Anthony Kiedis , born November 1, 1962 is an American vocalist/lyricist and occasional actor best known as the lead vocalist of the Grammy-winning American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis spent his youth in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his mother before moving, shortly before his twelfth birthday, to Hollywood, California to live with his father. After high school, Kiedis began taking classes at UCLA, but dropped out after losing interest due to substance abuse. After dropping out, Kiedis received an offer to be the opening act for a local band, and enlisted friends Flea, Hillel Slovak, and Jack Irons to assist. The line-up eventually became the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Anthony Kiedis was born on November 1, 1962 in Grand Rapids, Michigan to actor John Kiedis, a son of Lithuanian immigrants, and Margaret "Peggy" Idema of Greek, Dutch, English, Irish, French, and Mohican ancestry. He is the godson of actor Sonny Bono. Anthony's parents divorced in 1965 when he was three and -- along with his two half-sisters, Julie and Jenny, and a half-brother, James -- went to live with his mother in Lowell, Michigan, until he was eleven years old. Anthony then moved to Los Angeles to live with his father. It was not a stable environment. Anthony's father introduced him to drugs, and Anthony lost his virginity to Kimberly, his father's eighteen-year-old girlfriend, as John Kiedis looked on. Anthony attended Fairfax High School with future band-mates Michael Balzary, Hillel Slovak, and Jack Irons.
Kiedis often battled with drug addiction, including lengthy addictions to heroin and cocaine, which started at a very young age. His father was also a drug addict, so Kiedis was constantly around his drug-using and -dealing father, as well as his father's friends, who engaged in the same activities. Some of Anthony's early drug use came from substances he got from his father, including marijuana, which he first smoked when he was 11 years old. He abused drugs for years, even into the formation of the band, where other members were also using. He tried to get clean after the death by heroin overdose (specifically using the method of speedballing) of Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak on June 25, 1988, saying he would never shoot up again. He entered rehab and ended up staying clean for five years but relapsed in 1994 when he had a wisdom tooth removed. The dentist in Los Angeles felt Ultram, a non-narcotic painkiller, would be sufficient for the pain after the procedure (Anthony was to have a tooth pulled). However, the non-narcotic triggered his addiction to opiates, this sent him into a relapse. He went in and out of rehab over the next few years, but has reportedly avoided another relapse since December 24, 2000. "It’s easy to be a junkie," Kiedis said in the March, 2007, issue of Blender.
Kiedis supplies most of the Chili Peppers' lyrics. Starting with 1989's Mother's Milk album, John Frusciante and Flea have written nearly all of the music (excluding melodies) for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with Kiedis supplying lyrics and melodies he hears during instrumental jams by his band mates; Kiedis said in 2006, "Somehow I find songs... in the bigness of what they're doing." His lyrical style has varied over the years. During the band's early years, Kiedis wrote many lyrics detailing his enjoyment of sex, drugs, and life in Los Angeles. As his musical tastes expanded and his outlook on life changed, and he matured, he began writing songs about a wider spectrum of subjects, his main literary influence is Charles Bukowski who touches on many of the similar issues and like Bukowski, Kiedis focuses on life in the city of Los Angeles and the state of California.
His early vocal style with the band primarily consists of rapping, which he could do quickly while keeping a consistent rhythm. On Mother's Milk (1989), Kiedis would write more melodic songs, rather than the basic rhythm and beat style of funk. The first song where Kiedis employed his new melodic style was "Knock Me Down". The melody was actually shaped and performed by guitarist John Frusciante. Upon joining the band, Frusciante sang lead vocals on the song along with Kiedis. Blood Sugar Sex Magik in 1991 still saw Kiedis rapping, but he also started singing more melodic ballads in songs such as "Under the Bridge", "Breaking the Girl", and "I Could Have Lied". Over the years, Kiedis grew to favor singing rather than rapping. Kiedis has had many vocal coaches, but none of them had helped him sing "well." In fact, it was not until 1999's Californication that he felt he could take full control of his voice while singing.
He has been a key figure in the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Despite the band's varied lineup, Kiedis remained and tried to keep the group together whenever it was about to fall apart. However, Kiedis himself was fired for around a month somewhere in 1986, because of his drug addiction; he was brought back into the band and stayed sober for as he recalls 53 days, after which he began abusing cocaine and heroin again.
Although he rarely plays instruments, he has been known to play drums during some of the bands jam sessions in live performances, such as the video found on Youtube at the Pinkpop festival in 2006. He also used to play a very basic guitar riff during the early to later 90s performances of Give It Away.
Kiedis's now ex-girlfriend, model Heather Christie, gave birth to the couple's first child, Everly Bear, on October 2, 2007. According to Anthony, Everly is named after one of Anthony's favorite bands, The Everly Brothers and the name Bear was something Heather came up with. Anthony said that the name Bear made sense to him "because he's from me and I feel like I'm part of the bear clan, and I think it's nice to have a little bit of earth in your name." Kiedis split with Christie in June 2008. Kiedis previously dated Ione Skye, Sofia Coppola, Jessica Stam, Heidi Klum, Nina Hagen, Yohanna Logan (also referred to as "Claire Essex" in later version of his bio, Scar Tissue), Jaime Rishar, Jennifer Bruce, Carmen Hawk, Vicki Freeman, Argentinian singer Erica Garcia, and Hope Sandoval. He has also been linked to Madonna and Melanie Chisholm of the Spice Girls. Anthony wrote the song "Emit Remmus" about his relationship with the former Spice Girl. Anthony has also claimed to have dated singer Sinéad O'Connor, and that he wrote the song "I Could Have Lied" about their relationship. O'Connor denied she had ever dated Kiedis, however, saying that they only hung out together a few times; further, she said that she didn't care for the song and wasn't a fan of his band.
He has been a vegetarian since the 1980s.
Kiedis regularly practices Vipassana meditation and is a follower of Kabbalah.
Anthony is a longtime Los Angeles Lakers fan and along with bassist Flea has had courtside seats for years.
He is also a fan and collector of Robert Williams. He bought Mirror Image with Varicose Eyeballs, which also appeared in the art show Helter Skelter at the Los Angeles MOCA in 1992 and referred to him in the song "Mellowship Slinky In B-Major".
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