Flea Issues Statement On Anthony Kiedis, Fans Fear The Worst For RHCP Frontman

Music

Flea is speaking out about the sudden hospitalization of his Red Hot Chili Peppers bandmate Anthony Kiedis. According to Alt Press, after the RHCP frontman was rushed to the hospital right before the band was scheduled to play a festival in Irvine, California, on Saturday, Flea was recorded telling the crowd the band was devastated by the turn of events.

“Anthony is on his way to the hospital right now and we’re unable to play for you this evening,” Flea told fans. “We are devastated about it. We’re really sad, we love you so much. We live to rock. We live to f**king dig deep into the depths of our heart and rock. But unfortunately, there’s a medical thing that happened and he needed to deal with it. We will play for you very soon, we will play for you like the feral animals that we are, and we’re so sorry.”

In addition to Flea, RHCP drummer Chad Smith took to Twitter to write that the band was disappointed that they were unable to play the show. Smith wished a “speedy recovery” to the singer.

Kiedis was reportedly suffering from extreme stomach pain before the Chili Peppers were scheduled to play at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre and was rushed to a local hospital. While there is still no word on the cause of Anthony’s “medical thing,” fans are concerned by the situation.

Flea, Kiedis, guitarist Hillel Slovak, and drummer Jack Irons formed the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1983. Flea has been vocal about the band’s rampant drug use in their early days — Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988 — but both Flea and Anthony have been clean for years. The band even sang about their drug struggles in the 1991 hit song “Under the Bridge,” and Kiedis wrote about his battle with drug addiction in his 2004 memoir, Scar Tissue.

Still, in the aftermath of Prince’s sudden death, which came shortly after an unexplained, emergency hospitalization, fans are hoping there isn’t more to this ailing rock star’s story.

Flea has been especially candid about his past heroin use. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Flea revealed that he was able to prepare for his role in the movie Low Down by pretending to do heroin because the memories are still so vivid. Flea played jazz pianist Joe Albany in the film, a musician who also regularly did heroin. While Flea hasn’t touched hard drugs since 1992, he said recreating the act was easy for him.

“I could taste it and feel it,” Flea revealed. “It wasn’t emotionally hard to go back to that part of my life for the role.”

Still Flea and his RHCP bandmates have long moved past their partying days.

“At this point in my life, I’m basically a pretty together dude,” Flea said. “I don’t drink or smoke or do drugs. I exercise, I have a big career, I’m a parent and I run a music school…I was never a junkie. I was never strung out, but I did stop doing drugs. In ’92 I got really sick and I just wanted to be healthy because, even though I did drugs and stuff, I played basketball every day and jammed with my buddies. I got chronic fatigue … So I was like whatever it takes I just wanted to clean my body out completely and be healthy. I just stayed that way.”

Fans hope the same can be said for Kiedis as they wait to hear an update on why he was hospitalized so suddenly.

You can listen to Flea’s announcement about the Chili Peppers frontman in the video below (Warning: NSFW language).

[Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for DirecTV]