Physical Graffiti
The one and only wild appetite that’s been completely quashed is their hunger for narcotics.
John: Some girl came backstage and showed us this artivle she said she’d written for SPIN about how some people miss the old Chili Peppers, with Hillel and Jack and everybody being hardcore drug abusers - or something like that. It was a really fucking stupid thing to say. Anthony called her a stupid bitch and threw her out. Hard drugs aren’t the kind of thing you want to inspire anyone to get involved with. On tour, I don’t even drink or smoke pot.
Anthony: Take “Knock Me Down.” The initial impetus for that song came to me while we were in England [May, 1988]. Hillel had a pretty bad drug habit when we left L.A, and when we got there he commenced experiencing withdrawal symptoms. He was really ill, but at the same time he didn’t seem to have compassion for his life or consider that he wasn’t beyond death or humiliation because of drugs. It just dawned on me that here he was in the face of misery, but he still wasn’t ready to concede that drugs were lessening his level of life and beauty. So the idea of “knock me down” came to me, like someone’s got to knock him down before he dies. Because he’s not bigger than life. Then we came back to L.A, and immediately both of us started using again and then he died a very short time afterward, ’cause he was alone. I hadn’t really tried to reach him for a week. I could have saved him - I know CPR really well, and I’ve brought back a couple of friends who died from an OD.
Flea: The death of Hillel is the saddest thing that could ever happen. What made me feel worse was that during the time that he really could have used help and friendship and love, I was just angry at him. I really miss him, us growing up together. I loved him very much. He died when my wife was pregnant with our daughter. Hillel thought it was the most beautiful thing.
No one can predict the future. We might become junkies overmight, but now things are really good and there’s a lot of life in this band…I drink beer. I smoke some pot. I don’t think I have a drug problem.
John Frusciante began listening to the Peppers five years ago as a guitar-fixated 14-year-old growing up in the Valley. Though self-taught, he was alreday mastering music theory and says he was able to write parts for orchestral arrangements. “I had moved up to Hollywood when I was sixteen in order to live a little closer to the street. I was a little too obsessed with the technical aspects of music and I had to do like many of the great jazz musicians have done: learn everything and then forget everything.”
John finally met Flea just after the Chili Peppers had taken on Funkadelic guitarist Blackbird McKnight - though John had gone to their area shows religiously for the last five years, even bying his friends tickets, it was their first meeting - and the two of them began to jam with ex-Dead Kennedys drummer D.H. Peligro. When Thelonious Monster needed a new guitarist, Flea set up John with an audition. Anthony and Flea watched on as John got the job, then immediately offered him a spot in the Peppers. (Blackbird McKnight had left to rejoin George Clinton.)
“We started calling John ‘Greenie’ because he was so young,” says Flea.
“But now it’s a comment on his dental hygiene,” smirks Chad.
The Peppers soon fired Peligro and along came Chad Smith, on his first trip to L.A, fresh off a year of jamming with ex-Parlia Funkadelic percussionist Larry Fratangelo in his home twon of Detroit.
Flea: “Chad came in and he had a bandana and hair sticking out and we were like, ‘Oh, God. Next. Let’s get this over with.’ And he started playing and we all burst into laugher because he started screaming at the top of his lungs - ‘RRRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHH !’ hiting drums as hard as he could BARUMP PAH PAM TSH ! We couldn’t cope. We weren’t sure if he was good or not - it was just hilarious - all of a sudden we thought, ‘This guy is playing his ass off,’ and everyhting else went by the wayside. Chad hadn’t even heard of us before.”
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