't a Scorpio, I would eat my hat. Yeah. Wow, these fans said really eloquent and smart. things and I think, you know, it really does boil down to like what we were talking about. I also did. I love that point about the teen girl thing because I do think I do think Anthony Ketus does really understand teenage girls and like we talked about it a little before, but I think his like teenage view of everything makes their music accessible always to teenagers because they're just like forever seeing themselves. Yeah. And something that like even

to go even younger, like there is sort of this, because we both started listening to them, like, pretty young. Like, you know, when we were like, not even preteens for either of us. And, like, there is this sort of, like, childish, like, almost, like, nursery rhyme-esqueness to the songs that we first, like, came to love by them, you know, give it away. And by the way, like, those songs aren't just, like, again, nonsense lyrics. and they sound like, you know, poems and like child, like, you know, child nursery books or whatever. Like, that's sort of a weird appeal of, like, you know, children really love this. And that's why there's, like, really, really young fans who just keep getting drawn to the chili peppers. Exactly. And if you're listening and you're here now, welcome to the church of our HCP.

Yeah. You have also now been red hot chili filled. We have literally sadly, I don't want to stop talking about my chili peppers ever, and I will continue to off mic probably to the chagrin of every person I come into contact with from here on out. But we do have to wrap up this insanely long episode. Brittany, thank you so, so, so much for being here. You were such an exceptional guest. You're 50,000 IQ points smarter than me. And I really appreciate you. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to just let out all of my constant chili peppers thoughts and feelings.

Yeah. You're welcome to text them to me, voice memos. I do it to Dylan all day long, just voice memos that come into my brain about how to leave it first. Well, before we officially end, what song would you like to leave everybody with as a last parting peppers gift? Oh, you know, we didn't do Californication the song. And I feel like that song, that's it. That's a really fun one. And one of their biggest hits. Oh my God. Yes.

The Randy's donuts. Again, so fucking L.A. Like I remember watching that video while I was still in high school and I was in Singapore still. And I'm being so homesick and seeing that fucking Randy's donut like the skate, you know, Ollie through it and being like, I want to go home. I cannot help but agree that we would be mistaken. if we ended this without, you know, hearing about the firstborn uniform, hardcore, soft porn. Well, thanks again, Brittany. Come back every week, every Thursday for a new episode of Bansplaine.

And here is your dream of Californication. If you liked what you heard today, subscribe for more episodes of Bandsplaine only on Spotify. Our brilliant guest today was Brittany Spanos. Follow her on Twitter at Oh, Hey, Brat. me. Huge thanks to the Peps mega fans you heard on this episode. Alex Hudson, Alicia Wexler, Ben Catsman, Bryn Wollner, Carly Travis, Dan Bogosian, Nomi Frye, Nicole Lawrence, and Taylor Thompson. Bansplain is a Spotify original show. This episode was produced by the Zephyr on which I fly away, producer Dylan, aka Dylan Tupper Rupert, and edited by Michael Hardman with help from Casey

Simonson and Tari Miller. Executive producers for Bansplane are Gina Delback and me, Yossi Salon. Our gorgeous and catchy theme song was composed and performed by Bethanyi Costantino and Jennifer Clavin and graciously recorded by Carlos Delagazza in the city we live in the city we love, Los Angeles, California. Special thanks to Philippa Guillermo, Robert Adler, Leah Edwards, David McDana, Dana Meyerson, Jessica Hopper, and the framed drawing of Dave Matthews I got on Deepop whose spirit does continue to guide this entire show. Come back every Thursday for a new episode of Batesplain.

Only on Spotify. Give it a play, give it a play, give it a play, give it a play now. That's enough.