Red Hot Chili Peppers have clarified that they had “had nothing to do with” a new Hillel Slovak-era Netflix documentary on a creative level, but have said they hope it’ll spark interest in his work.
On Friday (January 30), it was announced that a new documentary was set to explore the early years of the band, as well as chart the impact of their original guitarist Hillel Slovak, who died in 1988 of an accidental heroin overdose.
Directed by Ben Feldman, The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers will include input from Anthony Kiedis and Flea and is set to premiere on March 20, per Variety. “At its heart, this is a deeply relatable story – about the friendships that shape our identities and the lasting power of the bonds forged in adolescence,” Feldman has said in a statement.
“What’s less relatable, of course, is that here those friends went on to create one of the greatest rock bands in history. I’m profoundly grateful to the band and to Hillel’s family for their trust and generosity, and to Netflix for helping bring this story to the world stage.”
Following that announcement, however, the band went on to release their own statement, in which they distanced themselves from the project.
“About a year ago, we were asked to be interviewed for a documentary about Hillel Slovak. 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,” the band wrote.
“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. Frontman Anthony 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].”
More recently, the band’s producer, Michael Beinhorn, claimed that Kiedis is “tone-deaf”. Beinhorn worked with the band during their early years, firstly on their 1987 LP ‘The Uplift Mofo Party Plan’ in 1987 and 1989 follow up ‘Mother’s Milk’.
In a recent AMA session on the grunge subreddit, the producer took a series of questions from fans who wanted to know more about his time with the band, including one in relation to the track ‘Knock Me Down’, which was a tribute to Slovak.
A fan, who labelled it “one of my favourite songs” by the Chili Peppers, asked: “Why did John sing in that song? I know originally it was him and Anthony singing lead vocals, but Knock Me Down being a requiem for Hillel, why not only Anthony, the deceased’s best friend?”
In response Beinhorn revealed: “I’m glad you love ‘Knock Me Down’ so much – it was a major departure from the RHCP sound up till that point. John sang the song (or rather, his voice was louder in the mix) because the song was melodic and Anthony was/is tone-deaf (ie- he can’t hear pitch).”
He added: “At any rate, John essentially wrote the song, including the melody, so it wasn’t entirely inappropriate for him to song it (plus he somewhat idolized Hillel).”
The producer then said that he “never found out what they thought of the final mix”, but did recollect that Kiedis “freaked out – not in a good way” when he played him “the tracks with the finished guitars on them for the first time”. He also went on: “I think the band kind of disowned the record because of this.”
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, ‘Unlimited Love’ and ‘Return Of The Dream Canteen’.