Photo: Europa Press
Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of the biggest bands in the world, but in 1985 they were in a rough place. In a new interview, singer Anthony Kiedis recalled a time where Rick Rubin brought his then proteges Beastie Boys over to watch the band rehearse but they didn't stay long because the famed producer thought “somebody was going to get murdered” in the space.
“I was basically a junkie, but still showing up to work from time to time, which was the basement of the EMI studios on Sunset Boulevard,” Kiedis admitted. “They gave us a little basement to rehearse in. They had signed us, but we were going nowhere very slowly – couldn’t get out of our own way. But we were still making a buzz; there was still something exciting about us that caught people’s attention, and it caught Rick Rubin’s attention.”
"Rick brought the Beastie Boys to our dingy little rehearsal spot, and he sat there, and we rehearsed while they watched. They’re on these little dirty couches, watching us, and we went through our songs. And Rick stood up and said, ‘We’re gonna go now.’ I was like, ‘OK, do we talk again? What’s going on?’" he remembered. "He was like, 'I thought somebody was gonna get murdered in that rehearsal space. I thought somebody was gonna die. I had to leave.' That's how dark we had become. That's how dark I had become, he was afraid someone was gonna die and it was time to leave. That's what he said. He's like, 'You guys were terrifying, you were scary and it felt like somebody was gonna die. We had to go.'"
Kiedis noted that “I didn’t see him for years,” but after he got cleaned up and RHCP were getting ready to make 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Rubin finally got on board. And he's produced all but one of their albums since, including the just-released Return of the Dream Canteen, which brought the producer to tears.