DRAGON: Life Lessons From the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Monday, August 1, 2022

Life Lessons From the Red Hot Chili Peppers

By InterviewPhotographed by Michel HaddiOctober 14, 2021

In case you missed it, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are going on tour. The band, who also announced in 2019 that they would be reunited with their original guitarist, John Frusciante, will set out on a 32-city world tour in 2022, accompanied by a variety of special guests—with the likes of A$AP Rocky, Thundercat, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Haim, Beck, The Strokes, King Princess, and St. Vincent among them. So this week’s installment of Life Lessons comes to you from the Chili Peppers’ 1990 Interview cover story, in which the band shares sage wisdom on everything from having sex to playing pool. Sit back, and grab a pen—you just might learn a thing or two.

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Anthony Kiedis, vocals

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“I’m generally just a complete out-of-control rogue wandering the streets of life as a sensitive poet. But I try to apply a certain amount of discipline when it comes to practicing my music. And I do warm up before every show. I go into a shower and drink hot water with lemon and go, ‘Boop boop booooo-oo-oo-oo…ma-may-me-mo-mu-may-me-mo-ma.'”

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“My father [influenced me], and so did standing in front of thirteen-foot-tall Salvador Dali paintings.”

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“[I want] to play music till the day I die, to be a good friend to all my friends, and to be nice to nature.”

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“[I’d like to meet] Sinéad O’Connor. I’ve met her, but I need to meet her again. I need to meet her hundreds of times.”

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John Frusciante, guitar

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“[The difference between a boy and a man] for me is the difference between being given shit for being different from everybody, and actually being able to be in complete control of yourself and your life and not having to give a fuck what anybody thinks of you.”

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“About a month ago Anthony and I went ten days without having an orgasm…we weren’t allowed to masturbate or anything. In fact, right when we decided to go ten days without an orgasm, opportunity knocked, and we had to really hold back. And as far as my music, it isn’t a matter of discipline in the sense that I’m being forced to do something I don’t wanna do. It just comes very naturally out of an unconditional love for something. That’s true discipline.”

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“Besides sex and pool, Chad and Anthony are some of my hobbies.”

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“It’s ridiculous to limit [my favorite musician] to one person, but Hendrix has had the biggest effect on the way I look at music. To me there’s no difference between him and Igor Stravinsky, or Edgard Varèse, or Iannis Xenakis, or John Coltrane, or Miles Davis, or Eric Dolphy, because music is one big cosmic swirl of beauty. It’s just all God. It’s not like people who are musicians are separate entities. I think they’re all one. “

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“Goals are the kinds of things that tend to throw a man off. Right now I feel like I’m doing something that’s really worthwhile for the world, which is playing some of the most ground-breaking music of all time in the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And to me, when you have that sort of beauty in your life, goals aren’t necessary.”

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Chad Smith, drums

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“For me, personally, because I am the hairiest member of the band, I would have to say [the best thing about being a man] would probably be all the hair on my ass.”

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“It is such a male-dominated world, I’d like to see more ladies in important positions. I’m really pushing for equality.”

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“There’s just so many [of my favorite musicians]. Shit, man. Drummer-wise would help me to narrow it down. I like a lot of the dead guys. Gene Krupa, bringing the drums into the fore, not just being a guy sitting in the dark, had a lot to do with changing the way people perceive drums and the way that drummers are involved with bands. So I’d say mostly the dead guys. When I die, hopefully I’ll join them in percussion heaven.”

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