Line #26 Trivia/RedHotChiliPeppers


1	* AffectionateNickname: The founding friend circle all had nicknames, with Flea (Michael) using his as his stage name. Anthony was also known as Swan and Hillel as Slim, both of which are used in early songs. A friend and occasional collaborator of the band, Keith Barry, also gained the name Tree, which he is still referred to by.
2	* AscendedFanon: The band called a rarities album ''I'm Beside You'' after seeing it in a forum thread of fan suggestions.
3	* BlackSheepHit: "Under the Bridge" was such a different type of song than they usually recorded that Kiedis initially didn't want to put it on the album. Of course, he did and it was a runaway success and possibly their best-known song. Due to its success, they have since created many more songs of this type on subsequent albums, to the point they started alternating between their classic FunkRock sound and this type of sound, sometimes [[SongStyleShift within the same song]] (this is best heard on "Around the World," "Can't Stop" and "Tell Me Baby").
4	* ChartDisplacement: Even if "Give It Away" was their first song in the Hot 100, the fact that it's still their lowest (#73) seems weird. Also, "Under the Bridge" isn't one of their many chart-toppers in the Rock charts (something that even "Give It Away" managed to do, #1 on Alternative), and one of their Top 40 hits is the fairly minor "Soul to Squeeze".
5	* CreatorBacklash:
6	** Anthony doesn't like "The Greeting Song" very much - it only exists because Music/RickRubin told him to write a song about girls and cars.
7	** Anthony has also complained about "Knock Me Down" and refuses to do it live, complains about the ''One Hot Minute'' period despite fan desire to hear the tracks, and basically regrets his personality in the 80s even though he was really cool. This has started to change. As of 2016 the band have been incorporating more older songs and songs from ''One Hot Minute'' into their setlists.
8	** Shortly after his departure, Josh Klinghoffer revealed that though he liked the songs, he ultimately was not happy with how either album during his tenure came out.
9	* CreatorBreakdown: Many times when either John or Anthony have slipped into drugs and rehab, but both Anthony and John have now been sober for more than 10 years each, with Anthony having the significant sobriety date of Christmas Eve, 2000.
10	* CutSong:
11	** The self-titled was supposed to feature a song Andy Gill was keen on, "Human Satellite", though the group did not like the results so it wasn't included. It has never been released.
12	** The advance promo cassette of What Hits!?, "Various States Of Undress", featured "Special Secret Song Inside" which was dropped from the final version.
13	** "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" was to include "Soul To Squeeze" and "Sikamikanico" though they were dropped due to the length of the album and their similarity to other songs (specially, "Soul" was considered similar to "Under The Bridge"). They got released as B-Sides and on the ''Film/{{Coneheads}}'' and ''Film/WaynesWorld'' soundtracks, respectively, with "Soul To Squeeze" becoming a BreakawayPopHit from the former and eventually appearing on ''Greatest Hits.''
14	** A pre-release cassette of "One Hot Minute" sent to journalists includes the full album (some tracks in longer versions) plus "Stretch" (segued from "One Big Mob"), "Let's Make Evil", "Melancholy Mechanics", "Bob" and "Blender". Whilst fine on a 90 minute cassette, this ran too long for a single disc, which can typically manage only about 78 minutes. Initially, the band retained the long versions of the songs as well as "Stretch" and "Blender" but cut the other songs mentioned, which made its way to another advance copy sent to journalists. For the final release, "Stretch" and "Blender" were removed and several songs were edited. This happened so late that both the band and journalists referred to the two in pre-release interviews. Due to the segue being cut on the final album, "One Big Mob" simply faded out, but the iTunes release of the album features "Stretch" as an extra track, restoring the last few seconds of the segue at the start to show how it would have sounded. "Melancholy Mechanics" became the b-side of Warped and was Japanese bonus track for "One Hot Minute". "Stretch" and "Let's Make Evil" appeared on the "My Friends" single as well as on the iTunes release of the album, together with "Bob" which was officially released for the first time. "Blender" however has never been released beyond fan leaks of the advance tape.
15	** "Californication" has numerous completed outtakes though the most famous are "Bunker Hill" (which the group even played live several times in 1998) and "Quixoticelixer" (which Anthony mentions in his book "Scar Tissue"). In addition, two of the outtakes "Fat Dance" and "How Strong" had appeared on the unmastered version prior to getting dropped. The final tracklist was decided via group vote, and Anthony notes that several songs he had hopes for were not on it.
16	** "Fortune Faded" was cut from "By The Way" despite having been done live, as the group did not like the way the chorus sounded. Instead, when their Greatest Hits needed a new single a year later, they remade "Fortune Faded" with a new chorus.
17	* {{Defictionalization}}: A fan turned the fictional game from the "Californication" music video into reality in 2022.
18	* DigitalDestruction: For how much they praise it, the band's first demo tape has been treated very carelessly by them and their label. They have often referred to it as having 6 tracks - but it actually included 10 tracks, complete with drum intros, and was recorded in a studio (high quality rips of which have leaked). In effect, this consisted of 7 songs that were remade on their first two albums, and 3 of the band's joke songs they would sing as filler and in interviews. All the tracks bar one ("Dum Chucka Willie") were included on "Out In LA" - but from a lower quality cassette source without the drum intros, and more egregiously "Flea Fly" cuts off partway through. The remastered [=CDs=] of the band's first two albums only included 6 of the 10 tracks from the tape (demos of tracks that had appeared across the two albums, excluding "You Always Sing The Same"), which are from an even worse tape source than that on the Out In LA compilation, with loud hum in the intro of Nevermind in particular (especially noticeable because they directly sampled that into on the Freaky Styley album version, thus could have spliced it in if that were such an issue). The remaining track on Out In LA, "Stranded", would have been in EMI's archives in better quality given it was used on the 12" of "Jungle Man" several years earlier.
19	* DoingItForTheArt: John Frusciante's attitude for a long time was to stay out of the spotlight and just play music, and avoid anything that could be construed as "selling out"; he left the band at one point over it.
20	** The reason he ended up leaving the band was that his heroin addiction was affecting his will to perform live. The whole "selling out" thing was partly true, but was ultimately a more palatable story to tell the media. Another part that the media rarely hears is that Anthony was bullying him, which made him feel too much like being in the band was a job. This is part of the reason why John was given so much creative control in the ''Californication'' period onwards - Anthony felt guilty about the way he'd acted.
21	** Josh has stated that he loves music and doesn't care about fame or success, although he doesn't resent them the way Frusciante did.
22	* DoNotCallMePaul: Jack Sherman didn't like the nicknames the group gave him "Shermzy" and "Shermdog" and so responded angrily when fans responded to him by said names.
23	* DyeHard: Anthony dyed his hair blonde during the ''Californication'' era. Went back to the usual color by the time ''By the Way'' came out.
24	** Not quite. During the By The Way period his hair was actually dyed black. Usually, it's a medium to light brown.
25	** Flea has constantly been known for dying his hair various colors, most frequently pink and blue. He is doing it more often because his natural hair color has faded over the years.
26	*** Chad Smith bleached his hair in the ''One Hot Minute'' period, as can be seen in the back page of the album's booklet and some posters for the period. Before that he had long black hair. For the ''Californication'' period onwards he shaved it off and wore a hat or bandanna, and has remained that way since.
27	* ExecutiveMeddling:
28	** The self-titled had all manner of this from producer Andy Gill, the group particularly disliking his use of reverb and his refusal to let them include "Nevermind" and "Sex Rap" (which were rerecorded for "Freaky Styley" instead).
29	** "Mother's Milk" has several tracks edited "Knock Me Down", "Taste The Pain", "Pretty Little Ditty" and "Sexy Mexican Maid". With the exception of "Taste The Pain" (which was released earlier on the Say Anything soundtrack), the long versions only got released on the 2004 remaster of the LP.
30	** The group actually encouraged this on "The Getaway", with their new producer Danger Mouse producing it in a more r&b fashion, with mixed opinions from fans.
31	** Famously, EMI made the band change the name of the song "Party On Your Pussy" to "Special Secret Song Inside", which had the knockon effect of making the refrain more unexpected and therefore effective. They also made the band change "Blowjob Park" to "Battleship", although at least this word appears in the song.
32	* HeAlsoDid:
33	** Frusciante plays in a band called "Speed Dealer Moms," alongside Music/VenetianSnares and SKM-ETR.
34	** Flea has had a steady career as an actor, most famously as Needles in the ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' sequels, one of the Nihilists in ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' and the voice of Donnie Thornberry on ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys''.
35	** Flea and then-guitarist Dave Navarro played bass and guitar, respectively, on Music/AlanisMorissette's landmark hit "You Oughta Know".
36	** Dave Navarro is currently hosting the reality show ''Ink Masters''.
37	** Anthony Kiedis has had a few acting jobs too, most notably a short appearance in the film ''Film/PointBreak''.
38	** Josh has performed as a touring musician for Gnarls Barkley and sings lead vocals for his band Dot Hacker.
39	** Josh has appeared alongside Music/ChristinaAguilera in a 2011 World Hunger Relief PSA, playing an acoustic version of Aguilera's song "beautiful".
40	** Before RHCP were well known, Flea played bass on Young MC's hit "Bust A Move" - he can be seen a few times in the music video, via reused footage from a Chili Peppers video.
41	* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: There is one song on their first demo that were never released on CD, "Dum Chucka Willie", and also "Flea Fly" is longer. All the other songs have count-ins and studio chat too.
42	** A fair amount of EMI 12" mixes have never appeared on CD, as has the fragment "Politician (Mini Rap)".
43	** There are numerous recording session outtakes from the majority of the group's album sessions which circulate amongst fans and are unlikely to see official release. Some of the early ones even saw semi-official release as Hillel Slovak's brother James released a limited CD via his site (long out of print).
44	* NeverWorkWithChildrenOrAnimals: The band vowed to never do this again after seeing the chimpanzee for their "Soul To Squeeze" video get abused by its trainer during the video's production.
45	* TheOtherDarrin: Four drummers and eight guitarists have been official members of the band. While every drummer recorded with the band at least once (Cliff Martinez played on the first two albums, Jack Irons on their 1983 demo and on their third album, and [[Music/DeadKennedys D.H. Peligro]] recorded a song called "Blues For Meister". Additionally, he received writing credits on several Mother's Milk songs), some of the guitarists weren't so lucky. Jack Irons has averted this by becoming famous with Music/PearlJam.
46	** [=DeWayne McKnight=] recorded with the band only once on the aforementioned Blues For Meister, and played three shows with them while he was an official member of the band before being fired. One of the shows, at a place called Alcohol Salad, was recorded professionally, but it remains unreleased.
47	** Arik Marshall never recorded an album or wrote a song with the band during his tenure, although he did play several high profile shows with them, namely Hollywood Rock and Lollapalooza. Also, he appeared with the band on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled".
48	** Jesse Tobias was the guitarist recruited to replace Arik Marshall. One month later, the band realized they didn't have much chemistry with him, so he was fired when they discovered Dave Navarro was available.
49	** Jack Sherman and Dave Navarro are seen as this by most fans, although they both got to record on an album. They were snubbed when the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame due to the Hall Of Fame only allowing a limited number of members in. And, although he was one of the inductees, Josh is seen as this by a lot of fans.
50	** Then there are several other people considered for the band (even considered official members by some, despite not signing any contracts) that never made it in. Phillip Fisher recorded a song (Taste the Pain) with the band after Peligro was fired and before Chad joined, but he was never an official member.
51	** After Slovak quit, a friend of the band and then-Thelonious Monster guitarist Dix Denny was asked to replace Slovak, but they opted instead to audition guitarists after a few jam sessions with him revealed that they lacked chemistry.
52	** After Frusciante left for the first time, Zander Schloss of Circle Jerks was called in to be his replacement, but again, he lacked chemistry with the band, and so an entire leg of the tour was cancelled (however, some still consider his four days with the band an official tenure - For a long time, he was listed as a full member at Website/TheOtherWiki).
53	** Then there's Chuck Biscuits, who was brought on to play with the band for some dates during the Freaky Styley Tour, but shortly afterward Jack Irons quit playing for "What is This?", so Biscuits was fired in favor of the original drummer.
54	** Keith Morris filled in for Anthony Kiedis during one show, when he was off scoring drugs and thus unavailable to play the play with the band. He didn't know the lyrics to any of the songs so he just screamed his way through the set.
55	** Ron Young was with the band for about six weeks, after Anthony was fired in 1986. Anthony became clean of his habit though, and the band decided to take him back. Young says that they did some demos together, which he still has on a cassette tape "in a box somewhere," but that he would never release it, because he feels it would be disrespectful to do so.
56	* ThePeteBest: Anyone other than Anthony, Flea, Chad, John, Josh, Hillel, Jack and Dave is hard for a casual fan to remember (and at times, even hardcore ones!).
57	* PromotedFanboy: John Frusciante was a devoted follower of the band's early early career, before becoming their guitarist in 1988.
58	** Now this has happened twice with Josh Klinghoffer, although he was a long time friend of the band by this point (having already recorded with John Frusciante and toured with the band). The band knew Josh since 1997, when he joined their mutual friend Bob Forrest's band "The Bicycle Thief". The bands toured together in 2000, and Josh became great friends with John Frusciante, recording several albums together, both as part of John's solo work and as Ataxia. Klinghoffer toured with RHCP as an additional guitarist on their Stadium Arcadium tour in 2006-2007. The band took a year's hiatus, after which John Frusciante left, and Josh stepped in to fill his place in 2008. It was only officially announced in 2010 that Josh was their guitarist. It's believed that his appearance on tour was a way of testing him out to fill Frusciante's role, but the rest of the band apparently did not know Frusciante was going to leave. Josh has shown his love of the band, particularly their early work, by often teasing songs they would never perform live in full. He does this considerably more often than Frusciante did.
59	* RealSongThemeTune: "Dani California" became one for, of all things, the ''Manga/DeathNote'' LiveActionAdaptation movies.
60	* ReclusiveArtist: John Frusciante hates being famous and it's a miracle he ever came back after he quit the first time. During his time away from the band, he continued making music but largely avoided playing shows.
61	** And again, he has not played a live show in years, does not give magazine interviews and rarely appears in public.
62	* ReferencedBy:
63	** From ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', aspiring guitarist [[DiscOneFinalBoss Akira Otoishi]] has an [[ShockAndAwe electricity]]-based [[FightingSpirit Stand]] designed after a {{kappa}} with the name of Red Hot Chili Pepper.
64	** To go along with the MusicalThemeNaming of Magus' henchmen, [[Music/OzzyOsbourne Ozzie]] and [[Music/GunsNRoses Slash]], from ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', the {{crossdress\|er}}ing Flea gets their name from the Red Hot Chili Peppers' own Flea.
65	* ThrowItIn: Originally, the final chorus of "Around the World" was going to include an actual set of lyrics in the second and fourth lines, but when Anthony Kiedis was struggling to come up with lyrics, he started to fill those lines with scatting, and when Flea's daughter Clara heard it and liked what she heard, the scat was eventually incorporated into the official part of the song at her request. In live performances, Anthony seems to do the scatting parts at least a little differently every time.
66	* TrailerDelay: "Bunker Hill" was played live in 1998 (having been an early ''Californication''-era song they got tired of) but not released till 2003, as a b-side to "Fortune Faded". "Fortune Faded" was also subject to this, having been played live in 2001 (when it was a candidate for ''By The Way'') and not completed till 2003's ''Greatest Hits''.
67	* TroubledProduction:
68	** Their third album, ''The Uplift Mofo Party Plan'', started being worked with in early 1986, though the band had difficulty coming up with songs, primarily because of Anthony and Hillel's heroin addictions. In addition, drummer Cliff Martinez was no longer enjoying the music, spending more time drum programming than jamming (which led to his soundtrack work later on). A few tracks were demoed and one song was released at the time, "Set It Straight", though only as part of the movie ''Tough Guys'' and not included on the soundtrack. Martinez left and Jack Irons returned (as "What Is This" had just been dropped from their label), resulting in the reunion of the original lineup. This improved spirits somewhat, but only a short time later, Anthony was kicked out of the band for his heroin use causing him to regularly miss shows and recording sessions. He was briefly replaced by Ron Young, who the group did not have the same chemistry with. The group nearly split, though fortunately Anthony returned having spent a few weeks in rehab in his native Michigan, though he didn't stay clean for long. Feeling inspired from this rehab period, Anthony wrote "Fight Like A Brave" which was quickly recognised as a key track and single. The group started to demo and record the album proper with producer Michael Beinhorn who heightened tensions due to his insistence on certain production sounds and demand for repeated takes (his voice can be heard on some of the demos from this period). The label nearly refused to release one of the key tracks, "Party On Your Pussy", unless the group changed the name (which they did, to "Special Secret Song Inside"). When the album and single "Fight Like A Brave" were released, it met with good reception and a European tour, though the label refused to release the album's intended second single "Behind The Sun" (which eventually was released in 1993), instead coming up with ''The Abbey Road EP'', a short compilation of older material. After all the effort making the album and touring it, Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose and Jack Irons left the group in response. Fortunately, they continued with a new lineup.
69	** Their sixth album, ''One Hot Minute'' has sometimes been nicknamed ''One Hot Nightmare'' by fans who read about the production process of the album.
70	*** After the critical and commercial success of ''Music/BloodSugarSexMagik'', the Peppers were astonished that they had become so famous seemingly overnight. Not comfortable with the fame, guitarist John Frusciante ditched the band in the middle of their tour for that album. They scrambled to find a guitarist to replace him, using many session guitarists for the remaining live shows. When talks started for their next album, the band auditioned several guitarists and ended up settling with former Music/JanesAddiction guitarist Dave Navarro. At first, he clicked well with the band, getting along with all the members.
71	*** Once production started, however, things got really weird. Navarro would show up late to recording sessions, if he could be bothered to show up at all. When he ''did'' show up, he had a professional attitude that clashed heavily with the rest of the band. He would constantly criticize the band's jamming and writing process, leaving vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, and drummer Chad Smith feeling alienated by Navarro's involvement with the band. Music was scarcely written, leading record executives to suspect whether the album would even be completed.
72	*** To add insult to injury, Anthony Kiedis, then 5 years sober, had to endure an emergency dental procedure. He was injected with morphine, which woke the "800 pound gorilla" (the nickname Anthony gives his heroin addiction). This resulted in Anthony disappearing for days and weeks while the band was working hard on new material. It's hard to tell who was causing the most delays, Keidis or Navarro. Either ways, Keidis was stuck battling an addiction he wouldn't again beat until 2000.
73	*** After a Woodstock '94 show, which was the first live performance to feature Navarro, attracted interest from fans, the band struggled even harder to get the album completed. The album wouldn't be released until 1995, spending a whopping ''3 years'' in production, triple the time the Chili Peppers were used to.
74	*** The story doesn't even end there. Navarro's erratic behavior proved to be problematic during the disastrous tour for ''One Hot Minute''. He would throw fits, hog the spotlight, and play the music incorrectly. Eventually, Navarro was sacked in 1997, and the Peppers eventually got Frusciante back for their next three albums, which led to a resurgence in their popularity. ''One Hot Minute'' left many fans feeling strange and betrayed, while others welcomed the change. It's regarded as one of the Peppers' weaker efforts, though not their worst. The lessons learned, though, helping the band to make sure all future recordings went much smoother.
75	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Oh, several.
76	** For starters, what if Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons had stayed with the band instead of going to "What is This?" How different would the first two albums have been if the original line up had played on them both? What if the band had kept one of their many other guitarists/drummers instead of firing them? It's important to note that Jack Sherman actually brought some mature songwriting to the band that he rarely gets credit for. Hillel and Jack considered the band something of a joke at the time due to the fact most of their songs were funk rap with comedic lyrics. Flea, Jack and the producer Andy Gill came up with the most emotional song of RHCP's early career, the instrumental track "Grand Pappy Du Plenty" at that point.
77	** But probably the biggest examples come after the end of John Frusciante's first tenure with the band. The band went through ''three'' guitarists before getting their initial pick for John's replacement, Dave Navarro. Two of them, Zander Schloss and Jesse Tobias, never even performed live with the group, but the one between them, Arik Marshall, played many high profile shows with the band, so we at least have some kind of indicator of how an album made with him would sound.
78	** However, probably one of the biggest "Could Have Beens" is the fact that before they recruited Jesse Tobias, Music/{{Buckethead}} auditioned without even knowing any of the band's songs. Despite that, the band still applauded "raucously" after he finished playing, but he was passed over because the band was looking for someone who could "kick a groove."
79	*** Anthony actually cited that after the band recruited Jesse Tobias, they realized his heart was not in it. Part of that was because of Jesse's completely different sound, but mainly because Jesse himself did not feel that he should be in the band.
80	** The band's second, barely started Dave Navarro album 'Circle Of The Noose', was called off because John Frusciante wanted to return to the band, and they had stylistic differences with Dave. The title track and a jam session eventually leaked, but it is likely the band would have gone off in a more psychedelic direction. Both Flea and Dave have spoken fondly of 'Circle Of The Noose' previously, and both consequently were happy when it leaked.
81	** The band debuted "Bunker Hill" whilst performing live in 1998, and performed it several times before dropping it. At this point it was known by the longer title of "These Are Not My Dreams Of Bunker Hill". It was an important song for much of the Californication sessions, being rejected partly largely because the band had written a lot of songs and as an older song, Anthony became indifferent to it after a while. A B-Side version was prepared but remained unreleased because Flea couldn't come up with a bassline he liked. After neither Californication nor any of its singles featured the song, the band became inundated with requests for it. Eventually a version with some remixing and a new bassline was released in 2003, with several demo and rough mixes eventually leaking in 2014. Anthony also alluded to the song in his Scar Tissue book. Due to its live performances, many have wondered what it would have been like had the song been released in the Californication period like it was originally intended to.
82	** ''By the Way'' was, according to John Frusciante, originally intended to be composed of melodic songs inspired by English alternative rock and post-punk (i.e. Music/SiouxsieAndTheBanshees, Music/{{XTC}}, Music/TheSmiths, Music/PublicImageLtd), and rawer songs inspired by early punk rock (i.e. Music/{{The Damned\|Band}}, Music/TheRamones, Music/TheGerms), but producer Rick Rubin encouraged the band to focus on the melodic songs. One of the punk songs, "Body of Water", was recorded and became a b-side on the "Zephyr Song" CD single.
83	** Before they worked on ''Stadium Arcadium'', the band recorded sixteen songs for a follow-up to ''By the Way'' and planned on releasing it for a 2003-04 release but the label asked for a "Greatest Hits" instead, resulting in "Fortune Faded" and "Save the Population" to be included on it and "Bicycle Song" and "Runaway" to be included in the iTunes release of ''By the Way'' instead. "Rolling Sly Stone", "Leverage Of Space" and "Mini Epic" were performed live, with the first two appearing on "Live In Hyde Park" and the latter eventually appearing on the official downloads of their Cardiff and Rock Am Ring shows. Whilst initially, the group said they would rerecord the new songs for Stadium Arcadium, Frusciante had little interest in doing so due the evolved style he developed across his 2004 solo releases, there are hints that "Desecration Smile", "Hump De Bump" and "A Certain Someone" originate from this period too. A further outtake, an instrumental called "50/Fifty" leaked.

Context Trivia / RedHotChiliPeppers