Modern Rock Music News

Chili Peppers Grow Old Gracefully

By: World Entertainment News Network
July 5th 2002 1:13pm

American rockers the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS have found the perfect recipe for better music - they've swapped drugs for herbal tea.

In the late eighties and early nineties the band were almost as famous for their astonishing capacity for narcotics and debauched behaviour as they were for their music.

Original guitarist HILLEL SLOVAK died of a heroin overdose in 1988 and the band have been beset by other drug additions in their 19-year career.

But the Chili Peppers, who release their new album BY THE WAY this month (JUL02), are now clean and drug-free - and they are convinced they make better music when not under the influence.

Frontman ANTHONY KIEDIS explains, "We have always made better music off drugs than on them. Drugs only ever slowed us down. They did not inspire us, or do anything to assist our creativity."

And Kiedis says it's not just the music that has benefitted from his new outlook on life.

He raves, "I'd never preach about the dangers of drugs. But what I do know is I'm 40 on November 1, and I feel younger now than I did five years ago.

"The great part is I don't feel like a grown up. I have the same interest in life as I did when I was a kid."

(c) 2002 World Entertainment News Network