Red Hot Chili Peppers have sold millions of albums, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and continue to sell out stadiums around the world. Not bad for a band whose singer is apparently tone deaf.
Michael Beinhorn, who produced the band’s third and fourth albums — 1987’s The Uplift Mofo Party Plan and 1989’s Mother’s Milk — made the revelation about Anthony Kiedis in a recent Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session.
During the online Q&A, a fan asked why guitarist John Frusciante shared lead vocals with Kiedis on the song “Knock Me Down,” especially since it was a tribute to Kiedis’ close friend and late bandmate Hillel Slovak, who preceded Frusciante as the Chili Peppers’ original guitarist.
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“I’m glad you love ‘Knock Me Down’ so much — it was a major departure from the RHCP sound up till that point,” responded Beinhorn. “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). At any rate, John essentially wrote the song, including the melody, so it wasn’t entirely inappropriate for him to sing it (plus he somewhat idolized Hillel).”
He continued, “As for how the band reacted to the final product…well…I never found out what they thought of the final mix. However, when I finally played Anthony the tracks with the finished guitars on them for the first time (he hadn‘t been to any of the sessions up till then), he freaked out- not in a good way. I think the band kind of disowned the record because of this.”
Interestingly, Frusciante once mentioned Kiedis’ lack of musicality in a 2003 interview, at one point saying the singer “doesn’t know anything about music, or notes, or anything of these things.” However, the guitarist wasn’t poking fun at his bandmate, but rather talking about the positive aspects of having someone who “comes at it from a standpoint of someone whose feelings for music are very concise, and he has a big capacity for feeling music.”
Revisit the music video for Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Knock Me Down” below.