Anthony Kiedis

Anthony Kiedis
Anthony Kiedis performing with Red Hot Chili Peppers at The Forum in Los Angeles, California as part of the 2006-2007 Stadium Arcadium tour.
Background information
Birth name	Anthony Kiedis
Also known as	Cole Dammett, AK, Tony Flow, Antoine the Swan
Born	November 1, 1962 (1962-11-01) (age 48) Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.
Genres	Alternative rock, funk rock, rap rock, punk rock
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1981–present
Labels	Warner Music
Associated acts	Red Hot Chili Peppers, What Is This?

Anthony Kiedis (pronounced /ˈkiːdɪs/; KEE-diss); (Lithuanian language pronouncation :[ˈkʲɛdɪs]); born November 1, 1962) is an American vocalist/lyricist and occasional actor best known as the lead vocalist of the Grammy-winning American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis spent his youth in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his mother before moving, shortly before his twelfth birthday, to Hollywood, California to live with his father. After high school, Kiedis began taking classes at UCLA, but dropped out after losing interest due to substance abuse.^[1] After dropping out, Kiedis received an offer to be the opening act for a local band, and enlisted friends Flea, Hillel Slovak, and Jack Irons to assist. The line-up eventually became the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Biography

Early life

Kiedis's parents divorced in 1965 when he was three and -- along with his two half-sisters, Julie and Jenny, and a half-brother, James -- went to live with his mother in Lowell, Michigan, until he was eleven years old. Anthony then moved to Los Angeles to live with his father.^[2] It was not a stable environment. Anthony's father (a drug dealer) introduced him to drugs, and Anthony lost his virginity at the age of 12 to Kimberly, his father's eighteen-year-old girlfriend (that he asked his father to have sex with.)^[3] When Anthony was 15, he broke his back attempting to jump into a swimming pool from a five-story window, missing the pool by a few inches.^[4][5] His back has since improved, although he still has occasional back problems.^[6]

Drug addictions

Kiedis often battled with drug addiction, including lengthy addictions to heroin and cocaine, which started at a very young age. His father was also a drug addict, so Kiedis was constantly around his drug-using and -dealing father, as well as his father's friends, who engaged in the same activities. Some of Anthony's early drug use came from substances he got from his father, including marijuana, which he first smoked when he was 11 years old.^[7] 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 death by heroin overdose (specifically using the method of speedballing) of Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak on June 25, 1988, saying he would never shoot up again.^[8] He entered rehab and ended up staying clean for five years but relapsed in 1994 when he had a wisdom tooth removed. The dentist in Thailand felt Ultram, a non-narcotic painkiller, would be sufficient for the pain after the procedure. However, the non-narcotic triggered his addiction to opiates, this sent him 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. ^[9][10]

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 nearly 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 detailing his enjoyment of 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 a wider spectrum of subjects, his main literary influence is Charles Bukowski who touches on many of the similar issues and like Bukowski, Kiedis focuses on life in the city of Los Angeles and the state of California.^[11]

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 performed 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 such as "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.^[11]

He has been a key figure in the Red Hot Chili Peppers. 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 as he recalls 53 days, after which he began abusing cocaine and heroin again.

Although he rarely plays instruments, he has been known to play drums during some of the bands jam sessions in live performances, such as the video found on Youtube at the Pinkpop festival in 2006. He also used to play a very basic guitar riff during the early to later 90s performances of Give It Away, and can be seen strumming a guitar in footage seen as part of the 1994 John Frusciante VPRO Interview.

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 ABC Afterschool 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 #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. He also organized 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 did not include Kiedis or the Red Hot Chili Peppers.)^[12]

Upcoming television series

Kiedis is developing a series for HBO based on his unconventional upbringing in Los Angeles. The show is expected to be loosely based on much of Kiedis' autobiography. He has partnered with Catapult 360 partners Marc Abrams and Michael Benson to create the series, titled Spider and Son.^[13] Abrams and Benson are scouting for a writer to pen the script, which will center on Kiedis's relationship with his father, Blackie Dammett, who sold many drugs and mingled with rock stars on the Sunset Strip, all while aspiring to get into show business. The show is scheduled to premiere in late 2010 at the very earliest.^[14] According to a post by Blackie on his Facebook page, the John Sayles script for the pilot episode was turned over to HBO on May 10, 2010.

Personal life

Kiedis's now ex-girlfriend, model Heather Christie, gave birth to the couple's first child, Everly Bear, on October 2, 2007.^[15] According to Anthony, Everly is named after one of Anthony's favorite bands, The Everly Brothers and the name Bear was something Heather came up with. Anthony said that the name Bear made sense to him "because he's from me and I feel like I'm part of the bear clan, and I think it's nice to have a little bit of earth in your name." ^[16] Kiedis split with Christie in June 2008.^[17] Kiedis previously dated Ione Skye, Sofia Coppola, Jessica Stam, 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, Vicki Freeman, Argentinian singer Erica Garcia, and Hope Sandoval. He has also been linked to Madonna and Melanie Chisholm of the Spice Girls.^[18] Anthony wrote the song "Emit Remmus" about his relationship with the former Spice Girl. ^[19] Anthony has also claimed to have dated singer Sinéad O'Connor, and that he wrote the song "I Could Have Lied" about their relationship. O'Connor denied she had ever dated Kiedis, however, saying that they only hung out together a few times; further, she said that she didn't care for the song and wasn't a fan of his band. ^[20]

He has been a vegetarian since the 1980s.^[21][22][23]

Kiedis regularly practices Vipassana meditation and is a follower of Kabbalah, but says "I don't go for sects and denominations."^[24]

Anthony is a longtime Los Angeles Lakers fan; along with bassist Flea, he has had courtside seats for years. ^[25][26]

He is also a fan and collector of Robert Williams. He bought Mirror Image with Varicose Eyeballs, which also appeared in the art show Helter Skelter at the Los Angeles MOCA in 1992 and referred to him in the song "Mellowship Slinky In B-Major".^[27]

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)
• One Hot Minute (1995)
• Californication (1999)
• By The Way (2002)
• Stadium Arcadium (2006)
• TBA tenth studio album (2011) ^[28]

References

External links

• Official website
• Anthony Kiedis at the Internet Movie Database

Red Hot Chili Peppers Anthony Kiedis • Flea • Chad Smith • Josh Klinghoffer John Frusciante • Dave Navarro • Jesse Tobias • Arik Marshall • DeWayne McKnight • D.H. Peligro • Jack Irons • Hillel Slovak • Cliff Martinez • Jack Sherman Studio albums The Red Hot Chili Peppers • Freaky Styley • The Uplift Mofo Party Plan • Mother's Milk • Blood Sugar Sex Magik • One Hot Minute • Californication • By the Way • Stadium Arcadium Other releases The Abbey Road E.P. • Live in Hyde Park Compilations What Hits!? • Live Rare Remix Box • The Plasma Shaft • Out in L.A. • Under the Covers: Essential Red Hot Chili Peppers • The Best of Red Hot Chili Peppers • Greatest Hits • iTunes Originals Videos Red Hot Skate Rock • Psychedelic Sexfunk Live from Heaven • Positive Mental Octopus • Funky Monks • Off the Map • Live at Slane Castle Tours Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour • One Hot Minute tour • Californication tour • By the Way tour • Stadium Arcadium tour Related articles Discography • Videography • Band members • Songs • Awards and nominations • What Is This? • Ataxia • Scar Tissue • Rick Rubin Category