The Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Red Hot Chili Peppers1.Describe the performer’s/band’s background in as much as it affected the music that they eventually performed – i.e. their family background, where they were raised, what their musical influences were, etc.

The band’s foundation lay in the friendship of three school mates , Anthony Kiedis, Michael Balzary, and Hillel Slovak, while they attended Fairfax High School in California back in the late early 1980’s. Influenced heavily by the growing punk scene as well as funk (Parliament-Funkadelic, Sly & the Family Stone), they soon began to rehearse with another friend, drummer Jack Irons. Together they formed a band called Anthem School and began to cast their talent out into the music world. By 1983, Balzary had begun to go by the name "Flea," and the group changed their name to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. (McCollough 211)Anthony Kiedis was born in Grand Rapids, MI, on November 1, 1962. After his parents divorced when he was 11-years-old he moved with his father to Los Angeles. When he was young he spent time listening to Sly Stone, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and Stevie Wonder. He also enjoyed writing poetry and acting when he was in high school and was encouraged by band members to start putting his poems into music which became the base of his hip-hop style lyrics.

Flea was born on October 16, 1962 in Melbourne, Australia. His family relocated to Los Angeles while he was still a young. Flea was different from other teenagers of his time because his first musical love was jazz, instead of hard rock, as he concentrated on the trumpet while attending Fairfax High School. He was later taught how to play the bass by Hillel Slovak and was influenced by artists such as Bootsy Collins of Parliament-Funkadelic and John...