Top journalist reveals The uncomfortable truth about Anthony Kiedis Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis as He has yet to publically apologise for his…

Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis has lived an extraordinary life. Nothing about his existence has been ordinary, and his 2004 autobiography, Scar Tissue, reads like a work of fiction. There are plentiful tales from his book that are truly hard to comprehend. While this unconventional background has made him the fearless maverick able to strut around the stage with his band, there’s also a darker side to Kiedis’ life, including one despicable act he committed in his 20s.

To say that Kiedis lived through an abnormal childhood would be the understatement of the century. In truth, it’s a miracle that he is even alive today, let alone part of one of the most successful bands on the planet. However, the difficulties that he’s faced are no excuse for a track record of abhorrent behaviour.

Until he was 12, Kiedis lived a relatively normal, modest lifestyle in Michigan with his mother. However, every summer, he would visit his father in Hollywood for two weeks, and the insanity of California captivated him. When he made the decision to live with his father full-time, his childhood was immediately over.

At the time, Kiedis’ father was unsuccessfully attempting to make it as an actor, working under the alias of Blackie Dammett. However, in a bid of desperation, he turned to selling drugs to the stars when acting work failed to materialise. As a result, hard substances were around Kiedis from a young age, with him and his father regularly snorting cocaine together or smoking weed when the budding singer was barely a teenager

Harrowingly, the first time that Kiedis used heroin, he was just 14 years old. Understandably, it was a life-changing moment that occurred after mistaking the unidentified powder for cocaine in the house, which would lead to decades worth of opiate abuse.

The lines between right and wrong have been blurred in Kiedis’ head since childhood, a factor that continued into adulthood. Undoubtedly, he had a troubled upbringing, but the singer has also caused others significant trauma, which has likely stuck with them for the rest of their lives.

In 1986, Kiedis began a relationship with the actor Ione Skye, the daughter of Donovan, who was just 16 when they started dating, which meant she was a minor in the state of California. At the time, Kiedis was around 24, and the two stayed together for several years. Furthermore, Kiedis even included a nude picture of the couple in his autobiography. However, that relationship looks relatively innocuous in comparison to another that Kiedis owned up to in Scar Tissue, a relationship that inspired the Red Hot Chili Peppers song ‘Catholic School Girls Rule’. The material arrived after Keidies met a fan backstage at a concert in Louisana. They had a whirlwind romance, which continued even after he discovered her age.

The next day we drove to Baton Rouge, and of course, she came with us,” Kiedis wrote. “After we got offstage, she came up to me and said, ‘I have something to tell you. My father’s the chief of police and the entire state of Louisiana is looking for me because I’ve gone missing. Oh, and besides that, I’m only 14’.”

Kiedis continued: “I wasn’t incredibly scared, because, in my somewhat deluded mind, I knew that if she told the chief of police she was in love with me, he wasn’t going to have me taken out to a field and shot, but I did want to get her the hell back home right away. So we had sex one more time.”

Kiedis himself was statutorily raped by his father’s girlfriend when he was also 14, and his adolescence seemingly left him with a warped view of reality – and one that has proven to result in highly troubling incidents.

In 1989, in a separate incident, during the band’s Mother’s Milk tour, Kiedis was convicted of sexual battery after a show at George Mason University. According to the accusation, he exposed himself and touched his crotch to a woman’s face against her wishes. Kiedis was also convicted of indecent exposure and was fined $1,000 on each misdemeanour charge. An archived contemporary article from The Washington Post confirms the charge.

Kiedis claimed that the incident was “blown way out of proportion by both the media and the prosecution” immediately after. “It was a playful thing that happened backstage – there was never any harmful intention,” he added. “Speaking for my band and myself, we’re all very friendly people who would never want to hurt anybody or make people uncomfortable.”

While the incidents occurred over 30 years ago, Kiedis has yet to publically apologise for his actions and show remorse for what he did during his early adulthood. It also wouldn’t be the last time the Chili Peppers would be caught up in harassment claims or accusations of inappropriate behaviour. In a 2016 essay, former Epic Records executive Julie Farman described how two of the band members allegedly harassed her in the company’s storage room in 1990. That same year, Kiedis’ bandmates, Flea and Chad Smith, were arrested for lascivious behaviour, battery and disorderly conduct in 1990 after picking a woman out of the crowd and allegedly trying to rip off her bathing suit. The band had a reputation for being sex-obsessed party animals, but the music business too easily brushed it off as a personality gimmick, not an indicator of real-life actions.

Moreover, and a glimpse into what can easily be perceived as a total lack of remorse, the controversial song ‘Catholic Girls School Rule’ was brought out of retirement briefly by the band in 2007 despite the coarse subject matter, suggesting a lack of regret about his actions. These uncomfortable truths continue to be a dark cloud that hangs over his career.