November 7, 2024 • 28 mins
Content Warning: This episode of Encore discusses struggles with addiction and mental health issues.
Believe it or not, Red Hot Chili Peppers were formed all the way back in 1982 as ‘Tony Flow and The Majestic Masters of Mayhem’ - no idea why that name didn’t ever catch on.
But, with all due respect to original members - the late great guitarist Hilel Slovak, and drummer Jack Irons; the current lineup that we all know and love formed some six years later in the final months of 1988.
Joining original members Tony Flow - aka Anthony Kiedis from here on out, and Flea - aka… well… Flea… were guitar genius John Frusciante, and the world’s most successful Will Ferrell Look Alike - Chad Smith.
Go on and picture the Red Hot Chili Peppers in your head; chances are it is this core four that you’re thinking of… although there were at least another 8 transient members of RHCP throughout the years, with Frusciante especially coming-and-going throughout the band’s history.
With so much turmoil within a band - it’s crazy to think that the Chili Peppers have never actually broken up, despite well documented addictions, tragedy and loss, lack of focus, changes in sound, and the aforementioned lineup changes over their 40+ years in Rock.
So, for this episode of encore we’re going to zoom in on perhaps their most successful pivot of all, becoming what felt like a brand new band all over again some 15+ years into their career - this is the story of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 2000 Hit - Californication with newly unearthed audio from the band themselves.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Encore. The stories behind the songs. Here's Ih
Radio's Miles Galloway,
believe it or not. Red hot chili peppers were formed
all the way back in 1982 as Tony Flow and
the majestic Masters of Mayhem. No idea why that name
(00:21):
didn't ever catch on. But with all due respect to
original members, the late great guitarist Hill Slovak and drummer
Jack Irons, the current lineup we all know and love
formed some six years later in the final months of
1988 joining original members, Tony Flow A K A
Anthony Kiss from here on out and flee A K
A Well flea were guitar genius, John F Shae and
(00:43):
world's most successful Will Ferrell look alike. Chad Smith. Go
on and picture the red hot chili peppers in your head.
Chances are it's this core four you're thinking of. Although
there are at least another eight transient members of RHCP
throughout the years with F Shae especially coming and going
throughout the band's history.
We'll get to that truly a unicorn in the music
business rivaled perhaps only by fellow rock gods and encore
(01:06):
episode subjects, Food Fighters and U two. Red Hot chili
peppers can honestly map out serious cultural relevance in the eighties, nineties,
two thousands, 20 tens and 20 twenties with their latest
Billboard Hot 100 entry and Canadian rock number one single
conquering airwaves as recently as 2022
with so much turmoil with the band. It's crazy to
(01:27):
think that the chili peppers have never actually broken up
despite well documented addictions, tragedy and loss, lack of focus
changes in sound and the aforementioned lineup changes over their
40 plus years in rock. So
for this episode of Encore, we're going to zoom in
on perhaps their most successful pivot of all becoming what
felt like a brand new band all over again, some
(01:49):
15 years into their career. This is the story of
Red hot chili peppers. 2000 hit californication
to people of a certain age, 1990 one's acclaimed album,
Blood Sugar Sex Magic is the definitive chili peppers record.
And there's a strong argument for it. Classics like give
it away, suck my kiss, breaking the girl and of
(02:11):
course under the bridge are amongst the gems on the
album with the latter being the band's peak charting single
on the Billboard Hot 100.
While this episode of Encore is actually about a song
that came out nearly a decade later. The story of
Blood Sugar Sex Magic is critical to that of californication
with twists and turns so dark. You'll probably start to
(02:31):
feel like you're living in a chili Peppers Multiverse after
falling out with their constant collaborator, Michael Ben Horn. In
the late eighties, the chili peppers were in need of
a rebrand and would find themselves teaming up with producer
Rick Rubin for the very first time Ruben had been
making quite a name for himself as the sort of
artist whisperer
and was at one time slated to produce the Chile's
(02:51):
1987 record, the uplift Mo Vo Hardy Plan, but it
turned down the opportunity to work with the guys due
to their unfocused approach as well as Kiss and then
guitarist Hillel Slovak's excessive drug use.
Then as you may already know, Slovak would sadly die
of a heroin overdose. Soon after party plans release, Slovak's
death would shake the band to its very core with
(03:14):
drummer Jack Irons leaving the group shortly thereafter, unable to
deal with the intense grief of losing a band mate
and a friend. Slovak's eventual replacement, John Fraser
was just an 18 year old Chili Pepper super fan
when he joined idolizing the band and Hillel Slovak's work
to an obsessive degree for Shae had even had conversations
with Slovak about the direction of the group, what the
(03:35):
definition of artistic success was and how important it was
to stay true to the underground scene from which the
band came from
as if by divine intervention, Frente was also a guitar
prodigy who had studied the entirety of the Peppers catalog.
He paradoxically claimed to not really be much of a
funk rock guy when he joined. But under Flea's tutelage
(03:56):
quickly became a master of the sound
with Chad Smith. Also now in tow, just in time
for 1980 nine's album, Mother's Milk, the Stars would start
to align for the chili peppers commercially as Mother's Milk
wasn't a great album but a focused and professional one
showing off a sort of zany cohesion that highlighted the
skills of all the members,
particularly for Shae with the aforementioned producer Ben Horn. Noting
(04:20):
it was apparent early on that John was the perfect
guitarist for the band. He brought the elements of songwriting
and composition to the band which they'd never truly had
prior to his involvement. I believe that John is a
pivotal figure in the chili peppers being that he's such
a distinctive songwriter.
So by the time Rick Rubin was turned back on
to the band. Post Mother's Milk, it was clear that
the chili peppers were willing to get to work ever.
(04:42):
The mystical weirdo Ruben convinced the band to record the
record in a mansion once inhabited by magician Harry Houdini,
the guys were quick
convinced that the mansion was haunted which allegedly creeped Chad
Smith out enough to not actually stay in the house overnight.
Like the rest of the group,
Speaker 2 (04:57):
there's a big old mansion in the Hollywood Hills. And
when we were writing these songs for this record, Rick
Rubin was there with us. The bearded wonder. The Mighty
Rick Rubin.
And I think he got a sense that the songs
we were writing were very warm and, and gritty and
funky and dirty and they didn't belong to go into
a studio and it wasn't right for like the sterile
clinical anal retentive secretarial greasy aluminum foil type of a
(05:21):
vibe that a studio has. He said, how would you
guys like to make this record in the house? He said, yeah.
And so he found this big beautiful house and we
built a studio in the house and the house was
haunted with these spirits. And we all had bedrooms in
the house and we hired a psycho chef to cook
food for us. So we never had to leave the
house and we lived with the spirits and, you know,
(05:41):
we did, we made our music and we woke up
and we read the paper and had coffee and made
music and, but did it affect the music? The fact
that this place was, you felt spirits there, the music
was written but just being in that type of an
environment
affected our whole state of mind, you know, because we
weren't pressured by the clock. And it was just, I mean,
that was the ultimate funky monks boys club right there.
(06:02):
Just like being in the house with the same four
guys and getting along with each other for a month
and a half
Speaker 1 (06:09):
locked away in Houdini's mansion. The guys rapidly concocted a masterpiece.
John and Anthony would bounce song ideas off each other
back and forth while Chad and Flee would fill the
rhythm section in with relative Ruben kept the notoriously unruly
peppers in check, helping them find the perfect melodies, lyrics
and beats Brick by Sexy Brick. As the story goes
(06:29):
one day, a particularly vulnerable Anthony Keiss showed Ruben
to a poem he'd written about his struggles with heroin
and cocaine addiction, finding himself at points alone and desperate
under a bridge. Ruben convinced keys to show the band
the poem despite his protestation that the lyrics were too
soft for RHCP and wouldn't you know it f for
Shae had the perfect chords to envelop around the depressing
(06:52):
words and an all time classic under the bridge was born.
You might assume that
all of this is the beginning of a happy tale.
After all. With blind hindsight, we can clearly map out
that the chili peppers went from strength to strength blood sugar,
sex magic and its aforementioned legendary singles were both critically
and commercially acclaimed with the band winning their very first
Grammy Award and selling millions of records off the back
(07:14):
of what was considered true artistic brilliance. Furthermore, the Chili's
received retroactive, critical acclaim for
earlier works. Sure, not amazing or essential records to everyone
but a deep enough back catalog of funk jams that
fit in well with the lore of their tumultuous and
tragic band dynamics. Plus, Rick Rubin had found one of
his true artistic muses, starting a long and fruitful relationship
(07:37):
with Los Angeles favorite deviants. You might assume that, but
that's not what happened in this timeline.
Like we've mentioned so many times before on Encore artists
are truly a different breed and to call John Frae
a little bit different is probably an understatement.
The youngest of the chili peppers started off the blood
(07:58):
sugar sex magic error auspiciously enough with the first few
shows of tour garnering rave reviews from critics. It didn't
hurt that pearl jam smashing Pumpkins or Nirvana were also
on the bill at various points. But by the time
under the bridge was skyrocketing up the charts. Something changed
inside for Ashanti.
According to Anthony Katy's 2004 autobiography, Scar Tissue Frati became
(08:20):
frustrated with the entire concept of being a successful mainstream
rock band feeling as if they were betraying the true
spirit of what the group was supposed to be and
became spiteful, ashamed of their output. And depressed John would
say we're too popular.
I don't need to be at this level of success.
I would just be proud to be playing this music
in clubs like you guys were doing two years ago
(08:41):
as the band got bigger and bigger. John Frae got
more and more isolated and unsettled sometimes sulking on stage.
As Kiss recalled, we had a sold out house one
night and John just stood in the corner barely playing
his guitar. We came off stage and John and I
got into it years later John would offer up a
glimpse of his headspace to much.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Oh, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm comfortable with it because, uh,
because I had time to think about everything, you know,
what did you think of it in perspective? I mean,
you know, at the, at the time that I quit
the band, I was really inspired by these people who
didn't do very well, you know, career wise, like Sid Barrett. And, uh, well,
at the time, the Meat Puppets hadn't done well, but
(09:22):
they have since then. But they were one of my
favorite bands at the time. The minute, man and all
these people, I just didn't feel did very well
in their careers and I didn't want to do well myself,
you know, but since then I'm more in touch with
the fact that there's lots of popular people that they
loved and that I loved and that rock star does
a good thing for a lot of people. It gives
them healthy people to look up to, you know, instead
(09:42):
of the whoever is the richest guy in town or whatever,
you know, rock stars are like good people to look
up to, you know. So I think it serves a
good purpose. Do you? The problem with it at the time?
I did, you know,
Speaker 1 (09:55):
in February of 92 the Chillies were invited to play
Saturday Night Live when it was time to play under
the bridge. Fra Shati went rogue with Kiss. Recalling John
was experimenting the way he would have it if we'd
been rehearsing the tune. But we weren't, we were on
live TV in front of millions of people and it
was
torture. I started singing and what I thought was the
key he was playing in. I felt like I was
getting stabbed in the back and hung out to dry
(10:16):
in front of all of America while this guy was
off in the corner playing some dissonant out of tune. Experiment.
I can't play you much of that unhinged performance, but
brace yourself for a little treat.
(10:41):
Sorry about that. By May of 92 the chili peppers
were now on the road in Japan ready to play
Tokyo's Club Quattro where John F Ashante did the unthinkable.
He refused to go on stage telling the guys he
had quit effective immediately
some hardcore convincing eventually got him back out on stage
for that one final show. But as Kiss explains, it
(11:02):
was the most horrible show ever. Every single note. Every
single word hurt knowing that we were no longer a band.
I kept looking over it, John and seeing this dead
statue of disdain. And that night, John disappeared from the
topsy turvy world of the red hot chili peppers.
It's certainly worth noting that throughout this period of the
band and in the years that followed, Frae was battling
(11:23):
his own demons. With depression and addiction grabbing hold of him.
Like many of former and fellow bandmates, Frae told Italian
magazine Il Muc Salvaggio in 2004, about the existential crisis,
he found himself in hearing voices in his head, telling
him to leave
group or else he wouldn't make it. And that he
needed to completely distance himself from the real world and
the world of a traveling musician. He trusted those voices
(11:46):
and knew he needed to make a change. Even if
the change would involve putting his life at risk as
Frae puts it, I left the band and decided to
become a drug addict. I believe I made the right choice.
It was what I needed. Then
he would also tell spin magazine in 02. I was
very sad and I was always happy when I was
on drugs. Therefore, I should be on drugs all the time.
I was never guilty. I was always really proud to
(12:08):
be an addict in the years that followed, Frae became
a recluse as he spiraled deeper and deeper into heroin,
cocaine and alcohol addiction.
He released some truly unlistenable music that was actually so
bizarre in avant garde that the chili peppers in their
label waved the rights to his album Leandra and usually
just a T shirt over to Rick Rubin to release
it if he wanted to because, well, they probably saw
(12:30):
no value in it. Despite his spiritual protestations, Fra Sha's
addictions had completely taken over and by 1996 he was
nothing but skin and bones
as his addictions ravaged his body. John would suffer from
frightening medical conditions that easily could have killed him. Frati
was scarred and burned so severely on his arms from
(12:51):
heroin and cocaine abuse, he eventually had to undergo skin
grafts to repair the damage. He also nearly died from
a serious blood infection and he had to have his
rotting teeth removed and fully replaced with dental implants to
fight off a gruesome oral infection.
He would live in squalor, lose his home and release
more incoherent and troubling music just for drug money. Despite
(13:13):
all of this, somehow, Frente survived with a mixture of
cold turkey abstinence and a brief stint in rehab, urged
on by his loved ones. He began to live and
eat cleanly and started practicing yoga telling rock Sound magazine.
I don't need to take drugs. I feel so much
more high all the time. Right now, I don't even
consider doing them. They're completely silly between my dedication to
(13:36):
trying to constantly be a better musician and eating my
health foods and doing yoga. I feel so much more
high than I did the last few years of doing drugs.
At this point, I'm the happiest person in the world,
as you might imagine, the chili peppers were decidedly not
the happiest people in the world. At this time,
they initially struggled to find a replacement for Fres Shae
to finish up their touring commitments before eventually settling on fame,
(13:59):
guitarist Dave Navarro, formerly of Jane's addiction, even though they
had no choice but to move on from John at
Lollapalooza flee even mentioned to much how much they missed him.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
And uh it was nice to see. I mean, it
was kind of painful to see because John was in
there playing and everything and that was such a uh
a great time. But it was, well, it was a
good time.
Yeah,
but there'll be other good times.
The
slimy
Speaker 1 (14:30):
once he became a permanent member, Navarro never truly felt
the right fit for RHCP. He struggled to mesh musically
with the other three Chillis and wasn't much of a
funk rock guy. One thing he did have in common
with the band was a problematic drug habit which while
wasn't exactly surprising, didn't make for a stable and healthy
working environment. Eventually, after many delays, the Peppers would release
(14:53):
their only record with Navarro. The much maligned one hot minute,
the band has gone on record over the years to
credit the talent of Frente as a songwriter in hindsight,
especially in comparison with Navarro with Flea, noting John Frae
had been a true anomaly when it came to songwriting.
I just figured that was how all guitar players were
that you showed them your lyrics and sang a little bit.
(15:14):
And the next thing you knew you had a song
that didn't happen right off. The bat with Dave. It
was through this period that Anthony Kiss, no stranger to
addiction himself suffered a semi secret relapse in his struggle
with heart
drugs. After a few years of sobriety and the band
struggled in turn to really rely on him as a
songwriter or creative force. The album sold poorly. The touring
(15:35):
dried up and to make matters worse. Kas also suffered
separate serious injuries to his hand and elbow causing further
cancellations and delays of touring commitments with both Navarro and
Kiss depended on substances and professionally at an impasse. Navarro
was relieved of his duties in March of 98.
In hindsight, it was doomed from the start on his
(15:55):
brief time with the Chiles Navarro for the most part
now seems at peace telling. MME in 2010, I was
fired from my drug use at the time and for
musical differences, Anthony says it was because I tripped and
fell over an amp while on drugs. I say that
he was more on drugs than me. At that point,
we both had a loose relationship with reality. Who do
you want to believe?
Although it seemed like a good idea to fire Navarro
(16:16):
for the sake of the band. That doesn't mean that
the rest of the red hot chili peppers were suddenly
in a good place.
Their recent downturn in fortune left them feeling like maybe
it was time to call it quits altogether without John
and their ranks. It just didn't feel like anything was
gonna go right for the band who had been on
top of the world at the decade start. Luckily enough flea, who,
by all accounts seems to be the most magnanimous chili
(16:38):
pepper had been the one member of the band who
had kept in touch with John. They'd remain friends and
occasional collaborators strictly for the love of music.
And according to Warner VP of A and R at
the time, Dave Katz Nelson, Fra Shanti's drug recovery might
have even stemmed from a promise from flea that if
he kicked his habit, they would be in a band
together again. Although that sounds a little bit like pr
(16:59):
spin to me.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Why did you
decide to come back and why did you guys let
him back? Why did we let him back a lot
of money?
Yeah. No, it was, it wasn't a let or a have,
it was just a meant to be, it was, it
was fulfilling a necessity of fate. Yeah. Well, you know, yeah,
(17:24):
I joined the band because I love playing music all
the time, having that to think about it all the
time and,
and, and I could tell that they were, you know,
that they were gonna be like, uh, receptive and, and
sensitive to what I would try to do, you know,
by devoting my life to music, you know,
Speaker 1 (17:40):
nevertheless, within a matter of weeks of Dave Navarro's departure,
John Fas Shae was a red hot chili pepper. Once
more with that, the guys called up Rick Rubin and
got back to work
in the summer of 1998. The reunited chili peppers appropriately
began to write and practice in Flea's makeshift garage home
studio free of any expectations. Let's face it. Things could
(18:01):
hardly get worse for the band. At this point. The
band felt rejuvenated with Anthony Kiss. Recalling everyone was having fun.
It was as if we had nothing to lose, nothing
to gain.
He didn't care. We were making music for the sake
of making music on his walk out that changed the
trajectory of the band. Frae himself offered this explanation to much.
Did you say that, that you,
Speaker 2 (18:21):
that you were afraid that the success of the band
would actually, uh contaminate the band or something to that,
to that effect.
It was, it was already contaminating it, you know, al
already we, before I quit, we weren't, we weren't getting
along well, you know, it, it being successful and each
of us reacting a different way to it
had, had, uh, had made us to where we, we
(18:43):
weren't friends anymore, you know, and, and, uh, and if
we would have stayed together at that point, we would
have been doing it purely as a,
as a, you know, as a business kind of motive,
you know, rather than a motive of friendship and, and
wanting to play music together. If you would have done
another album with the lineup of me and being in
the band, that's what it would have been about and,
(19:04):
and I didn't want to be a part of anything
like that and I sensed that that sort of thing
was happening. You know, there's, there's nothing wrong with, uh
with a lot of people buying what you do. I
never felt that there was a problem with that. I
just felt bad about being a part of something where,
where, what we were being like uh acclaimed for was
something that I wasn't having fun doing. You know, because
(19:25):
the most important thing for me is to have my
relationship with music and my relationship with certain spirits to
be as good as it can be. And, and uh
and so, so that's, you know, that's what's, what's important
to me above all else. Like I'll take, I'll take
a good relationship with those spirits that I get along
with over success any day, you know. But they also, they,
(19:48):
they can, they can work together, you know, so that's
what's happening right now. We've got like a, a uh
merging of the spirits and of uh the people on
earth to, to uh create this kind of success that
everybody likes. You know,
Speaker 1 (20:01):
by the time the band joined Ruben at Cello studios
in Los Angeles, they were ready to record their reintroduction
in about three weeks almost as if they were completely
different people with Ruben. Noting that these chili peppers would
show up to work on time in stark contrast to
the day long pot sessions or sexual indulgences of previous eras,
Speaker 2 (20:21):
drugs. You know, I've, I've done my share and, um,
they stopped working for me years ago
and it was, it's been kind of a, a brutal, uh,
element of my life ever since, you know, and, you know,
knock on wood. Thank God and all my, well, I just,
I don't do it anymore. You know, I'm playing that
(20:41):
one and life is really quite spectacular in that state
of mind.
Um You know, it was interesting for a while. Then
it just completely turned on me. That's been my experience.
People ask me all the time. Well, isn't it hard
to stay clean when you're on the road? And no,
it really isn't when you're into being clean. It's like
that's just the energy you attract and it's not a
(21:02):
bunch of people all in your face trying to get
you high. It wouldn't matter if they were cause I'm
not down.
Um
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Even though the peppers were now drug free, the memories
and pain of years gone by saturated the lyrical content
of their record called Californication, an aptly named record described
by Kiss as an album about wandering souls who've lost
their way. Searching for the American Dream in California or
as John and Flee would explain too much.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I
don't know what the kind of ca it means a
lot of different things. It doesn't, it's not, it doesn't
just mean, uh, this thin sort of
shit that just dribbled out of Los Angeles, you know?
I mean, all kinds of things. Yeah. It's just, I mean,
it's a word that could mean a lot of things
but it's like, just because in L A, in Hollywood the,
the media is such a major thing that I, I,
(21:53):
it focuses on art and it focuses on like a
lot of really bad imitations of art that it's designed
just to make money just because it's all focused on there.
I mean, I think that that sort of attitude and
that sort of uh
soullessness is everywhere. You know, I mean, there's more of
it in all big cities,
Speaker 1 (22:11):
lead singles, scar tissue and follow up other sides showcased
a side of the band more akin to their sound
in under the bridge than their more funk inspired party joints.
And the returning John Frae was at the center of
the songwriting stripping down the sound to a mellow, almost
soothing groove accentuated by KTAS dark and desperate lyrics. This
(22:32):
interest
tilt was incredibly beneficial for the reunited chilies with their
slower chronicles, outperforming the more frat friendly songs like around
the world and parallel universe in every metric, but it
was the title track itself. Californication that became the band's
calling card. Not since under the bridge had the chili
peppers released such a moving piece of music as Keat
(22:53):
is told much,
Speaker 2 (22:55):
we had to actually go through everything we did in
the last eight years
for this record to have meaning and to exist. I mean,
this had a lot to do with John disappearing, with
me disappearing with us, really kind of
going through the backlash of blood sugar in order for
(23:16):
this to have been written. So I mean, it's definitely
akin to blood sugar. There's a relationship there, but it
didn't make sense at that time of blood sugar. This
is not the record we would have made. If we
kept writing songs after Blood Sugar with John, this would
not have been the next record. We
Speaker 1 (23:34):
made
a dark, sarcastic and seemingly nonsensical song at times. Californication
is built off the idea that the world is doomed
for as long as we're addicted to the ideologies of
what Hollywood is selling us fake altruism, consumerism and the
constant chasing of a dream that may kill us in
the end. It's easy to see how beneath all the
(23:56):
funk rock rifts of the chili peppers past. It's the
sentiments expressed in this single that truly represented their worldview,
whatever it was, the people agreed in Californication, the song
went five times platinum within a year of its release already,
a triple platinum album in its own right. Thanks to
the aforementioned singles, the record went on to sell another
(24:17):
cool million copies based off the title track's release within
a matter of months.
As of 2024. The album sits at an astounding eight
times platinum in the US and the single is at
six times with both crossing over their latest million in
June of this year. While some critics criticize the grown
up sound of the former bad boys of funk and roll,
(24:38):
most
appreciated its balance with Frae receiving many of the plaudits
Allmusic's Greg Prado crowned John as the quintessential RHCP guitarist
calling the entire record a classic. While Entertainment Weekly commended
Frae for making rhcp more relaxed, less grating
and in their own way, more introspective. The music video
(24:58):
for Californication was also quite groundbreaking. A sort of proto
grand theft auto style video game with the polygonal chili
peppers speed running through various 3d worlds from skateboarding to
swimming to racing cars along Hollywood Boulevard.
The bizarre video directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
is inter cut with the real life chili peppers topless
(25:20):
naturally floating in front of a cloud scape, a visual.
There's equal parts indulgent and depressing as some of the
lyrics of the song are brought to life in the
open world, Fantasy land if you've never seen it, what
are you waiting for? It's currently rhc P's most viewed
video sitting at over 1.1 billion views on youtube. And
it's incredibly creative.
And in March of 2022 an enterprising independent video game
(25:41):
developer from Spain named Miquel Camps or Taser recreated the
Californication video as a working video game or Taser wrote,
I wanted to play that game so bad. It's 2022
and I haven't seen anyone made the game. So I
challenged myself to recreate it. I've selected some epic moments
from the video and turned them into seven levels. Each
(26:03):
one with different game mechanics. I hope you like this game.
Now. 25 years old, Californication has also become a bit
of a conspiracy meme online with a number of creators
on tiktok, youtube and the like believing that kiss and
company actually predicted the future with the lyrical content of Californication.
Some of the so called predictions zoom in on psychic
(26:26):
spies from China try to steal your mind's elation.
While people have claimed predicts the state of China's hacking
methods allegedly through apps like tiktok. There's also of course,
pay your surgeon very well to break the spell of aging,
which is supposedly predicting the rise in plastic surgery. Honestly,
almost every line of the song has now been analyzed
(26:47):
by digital super sleuths online, but I'll leave it at
those two for an hour before you start calling me
Miles Rogan
Jamie. Pull that last line up for me. Will you
post California Ation? The Chili Peppers would release two wildly
successful records. Oh Twos by the way and the ambitious
double record stadium Arcadium with John FTE in 06 before
(27:08):
you guessed it, John quit the band in 2009.
Fte's then friend and collaborator guitarist Josh Klinghoffer would fill
his spot in the band for him for almost exactly
10 years before being replaced by John Frae in the
final days of 2019. While the Klinghoffer records remain true
to the spirit of the Pepper sound. It was 2020
(27:29):
two's unlimited love that mobilized the true fans once more.
Giving them their first number one album on the Billboard 200.
Since the last time Fra Shae was in the group,
the Chillies would follow up their record with a second
record in 2022 return of The Dream Canteen, which would
also go to number one on the top album charts.
A feat that no band has done since system of
(27:49):
a down scored two, number one records in 05. As
far as we can tell our
HCP is showing no signs of slowing down despite Heis
Flea and Smith. Now in their early sixties with Forhan,
still at a sprightly 54 only a fool would try
to predict what the Peppers will do next. Does anyone
know any good tiktok conspiracy theorists? Maybe they can help.
I'm Miles Galloway. And that was the story of red
(28:12):
hot chili peppers, California C on Encore with new episodes
every Thursday.
Encore is an iheartradio Canada podcast. Subscribe to this podcast
on iheartradio or wherever you get your podcasts. Download the
iheartradio app for more great podcasts just like these
This is Encore. The stories behind the songs. Here's Ih
Radio's Miles Galloway,
believe it or not. Red hot chili peppers were formed
all the way back in 1982 as Tony Flow and
the majestic Masters of Mayhem. No idea why that name
(00:21):
didn't ever catch on. But with all due respect to
original members, the late great guitarist Hill Slovak and drummer
Jack Irons, the current lineup we all know and love
formed some six years later in the final months of
1988 joining original members, Tony Flow A K A
Anthony Kiss from here on out and flee A K
A Well flea were guitar genius, John F Shae and
(00:43):
world's most successful Will Ferrell look alike. Chad Smith. Go
on and picture the red hot chili peppers in your head.
Chances are it's this core four you're thinking of. Although
there are at least another eight transient members of RHCP
throughout the years with F Shae especially coming and going
throughout the band's history.
We'll get to that truly a unicorn in the music
business rivaled perhaps only by fellow rock gods and encore
(01:06):
episode subjects, Food Fighters and U two. Red Hot chili
peppers can honestly map out serious cultural relevance in the eighties, nineties,
two thousands, 20 tens and 20 twenties with their latest
Billboard Hot 100 entry and Canadian rock number one single
conquering airwaves as recently as 2022
with so much turmoil with the band. It's crazy to
(01:27):
think that the chili peppers have never actually broken up
despite well documented addictions, tragedy and loss, lack of focus
changes in sound and the aforementioned lineup changes over their
40 plus years in rock. So
for this episode of Encore, we're going to zoom in
on perhaps their most successful pivot of all becoming what
felt like a brand new band all over again, some
(01:49):
15 years into their career. This is the story of
Red hot chili peppers. 2000 hit californication
to people of a certain age, 1990 one's acclaimed album,
Blood Sugar Sex Magic is the definitive chili peppers record.
And there's a strong argument for it. Classics like give
it away, suck my kiss, breaking the girl and of
(02:11):
course under the bridge are amongst the gems on the
album with the latter being the band's peak charting single
on the Billboard Hot 100.
While this episode of Encore is actually about a song
that came out nearly a decade later. The story of
Blood Sugar Sex Magic is critical to that of californication
with twists and turns so dark. You'll probably start to
(02:31):
feel like you're living in a chili Peppers Multiverse after
falling out with their constant collaborator, Michael Ben Horn. In
the late eighties, the chili peppers were in need of
a rebrand and would find themselves teaming up with producer
Rick Rubin for the very first time Ruben had been
making quite a name for himself as the sort of
artist whisperer
and was at one time slated to produce the Chile's
(02:51):
1987 record, the uplift Mo Vo Hardy Plan, but it
turned down the opportunity to work with the guys due
to their unfocused approach as well as Kiss and then
guitarist Hillel Slovak's excessive drug use.
Then as you may already know, Slovak would sadly die
of a heroin overdose. Soon after party plans release, Slovak's
death would shake the band to its very core with
(03:14):
drummer Jack Irons leaving the group shortly thereafter, unable to
deal with the intense grief of losing a band mate
and a friend. Slovak's eventual replacement, John Fraser
was just an 18 year old Chili Pepper super fan
when he joined idolizing the band and Hillel Slovak's work
to an obsessive degree for Shae had even had conversations
with Slovak about the direction of the group, what the
(03:35):
definition of artistic success was and how important it was
to stay true to the underground scene from which the
band came from
as if by divine intervention, Frente was also a guitar
prodigy who had studied the entirety of the Peppers catalog.
He paradoxically claimed to not really be much of a
funk rock guy when he joined. But under Flea's tutelage
(03:56):
quickly became a master of the sound
with Chad Smith. Also now in tow, just in time
for 1980 nine's album, Mother's Milk, the Stars would start
to align for the chili peppers commercially as Mother's Milk
wasn't a great album but a focused and professional one
showing off a sort of zany cohesion that highlighted the
skills of all the members,
particularly for Shae with the aforementioned producer Ben Horn. Noting
(04:20):
it was apparent early on that John was the perfect
guitarist for the band. He brought the elements of songwriting
and composition to the band which they'd never truly had
prior to his involvement. I believe that John is a
pivotal figure in the chili peppers being that he's such
a distinctive songwriter.
So by the time Rick Rubin was turned back on
to the band. Post Mother's Milk, it was clear that
the chili peppers were willing to get to work ever.
(04:42):
The mystical weirdo Ruben convinced the band to record the
record in a mansion once inhabited by magician Harry Houdini,
the guys were quick
convinced that the mansion was haunted which allegedly creeped Chad
Smith out enough to not actually stay in the house overnight.
Like the rest of the group,
Speaker 2 (04:57):
there's a big old mansion in the Hollywood Hills. And
when we were writing these songs for this record, Rick
Rubin was there with us. The bearded wonder. The Mighty
Rick Rubin.
And I think he got a sense that the songs
we were writing were very warm and, and gritty and
funky and dirty and they didn't belong to go into
a studio and it wasn't right for like the sterile
clinical anal retentive secretarial greasy aluminum foil type of a
(05:21):
vibe that a studio has. He said, how would you
guys like to make this record in the house? He said, yeah.
And so he found this big beautiful house and we
built a studio in the house and the house was
haunted with these spirits. And we all had bedrooms in
the house and we hired a psycho chef to cook
food for us. So we never had to leave the
house and we lived with the spirits and, you know,
(05:41):
we did, we made our music and we woke up
and we read the paper and had coffee and made
music and, but did it affect the music? The fact
that this place was, you felt spirits there, the music
was written but just being in that type of an
environment
affected our whole state of mind, you know, because we
weren't pressured by the clock. And it was just, I mean,
that was the ultimate funky monks boys club right there.
(06:02):
Just like being in the house with the same four
guys and getting along with each other for a month
and a half
Speaker 1 (06:09):
locked away in Houdini's mansion. The guys rapidly concocted a masterpiece.
John and Anthony would bounce song ideas off each other
back and forth while Chad and Flee would fill the
rhythm section in with relative Ruben kept the notoriously unruly
peppers in check, helping them find the perfect melodies, lyrics
and beats Brick by Sexy Brick. As the story goes
(06:29):
one day, a particularly vulnerable Anthony Keiss showed Ruben
to a poem he'd written about his struggles with heroin
and cocaine addiction, finding himself at points alone and desperate
under a bridge. Ruben convinced keys to show the band
the poem despite his protestation that the lyrics were too
soft for RHCP and wouldn't you know it f for
Shae had the perfect chords to envelop around the depressing
(06:52):
words and an all time classic under the bridge was born.
You might assume that
all of this is the beginning of a happy tale.
After all. With blind hindsight, we can clearly map out
that the chili peppers went from strength to strength blood sugar,
sex magic and its aforementioned legendary singles were both critically
and commercially acclaimed with the band winning their very first
Grammy Award and selling millions of records off the back
(07:14):
of what was considered true artistic brilliance. Furthermore, the Chili's
received retroactive, critical acclaim for
earlier works. Sure, not amazing or essential records to everyone
but a deep enough back catalog of funk jams that
fit in well with the lore of their tumultuous and
tragic band dynamics. Plus, Rick Rubin had found one of
his true artistic muses, starting a long and fruitful relationship
(07:37):
with Los Angeles favorite deviants. You might assume that, but
that's not what happened in this timeline.
Like we've mentioned so many times before on Encore artists
are truly a different breed and to call John Frae
a little bit different is probably an understatement.
The youngest of the chili peppers started off the blood
(07:58):
sugar sex magic error auspiciously enough with the first few
shows of tour garnering rave reviews from critics. It didn't
hurt that pearl jam smashing Pumpkins or Nirvana were also
on the bill at various points. But by the time
under the bridge was skyrocketing up the charts. Something changed
inside for Ashanti.
According to Anthony Katy's 2004 autobiography, Scar Tissue Frati became
(08:20):
frustrated with the entire concept of being a successful mainstream
rock band feeling as if they were betraying the true
spirit of what the group was supposed to be and
became spiteful, ashamed of their output. And depressed John would
say we're too popular.
I don't need to be at this level of success.
I would just be proud to be playing this music
in clubs like you guys were doing two years ago
(08:41):
as the band got bigger and bigger. John Frae got
more and more isolated and unsettled sometimes sulking on stage.
As Kiss recalled, we had a sold out house one
night and John just stood in the corner barely playing
his guitar. We came off stage and John and I
got into it years later John would offer up a
glimpse of his headspace to much.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Oh, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm comfortable with it because, uh,
because I had time to think about everything, you know,
what did you think of it in perspective? I mean,
you know, at the, at the time that I quit
the band, I was really inspired by these people who
didn't do very well, you know, career wise, like Sid Barrett. And, uh, well,
at the time, the Meat Puppets hadn't done well, but
(09:22):
they have since then. But they were one of my
favorite bands at the time. The minute, man and all
these people, I just didn't feel did very well
in their careers and I didn't want to do well myself,
you know, but since then I'm more in touch with
the fact that there's lots of popular people that they
loved and that I loved and that rock star does
a good thing for a lot of people. It gives
them healthy people to look up to, you know, instead
(09:42):
of the whoever is the richest guy in town or whatever,
you know, rock stars are like good people to look
up to, you know. So I think it serves a
good purpose. Do you? The problem with it at the time?
I did, you know,
Speaker 1 (09:55):
in February of 92 the Chillies were invited to play
Saturday Night Live when it was time to play under
the bridge. Fra Shati went rogue with Kiss. Recalling John
was experimenting the way he would have it if we'd
been rehearsing the tune. But we weren't, we were on
live TV in front of millions of people and it
was
torture. I started singing and what I thought was the
key he was playing in. I felt like I was
getting stabbed in the back and hung out to dry
(10:16):
in front of all of America while this guy was
off in the corner playing some dissonant out of tune. Experiment.
I can't play you much of that unhinged performance, but
brace yourself for a little treat.
(10:41):
Sorry about that. By May of 92 the chili peppers
were now on the road in Japan ready to play
Tokyo's Club Quattro where John F Ashante did the unthinkable.
He refused to go on stage telling the guys he
had quit effective immediately
some hardcore convincing eventually got him back out on stage
for that one final show. But as Kiss explains, it
(11:02):
was the most horrible show ever. Every single note. Every
single word hurt knowing that we were no longer a band.
I kept looking over it, John and seeing this dead
statue of disdain. And that night, John disappeared from the
topsy turvy world of the red hot chili peppers.
It's certainly worth noting that throughout this period of the
band and in the years that followed, Frae was battling
(11:23):
his own demons. With depression and addiction grabbing hold of him.
Like many of former and fellow bandmates, Frae told Italian
magazine Il Muc Salvaggio in 2004, about the existential crisis,
he found himself in hearing voices in his head, telling
him to leave
group or else he wouldn't make it. And that he
needed to completely distance himself from the real world and
the world of a traveling musician. He trusted those voices
(11:46):
and knew he needed to make a change. Even if
the change would involve putting his life at risk as
Frae puts it, I left the band and decided to
become a drug addict. I believe I made the right choice.
It was what I needed. Then
he would also tell spin magazine in 02. I was
very sad and I was always happy when I was
on drugs. Therefore, I should be on drugs all the time.
I was never guilty. I was always really proud to
(12:08):
be an addict in the years that followed, Frae became
a recluse as he spiraled deeper and deeper into heroin,
cocaine and alcohol addiction.
He released some truly unlistenable music that was actually so
bizarre in avant garde that the chili peppers in their
label waved the rights to his album Leandra and usually
just a T shirt over to Rick Rubin to release
it if he wanted to because, well, they probably saw
(12:30):
no value in it. Despite his spiritual protestations, Fra Sha's
addictions had completely taken over and by 1996 he was
nothing but skin and bones
as his addictions ravaged his body. John would suffer from
frightening medical conditions that easily could have killed him. Frati
was scarred and burned so severely on his arms from
(12:51):
heroin and cocaine abuse, he eventually had to undergo skin
grafts to repair the damage. He also nearly died from
a serious blood infection and he had to have his
rotting teeth removed and fully replaced with dental implants to
fight off a gruesome oral infection.
He would live in squalor, lose his home and release
more incoherent and troubling music just for drug money. Despite
(13:13):
all of this, somehow, Frente survived with a mixture of
cold turkey abstinence and a brief stint in rehab, urged
on by his loved ones. He began to live and
eat cleanly and started practicing yoga telling rock Sound magazine.
I don't need to take drugs. I feel so much
more high all the time. Right now, I don't even
consider doing them. They're completely silly between my dedication to
(13:36):
trying to constantly be a better musician and eating my
health foods and doing yoga. I feel so much more
high than I did the last few years of doing drugs.
At this point, I'm the happiest person in the world,
as you might imagine, the chili peppers were decidedly not
the happiest people in the world. At this time,
they initially struggled to find a replacement for Fres Shae
to finish up their touring commitments before eventually settling on fame,
(13:59):
guitarist Dave Navarro, formerly of Jane's addiction, even though they
had no choice but to move on from John at
Lollapalooza flee even mentioned to much how much they missed him.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
And uh it was nice to see. I mean, it
was kind of painful to see because John was in
there playing and everything and that was such a uh
a great time. But it was, well, it was a
good time.
Yeah,
but there'll be other good times.
The
slimy
Speaker 1 (14:30):
once he became a permanent member, Navarro never truly felt
the right fit for RHCP. He struggled to mesh musically
with the other three Chillis and wasn't much of a
funk rock guy. One thing he did have in common
with the band was a problematic drug habit which while
wasn't exactly surprising, didn't make for a stable and healthy
working environment. Eventually, after many delays, the Peppers would release
(14:53):
their only record with Navarro. The much maligned one hot minute,
the band has gone on record over the years to
credit the talent of Frente as a songwriter in hindsight,
especially in comparison with Navarro with Flea, noting John Frae
had been a true anomaly when it came to songwriting.
I just figured that was how all guitar players were
that you showed them your lyrics and sang a little bit.
(15:14):
And the next thing you knew you had a song
that didn't happen right off. The bat with Dave. It
was through this period that Anthony Kiss, no stranger to
addiction himself suffered a semi secret relapse in his struggle
with heart
drugs. After a few years of sobriety and the band
struggled in turn to really rely on him as a
songwriter or creative force. The album sold poorly. The touring
(15:35):
dried up and to make matters worse. Kas also suffered
separate serious injuries to his hand and elbow causing further
cancellations and delays of touring commitments with both Navarro and
Kiss depended on substances and professionally at an impasse. Navarro
was relieved of his duties in March of 98.
In hindsight, it was doomed from the start on his
(15:55):
brief time with the Chiles Navarro for the most part
now seems at peace telling. MME in 2010, I was
fired from my drug use at the time and for
musical differences, Anthony says it was because I tripped and
fell over an amp while on drugs. I say that
he was more on drugs than me. At that point,
we both had a loose relationship with reality. Who do
you want to believe?
Although it seemed like a good idea to fire Navarro
(16:16):
for the sake of the band. That doesn't mean that
the rest of the red hot chili peppers were suddenly
in a good place.
Their recent downturn in fortune left them feeling like maybe
it was time to call it quits altogether without John
and their ranks. It just didn't feel like anything was
gonna go right for the band who had been on
top of the world at the decade start. Luckily enough flea, who,
by all accounts seems to be the most magnanimous chili
(16:38):
pepper had been the one member of the band who
had kept in touch with John. They'd remain friends and
occasional collaborators strictly for the love of music.
And according to Warner VP of A and R at
the time, Dave Katz Nelson, Fra Shanti's drug recovery might
have even stemmed from a promise from flea that if
he kicked his habit, they would be in a band
together again. Although that sounds a little bit like pr
(16:59):
spin to me.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Why did you
decide to come back and why did you guys let
him back? Why did we let him back a lot
of money?
Yeah. No, it was, it wasn't a let or a have,
it was just a meant to be, it was, it
was fulfilling a necessity of fate. Yeah. Well, you know, yeah,
(17:24):
I joined the band because I love playing music all
the time, having that to think about it all the
time and,
and, and I could tell that they were, you know,
that they were gonna be like, uh, receptive and, and
sensitive to what I would try to do, you know,
by devoting my life to music, you know,
Speaker 1 (17:40):
nevertheless, within a matter of weeks of Dave Navarro's departure,
John Fas Shae was a red hot chili pepper. Once
more with that, the guys called up Rick Rubin and
got back to work
in the summer of 1998. The reunited chili peppers appropriately
began to write and practice in Flea's makeshift garage home
studio free of any expectations. Let's face it. Things could
(18:01):
hardly get worse for the band. At this point. The
band felt rejuvenated with Anthony Kiss. Recalling everyone was having fun.
It was as if we had nothing to lose, nothing
to gain.
He didn't care. We were making music for the sake
of making music on his walk out that changed the
trajectory of the band. Frae himself offered this explanation to much.
Did you say that, that you,
Speaker 2 (18:21):
that you were afraid that the success of the band
would actually, uh contaminate the band or something to that,
to that effect.
It was, it was already contaminating it, you know, al
already we, before I quit, we weren't, we weren't getting
along well, you know, it, it being successful and each
of us reacting a different way to it
had, had, uh, had made us to where we, we
(18:43):
weren't friends anymore, you know, and, and, uh, and if
we would have stayed together at that point, we would
have been doing it purely as a,
as a, you know, as a business kind of motive,
you know, rather than a motive of friendship and, and
wanting to play music together. If you would have done
another album with the lineup of me and being in
the band, that's what it would have been about and,
(19:04):
and I didn't want to be a part of anything
like that and I sensed that that sort of thing
was happening. You know, there's, there's nothing wrong with, uh
with a lot of people buying what you do. I
never felt that there was a problem with that. I
just felt bad about being a part of something where,
where, what we were being like uh acclaimed for was
something that I wasn't having fun doing. You know, because
(19:25):
the most important thing for me is to have my
relationship with music and my relationship with certain spirits to
be as good as it can be. And, and uh
and so, so that's, you know, that's what's, what's important
to me above all else. Like I'll take, I'll take
a good relationship with those spirits that I get along
with over success any day, you know. But they also, they,
(19:48):
they can, they can work together, you know, so that's
what's happening right now. We've got like a, a uh
merging of the spirits and of uh the people on
earth to, to uh create this kind of success that
everybody likes. You know,
Speaker 1 (20:01):
by the time the band joined Ruben at Cello studios
in Los Angeles, they were ready to record their reintroduction
in about three weeks almost as if they were completely
different people with Ruben. Noting that these chili peppers would
show up to work on time in stark contrast to
the day long pot sessions or sexual indulgences of previous eras,
Speaker 2 (20:21):
drugs. You know, I've, I've done my share and, um,
they stopped working for me years ago
and it was, it's been kind of a, a brutal, uh,
element of my life ever since, you know, and, you know,
knock on wood. Thank God and all my, well, I just,
I don't do it anymore. You know, I'm playing that
(20:41):
one and life is really quite spectacular in that state
of mind.
Um You know, it was interesting for a while. Then
it just completely turned on me. That's been my experience.
People ask me all the time. Well, isn't it hard
to stay clean when you're on the road? And no,
it really isn't when you're into being clean. It's like
that's just the energy you attract and it's not a
(21:02):
bunch of people all in your face trying to get
you high. It wouldn't matter if they were cause I'm
not down.
Um
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Even though the peppers were now drug free, the memories
and pain of years gone by saturated the lyrical content
of their record called Californication, an aptly named record described
by Kiss as an album about wandering souls who've lost
their way. Searching for the American Dream in California or
as John and Flee would explain too much.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I
don't know what the kind of ca it means a
lot of different things. It doesn't, it's not, it doesn't
just mean, uh, this thin sort of
shit that just dribbled out of Los Angeles, you know?
I mean, all kinds of things. Yeah. It's just, I mean,
it's a word that could mean a lot of things
but it's like, just because in L A, in Hollywood the,
the media is such a major thing that I, I,
(21:53):
it focuses on art and it focuses on like a
lot of really bad imitations of art that it's designed
just to make money just because it's all focused on there.
I mean, I think that that sort of attitude and
that sort of uh
soullessness is everywhere. You know, I mean, there's more of
it in all big cities,
Speaker 1 (22:11):
lead singles, scar tissue and follow up other sides showcased
a side of the band more akin to their sound
in under the bridge than their more funk inspired party joints.
And the returning John Frae was at the center of
the songwriting stripping down the sound to a mellow, almost
soothing groove accentuated by KTAS dark and desperate lyrics. This
(22:32):
interest
tilt was incredibly beneficial for the reunited chilies with their
slower chronicles, outperforming the more frat friendly songs like around
the world and parallel universe in every metric, but it
was the title track itself. Californication that became the band's
calling card. Not since under the bridge had the chili
peppers released such a moving piece of music as Keat
(22:53):
is told much,
Speaker 2 (22:55):
we had to actually go through everything we did in
the last eight years
for this record to have meaning and to exist. I mean,
this had a lot to do with John disappearing, with
me disappearing with us, really kind of
going through the backlash of blood sugar in order for
(23:16):
this to have been written. So I mean, it's definitely
akin to blood sugar. There's a relationship there, but it
didn't make sense at that time of blood sugar. This
is not the record we would have made. If we
kept writing songs after Blood Sugar with John, this would
not have been the next record. We
Speaker 1 (23:34):
made
a dark, sarcastic and seemingly nonsensical song at times. Californication
is built off the idea that the world is doomed
for as long as we're addicted to the ideologies of
what Hollywood is selling us fake altruism, consumerism and the
constant chasing of a dream that may kill us in
the end. It's easy to see how beneath all the
(23:56):
funk rock rifts of the chili peppers past. It's the
sentiments expressed in this single that truly represented their worldview,
whatever it was, the people agreed in Californication, the song
went five times platinum within a year of its release already,
a triple platinum album in its own right. Thanks to
the aforementioned singles, the record went on to sell another
(24:17):
cool million copies based off the title track's release within
a matter of months.
As of 2024. The album sits at an astounding eight
times platinum in the US and the single is at
six times with both crossing over their latest million in
June of this year. While some critics criticize the grown
up sound of the former bad boys of funk and roll,
(24:38):
most
appreciated its balance with Frae receiving many of the plaudits
Allmusic's Greg Prado crowned John as the quintessential RHCP guitarist
calling the entire record a classic. While Entertainment Weekly commended
Frae for making rhcp more relaxed, less grating
and in their own way, more introspective. The music video
(24:58):
for Californication was also quite groundbreaking. A sort of proto
grand theft auto style video game with the polygonal chili
peppers speed running through various 3d worlds from skateboarding to
swimming to racing cars along Hollywood Boulevard.
The bizarre video directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
is inter cut with the real life chili peppers topless
(25:20):
naturally floating in front of a cloud scape, a visual.
There's equal parts indulgent and depressing as some of the
lyrics of the song are brought to life in the
open world, Fantasy land if you've never seen it, what
are you waiting for? It's currently rhc P's most viewed
video sitting at over 1.1 billion views on youtube. And
it's incredibly creative.
And in March of 2022 an enterprising independent video game
(25:41):
developer from Spain named Miquel Camps or Taser recreated the
Californication video as a working video game or Taser wrote,
I wanted to play that game so bad. It's 2022
and I haven't seen anyone made the game. So I
challenged myself to recreate it. I've selected some epic moments
from the video and turned them into seven levels. Each
(26:03):
one with different game mechanics. I hope you like this game.
Now. 25 years old, Californication has also become a bit
of a conspiracy meme online with a number of creators
on tiktok, youtube and the like believing that kiss and
company actually predicted the future with the lyrical content of Californication.
Some of the so called predictions zoom in on psychic
(26:26):
spies from China try to steal your mind's elation.
While people have claimed predicts the state of China's hacking
methods allegedly through apps like tiktok. There's also of course,
pay your surgeon very well to break the spell of aging,
which is supposedly predicting the rise in plastic surgery. Honestly,
almost every line of the song has now been analyzed
(26:47):
by digital super sleuths online, but I'll leave it at
those two for an hour before you start calling me
Miles Rogan
Jamie. Pull that last line up for me. Will you
post California Ation? The Chili Peppers would release two wildly
successful records. Oh Twos by the way and the ambitious
double record stadium Arcadium with John FTE in 06 before
(27:08):
you guessed it, John quit the band in 2009.
Fte's then friend and collaborator guitarist Josh Klinghoffer would fill
his spot in the band for him for almost exactly
10 years before being replaced by John Frae in the
final days of 2019. While the Klinghoffer records remain true
to the spirit of the Pepper sound. It was 2020
(27:29):
two's unlimited love that mobilized the true fans once more.
Giving them their first number one album on the Billboard 200.
Since the last time Fra Shae was in the group,
the Chillies would follow up their record with a second
record in 2022 return of The Dream Canteen, which would
also go to number one on the top album charts.
A feat that no band has done since system of
(27:49):
a down scored two, number one records in 05. As
far as we can tell our
HCP is showing no signs of slowing down despite Heis
Flea and Smith. Now in their early sixties with Forhan,
still at a sprightly 54 only a fool would try
to predict what the Peppers will do next. Does anyone
know any good tiktok conspiracy theorists? Maybe they can help.
I'm Miles Galloway. And that was the story of red
(28:12):
hot chili peppers, California C on Encore with new episodes
every Thursday.
Encore is an iheartradio Canada podcast. Subscribe to this podcast
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