The Forgotten Tragedy Of The Original Red Hot Chili Pepper

Red Hot Chili Peppers founder Hillel Slovak hadn’t been seen in weeks when officers found him at home hunched over an unfinished painting; what he held in his hands revealed his tragic final moment. Slovak rose to greatness in the LA club scene and eventually found himself in the spotlight with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Sadly, his flirtation with fame would only last a short time; his demons would ensure that the story of this groundbreaking guitarist would end in tragedy. In 1966, when Hillel was four, his family immigrated from Israel to the US, briefly living in New York before settling in Southern California a year later. There he soon developed an interest in art that would flourish into an astounding if tragically brief career. He soon put down his paint brushes and picked up a guitar which he’d received as a bar mitzvah present. His mom said that he played his guitar everywhere in the house, and soon people started to notice something surprising: even though he was just a kid, people thought he played guitar like Jimi Hendrix reborn. In high school, after performing with his band Anthem, Slovak met up with an eager member of the audience, Anthony Kiedis. Soon they became close friends, along with Michael Balzary, aka Flea. The trio talked a lot about music, and they also experimented in the drug scene. At this time Slovak was still with his band Anthem, but there was a problem—their bassist wasn’t working out. Instead of auditioning a new one, Slovak asked Flea if he wanted to learn to play bass, but Flea had ambitions of becoming a jazz musician like his idol Dizzy Gillespie. First Slovak convinced him to change his mind, then turned him into a decent player. With Flea on bass, Anthem entered a battle of the bands contest and took home a respectable second place.

This got them gigs at nightclubs that they weren’t even old enough to get into. One of their very first performances was at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in LA on December 16, 1982, and it was an inauspicious start. They only had a short time to prepare, and when they did take to the stage, the band played to just 30 people. Slovak eventually graduated from high school, and Anthem became known as What Is This, but there was another change that wasn’t so welcome: Flea received an offer from a band called Fear and he left for what he thought would be brighter prospects. Slovak, Flea, and Kiedis still had time to work on their own project. They brought the drummer from Anthem and formed a new band that they called Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem. Their name was long, but their playlist was short—in fact, it was only one song. The song was called “Out in L.A.,” and they played it at the Rhythm Lounge. The owner of the venue must have liked it because he invited the guys back for another show; this time he asked them to play two songs. Eventually their set list grew, and they knew it was time to ditch that marquee-destroying name. Now they were the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The boys soon realized they needed a way to stand out from other bands in LA, and since they had no shame, they came up with an effective way to do it. When they played a lounge called the Kit Kat Club, they decided to bear all for their audience, wearing nothing but a sock to cover their unmentionables. Before they knew it, this was their signature look. The early 1980s saw Slovak and the Red Hot Chili Peppers gaining a following and some underground cred. They played all over LA and in New York City. Since they were spending most of their time as a group anyway, they decided to move in together. They found a house to rent in a not-so-safe area in Hollywood. Being together was good for their creativity, but not for their addictions. During the early years of the band, Slovak and Flea had a pact to not get into any heavy drug use while touring, sticking to alcohol instead. The Red Hot Chili Peppers eventually recorded a demo, and it didn’t take long for EMI to offer them a deal. Flea cut ties with Fear; he was ready to give the Red Hot Chili Peppers his time and energy and probably expected Slovak to do the same with his other band.

But, ever unpredictable, Slovak threw them a curveball. Slovak had always seen the Red Hot Chili Peppers as his side project; his allegiance belonged to his other band, What Is This. So while Flea was completely committed to the Chili Peppers, Slovak was not. The rest of the group made a hard decision: the Red Hot Chili Peppers would have to continue on without Slovak. Therefore, strangely, founding member Hillel Slovak is not actually on the very first Red Hot Chili Peppers album. At this point, the band and Slovak could have drifted apart forever, but then fate stepped in. Slovak became frustrated with What Is This during the recording of their second album and missed working with Flea, so likely with his tail between his legs, he asked about rejoining the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Flea and Kiedis were also struggling with Jack Sherman, the musician who’d replaced Slovak, and were eager to make the switch. So with Slovak back, they were ready to record the band’s second album, Freaky Styley. Being together again meant increasing drug use; Slovak, Flea, and Kiedis all participated, and the effects of the band’s addictions bled into both the lyrics and the sound of the album. The band were satisfied with the end result produced by funk legend George Clinton, but the public didn’t agree. Having been on the ascendancy since their inception, Freaky Styley flopped and brought the band back down to earth. In 1986, the boys chose Keith Levene to produce their third album. The label gave them $5,000 to record the demo, a good chunk of which was spent on drugs, with Levene also taking part.

Things were starting to get very messy in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and yet their star continued to rise. Despite not having a hit record, the band started receiving movie offers; with their crazy outfits and onstage theatrics, they could easily add an edge to a film that needed it. Slovak and the boys appeared as themselves in the cult classic skateboarding film Thrashed alongside Josh Brolin. That same year, they appeared in Tough Guys about two aging ex-cons. Around this time, the band moved to Detroit and their drug use started to spiral completely out of control. Kiedis was now dependent on heroin, and because of his willingness to talk about it, drew the concerns of the other band members. Slovak was better at hiding the extent of his addiction. It was one of the band’s roadies who raised the alarm about how bad Slovak’s drug problem had gotten. He made a call to Slovak’s brother, who was horrified; it turned out his family had been completely in the dark. The Red Hot Chili Peppers needed a new producer for their third album, and finding one was proving to be difficult. Rick Rubin rejected them because he didn’t want to deal with Slovak and Kiedis’s addictions. Substance use was starting to affect the success of the band, and they had to deal with it if they wanted true success. They ended up hiring Michael Beinhorn to produce The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, and against all odds, it took them to a new level of fame. The Chili Peppers were to embark on a European tour to promote the album, and both Slovak and Kiedis made a promise to get off heroin. They both suffered severe withdrawal symptoms, but Slovak seemed to suffer more. At one point, he had a breakdown right before a concert, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers had to do an entire set with no one on guitar. It was then that the rest of the band decided that Slovak had to go. They played a few shows with Dwayne McKnight as his replacement before inviting him back for a second chance. Things were better for the rest of the tour, but when it was over, Kiedis gave Slovak an ultimatum. He could see how addiction was hurting the band and their lives; he wanted Slovak to get real help. Slovak didn’t agree and said his problem wasn’t that serious. This was the beginning of the end for Hillel Slovak. His final concert was in Finland on June 4, 1988. The last song he performed was a cover of the Jimi Hendrix song “Fire.” Even as a child, people had compared Slovak to Hendrix, who died at 27 due to his drug use; Slovak wouldn’t even make it that long. After the tour, Slovak’s behavior took an unsettling turn.

He became withdrawn, avoiding the other band members as much as possible. When he wasn’t playing music, he was usually painting or writing in his journal. In the weeks after the tour, he apparently stopped doing both. During this time, he called his brother and admitted that he was having trouble giving up drugs; he said he really wanted to, but he was starting to think it was impossible. This was the last anyone heard from him. When the band hadn’t been able to get in contact with Slovak, they raised the alarm. When police broke into Slovak’s Hollywood apartment, they discovered his body hunched over a painting he’d been working on; he’d been dead for two days. The officers found a cigarette still clutched in his cold hand. When they looked closer, they saw that it had burned a hole in the canvas he’d been working on; lighting it was likely one of the last things he ever did. An autopsy would confirm that it was an accidental overdose that killed Hillel Slovak at the age of 26. The news affected fans deeply and had a strange effect on Kiedis. Instead of going to the funeral, he left town; Kiedis continued to use the same drug that had ended his friend’s life. It was when he finally visited Slovak’s grave that he was convinced to enter rehab. With Slovak gone, Kiedis and Flea brought in John Frusciante as his replacement. It was a huge change, but by 1992, the band had their first single in the top 10, and it was a song that had a deep connection to Slovak. Kiedis wrote a poem called “Under the Bridge” because he was lonely and missed Slovak. When producer Rick Rubin read the poem, he asked Kiedis to try and sing it, then convinced him that it could be a hit song. In many ways, Slovak was the core of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was he who introduced Flea to playing bass. John Frusciante, the musician who eventually replaced Slovak, says that he learned everything he needed to fit into the band by watching Slovak play. Kiedis says that the first time they tried to replace Slovak back in the early 1980s, it was a surreal experience; he said that in a weird way it was like shopping for a new mom and dad. In 2012, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Accepting this award on behalf of my brother Hillel Slovak: “I love you, Hillel. You’re always my brother. Thank you. Everything we do, he will always be with us forever; he’s with us right now.”