Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea pays tribute to his late friend and bandmate: “I was so shocked I just fell on the floor, gasping for air.”
Friend and bandmate to Flea, Hillel Slovak passed away in 1988. Slovak passed away at home due to a heroin overdose at just 26 years old.
The late musician is best known for being an early guitarist with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he recorded two albums with.
In an interview with MOJO magazine, Flea said that when he discovered Slovak’s death, “It was devastating, just unbelievable. When it happened I was so shocked I just fell on the floor, gasping for air.”
“When Anthony and I met him, we were young, we were out hitch-hiking the street and we saw him and he had a car. He was f*cking 16 and he had a car! A Datsun 510,” Flea recalled. “I looked up to him, I was in love with him. He was a beautiful boy and troubled like all of us were, difficulties at home, difficulties everywhere,” he continued.
“His guitar playing was beautiful, his hair, the way he dressed… everything. A beautiful friend. And really sadly a drug addict, heroin, and he didn’t make it through,” Flea said.
In other news, Flea’s debut album is set to be released March 27th 2026. His new album will feature Nick Cave and Thom Yorke as Flea sets out to create his first ever solo album. “It means mucho to me to birth another song, Traffic Lights, from my upcoming album Honora, I hope it can ease burdens, sway hips and bring people together. My compadre Thom Yorke sings on it, cutting, floating and lyricizing like the stone cold G he is,” Flea said in a statement posted to Instagram.