Bearing in mind frontman Anthony Kiedis later titled his 2004 memoir after the song, it’s reasonable to assume that Red Hot Chili Peppers’ second US Top 10 hit, Scar Tissue, has retained a special place in the band’s collective heart. After all, it’s as much a recognition of survival as it is anything else from one of rock’s longest-running bands. Here’s the story of how the Chili Peppers overcame addiction and reunited with their virtuoso guitar hero to create a landmark song.
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The backstory: “It comes dusting down from outer space”
First released as the lead single for the Los Angeles quartet’s multi-platinum seventh album, Californication, the easily digestible and highly radio-friendly Scar Tissue quickly ascended the Billboard Hot 100 in the early summer of 1999, and it’s since been described as sounding “as mellow as California cruising on a summer day” by American Songwriter. Yet, while there’s no denying the song’s superficially balmy vibe, its lyrics carried an undertow of pain and grief which was all too personal for Anthony Kiedis and his bandmates.
The Chili Peppers had risen to mainstream prominence after Kiedis had addressed the death of the group’s original guitarist, Hillel Slovak, and his own recurring drug usage on the band’s signature hit, Under The Bridge, in 1991. However, while Slovak’s death had sparked Kiedis into getting clean, substance-related issues still plagued the Chili Peppers throughout the next decade. Heroin use forced Slovak’s replacement, John Frusciante, to quit the band despite the multi-platinum success of their fifth album, 1991’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik, while Kiedis’ relapse after five years of sobriety caused a delay in the release of their follow-up, 1995’s One Hot Minute, made with guitarist – and former Jane’s Addiction mainstay – Dave Navarro.
While Kiedis didn’t refer directly to drug addiction in Scar Tissue, it was nevertheless clear that much of the song’s lyrics related to substance use and the rock’n’roll lifestyle, with lines such as “Blood loss in a bathroom stall/A Southern girl with a scarlet drawl” hinting at excess taken to self-destructive levels. Indeed, the song’s memorable refrain, “With the birds, I’ll share this lonely view”, sounded like a metaphor for the solitary life of the long-term addict.
