Founding Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak would die at just 26 in 1988. Prior to
his death, Slovak was struggling with addiction, while on the cusp of a critical and commercial
breakthrough with the band’s third album. But over three decades since his passing,
Slovak would be regarded in shaping not only the band’s early musical direction,
but their continued success to this day. This is his story.
Hillel Slovak was born on April 13th, 1962, in Haifa, Israel and would move to the United States
with his family, initially to Queens, New York and then settling in Los Angeles, California five
years later. Slovak took interest in painting as a child, but focused more on music in his teens,
when he got his first guitar as a bar mitzvah present. By the time he attended Fairfax
Highschool, Slovak befriended Michael Balzary, better known as Flea, and drummer Jack Irons,
both of whom would become his future bandmates. In the meantime, Slovak found his footing as a
hard rock and metal-based lead guitarist, taking note from Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and Kiss.
He’d form his first band in the late 70s with friends from school – Irons would be on drums,
Alain Johannes (alan yo-hanis) on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Todd Strassman on
bass. The band started out as Chain Reaction, then as Anthem, and later, Anthym with a ‘y.’
These days, fans can now get a good idea of what Anthym sounded like,
thanks to the recent discovery of a few of their demo tapes. On October 6th, 2021, Johannes,
who had later achieved fame in the 90s as the frontman for the band Eleven, unveiled one of
Anthym’s early demos through his Instagram page, an eight-track tape from 1979 called Paradox.
On his post, he writes, “Found this cassette deep in a box…can’t believe it still kinda plays.”
Two weeks after that post, it was revealed that another Anthym demo, this time from
1980 called Forever Love, was discovered by Blast Music Management owner Aaron Jacoves, who
had obtained it from Total Annihilation Studio. Between the two tapes, you can
sense the fluidity in Slovak’s approach, as he moves from the straight-ahead blues rock of Black
Sabbath to the arena rock of early 70s-era Rush. By the early 80s, Anthym would compete in Battle
of the Bands contests, and also manage late night gigs in the local bar scene,
even though all its members weren’t of legal age. After one of those performances,
Slovak met another Fairfax High student, Anthony Kiedis, in the audience, who was a budding actor
at the time. Kiedis recalled the experience in his 2004 autobiography, Scar Tissue, saying,
“I usually felt like the leader in most of my relationships with kids my age…but I immediately
knew that Hillel was at least my equal, and in fact knew a lot of things that I didn’t.”
“He understood a lot about music…was a great visual artist, and…had a sense of self
and a calm about him that were just riveting.” Once Kiedis was in the picture, the group became
fast friends, and would bond over music and casual drug use. Kiedis acted as Anthym’s roadie, as well
as their hype man for live gigs. Eventually, the band changed their name to What Is This,
switched their sound from hard rock to new wave, and found that original bassist Todd Strassman
could no longer keep up. Slovak had been privately giving bass lessons to Flea for several months,
and once Flea became competent enough, he would become Strassman’s replacement.
What Is This continued performing on the Los Angeles circuit, and Flea would temporarily leave
to play bass for the punk band Fear. By 1982, Slovak and Irons regrouped with Flea and Kiedis
to put together a live act they’d call Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem
while What Is This was still together. As part of the act, which they’d debut at the Rhythm Lounge,
Slovak, Irons and Flea would improvise a punk and funk-inspired instrumental,
while Kiedis read aloud a poem he had written called “Out In LA” as a rap. The group had
intended to perform only once, but since their rapport with the audience was so positive,
they decided to continue under the name Red Hot Chili Peppers, and even record a demo together.
The next year, both What Is This and Red Hot Chili Peppers were signed to major record deals; What Is
This went with MCA, while the Chili Peppers had a joint deal with EMI America and Enigma Records.
At this point, Slovak and Irons were still under the notion that the Red Hot Chili Peppers were
a temporary act, so while they released their self-titled debut album in 1984,
the two stayed committed to What Is This, and that band released their debut EP,
Squeezed, around the same time. The Chili Peppers hired drummer Cliff Martinez and
guitarist Jack Sherman to fill Irons' and Slovak's places. Is This would be interviewed
on the show Videowave by Tim Sommer, who played the music video for their single,
“Mind My Have Still I.” When Sommer noted the rising popularity of the Chili Peppers,
and asked Slovak whether it was wrong for him to leave the group, he responded cheekily,
“They may think I made the wrong decision, but no, I didn’t; I made the right one.”
But ultimately, Slovak would rejoin the Chili Peppers. In 1985, while What is This was recording
their self-titled debut album, Slovak grew disenchanted with their direction. Coincidentally,
the Chili Peppers were growing frustrated with Slovak’s replacement Jack Sherman. While they
admired his playing, they were critical of his attitude, with Kiedis mentioning, “At one point,
Jack even put tape down on the stage and told me that his space was off limits,” adding, “Why
would you want to cut yourself off from your bandmate, spiritually or physically?”
As Slovak returned to the band, Red Hot Chili Peppers would release their sophomore album,
Freaky Styley in 1985, and, once What Is This broke up the same year, Jack Irons
returned as well. By this point, all four band members had been addicted to various drugs,
and for Slovak, that drug would be heroin. In fact, Slovak was most secretive about his heroin
use, to the point that the other members failed to show much concern, except Kiedis.
Kiedis would express this in Dave Thompson’s 1993 biography on the Red Hot Chili Peppers,
“I became so familiar with the nature of addiction that I knew Hillel was in as deep as me.
He was just more in denial. Hillel thought he had power over his dark side,” he’d say.
In Scar Tissue, Kiedis would also open up about Slovak’s aversion to rehab, saying,
“I took Hillel to a meeting once, but he hated to admit that he had a problem,
he hated to admit that somebody could help him, and he was generally shy of crowds.”
By 1987, even with these difficulties, the Chili Peppers were growing as a band,
and continued to refine their unique sound blending funk and heavy metal. It seemed
like things were looking up, as after some false starts, all four original members were actively
working in the studio together for the first time. Once they’d released their third album,
The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, the same year, it would be their most critically and commercially
successful at that point, and the following tour appeared to go smoothly, but as soon
as they’d return home, so would their habits. Kiedis remembers, “We landed at the airport, gave
one another a hug, and it was, ‘Great tour, great being with you’ ‘Call me in a few,’ ‘I’ll be good,
you going to be good?’ ‘Yeah, I’ll be good, too.” We said good-bye. And then both Hillel and I made
a beeline for our individual dealers,” he’d say. In January of 1988, Slovak would write in his
diary that he aimed to “begin a drug-free phase of life,” although by June,
he was said to have still been struggling, and had expressed to his brother James that
he wanted to stop using heroin altogether. But it was too late. On June 27th, Slovak was found
dead in his apartment, and an autopsy would reveal that two days prior, he had died from
a heroin overdose. John Frusciante, a longtime fan of the band who was heavily influenced by Slovak’s
guitar playing, would be his most prominent successor, and is still in the band to this day.
Drummer Jack Irons who was devastated by Slovak’s death would quit the group and was replaed with
Chad Smith. The band’s follow up album 1989’s Mother’s Milk would be dedicated to Slovak and a
lot of the lyrical themes were more introspective dealing with the death of Slovak and the impat
of drugs on one’s life. Slovak’s guitar playing could be heard on the 9th track Fire a cover of
the Jimi Hendrix’s tune and the cover booklet of the record features a painting by Hillel Slovak.
In 2012, The Red Hot Chili Peppers were inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame, and Slovak
would be posthumously included, with his brother James accepting the induction in his place.
Seven years later, Flea would visit Slovak’s grave, and write how he felt in a post on Twitter:
"My thoughts will always be with my beloved brother. A painter, a musician, an intellectual,
a hilarious and wild joker, and a lover of his friends. He asked me to start playing the bass,
changing my life forever, and that’s only one of many ways he influenced
my growth [...] happy to be sitting by his grave on this sweet and mellow rainy day."
That does it for today’s episode of Rock N’ Roll True Stories, guys; thanks for watching.
Be sure to hit the like button and subscribe, and I’ll see you in the next video, take care.