The rock band – Red Hot Chlli Peppers know something about staying the course. And proof of that is the fact that everyone reading this knows who they are. They endured many a hardship and even the passing of guitarist Hillel Slovak. So here’s a little parable about their breakthrough album.
The Red Hot Chilli Peppers launched Blood Sex Sugar Magik in September 1991. The album was produced by Rick Ruben (a guru producer) who actually had refused to produce for them previously, but they weren’t perturbed and asked again and this time he said ‘yes’. It was their 4th album and 8th year of being in a band.
They knew they had something special with the record. They didn’t define themselves, just did what they thought was right, played their type of music, which happened to be what they also did on their previous three albums. The fireworks were few when the album was released. Nothing happened. Well not exactly. They went on tour again, in their old blue Chevy van with their instruments and continued to play to converted ice skating rinks which were one two thirds empty.
To quote bass player flee “We we’re touring our asses off” and the band wasn’t getting any bigger. They soldiered on, as they had the past 8 years.
This continued for 6 months into the release of the album, then suddenly, lives were changed forever. In late 1991 the song ‘Give it away’ went into heavy rotation on MTV and radio. After the Chili’s had been ‘giving it away’ to hardcore fans for eight years, the masses were lining up overnight, for concert tickets. (a bit like the i-phone)
In early 1992 their song ‘Under the bridge’ also did a job on the mainstream and solidified their position in rock history forever. The album was selling more 100,000 copies a week and has now sold more than 12 million copies.
Nothing really changed from 1984 until they hit the big time, the world caught up to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And more importantly, they stayed the course.
RHCP is amazing!