Red Hot Chili Peppers

Formed in Los Angeles in 1982, the Red Hot Chili Peppers blazed a trail as music’s preeminent punk-funk party animals. Across more than 40 years together, no band has done more to bridge the gap between rap, rock, funk, and pop than the Chili Peppers.
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Originally founded by childhood friends Anthony Kiedis, Michael ‘Flea’ Balzary, Hillel Slovak, and Jack Irons. The band’s first decade was defined by turbulence: Slovak and Irons both quit to focus on their band What Is This? while Flea briefly played bass with punk rock icons Fear. Jack Sherman and Cliff Martinez filled the roles of Slovak and Irons, respectively, for the band’s debut, The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis was kicked out of the band briefly in 1986, with albums like ‘Freaky Styley’ and ‘The Uplift Mofo Party Plan’ coming out of a haze of heroin and cocaine.
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Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988, and in his grief, Irons decided to leave as well. Initially, Parliament-Funkadelic guitarist DeWayne ‘Blackbyrd’ Knight and Dead Kennedys drummer D.H. Peligro were hired, but their positions were soon filled by John Frusciante and Chad Smith. This makeup would become the band’s classic, recording their breakthrough 1991 LP ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’.
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Uncomfortable with fame and descending into his own addictions, Frusciante left the band in 1992. Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro was hired in 1994 and recorded one album with the band, 1995’s ‘One Hot Minute’. Frusciante returned in 1998 and recorded three more albums with the band, ‘Californication’, ‘By the Way’, and ‘Stadium Arcadium’, before amicably departing in 2009.
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Throughout the ‘Stadium Arcadium’ tour, guitarist Josh Klinghoffer began performing with the band. Klinghoffer became Frusciante’s replacement, recording 2011’s ‘I’m With You’ and 2016’s ‘The Getaway’ before Frusciante returned in 2019. The newly reunited band released two albums in 2022, ‘Unlimited Love’ and ‘Return of the Dream Canteen’. Most of the band’s members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.