Red Hot Chili Peppers: Inside the Veins of the Velvet Groove. The Unauthorised Biography

by Martin Roach

This look at the hard-rocking, funky Red Hot Chili Peppers examines their continued vitality after more than 20 years as a band. Interviews with ex–band members and musicians who have played and toured with them tell a classic rock and roll story of music, drugs, and death and provide insights into the longevity and ongoing relevance of the Chili Peppers. The band is set in the context of the Los Angeles punk rock scene of the 1980s and 1990s from which they emerged, and how they managed to withstand and ride many other trends in American music, including grunge, hip-hop, and nu metal, is investigated. Many previously unpublished photographs of the band from the private collections of friends and associates are included, as is a complete discography.

190 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

Reviews

[Laura Eydmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this years ago, and it has sat on my bookshelf for a long, long time. I am a big RHCP fan, and I read Scar Tissue by Anthony Keidis a few years ago when it came out, and I never really felt the need to read this. However, I saw it on my shelf the other day, and thought I'd pick it up and give it a go.

Firstly, I am not a huge fan of biographies, memoirs and autobiographies on the whole... so I wasn't expecting to love this. And I didn't. The writing was not great, and I kept finding spelling mistakes, which took me out of the stories. I am no great writer myself, so I am loathe to criticise this too much, but I found this a little tedious.

I did enjoy reading about the band and the members, whilst I knew a fair bit about Anthony Keidis after reading his book, I didn't know much about the others. I found most of the stories fairly interesting, which kept me reading. However, the author is obviously a fan, and also likes the newer Chilli's music, whereas I prefer the older punkier, funkier stuff, so I found myself disagreeing with his opinions on the music. For the most part he is fairly impartial, but occasionally he does put across his own views and opinions on the music, which I didn't always agree with.

The book does cover a little bit of the personal lives of the band as well, when they affected the bands, the drugs, new members, deaths, overdoses etc. and the musical influences. It's not as personal as Scar Tissue (obviously) and there were also little bits here and there which seem to contradict what I remember from Scar Tissue as well... that may be my bad memory as much as anything though...

If you are a big fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, then maybe give it a read. But Scar tissue was better, and I am sure there are better books on the band out there.