anthony kiedis
To Live and Die in L.A.: Our 1996 Red Hot Chili Peppers Cover Story
This article originally appeared in the April 1996 issue of SPIN. “Los Angeles is my favorite city in the world!” declares super foxy Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro, offering as proof of his conviction the city’s name tattooed on the back of his neck. “I would never live anywhere else.” Navarro, drummer Chad Smith, and I are wedged into Newsroom, a trendy Beverly Hills restaurant/coffee house/media mill where omnipresent TV monitors serve up the latest from the E! network with your rice-milk cappuccinos. “But I feel like the bad is taking over,” says Smith, an unadulterated rock dude and Detroit native who, Navarro says, wrote the book on that city’s infamous evening of arson known as Devil’s Night. “I wouldn’t want my kids growing up here,” admits Smith, who at age 33 s...
Red Hot Chili Peppers to Sell Entire Song Catalog for $140 Million
Forget “Give it away give it away give it away now,” the Red Hot Chili Peppers have sold the rights to their song catalog — which includes the hits “Scar Tissue,” “Under the Bridge” and “Californication” — to Hipgnosis Songs Fund. Over the past year, the fund has also purchased stacks in the catalogs of artists like Tom DeLonge, Neil Young, Lindsey Buckingham, LA Reid among many, many more. Singer Anthony Kiedis won’t be able to sing “Give It Away’s “I can’t tell if I’m a kingpin or a pauper” lyric with a straight face, as the band reportedly netted $140 million for the tunes, Billboard reports. Kiedis, bassist Flea, drummer Chad Smith and guitarist John Frusciante are the Chili Peppers’ main writers, and their songs generate between $5 million to $6 million a year for publishers,&nbs...
