The Early Years of the Red Hot Chili Peppers | Rare Photographs

Fitting to current band members Anthony Kiedis (vocals), Michael ‘Flea’ Balzary (Bass), Chad Smith (drums) and Josh Klinghoffer (guitar) of the Red Hot Chili Peppers performing in Cape Town in a couple of hours, photographer Jean-Marc Lederman gave us some rare shots of the band’s youthful early members. Excited as hell, we indulged in memory lane…

Hillel Slovak – Image by Jean-Marc Lederman

Cliff Martinez – Image by Jean-Marc Lederman

Image by Jean-Marc Lederman

Close to 1983, the year of the band’s inception in a Hollywood living room, the rock ‘n’ roll spirit was alive in its genuine die-hard form consisting of the now-turned-cliché t-shirt slogan that is ‘sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll’. We have some pictures for you that French photographer Jean-Marc Lederman took at one of the Peppers’ early shows at the Hollywood Palladium. He managed to become friendly with the then-band-members Anthony Kiedis (vocals), Hillel Slovak (guitar) (and who sadly died shortly afterwards), Cliff Martinez (drums) and Michael ‘Flea’ Balzary (bass), which resulted in some bedazzling backstage party- and stage-shots.