The Red Hot Chili Peppers album that Flea regrets making
In the grand scheme of rock history, Red Hot Chili Peppers could probably claim to be the ultimate survivors. Even in an era that should have killed any genre that wasn’t grunge, the funky monks took charge of their destiny and walked away with one of their greatest works in Blood Sugar Sex Magik. For as long as they have been around, they will surely have a few projects they aren’t as proud of.
Throughout every era of the band, there has always been a tiny bit of dysfunction. Even though they had always worked best with John Frusciante behind the fretboard, his decision to leave after the tour in the early 1990s led to a dark period of them making music with Dave Navarro from Jane’s Addiction for One Hot Minute. While that album has seen appraisal since its original lukewarm reception, bassist Flea has talked about the album he won’t revisit.
From day one, Flea has been one of the few constants in the world of the Chili Peppers. Whereas they have always featured a borderline revolving door of guitarists and drummers throughout their evolution, Flea has always stayed the course with Anthony Kiedis, even leaving the acclaimed punk rock band Fear to keep the Chilis going.
When they started up to make their first album, though, Flea ran into problems right from the start. While the debut also harbours some of the best songs of the group’s early years, like ‘True Men Don’t Kill Coyotes’, the rest of the band wasn’t as solidified yet.
During the early stages, Flea talked about not liking the band’s self-titled record because of the new people that were brought in, telling the LA Times, “I think the songs are really good. Our band was smoking at the time. But [drummer] Jack Irons and [guitarist] Hillel Slovak quit, and we hired these two other guys: Jack Sherman and Cliff Martinez.”
Since the band was created on a whim during jam sessions, Slovak and Irons had to leave before they got down to recording and touring with their signed band What Is This?, leading to the band not gelling with their replacements. The album sessions weren’t much better, either. Working with the acclaimed punk Andy Gill of Gang of Four, the band’s first record suffers from major clashes in the studio, including a handful of times where Gill talked about hating the material they were working on.
Despite having some strong material, Flea still thinks the finished product doesn’t work well over time, explaining, “I always regret the way we made the first one. I’ve often wanted to go back and re-record that album, but I can never talk anyone into it.” It would take a few more years for the rest of the band to fall into place, with Irons and Slovak returning on board for The Uplift Mofo Party Plan before Slovak’s tragic passing from a heroin overdose.
Red Hot Chili Peppers have always turned tragedy into triumph, and their grief led to them filtering their emotions into more profound projects later, like Mother’s Milk and masterpieces like ‘Knock Me Down’ and ‘Under the Bridge’. Regardless of who was playing on it, The Red Hot Chili Peppers remains a nice time capsule of what the funk-rock legends sounded like before everything fell into place.
