Few rock groups of the '80s broke down as many musical
barriers and were as original as the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Creating an
intoxicating new musical style by combining funk and punk rock together (with
an explosive stage show to boot), the Chili Peppers spawned a slew of imitators
in their wake, but still managed to be the leaders of the pack by the dawn of
the 21st century. The roots of the band lay in a friendship forged by three
school chums, Anthony Kiedis, Michael Balzary, and Hillel Slovak, while they
attended Fairfax High School in California back in the late '70s/early '80s.
While Balzary and Slovak showed great musical promise (on trumpet and guitar,
respectively), Kiedis focused on poetry and acting during his high-school
career. During this time, Slovak taught Balzary how to play bass, while the duo
encouraged Kiedis to start putting his poetry to music, which he soon did.
Influenced heavily by the burgeoning L.A. punk scene (the Germs, Black Flag,
Fear, Minutemen, X, etc.) as well as funk (Parliament-Funkadelic, Sly & the
Family Stone, etc.), the trio began to rehearse with another friend, drummer
Jack Irons, leading to the formation of Tony Flow & the Miraculously
Majestic Masters of Mayhem, a quartet that played strip bars along the Sunset
Strip during the early '80s. It was during this time that the four honed their
sound and live act (as they stumbled across a stage gimmick that would soon
become their trademark -- performing on-stage completely naked, except for a
tube sock covering a certain part of their anatomy). By 1983, Balzary had begun
to go by the name "Flea," and the group changed its name to the Red
Hot Chili Peppers.Listen song here:YouTube
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