Multi-platinum rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers will be 2012 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, which honors legendary artists who have defined rock and roll and have inspired and continue to inspire a generation. To be eligible for nomination, performers must have released their first single or album at least 25 years before the year of nomination.
Formed in Hollywood, California in 1983, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of the most flamboyant, commercially successful, and musically influential bands of rock’s last quarter century. Singer Anthony Kiedis, bassist Michael Balzary a/k/a Flea, guitarist Hillel Slovak, and drummer Jack Irons were high-school pals who combined their passions for Jimi Hendrix, ’70s R&B, and hardcore punk with sexual exuberance and local skateboard culture, immediately becoming famous for their outrageous (often near-naked) live shows and incendiary jamming. After Slovak’s death in 1988 and other personnel changes, the Chili Peppers – with guitar prodigy John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith – broke through with 1991’s BloodSugarSexMagik, a multi-platinum fusion of metal and rap that was pivotal in bringing modern black street culture and music to the Nirvana generation.
The Chili Peppers’ hits have run the melodic and emotional gamut from the fierce hip hop of BloodSugar’s “Give It Away” and the 1992 ballad “Under The Bridge,” (one of the best pop songs ever written about the grip of addiction), to the heavy riffing of “Scar Tissue” and the gorgeous melancholy of “Otherside” on 1999’s Californication. The Chili Peppers’ 2006 two-CD set Stadium Arcadium, an ambitious collection that added ’60s-pop harmonies, blazing psychedelia, and progressive-rock dynamics to their heavy California soul – debuted at No. 1. After their longest hiatus ever, the Chili Peppers returned over the summer with 2011’s I’m With You (which debuted at No. 1 in 17 countries and has been nominated for a 2012 Grammy Award for Best Rock Album), and a new tour that will take them through 2013.
The 27th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place on Saturday, April 14th, 2012, in Cleveland and premiere on HBO in early May. The 2012 ceremony will again be open to the public. Please visit www.rockhall.com for more information.
