Getting ready for Red Hot Tel Aviv
Red Hot Chili Peppers play up their ‘excitement and thrill’ to be coming to Israel, birthplace of their original guitarist
Gavriel Fiske is a reporter at The Times of Israel
Internationally acclaimed rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers are pumping for their upcoming Tel Aviv gig, telling fans they can’t wait to make their Israeli debut.
The band are scheduled to play September 10, and have resisted boycott activists’ calls to cancel the show. A planned performance 10 years ago was canceled due to security concerns.
In a recently released promo video for the event, bassist Flea and singer Anthony Kiedis fondly remember original RHCP guitarist Hillel Slovak, who was born in Haifa but moved with his family to Los Angeles at a young age, where he met the other original Red Hot Chili Peppers in high school.
Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988 after the release of the band’s first two albums, which were modest successes.
Deciding to forge on after that tragedy, the Red Hot Chili Peppers became a worldwide phenomenon with the release of their 1991 Rick Rubin-produced fourth album, “Blood Sugar Sex Magic,” which took their rock-funk hybrid sound to arenas around the world.
Tickets for the Tel Aviv show are already on sale with prices ranging from NIS 320-1,200.
Other high-profile rock acts with upcoming shows in Israel include Morissey, Ian Anderson and Lenny Kravitz.
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