Five singers who hate the Red Hot Chili Peppers
If you dig deep enough, you can turn any musician from history into a cliché. Originality becomes quirkiness, and despite their obvious greatness, the nuances of their artistic identity can be flipped around and instead become a stick with which to beat them. Take the Red Hot Chili Peppers, for example, once a band who pioneered funk-rock, but to the haters, a simple band who sing varying lyrics about Los Angeles to a rehashed bass line.
But if you boiled down the essence of any great band, you would likely find one recurring trait. But alongside the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ insistence on singing about their hometown exists a bulletproof formula that to this day remains somewhat unmatched. A formula that has been built upon the virtuosic ability of each of their individual members.
Why wouldn’t you build songs off of swirling bass lines, when your bass player is as enigmatic as Flea? Similarly, why would you avoid descending into hypnotic guitar solos when the guitar player in question is as skilful as John Frusciante? Then there is Anthony Kiedis’ voice – not traditional by any means, but brimming with character and confidence, as he tells the story of a band he knows so intimately.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are living proof of how greatness can leave you loved and hated in equal measures. The very nature of innovation is harsh and confronting, as original ideas can either jar or enlighten an audience. Ultimately, that’s the risk great bands have to be willing to run and so despite the sea of screaming fans the Chilis have amassed, there will always be a legion of haters who at times include some of the greats of the industry.
Five artists who hate the Red Hot Chili Peppers:
Liam Gallagher
In all honesty, The Red Hot Chili Peppers don’t need to take this one too personally, for Liam Gallagher publicly hates every musician that wasn’t a part of Oasis, The Beatles or The Stone Roses. In fact, Gallagher is such a legend of British rock, that it’s hard to see him understanding the extravagance of American rock, let alone the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
But like everyone else, it seems his dislike for the band is rooted in the frontman. Completely different to Gallagher himself, Kiedis is more animated and childlike in his performance, which seemingly doesn’t sit well with Gallagher. “Nothing but love for Anthony, but he’s not a musician, he’s an entertainer, and that’s what he does best.”
Jonathan Davis
Before performing a semi-disrespectful albeit slightly funny mime of Anthony Kiedis’ performance style, Korn’s Jonathan Davis simply said, “I don’t like The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, I’m sorry!” Elsewhere, he elaborated, stating that Kiedis was the root cause, “I didn’t get the Chilli Peppers; the guy couldn’t sing – the bass was good, but Anthony Kiedis was just annoying to me.”
The nu-metal musician considered the band to be a little soft in their later years, losing their sonic potency as they became increasingly commercially popular. He regarded Mothers Milk as an album he liked, but then swiftly followed it up with a Kiedis jibe, for the enthusiastic portrayal seemed to be the antithesis of what Davis and Korn liked about music.
Gene Simmons
Kiedis can take a breath momentarily, as finally the dislike shown towards his band doesn’t centre around his performance. Rather oddly, in fact, he took exception to his bass-playing bandmate Flea and labelled him as the source of their unforgettable sound.
Despite being one of the most beloved musicians in history, Simmons seemed to find his style deeply forgettable. He said, “There are an awful lot of amazing bass players, like Jaco Pastorius and the jazz guys. Or guys like Flea, who is really good on his instrument, but I can’t remember anything he plays – and I also do not like the sound of a bass being slapped.”
Mike Patton
This is ultimately a hatred fuelled by competitive tension. In 1990, when The Red Hot Chili Peppers were four albums in and slowly carving their legacy as the festival headlining band they are now, Faith No More entered the charts with their wildly successful album The Real Thing, which, to Anthony Kiedis’ ear, ripped off their sound.
While Faith No More tried to humbly describe their subtle differences, frontman Mike Patton later revealed the joy he got from winding up the Californian band. “I got a real big kick out of it to tell you the truth. I mean, if he’s gonna talk about me in interviews, that’s fine – it’s free press! It’s pretty out of line. Either he’s feeling inadequate or old.”
Nick Cave
Never a man to mince his words, when an insult rolled off the tongue of Nick Cave, its recipients could often be found ducking for cover. Not only was he deeply articulate in his criticisms, but he was also widely respected in music, which meant whatever diatribe he could be found descending into was likely informed by knowledge.
So when he said, “I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the fuck is this garbage?’ And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers,” it cut incredibly deep for the band. As a band who prided themselves on coherently blending chaotic sounds, they would have likely thought Cave would have understood the nuance, and so to be cut down so reductively would have had them questioning their style altogether. He has, however, since apologised.
