The new Netflix documentary about Red Hot Chili Peppers founding guitarist Hillel Slovak features a voiceover from an AI-generated Slovak.
Titled The Rise Of The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel, it delves into the early history of the band, focusing on their first guitarist Slovak, who played on their first three studio albums before dying from a drug overdose in 1988 at the age of 26.
It was released on Friday (March 20), and it includes a range of interviews with frontman Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, early drummer Jack Irons, John Frusciante – who replaced Slovak in the band – as well as Slovak’s brother James and his girlfriend Addie Brik.
Perhaps more surprising is the doc’s use of Slovak’s own voice, as regenerated by AI, to bring to life the guitarist’s journals. The film makes clear early on that it has used the technology to reproduce his voice.
The doc was directed by Ben Feldman and it received its world premiere at SXSW in Austin, Texas on March 13. Watch the trailer here:
Despite members of the band being interviewed for the film, they have gone out of their way to distance themselves from the project.
“About a year ago, we were asked to be interviewed for a documentary about Hillel Slovak,” they said in a statement. “He was a founding member of the group, a great guitarist, and friend. We agreed to be interviewed out of love and respect for Hillel and his memory.”
“However, this documentary is now being advertised as a Red Hot Chili Peppers documentary, which it is not,” they clarified. “We had nothing to do with it creatively. We have yet to make a Red Hot Chili Peppers documentary.
“The central subject of this current Netflix special is Hillel Slovak and we hope it sparks interest in his work.”
Back in 2022, the band spoke to NME in an exclusive cover interview about Slovak’s impact ahead of what would have been his 60th birthday. Kiedis said: “The energy of Hillel Slovak has never truly faded.”
“I wish Hillel hadn’t missed out on that first recording [self-titled debut ‘The Red Hot Chili Peppers’] in the first year,” he added. “We did some TV shows in 1984 and I look at them now and think: ‘Damn, I wish Hillel would have been there for that. He was a creator of the band. That was his baby.’
“Anyway, it was meant to be the way it was meant to be and it all fleshed out the way life goes… But Hillel’s still there in our hearts, whether it’s 30, 40, 50, 60 or even 100 [years].”
Red Hot Chili Peppers released their last material in 2022, after they welcomed guitarist Frusciante back into the line-up in 2019. They released two albums that year, ‘Unlimited Love’ and ‘Return Of The Dream Canteen’.