Speaking in the latest issue of MOJO, on sale now, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist Flea has opened up about the death of the band’s original guitarist, Hillel Slovak, describing his late bandmate as “everything” to the group. Having formed the Red Hot Chili Peppers alongside Flea and singer Anthony Kiedis while they were still in high school, Israeli-born Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988, aged just 26. The guitarist is the subject of a forthcoming documentary, The Rise Of The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel, which will be available to stream on Netflix from March 20.
“He was the one who asked me to start playing the bass,” Flea tells Sylvie Simmons of Slovak. “I would never have played bass without him, and without him I would never have been in a rock band.”
Having moved to LA from New York as a teenager, Flea met Red Hot Chili Peppers vocalist Anthony Kiedis at high school. Flea was still primarily playing trumpet, influenced by his jazz musician stepfather, and credits Kiedis with introducing him to punk and rock music.
“He came from a completely different world. He lived with his father who was kind of like a Hollywood playboy-actor-wild man [Blackie Dammett] and Anthony knew about rock music and early punk rock and new wave and shit that was happening through his dad. But I didn’t know anything about that; I had my trumpet. So, he kind of exposed me to that world, the excitement of it,” says Flea of the pair’s early friendship.
“Neither of us came from well-to-do families. We were always hustling together in the street: How are we going to get some food? Can we get into a movie somehow? Anything we wanted to do, the stupid little crimes that we did,” he recalls. “Doing drugs? Yeah, I started getting high when I was about 11.”
The two met Slovak, who taught Flea to play bass and invited him to join his pre-Chili Peppers punk outfit Anthym.
“He taught me so much,” says Flea of Slovak. “When Anthony and I met him, we were young. We were out hitchhiking the street, and we saw him and he had a car. He was fucking 16 and he had a car! A Datsun 510. He had a stereo in the car and he was smoking weed and listening to [Led] Zeppelin. He gave us a ride and I think he gave us some weed. He showed me Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck and then the Gang Of Four, all this stuff.”
Flea left Anthym after a few months but soon rejoined the guitarist, alongside Kiedis and drummer Jack Irons in Tony Flow And The Miraculously Majestic Masters Of Mayhem, soon to be rechristened as the slightly less unwieldy Red Hot Chili Peppers.
“I looked up to [Slovak]. I was in love with him. He was a beautiful boy and troubled like all of us were” Flea tells Simmons. “His guitar playing was beautiful, his hair, the way he dressed… Everything. A beautiful friend. And really sadly, a drug addict, heroin, and he didn’t make it through.”
Slovak’s death in 1988 came as RHCP were breaking through with their third album, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan.
“At that time it was touch and go for all of us. Any one of us it could have been who died. It was a real tragedy for us and his family,” recalls Flea. “It was devastating. Just unbelievable. When it happened, I was so shocked I just fell on the floor, gasping for air.”
Despite the tragedy, Flea says there was never any suggestion that the band would split up following Slovak’s death, and it was Flea who brought in Slovak’s replacement, John Frusciante, who contributed to the band’s next album, 1989’s Mother’s Milk, and was instrumental in the success of 1991’s multi-million-selling Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
“[John added] a different sensibility of music,” reflects Flea. “That melodic sense and knowledge of chord progressions that, mixed with the more funky, rhythmic thing that we had, created the sound of the Chili Peppers that became huge.”
You can watch the trailer for The Rise Of The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel below:
Later this month, Flea returns to his pre-Chili Peppers roots with his debut solo album Honora. A jazz record that finds him switching from the bass back to the trumpet, Honora calls in an impressive cast of collaborators, including Nick Cave, Thom Yorke and Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker.
“I was scared,” Flea tells Simmons of the venture. “I was scared the other musicians might not think I was good enough, that I might just be some rock guy on some vain pursuit.”
“He’s a humble guy,” reassured Parker of their collaboration, “but he’s got chops.”
After the experience of making Honora, Flea says he “can’t wait” to make another. Yet he reveals to MOJO that the Red Hot Chili Peppers are currently working on new material, their first since 2022’s twin releases, Unlimited Love and Return To The Dream Canteen.
“We’ve been writing music together, recording at John [Frusciante]’s house, and the music feels great. Ultimately, once we start playing, it’s about the same thing: just catching a magic groove and doing it good.”
“I was reaching for something beautiful, always...”
Jazz, punk, the Chilis and beyond - get the latest issue of MOJO to read the interview with Flea in full, more info and to order a copy HERE!
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