Red Hot Chili Peppers

Fairfax High to Mother's Milk

The Red Hot Chili Peppers formed in Los Angeles in 1982 as Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem. The founders were singer Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons, classmates at Fairfax High School. Their first show was on December 16, 1982, at the Grandia Room on Hollywood Boulevard, in front of about 30 people. They took their new name the following March, and in November 1983 manager Lindy Goetz signed a seven-album deal with EMI America and Enigma Records.

Slovak and Irons were committed to another band when the first album was made, so The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984) featured guitarist Jack Sherman and drummer Cliff Martinez. Andy Gill of Gang of Four produced it, and the band found the result over-polished. George Clinton produced Freaky Styley (1985), and The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987) reached number 148 on the Billboard 200. Guitarist John Frusciante first played with the band in September 1988, and drummer Chad Smith was hired that December. With producer Michael Beinhorn they made Mother's Milk (1989), which peaked at number 52 and included a cover of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground.

Blood Sugar Sex Magik

In 1990 the band left EMI, entered a bidding war and signed with Warner Bros. They hired Rick Rubin. At his suggestion they recorded in a house in Laurel Canyon called the Mansion, where Kiedis, Flea and Frusciante each had a room. Flea's brother-in-law filmed the sessions, and the footage became the documentary Funky Monks.

Blood Sugar Sex Magik came out on September 24, 1991, the same day as Nirvana's Nevermind. The lead single, Give It Away, gave the band its first number one on the Modern Rock chart. Under the Bridge, which began as a poem in Kiedis's notebook, reached number two on the Hot 100, and the album went to number three on the Billboard 200. Flea said he had tried to play simply on it: "When you play less, it's more exciting." Nirvana and Pearl Jam were among the openers on the tour, and Frusciante quit abruptly after a show in Tokyo in May 1992.

Navarro

Arik Marshall finished the tour, which included headlining Lollapalooza in 1992. Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction first appeared with the band at Woodstock '94. One Hot Minute (1995), recorded with Rubin between June 1994 and February 1995, favored heavier riffs. It reached number four on the Billboard 200 and number two in the UK. In April 1998 the band announced that Navarro had left because of creative differences.

Californication

Frusciante rejoined in 1998. The band rehearsed through the summer in Flea's garage, then recorded with Rubin at Cello Recording in Los Angeles. Engineer Jim Scott said all four members were recorded together, and that most of the album is in mono with hardly any reverb. Californication arrived on June 8, 1999 and debuted at number three on the Billboard 200. The singles were Scar Tissue, Around the World, Otherside and the title track, Californication. The album is certified eight times platinum in the United States, and the band played a free show in Moscow's Red Square on August 14, 1999 to more than 200,000 people.

Since

Rubin produced By the Way (2002), which entered at number two on the Billboard 200. Stadium Arcadium (2006), a 28-track double album, was their first to debut at number one in the US and won the Grammy for Best Rock Album. Frusciante left again in 2009 and was replaced by Josh Klinghoffer, who played on I'm with You (2011) and The Getaway (2016). The band entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2012 and played the Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show with Bruno Mars in February 2014. Frusciante's return was announced in December 2019, and Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen followed in 2022.

Incubus, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down and Korn are among the bands that have cited them as an influence. Rolling Stone's 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums places Blood Sugar Sex Magik at 186 and Californication at 286.