An Anthony Kiedis Birthday Six-Pack

The first of November marks the date of birth of the Red Hot Chili Peppers front man. So Happy Anthony Kiedis Birthday, one and all!

 

I like putting together these little rockstar birthday playlists. I don’t do it for everyone, mind you. Just the big names that mean something to me and likely mean something to you. In fact, I just last week shared a smattering of my favorite Scott Weiland jams on what would have been his birthday. Not just Stone Temple Pilots songs, either. You can take a look at my list right here.

 

But back to the man of the hour. Or, man of the day, I guess you’d say. Anthony Kiedis, aka Tony Flow, aka Antoine the Swan, aka Cole Dammett, aka The Rainy Lithuanian, was born on November 1st, 1962. In 1983, he joined guitarist Hillel Slovak, bassist Flea, and drummer Jack Irons to front the band Defunkt, which would eventually become RHCP. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

An Anthony Kiedis Birthday Six-Pack

I can’t pretend to be a huge Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, because I’m not. My love for the band comes from two sources. They were the favorite band of a childhood friend of mine, Andrew, who passed away when he was 16. And they’ve become a favorite band of my youngest kid. We actually got to see RHCP together at Fenway Park back in the summer of 2022. He even reviewed the show!

 

We constantly joke about how One Hot Minute is our shared fave album, as I prefer the band’s material up to and including that one, and he prefers their material from that album on. All that to say, my six-pack will be focusing on the late ’80s/early ’90s part of the Chi-Pep’s catalog. Enjoy. And Happy Birthday to Tony Flow.

• "Warped"

  When John Frusciante left RHCP the first time and was replaced by Dave Navarro, I was elated: I’m a huge Jane’s Addiction fan and was excited about the prospect of Navarro in the band. I dove into One Hot Minute the minute it was released, and less than a minute into the album’s opening track, there was Dave dropping a monster riff. I know their marriage was short-lived and the album isn’t looked upon as a catalogue highlight, but this song absolutely rips and Tony’s vocal work is mesmerizing.

• "Behind The Sun"

  I like funky Chili Peppers. And I like happy Chili Peppers. This song scratches both of those itches.

• "Knock Me Down"

  Do you know how hard it was to track down an uncensored copy of Mother’s Milk on cassette back in ’89? Do you know how many times I went to the Strawberries on Rt. 1 in Saugus trying to find one? Do you?!

• "Soul To Squeeze"

  Coneheads Soundtrack, summer of ’93. All over the radio and MTV. This song takes me back there every time.

• "Blood Sugar Sex Magik"

  I like Anthony’s lyrics and delivery on this one. And the use of the quiet-loud dynamic that was so prevalent in the ’90s.

• "Breaking The Girl"

  Best Chilis song from the best Chilis album. In my humble opinion.