The year is 1991. I'm a Sophomore at Freemont High School in Sunnyvale California, living with my Father and my Aunt in a little, but comfortable house in the… well, shadier side of town. Surrounded by Graffiti, Gangs, Drugs and Violence. I again choose to find my escapes in Music. I'm into lot's of bands now, Nine Inch Nails, Jane's Addiction, Ministry, Body Count, Cypress Hill, DJ Quick, NWA, Suicidal Tendencies, Primus, Metallica and a laundry list of others. I had recently gone to the first Lollapalooza Tour that summer at Shoreline Amphitheater and it expanded my mind! I was beginning to attend allot of shows. The Grateful Dead, Metallica, Warrant, Trixter and Firehouse… hahaha, yeah that was a time! I went to a few indi Punk shows at The Cactus Club, One Step Beyond and the Gilman Street Project, where Tim Armstrong saved my life one night… but that's a totally different story for another day. Yea, I was enjoying allot of freedoms around the bay from the age of 14 on… But one thing had been escaping me! Seeing the Red Hot Chili Peppers LIVE!
Lemme take a step back real quick. In the summer of 1990, I spent some time working in my Grandfathers Automotive Wrecking Yard, cleaning, picking up bolts, aluminum cans, radiators and condensers, coil motors and other things I was shown to find. It was pretty fun, it was also how I earned the money to pay for my school clothes and other things that I wanted or needed. Like Skateboard decks, trucks, wheels, magazines, candy… drugs, yea… I know, I was just a kid, but if you remember back to my last entry. I was a kid who was now into Pot and well, it ain't free. Cheap… but not free. So anyhow, I decided to set aside some money for a new Sony DiskMan. My walkman had seen better days and finally gave out, so I was relying on my boom box to get me through. CD's were a new and fascinating technology that I had only just gotten a chance to slightly check out. During my Freshman year at Clovis West High School, some of the more "Well to Do" kids had gotten CD Players and CD's for Christmas, so as any other Teen would be, I was jealous and wanted one too. But, I wasn't going to steal one, I was going to earn it. And I did! I purchased a Sony Diskman, with a Cary bag and two CD's… The epic, "Ritual De Lo Habitual" by Jane's Addiction and "Pretty Hate Machine" by Nine Inch Nails. To this day, I can recite every lyric, verbatim from both of those albums because I listened to them so much. I still have them, to this day! Hahahaha! Just last night my Wife made mention that I still have the clothes I owned back then too… hahahaha! Well, I do! Nearly every concert T-Shirt I ever purchased hangs in my closet. With the exception of the ones stollen by ex-girlfriends and borrowed by friends. Hell, one of my friends OD'd in one of my Marilyn Manson T-Shirts some few years later, but that too is another story for another day.
So back to the story at hand, it's September 1991, I'm a Sophomore, my Favorite Band is the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who I have yet to see live and their "Hugely Anticipated" NEW Album is about to be released! But I don't have a dollar to my name except for the $5.00 my Dad gives me every morning to buy Lunch and a pack of smokes… Yea, I know 15 year old kids shouldn't be smoking either, but I've been a pack a day smoker for the last two years, most things in my life suck and wasn't a damn thing gonna change, so yea… My Dad covered my habit. I mean, what could he do? Everyone else in the house smoked and their were packs laying around everywhere. Well anyhow. So I'm broke, but my buddy Richard that smokes me out all the time and sells me dime bags is needing help selling off his most recent ounce of Bud. I'm like Bro, I can move some quick! What would be my cut if I did? He says, "I'll give you a quarter right now, you bring me back $60.00 bucks on Friday at lunch, over at Jakes." well, it's monday morning and we are on the city bus to school. So I'm like, "F' Yeah, let's do it!" Now, something I hadn't talked about earlier was that I finished out the Second Semester of my Freshman year at Homestead High School. I wanted to go to school with all of my beloved friends from Cherry Chase Elementary and Sunnyvale Jr. High. But I arrive mid-year to find that everyone had split up and were with new clicks and new friends, I tried like hell to fit in. But ultimately found myself hanging with the Stoners, Punks and Skaters at the 7'11 just down from the school, everyday at lunch. Now, the biggest difference about Homestead and Freemont kids… The Homestead Kids had Money and were fairly naive. I was about to use this to my advantage.
So now it's Tuesday morning and I'm on the bus, on my way to Freemont… Well, at-least that's what I told my Dad. See I was up most of the night, picking seeds out of the bud I had gotten, fluffing it up and individually bagging it up into little $10.00 sacks. I had made 10 little baggies that looked about a gram each, but if you know weed and math, then you know they were not… But boy did they look good and I was about to go into "Sales Mode" talking about the little red hairs and how good the high was. The bus I was on, the 55 was on it's way to Freemont, but had to stop at the bus depot at the mall, where I would get off and jump on the 22 that would take me over to Homestead, but I had some time to kill before lunch began at Homestead. So I got off around the corner from my Homie Linus' house, where he was already waiting to meet up with me, cause our plan was to go to Mango and smoke some weed.
Laying on your back on looking up at the sky, talkin' with your Best Friend about life, girls and music can take up quite a bit of time. We just barely made the bus to Homestead in time to hear the Lunch Bell ring and walk over to the 7'11. Where Jim, Rod, Scott, Jason and a few others were already lining up for their daily rations of Chili Cheese Dogs, Big Gulps, Slurpies and Cool Ranch Doritoes. Jim was the first one I talked to, I showed him a couple of sacks that I had and said I needed to move them quick for a friend, I played up the "Red Hairs" and fresh smell, showed him how green it was compared to that "Brown Crap" we had smoked a couple weeks earlier at Rod's house… He agreed and asked how much. I told him I'm supposed to sell them for $15.00 each, but could let him have 3 for $40.00. He was like, "Done deal Bro, gimmy 3 and hit Rod up too… But tell him $20.00 each so you can make back that $5.00." I agreed and went to talk to Rod. Now Rod was notorious for having dirt swag weed, he got it cheap all the time, we used to smoke it… But regretted it cause you ended up with a headache after. When I showed him what I had he flipped out! He picked up one on the spot for $20.00 and said he would get another tomorrow too, or if I wanted to drop by his house after school he had another $20.00 at his house. I agreed to drop by around 4:00. Now, I've already made the $60.00 I owed Richard, with a guaranteed $20.00 coming later that day, got my $5.00 lunch money and I'm about to talk to my boy Jason. I start to walk over to where he is sitting and he stops me in my tracks. "I want the same deal you gave Jim dude…" So, I said cool! Now, if you are doing your math, I've just made $100.00 cash, moved 7 lil' sacks and had another to drop off to Rod later that day. I look over to Linus, "Hey Man, you think Jim will give us a ride to Jake's?" "I dunno, I know he's done with school for the day…" "Hey, Jim! Can you do us a solid Bro, we need a ride back to Freemont before lunch ends, can you hook us up?" "Yea, no sweat… Let's bail."
We made it back to Jake's Pizza across from Freemont High School with 5min to spare. Linus and Jim chill out front and have a smoke as I head inside. Richard is sitting all the way in the back, eating some stinky ass Parmesan Cheese Fries and talking to Jodi. "Richard, man can I talk to you?" "Sure, what's up?" "Hey man, I got that $60.00 I owe you for those Tickets you got me… Here you go Man!" "No Shit!?!? Dude! Right F'n On!" "Yeah, Man. But hey I gotta bail, I got a couple friends outside and were gonna go to the Mall." "Alright Man, well have a good one and let me know if you would like to work tougher some more, I think it could be a good thing." "Alright Man, I'll see you in class tomorrow, Late." With that I bomb outside to see our Posse has gotten bigger. My Girlfriend Christy was sitting out front wondering why I wasn't in class this morning and if everything was cool. I pulled her off to the side filled her in on the details and she promised to clear my absence the next day. Man I was solid! Jim and Linus come up with the idea to head over to Roundtable at the Mall to hang out till everyone else get's outta school, then we can go over to Rod's… Not to mention, Jim and Linus wanna smoke a bowl on the way to the mall. The plan was set, we put it in motion and we were off!
By the time we got to the Mall we were all completely blazed. We attacked that salad bar like savages! I knew I had a limited window to go to the music store in the mall, so I left Jim and Linus there to enjoy the all you can eat goodness. I booked ass to the Musicland only to find that "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" came out that very Morning! Call it Fate, call it luck, call it whatever you will… To date, this is the only Album I purchased both on Tape and CD at the same time! Yea, I forked over almost $30.00 right there but I didn't care. I had to have it! I walked back over to the Roundtable looking at the cover art and liner art on the way. If you are familiar with this album and let's face it who isn't? You know that it is littered with Photo's and hand written lyrics. But it was the Photo's that captivated me… All these cool TATTOO'S!!! I had always liked Tattoo's and had even hand poked a couple onto myself by this point, but my love for the art grew even more that day! Linus had already gone and gotten his first tattoo a year earlier, I was envious. So that is what caused me to hand poke a couple easy to hide little ones on myself. So anyhow, I regroup with Jim and Linus and we all jump in the car to head over to Rod's house. I popped the tape into the deck, Jim cranked it up and we were off.
Side one had not even ended by the time we reached Rod's house, but none of us wanted to leave the car! We had never heard anything like it, never it's equal and we all loved our music! From the Door's to Anthrax, and The Rolling Stones to Ministry, we loved it all. But were completely hooked on what we were listening to. I think "Suck My Kiss" was blasting as we pulled into the driveway at Rod's place. He had been home for a few minutes when we pulled up, and came outside to see why we were still in the car. "Dude, what is this? Sounds Bad Ass!" He get's in the car and we decide to drive around a bit till the first side ended. We popped the tape out when side one ended and agreed to smoke and listen to the second half inside Rod's place. So we pulled back up into the drive way and went inside.
Now, for me and Linus this album damn near became the soundtrack for everything we did and every where we went for the next two years. It was amazing! "Hey Batter batter, hey batter, hey batter batter… Swing!!!" was like a chant we would echo walking to the store, driving to get smokes with Jackie, whatever we did. Memories so clear I can draw upon them in a moments notice when the music begins. Clearly this is the Chili's biggest commercial success and literally drop kicked them into every living room in the Nation and more likely the World. They grew from being a Semi known, but well loved Funky Ass Party Band to an over night Success! It's no wonder John couldn't handle it. But that was something that I would find out just before my 16th Birthday… Never the less, I made it a point to see them at Lollapalooza that Summer with "Arik Marshall" on Guitar. I finally got my LIVE fix and it blew my mind! It would be quite some years later till I saw them again. But this time with John on guitar and supporting an Album that would become nearly as Epic to me as "Blood Sugar" …"Californication" But that ladies and gentlemen, I will save for another long winded and entertaining entry to my ongoing Saga that is… "My Love for the Red Hot Chili Peppers".
Please Feel Free to enjoy the Entire Album "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" right now...
Peace!
