The Greatest Lesson I Learned From My Favorite Singer
It’s to do what you love.
In Anthony Kiedis’s autobiography Scar Tissue, the Red Hot Chili Peppers singer penned what drove him to start taking music seriously.
He was eighteen and in his freshman year at UCLA. Although he was a relatively good student, he was bound to encounter some trouble. Nonetheless it would be accurate to say that he was directionless — like most people at that age.
Despite that, Kiedis got lucky: he found an early passion in music.
Being in Los Angeles, the future singer for the Chilis was in a place where it was easy to interact with musicians.
One of those musicians was Kelvyn Bell, who, according to Kiedis’s memoir, got him “seriously into music”.
Ironically it was in New York — not LA — where Kiedis would meet Bell. It was a mere coincidence: he was there for his friend Donde’s birthday, and him and Donde went to a show at The Bottom Line. Arthur Blythe was performing and, guess who was playing guitar with him?
None other than Kelvyn Bell.
Once the show ended, Kiedis went to the bar and talked to Bell and the latter was apparently “very happy to engage” in conversation.
This is what he said about that night.
“But seeing Kelvyn Bell was inspirational for me, and I had a distinct feeling, even though I didn’t have a concrete means of achieving it, that whatever I ended up doing with my life, I wanted to make people feel the way this music was making me feel.” — Scar Tissue, p. 86
The power of human inspiration is incredible — all it took was for one person to have Kiedis want to make music. It should be noted that, believe it or not, this Chili Pepper didn’t even sing or play music (other than “bad noise”) before that moment.
It goes to show that experience doesn’t equate to expertise, as in, you can become a literal rock star without having years of musical training in advance.
But it was those years of hustle and grit that made Kiedis the man he is today.
If Anthony Kiedis were a startup, investors would be all over him. He didn’t have the “concrete means” to make music — no experience playing an instrument, no experience creating or singing melodies — yet he was still able to help create what we now know as the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
It wasn’t easy for him, either. Mother’s Milk, RHCP’s first commercially successful album, came out in 1989. A full six years after the band was first founded.
And believe me: there was a lot of scar tissue in between.
Just before the release of Mother’s Milk, in 1988, Kiedis’s best friend and band mate Hillel Slovak died of an overdose. And Kiedis himself could’ve been right there with him: he was already nearing the stairway to heaven with his own drug addiction.
Even after all of that, his musical journey would still be full of challenges — between changing band mates again and again and a nasty relapse after being sober for years.
Regardless of what Kiedis went through, he was still able to continue doing what he did because he does what he loves.
Like any great artist, Anthony Kiedis and the Red Hot Chili Peppers only make music for one reason: because they love doing it. It doesn’t matter what challenges they faced, their love for creating music is what kept them going and going.
If you’re on the verge of giving up on a project, it’s worth remembering that regardless of your situation, the journey is full of bumps and scars. The Red Hot Chili Peppers weren’t an overnight success. And neither are you.
But one day you will be. If you really love doing something that much, then why would you stop to begin with?
