Chris Evans Radio 2 Interview with Anthony Kiedis June 17th 2016
Guests: Anthony Kiedis, Nadiya Hussain, Toby Jones and Tom Odell
Starts with Dark Necessities playing.
Chris Evans: The Red Hot Chili Peppers with Dark Necessities. That’s out today along with the brand new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, The Getaway. And joining us now from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, we’ll just let his song finish then we’ll talk to him… Anthony Kiedis. Good morning, sir.
Anthony Kiedis: Good morning to you, sir.
Chris Evans: How are you?
Anthony Kiedis: I’m a little out of focus but I plan on coming to.
Chris Evans then talks about where the other guests come from…. So you’re in good company.
Anthony Kiedis: And Nadiya (one of the other guests on the show who replies she came in from Milton Keynes.) She looks very well rested.
All commenting on how good she looks. More comments about sleeping in Milton Keynes (an English town)
Chris Evans: So Anthony, we have the eleventh Red Hot Chili Peppers album. Now with a Chili Peppers’ album, it’s not so much what you get but what you don’t get because you always write far too many songs don’t you so what are we not getting this time?
Anthony Kiedis: You’re not getting the b-level tunes. Our most recent producer, Danger Mouse, was quite sure about that. So you’re getting the best of the best, the cream of the cream of what we have to offer.
Chris Evans: But the last album five years ago, you said you had a spare album’s worth of songs for that so where have they gone now?
Anthony Kiedis: We’ve put them out on singles and weird little packages that only the real vinyl-philes care about.
Chris Evans asks the other guests if they know about Danger Mouse and says it’s a gang of people.
Anthony Kiedis: No, it’s one intellectual individual.
Chris Evans: Oh, I thought it was like three in Danger Mouse.
Anthony Kiedis: No, just one guy working the job of three men (CE interrupts a couple of times)
Chris Evans: … So when Danger Mouse, he who must be obeyed, says I don’t like this one, what do you do? Do you have a fight or a vote, do you go out or what do you do?
Anthony Kiedis: We kind of let go.
Other guests interrupt with comments about having a Bake Off [Nadiya ‘won’ a baking competition here called the ‘Great British Bake Off’.].
Anthony Kiedis: When you hire a guy like that, you hire him for his opinions and his direction and if you fight him it’s kind of pointless so at a certain point you’re like, well. I’m an artist and I get very attached to my own little ditties and maybe they’re not all that and I should move forward.
Chris Evans: Have you always been like that like that…
Anthony Kiedis: We used to fight to the death [CE interrupts: Back in the day] but we tried the experiment, rolled the dice and like we got.
Chris Evans: But you’re 53 now [comments about how good he looks].
Nadiya: I didn’t recognise him with his shirt on… but usually it’s the shirt off.
Anthony Kiedis: I could say the same about you.
Laughter. Chris Evans: …So you’re the eldest here.
Anthony Kiedis: Am I the eldest in this entire building?
Chris Evans: No… [talks about some other people]. …What does the 53 year old Anthony Kiedis write like compared to the 21 year old when you kicked off. Are you still writing about the same things?
Anthony Kiedis: No, not so much. The energy is still similar because I saw some old footage of us when we were in France that they’d dredged up out of God knows where and I was like, the energy is still there. You know, the collective love for music and poetry and just the brotherhood of sound. And it’s still kind of flowing through me and I attribute that to the team.
Chris Evans: But you’re still writing about girls though, aren’t you?
Anthony Kiedis: Well, heartbreak never ends, does it?
Chris Evans: Oh, nicely put.
Anthony Kiedis: It just doesn’t. [Chris Evans interrupts again] It just doesn’t.
Chris Evans: And this is tired. Imagine what he’s like if he’s had some sleep.
Anthony Kiedis: But, err, maybe the angle or the prison (?) that you see these through changes over time?
Chris Evans: Same story, different point of view
Anthony Kiedis: Yeah. Different point of view
Chris Evans: Like that a lot. Now all great bands. You’re talking about Coldplay, you’re talking about U2 , The Beatles, have their own sound and I think that’s what makes a band great. And you have such a distinctive sound…
Anthony Kiedis: Thank you.
Chris Evans: When was that born? Did you go into the studio and thought, oh, this is the sound, this is the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ sound?
Anthony Kiedis: We didn’t think about it but we never wanted to sound like anybody else.
Chris Evans: How do you do that though?
Anthony Kiedis: We grew up in high school together and we all brought something different to the table. My guys studied music from a young age and I did not so I think, like, adding the idiot to the table of very talented musicians gave us a unique rub.
Chris Evans: Bono’s like that, is the poet, lyricist… But you are like that. You were always writing poems as a kid but your band mates were trumpeting, classical piano and all of that stuff, weren’t they?
Anthony Kiedis: Exactly. They started off young wanting to study but I didn’t want to get into that but we found if you added this person to that mix, you got us.
Chris Evans: But I’m intrigued about you not wanting to sound like anyone else… If you try to be original, that’s the last thing you end up being.
Anthony Kiedis: Fair enough
Chris Evans: [You just have to be it. All talk about adding the idiot to the equation and Tom has his own sound]…
Goes into Tom Odell playing a song. At the end, Chris Evans asks Anthony Kiedis what he thinks:
Anthony Kiedis: Good song… We made some eye contact… It was a moment.
Tom: I never thought I’d be singing that song in front of Anthony from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Anthony Kiedis: that was cool. Thank you.
Chatter
Anthony Kiedis: So you’ve been playing for a while?
Tom: Yes, since I was seven.
Guests talk about how assured Tom is and then discuss how playing a musical instrument gets you the girls. Decide the piano is the thing to learn…
Chris Evans: But Anthony’s never struggled, it has to be said.
Anthony Kiedis: You know, Paul McCartney’s dad told him that when he was a kid. “Son, play the piano and when you go to parties, the girls will come to you.”
All agree.
Anthony Kiedis: He started off on the piano… In the Beatles [after a comment about PM playing bass], he did play the bass…Tell that to Lemmy.
Tom talks about following Lemmy & Motorhead on stage at a concert…. Leads to comment by Chris Evans saying Lemmy turned up to do an interview with a flight case of tequila:
Anthony Kiedis: You were impressed.
More chatter.
Anthony Kiedis: They’ve just immortalised him at the Rainbow Bar and Grill by re-naming the lounge the Lemmy Lounge… on Sunset Strip in Hollywood.
Comments about needing to go there.
Tom (?): They’ve changed the entire Rainbow name?
Anthony Kiedis: Not the entire name. They’ve changed the lounge which didn’t used to have a name and is now the Lenny Lounge.
Talk about being there… Goes abruptly into an advert and then the traffic news.
Chris Evans: We’re about to say goodbye to Anthony Kiedis. The single and album out today. Just before you go Anthony…
Anthony Kiedis: Yes…
Chris Evans: How good has rock ‘n’ roll been to you? Has it looked after you?
Anthony Kiedis: It’s been as good to me as gardening has been to the Queen.
Laughter
Chris Evans: Where did that come from?
Anthony Kiedis: Don’t know. I’m impressed with a 90 year old woman who’s still out and about.
Chris Evans: Talks about it being a big week for her with her birthday last week and it being Royal Ascot [a racing event where horses are made to compete and each year some die which is allegedly entertaining… Sorry I’m being political again!] this week. Chris Evans talks about her getting her energy from her mum (think she lived to 101?!! It was over 100.]
Anthony Kiedis: Nothing from her dad?
Chris Evans: Nothing from her dad but her love of racing from her mum.
Anthony Kiedis: Oh, OK. The love of racing, yeah.
Chris Evans talks about the Queen Mum and racing.
Anthony Kiedis: I hear there’s a race horse out there called the Red Hot Filly Pepper.
Chris Evans: Well, let’s find out if it’s running today… Listen Anthony, it’s a great to have you here. We all love you. We absolutely love you and your band.
Anthony Kiedis: The love is mutual. Thank you for having me.
Chris Evans: Mentions him paying the summer festivals.
Anthony Kiedis: All summer long; we’ll be playing the festivals. We’ll be Reading, we’ll be Leeds, we’ll be around.
Chris Evans: All good….thank you
Anthony Kiedis: Nice to meet you all. Beautiful singing (to Tom)
Ends with comments by guests about [Anthony’s] top being on.
Ends with Ace of Spades by Motorhead.
Photo: Henrik Lewandowski
