Anthony Kiedis
| Anthony Kiedis | |
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 Kiedis performing at The Forum in Los Angeles, California as part of the 2006 Stadium Arcadium tour.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Anthony John Kiedis |
| Also known as | Cole Dammett, AK, Tony Flow |
| Born | November 1, 1962 in Grand Rapids, Michigan |
| Genre(s) | Alternative rock |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Label(s) | Warner Music |
| Associated acts | Red Hot Chili Peppers |
Anthony Kiedis (pronounced [kiːdɪs], "kee-dis") (born November 1, 1962) is an American musician best known as the vocalist and primary lyric-writer of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis spent his youth in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his mother before moving to Hollywood, California with his father at the age of twelve. Shortly after high-school, Kiedis embarked on a short stint at UCLA, but dropped out after losing interest, which is mainly attributed to substance abuse. After dropping out, Kiedis had an offer to open for friends' Flea, Hillel Slovak, and Jack Irons intended one-off band. After a slew of successful performances the group became Red Hot Chili Peppers.
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Biography
Early life
Anthony Kiedis was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on November 1, 1962 to John Kiedis and Margaret "Peggy" Idema. His parents divorced in 1965 when he was three. He has two half-sisters, Julie and Jenny and a half-brother James. Kiedis lived with his mother in Grand Rapids until he was twelve years old, when he moved to Los Angeles to live with his father.
Kiedis spent much of his youth listening to Sly & the Family Stone, Ohio Players, Led Zeppelin, What Is This? (of which future band mates Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons were members) and Stevie Wonder - artists who would influence the Red Hot Chili Peppers' sound. Around the age of 15, while a student at Fairfax High School, he met future bandmates Michael Balzary (Flea), Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons. In Scar Tissue Kiedis discusses his assumed role of a "protector" in school, defending other kids who were outcast or bullied. When he found Flea playfully putting one of his friends in a headlock, Kiedis told Flea to back off. However, when the incident was cleared up, Kiedis and Flea became friends and have stayed so ever since.
Formation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Kiedis went on to study at UCLA. But a year later, he dropped out after losing interest, partly because of his abuse of hard drugs. This cycle of addiction and recovery in the mid to late '80s was a basis for much of his early lyrics. After dropping out of UCLA, Kiedis had an offer to open for a friend's band, so he got together with friends Flea, Hillel Slovak, and Jack Irons. Initially, the group was named Tony Flow and the Miraculous Masters of Mayhem, but when the band was asked to play again by the same club the group changed its name to Red Hot Chili Peppers. Shortly thereafter, Slovak and Irons left the group to pursue their band What Is This? as they considered Red Hot Chili Peppers a side project. The band's original line-up consisted of Flea and Kiedis along with Cliff Martinez and Jack Sherman. After The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Hillel Slovak was reunited with Kiedis and Flea. For their next album, Jack Irons rejoined the band but later left after Hillel's drug overdose in 1988, stating that he didn't want to be in a band where his friends were dying, referring to Kiedis' own spiralling addiction. Since then, the band has experienced at least twelve different line-ups, releasing nine studio albums in the span of twenty-four years.[1]
Drug addictions
Kiedis often battled with drug addiction, including lengthy addictions to heroin and cocaine. This started at a very young age for him. His father was also a drug addict, so Kiedis was constantly around his drug-using father, as well as his father's friends who engaged in the same activities. Some of his first drug use came from drugs he got from his father. The first joint he ever smoked was with his father. He abused drugs for years, even into the formation of the band, where other members were also using. He tried to get clean after the heroin overdose (specifically using the method of "Speedballing") death of Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak on June 25, 1988, saying he would never shoot up again. He entered rehab and ended up staying clean for five years but relapsed in 1994 when he had a wisdom tooth removed. The dentist back in Los Angeles felt novacain, a non-narcotic, would do to pull the tooth. However, the tooth ended up having to be cut out, so Kiedis was put under using liquid Valium. This sent Anthony into a relapse. He went in and out of rehab over the next few years, but has reportedly avoided another relapse since December 24, 2000. "It’s easy to be a junkie," Kiedis said in the March, 2007, issue of Blender. "It’s not easy to be one of the greatest guitar players of all time, or one of the greatest writers."[2][3]
Role in the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Kiedis supplies most of the Chili Peppers' lyrics. Starting with 1989's Mother's Milk album, John Frusciante and Flea have written all of the music (excluding melodies) for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with Kiedis supplying lyrics and melodies he hears during instrumental jams by his band mates; Kiedis said in 2006, "Somehow I find songs... in the bigness of what they're doing." His lyrical style has varied over the years. During the band's early years, Kiedis wrote many lyrics involving sex, drugs, and life in Los Angeles. As his musical tastes expanded and his outlook on life changed, and he matured, he began writing songs about spirituality, struggles in life, and loss of friends, incorporating a larger sense of social realism and thoughtfulness into his lyrics.[1]
His early vocal style with the band primarily consists of rapping, which he could do quickly while keeping a consistent rhythm. On Mother's Milk (1989), Kiedis would write more melodic songs, rather than the basic rhythm and beat style of funk. The first song where Kiedis employed his new melodic style was "Knock Me Down". The melody was actually shaped and reformed by guitarist John Frusciante. Upon joining the band, Frusciante sang lead vocals on the song along with Kiedis. Blood Sugar Sex Magik in 1991 still saw Kiedis rapping, but he also started singing more melodic ballads in songs like "Under the Bridge", "Breaking the Girl", and "I Could Have Lied". Over the years, Kiedis grew to favor singing rather than rapping. Kiedis has had many vocal coaches, but none of them had helped him sing "well." In fact, it was not until 1999's Californication that he felt he could take full control of his voice while singing.[1]
He has been a key figure in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, although the band's biggest commercial success came when John Frusciante joined the band in the Mother's Milk era. Despite the band's varied lineup, Kiedis remained and tried to keep the group together whenever it was about to fall apart. However, Kiedis himself was fired for around a month somewhere in 1986, because of his drug addiction; he was brought back into the band and stayed sober for another two months or so, after which he began abusing cocaine and heroin again.
Other projects
Using the stage name Cole Dammett (adapted from his father's stage name, Blackie Dammett), Kiedis landed a number of small roles in television and film as a teenager in the late 1970s. His early credits include F.I.S.T. and the 1978 after school special It's a Mile from Here to Glory. Resuming his acting work in the 1990s, Kiedis appeared in the 1991 Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze vehicle Point Break playing Tone, a surfer. The Chase, a 1994 movie starring Charlie Sheen as an estranged man trying to escape the cops with a young woman he kidnapped, had Flea and Kiedis playing metalheads who chase Sheen's character in a 4x4 truck and end up crashing.
In 2004, Kiedis published a memoir titled Scar Tissue, which peaked at #17 on the New York Times Bestseller List. It includes details on Kiedis organizing the New American Music Union, a two-day summer music festival set for August 2008 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has assembled a lineup of musicians including Bob Dylan, The Raconteurs, Gnarls Barkley, The Roots, and a second stage featuring college bands. (The lineup does not include Kiedis or the Red Hot Chili Peppers.) [1]
Upcoming television series
Kiedis is developing a series for HBO based on his unconventional, rock 'n' roll childhood. He has partnered with Catapult 360 partners Marc Abrams and Michael Benson to create the series, tentatively titled Scar Tissue. Abrams and Benson are scouting for a writer to pen the script, which will center on Kiedis' relationship with his father, Spider, who sold drugs and mingled with rock stars on the Sunset Strip, all while aspiring to get into show business. [2]
Personal life
Kiedis' now ex-girlfriend, model Heather Christie gave birth to the couple's first child, Everly Bear, on October 2, 2007. Everly is named after the duo The Everly Brothers [4]. Kiedis split with Christie in June 2008.[5] Kiedis previously dated Ione Skye, Sofia Coppola, Jessica Stam, Sinéad O'Connor, Heidi Klum, Nina Hagen, Yohanna Logan (Also referred to as "Claire Essex" in later version of his bio, Scar Tissue), Jaime Rishar, Jennifer Bruce, Carmen Hawk, Argentinian singer Erica Garcia, and Hope Sandoval. He has also been linked to Madonna and Melanie C of the Spice Girls. [6] Kiedis is a vegetarian.[7]
Selected discography
Red Hot Chili Peppers
- The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984)
- Freaky Styley (1985)
- The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987)
- The Abbey Road E.P. (1988)
- Mother's Milk (1989)
- Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)
- What Hits!? (1992)
- Out in L.A. (1994)
- One Hot Minute (1995)
- Californication (1999)
- By The Way (2002)
- Greatest Hits (2003)
- Live in Hyde Park (2004)
- Stadium Arcadium (2006)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Kiedis, Anthony; with Larry Sloman (2004). Scar Tissue. London: Time Warner Books. ISBN 0-316-72672-9.
- ↑ Norris, Chris (March 2007). "Anthony Kiedis: The Pursuit of Happiness", Blender Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-02-13.
- ↑ Kiedis, Anthony; with Larry Sloman (2004). Scar Tissue. London: Time Warner Books. ISBN 0-316-72672-9. Spider and Son
- ↑ Anthony Kiedis Opens Up About Being a Dad - Birth, Anthony Kiedis : People.com
- ↑ Anthony Kiedis & Girlfriend Split - Breakups, Anthony Kiedis : People.com
- ↑ Anthony Kiedis: The Pursuit of Happiness Article on Blender :: The Ultimate Guide to Music and More
- ↑ International Vegetarian Union - Famous Vegetarians - Musicians - Rock, Pop and Classics
External links
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