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| Birth Name(s) : Anthony Kiedis |
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Full Anthony Kiedis Biography
Anthony Kiedis (born November 1, 1962) is an American singer and songwriter. He is the lead singer and a co-founder of the alternative rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers and is also responsible for writing most of the band's vocal melodies and lyrics.
Kiedis spent much of his youth listening to Sly & the Family Stone, Led Zeppelin, What Is This? (which Hillel was in before their band), 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. Also, Kiedis attended UCLA for two semesters before dropping out to form the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Kiedis went on to study at UCLA, but dropped out after losing interest, partially due to his abuse of hard drugs. This cycle of addiction and recovery in the mid to late '80s would become a basis for a lot 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, Slovak, and Jack Irons. Initially, the group was named Tony Flow and the Miraculous Masters of Mayhem. Slovak and Irons were in the band Anthem which later changed it's name to What Is This? to show a more mature side. Eventually the group would change its name to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The band's original line-up consisted of the four friends and led to the band's first studio album, for which Irons and Slovak rejoined the group. 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. Since then, the band has experienced at least twelve different line-ups, releasing nine studio albums in the span of twenty-four years.
In 1990, Kiedis was convicted of indecent exposure and sexual battery in a Virginia court after he dropped his pants in front of a female fan backstage at a 1989 concert at George Mason University.
Kiedis often battled with drug addiction, including lengthy addictions to heroin, cocaine and alcohol. He tried to get clean after the heroin overdose 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."
Kiedis currently lives in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. He became a father for the first time when his girlfriend Heather Christie gave birth to their son, Everly Bear, in October.
Kiedis supplies virtually all of the Chili Peppers' lyrics. Starting with 1989's Mother's Milk album, John Frusciante and Flea have written all of the music for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with Kiedis supplying lyrics and melodies, which are often derived from the guitar or bass melodies. Kiedis devises the lyrics and melodies during instrumental jams by his bandmates; 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, he started to write songs about spirituality, struggles in life, and loss of friends, incorporating a larger sense of social realism and thoughtfulness into his lyrics.
His early vocal style with the band primarily consists of rapping, which he could do quickly while keeping a consistent rhythm. Starting as early as Mother's Milk in 1989, Kiedis would write more melodic songs, rather than the basic rhythm and beat style of funk and hip-hop. The first song wherein 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 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.
In 2004, Kiedis published a memoir titled Scar Tissue, which peaked at #17 on the New York Times Bestseller List. It is a detailed insight to Kiedis's life from a rebellious child to a rock star. |
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