Massive Screw Up LIVE, Audience Stepped In And The Rest Is History | Professor of Rock

while driving home from rehearsal one day this funk rock front man was in a melancholy mood flashing back to his former drug-induced days he saw himself strung out on the dirty mattress beneath an overpass surrounded by junkies and gang members it was a miracle that he was still alive suddenly in the midst of all of his sorrow he started singing and for the rest of the ride he freestyled the song that not only soothed his trauma but it inspired a generation coping with theirs as well so get ready because we're taking it to the place you love we're taking you all the way it's coming up next on professor rock hey music junkies professor of rock always here to celebrate the greatest artists and the greatest songs of all time you know if you've ever written down the lyrics to a song by starting and pausing a cassette because they weren't in the liner notes or in the little thing from the cassette tape you're going to want to subscribe below right now nostalgia all the time you're going to want to be a part of this community subscribe make sure to click the bell so that you never miss out on our story straight from the legends now we also have a patreon you're going to want to check out there we have a brand new show that goes behind the scenes of these live dates we've been doing you can become an honorary producer and help us keep this a daily channel so it's time for another edition of number one in our hearts this is where we break down a song that was so unbelievably great it should have been number one on the billboard hot 100 but for various reasons be it timing promotion or just indifference the song missed but years later a lot of times it was bigger than the song that actually went to number one now before checking himself into rehab in 1987 chili pepper singer anthony keitis was a wreck struggling with a debilitating heroin addiction he hadn't been clean since he was 11. his bandmate guitarist hillel slavic was also fighting his own battle with heroin rounding out the rest of the band at this time were also michael bowsery aka flea on bass and there was jack irons on drums they were a tight crew three of them having been together since high school so when anthony kiedis returned home to la he felt like he had a new lease on life he felt that things would only get better this was when flea introduced anthony to actress iony sky the two had met while filming the 1987 low-budget sci-fi film stranded for reference this is the same iony sky who would play at diane court and cameron crowe's 1989 film say anything uh becoming an 80s teen icon in that process all my instincts hedis and skye immediately took a liking to each other and they soon moved in together anthony's time with ioni would be a patchwork of emotions to say the least in the beginning he was sober and in his words he would say we had lots of glorious days together i'd wake up next to her in bed and think she is such an angel and i'm so in love with her bequitus's sobriety was a short-lived after a mere 50 days keita fell back into old habits a couple of times a week he'd borrow irony's car buy enough heroin to get high all night and just disappear into the city sometimes he would be gone for days on end ionia would try to convince anthony to get high at home instead but inevitably he was drawn back to what he called the the downtown maze of ghetto dope hell to facilitate his addiction keita's partnered with a mexican mafia dealer named mario the two would often shoot up in a so-called safe zone beneath the freeway bridge a place where the lapd never patrolled since the site was exclusive to mexican game members anthony pretended to be mario's brother-in-law to gain access hidden beneath that overpass in the middle of the city anthony spent countless hours relying on filthy mattresses shooting up in the company of killers those moments became the crux of a demoralizing cycle when he emerged from his strung out days he'd go home he'd cried apologize ioni get some tlc and then sneak out for another speedballing bench it must have been brutal for ioni but she took it like mother teresa instead of cussing key this out she'd say you have to eat come and lie down on the couch you're not going anywhere then she'd cook him some food and nurse him back to health it's like being possessed is what anthony keita said there are periods you give up all of yourself and sacrifice everything to pursue using even to the gates of insanity and june 1988 anthony was on his way home from his latest heroin holiday when he stopped to call ioni from a pay phone he launched into the usual apologetic routine this time however something was different his girlfriend was wailing and sobbing on the other end of the line not over keita's she'd say come home right now she screams something terrible has happened and when anthony got home and out of his car i only met him in the street she was hysterical your friend hello he's dead everything went numb it couldn't be true hillel had been working hard to stay clean but this was real his friend and band mate had relapse and then overdosed he just refused to accept the news and by the next night he was using again there would be no scaring him straight that anthony would later say was a myth even when a close friend dies you have the false sense of invincibility you don't want to confront your own damage so you just keep getting high to escape anthony would even skip out on hillel's funeral really to sidestep reality after hillel's death the next blow came when drummer jack irons he left the band this is not where i want to be is what he said i don't want to be part of something where my friends are dying the red hot chili peppers were falling apart before his very eyes one dead guitarist one departed drummer and a front man living in a drug-induced haze it was right there where ketus realized he had to get it together he and flea had come too far to mess this up so back to rehab he went and you got to give anthony credit he did the work he made the change he got clean he even visited hillel's grave and made peace with his friend's death sadly though keita's sobriety had an adverse effect on his relationship with ioni he had been the the needy groveling screw up and she'd been his saving angel when that dynamic shifted though they never really found their footing their relationship started to spiral out of control now as we get further into this song i do want to thank our sponsors jenny eyewear the frames that i wear every single day so do you ever get headaches or fatigue from staring at a screen all day make sure to design a pair of zennies with blue blocks that's going to protect your eyes from harmful blue light go to zeni.com today put in your prescription and order yours [Music] so anthony ketus and ioni sky started to have a falling out one day anthony told ioni to take your stuff and get the hell out of here after trying to convince him to change his mind she finally said you know what i think i will so she packed up and she left and though keitis would beg for her to come back she never did meanwhile anthony and flea were sorting out a new lineup for the band early contenders included former parliament guitarist blackbird mcknight and former dead kennedy's drummer dh peligro but neither lasted long after a lengthy list of auditions keitis and flee found some worthy replacements the first was an 18 year old guitar prodigy john fruscinte a chili pepper fanatic who'd attended their concert for years really the second was chad smith a massively talented drummer sporting a goofy gnr haircut and venice beach musclemen shorts the chili peppers reformation efforts would pay off quickly their first album together 1989's mother's milk became a surprise hit thanks to their single higher ground stevie wonder cover mtv picked up its video and they were well on their way to the success now that success of mother's milk that led to a label bidding war that happened in 1990 the band signed with warner brothers and also hired producer rick rubin for their next album blood sugar sex magic things were finally finally turning around for the band they were just coming out of their most successful album yet chad and john were established as legit peppers and anthony was clean the future was looking extremely bright so why did kitas feel so depressed his breakup with ioni and the death of hillel had both left holes in his heart but there was something else he was beginning to feel like an outsider in his very own band ever since they'd formed the new lineup flea and john had grown closer bonding in particular over their love of pot jon thought it'd enhance his creativity and his songwriting skills but anthony wanted everyone to stay clean around him and there was this sense of here comes the narc you know whenever he'd enter the room so one day when keita showed up to rehearsal flea and john were once again stoned and they had this you know listen ignore uh anthony vibe to them this really affected ketus and he felt a deep sadness over it he could tell from the way that john was looking at him that they weren't friends anymore not like they had been on the drive home keita thought about how he wasn't connecting with his friends or his family he missed hillel and he missed ioni that beautiful angel of a girl who gave him all of her love and uh really all of her tenderness but instead of embracing that he had spent his days and his nights downtown with gangsters shooting speed balls under a bridge that regret was so palpable he'd thrown away so much of his life these feelings of loss and loneliness it just washed over him and the only thing left that he could connect to was the city there'd always been an unspoken bond between him and l.a he spent so much time wandering her streets and hiking hollywood hills that it became this sort of non-human entity to him [Music] felt like it was her the city who had watched over him when no one else could so he just started seeing sometimes i feel like i don't have a partner sometimes i feel my only friend is the city i live in the city of angels [Music] as kids continued his drive home he started freestyling poetry and putting the words to a melody he sang all the way down the freeway and when he got home he grabbed his notebook and he wrote it all down as he reflected on what he wrote he thought about how sad it was but he also realized that no matter how lonely he got his life was infinitely better than it was two years earlier there was no comparison he never wanted to go back to how he felt when he was under that bridge two years before [Music] the chili peppers were in pre-production for blood sugar sex magic when producer rick rubin discovered under the bridge he was actually over at anthony's house flipping through his notebook what's this oh that's just a poem is what anthony said that's dope you should do something with that is what rick said anthony tried to explain that it wasn't really a chili peppers song it wasn't really their material it was slow it was melodic but it was too good for rick to forget about so at rehearsal a few days later while the band was still waiting for flea to show up and rick suggested that jon and chad check this song out so anthony tried to play it off no no flea's not even here but his band mates were really curious so he sang it to them in three different keys not knowing what to do with it when he was done they walked over to their instruments and they started jamming trying to figure out the song the next day john brought a mini fender amp to anthony's house okay sing it again how do you want it to sound what do you want it to feel like so again anthony came up with three or four different court options and they worked through them until one of them really clicked [Music] stanley keita said in the end it wasn't like i was writing any sort of pop song format i just started writing about that bridge and all the things that occurred under the bridge you know but maybe that's exactly why this song is so meaningful and when kids wrote it he wasn't trying to ride a hit he was just trying to cope with his pain and i think for that very reason it had the innate potential to become a hit it was it was raw it was authentic it was a message that spoke to people i mean it captured the undivided attention of a generation maybe that's the best way to write a song to just let it be what it is without trying to shoehorn it into a smash hit or some kind of status in that fashion lonely as i am together the painful vulnerability in this song that came from anthony's own tried experience the struggle with addiction and desire to connect beyond that addiction that's what makes this song one of the best of its time blood sugar sex magic was the first time the red hot chili peppers were recorded with the same lineup for two records in a row and according to flea the jamming the writing the planning the making of blood sugar was one of the purest uh most fun creative times in the entire history of the band to record the album rick rubin wanted to move the band out of the sterile studio environment so he rented an old rundown mansion in laurel canyon reportedly at one time harry houdini jimi hendrix even the beatles all of them had stayed at this place its purpose was to be a sanctuary from the craziness of the city of angels there was no phone and minimal contact with the outside world though the ban was initially reluctant reuben talked him into it now during production the band agreed to let flea's brother-in-law document the creative process on film when the album's recording was complete the chili peppers released the film it was called the funky monks [Music] okay you guys played it great but flea uh split the difference here come in a little bit okay said anthony keatis about the experience we lived in this house for two months and we never fought we were just so happy to be making this record when we finished it it was the greatest sense of accomplishment that will ever that we'll probably ever know we knew it was a watershed for us blood sugar sex magic was released on september 24th 1991 to universal praise in addition to under the bridge it included 16 other tracks and four other singles give it away [Music] breaking the girl and if you have to ask [Applause] [Music] two-day blood sugar has been certified platinum seven times over in the u.s no doubt in large part due to the popularity of under the bridge [Music] its melody was always attractive enough to entice pop fans into the ranks while simultaneously keeping the chili pepper faithful singing along as well [Music] when warner's was considering releasing under the bridge as a single they wanted to see how the song was received in a live environment so when the peppers were about halfway through their us tour as some of the record company rep stopped in for a show was somewhere in the midwest but for kietis the song had been a hit or miss to perform live at that point sometimes he could get through it sometimes he could that night there was a huge audience there so when it was time for under the bridge john started those beautiful opening courts but anthony you know perhaps nervous he missed his cue he was mortified you know because he'd messed up in front of warren's people but suddenly the entire audience burst out into song picking up at the spot where anthony was supposed to come in everybody in that place knew all of the words [Music] [Applause] after the show anthony was apologetic but the suit said are you kidding me when every single kid at the show sings a song that's the next single pre-single status and under the bridge was already making an impact while the chili peppers had already achieved success on the us alternative charts with higher ground that came in at number 11. knock me down at number six and show me your soul went to number ten [Music] they all failed to chart on the hot and you know to capture that attention of mainstream audiences now give it away blood sugar sex magic's trailblazing single scored a number one on the alternative charts but targeted toward the pepper's hardcore fan base it actually stalled at number 73 on the billboard hot 100. so in terms of pushing kiedis and company into the mainstream spotlight under the bridge really was that song it ascended all the way to number two on the billboard hall 100 and it also went to number two on the mainstream rock chart it was kept at bay by crisscross jump and the black crow's remedy respectively [Music] [Applause] the black crows that's one thing remedy is a great song in terms of jump by crisscross i'll just say that under the bridge uh has saved lives jumped by crisscross has been the punchline to a few jokes let's just say internationally under the bridge came in at number 13 in the uk it's a number 11 in germany number three in canada number two in new zealand i went to number one in the netherlands belgium and australia today is their highest ranking hot 100 hits that's closest being danny california coming in number six from 2006 [Music] but as if that wasn't enough check this out the red hot chili peppers put out four studio albums before blood sugar sex magic of these mother's milk chart of the highest went to number 52 and the others weren't even close to that meanwhile blood sugar sex magic rose to number three on the album charts and since then every studio album that they've released has dominated one hot minute that went to number four californication went to number three by the way went to number two stadium arcadia went to number one and with you went to number two the getaway went to number two and recently unlimited went to number one that my friends is the definition of sustained supremacy eight straight studio albums all in the top four and under the bridge the breakthrough song that made it possible with over 100 million records sold worldwide the chili peppers were one of the biggest selling bans ever and the most successful band in the history of alternative rock they have the record for the most number one singles with 14 number one singles on the alternative charts it's ironic that the song that kicked the band into high gear only came in at number six on that particular chart [Music] under the bridge was featured in the movie flight in 2012 it's also covered by uh quite a few bands all saints took it to number one in the uk that was back in 97. [Music] tony hadley formerly of spandau ballet covered it in 2000 pm dawn in 2002 taylor dane in 2008 and santana featuring andy vargas did it in 2010 [Music] [Music] has really transcended any chart positions or pop culture reference under the bridge it's been a touchstone for my generation generation x since its release i was a singer in a band in another lifetime you know we played originals but we slipped in a few covers every gig whenever we did under the bridge it was automatic i mean everyone would freak out and that's the thing it's one of a few songs that no matter where you are in this world if a band starts playing it everybody and i mean everybody in the audience ends up singing every single word it's not because they're drunk or because it's fun or it's humorous everybody sings it because it's a song of survival a deeply compelling plea of desperation and suffering but ultimately it's about hope and redemption anthony keatis's heartsick vulnerability is living proof that no matter the trial we face we can overcome and that means more than any chart position [Music] leave us a comment about the red hot chili peppers in this beautiful sun what are your memories of under the bridge what does this song mean to you let us know in the in the comments below let's have a great discussion about it if you like our videos we do invite you to subscribe below to be a full-time part of our channel until next time three quarts and the truth [Music] you

Channel: Professor of Rock

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Keywords: Professor of rock, professor rock, music history, video essay, vinyl junkies, music junkies, rock, pop fix, red hot chili peppers, red hot chili peppers reaction, story of red hot chili peppers, red hot chili peppers story, 90s rock, 90s grunge, 90s pop rock, 90s music hits, 90s hits, 90s story, story of 90s music, 90s music history, 90s vinyl, 90s video essay, professor rock 90s, professor of rock 90s, professor of rock red hot chili peppers, under the bridge reaction

Id: jnwQrF0Hx9I

Length: 23min 45sec (1425 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 25 2022