Why Flea Wants to Remake Red Hot Chili Peppers’ First Album

Flea wants to remake the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ debut album, but he’s never been able to persuade his bandmates to do it.

Released in 1984, The Red Hot Chili Peppers was created after a sudden lineup change and amid clashes with producer Andy Gill. “I always regret the way we made the first one,” Flea tells the Los Angeles Times.

“I think the songs are really good. Our band was smoking at the time,” he added, “but [drummer] Jack [Irons] and [guitarist] Hillel [Slovak] quit, and we hired these two other guys: Jack Sherman and Cliff Martinez. Both were great musicians, but the connection just wasn’t as profound as we had with the guys we started with. I’ve often wanted to go back and re-record that album, but I can never talk anyone into it.”

His favorite album remains Blood Sugar Sex Magik, “but there’s a couple tunes on there I don’t think should have gotten on in retrospect. ‘The Greeting Song’ wasn’t good enough.”

Listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers’ ‘The Greeting Song’

On the other hand, Californication “is pretty good top to bottom,” Flea said. “I saw Adele a little while ago and she told me that was her favorite record of all time. That meant a lot to me because I’m a big Adele fan.”

Flea said the band’s future remains bright. “I know we all care deeply about music and we all want to grow and be better,” he said. “We’re still consumed with it just like when we started the band.”

The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ most recent album is 2022’s Return of the Dream Canteen, which continued a streak of Top 5 hits going back to 1989’s Mother’s Milk. That's a long way from the liquor store where Flea once worked as a younger man.

“I remember there was this old woman who’d come in,” he remembered. She was in her “late 80s at least, but still getting around, always had a smile, lights were on in her eyes. She was beautiful to me because she had love inside. She wasn’t burned up with resentment and anger and hate. I remember seeing that and thinking, ‘Man, if you get old and you’re like that, you’re good.’”