Early years and musical beginnings
Hillel Slovak was born in Haifa, Israel.The family emigrated to the U.S. when Slovak was five years old.They settled in the Queens borough of New York City, then in 1967 relocated to Southern California.He attended Laurel Elementary School in West Hollywood and Bancroft Jr. High School in Hollywood, where he met future bandmates Jack Irons and Michael "Flea" Balzary.Slovak received his first guitar at age 13 as a present, and would often play the instrument into the late hours of the night.
Slovak formed a band with Irons on drums and two other high school friends, Alain Johannes and Todd Strassman at Fairfax High School,. They called their band Chain Reaction, then changed the name to Anthym. After one of the group's shows, Slovak met audience member Anthony Kiedis, and invited him to his house.Kiedis later described: "Within a few minutes of hanging out with Hillel, I sensed that he was absolutely different from most of the people I'd spent time with...He understood a lot about music, he was a great visual artist, and he had a sense of self and a calm about him that were just riveting."Slovak, Kiedis, and Flea became best friends (and often used drugs).
.jpg)
Slovak began teaching Flea to play bass... When Strassman saw Flea playing Anthym songs on his gear he quit the band.Shortly thereafter, Anthym entered a local Battle of the Bands contest and won second place.Anthym started to play at local nightclubs, despite the fact that the members were all underage. After graduating from high school, the band changed their name to What Is This?. Flea left Anthym around this time to accept an offer of playing bass in the prominent L.A. punk band Fear. What Is This? continued on and performed many shows along the California coast.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Slovak, Kiedis, and Flea began to create their own music after finding inspiration in a punk-funk fusion band called Defunkt.The three formed a band with former Anthym-drummer Jack Irons called Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem. The band had only one song, entitled "Out in L.A.".The song was based on a guitar riff that Slovak wrote while "jamming" with Irons, and was not meant to become a real song until Kiedis decided to rap over the music.Following the group's first show at The Rhythm Lounge, the owner of the bar asked them to return, but with two songs instead of one. After several more shows, and the addition of several songs to their repertoire, the band's name was changed to Red Hot Chili Peppers.Kiedis began writing songs such as "Green Heaven" and "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes", and the band's concert repertoire quickly grew to nine songs.Over the course of the next six months, the Red Hot Chili Peppers played many shows in L.A. clubs and became something of an underground hit.
.jpg)
Slovak, Kiedis, and Flea moved into a small house in a high-crime area in Hollywood where they collaborated musically and continued their drug addictions.The threesome traveled to New York City to perform more shows and to "spread Chili Pepperdom".The Red Hot Chili Peppers entered Bijou Studios to record a demo tape and subsequently secured a record deal with EMI.Flea left Fear to pursue the Red Hot Chili Peppers. At the same time, What Is This? had also gotten a record deal.
Slovak considered the Chili Peppers to merely be a side project and not a serious commitment, he left them to concentrate on What Is This?Flea ultimately respected the decision, but felt the band would suffer musically without them. He and Kiedis hired drummer Cliff Martinez and guitarist Jack Sherman to fill Irons' and Slovak's places, respectively.During the recording of the second What Is This? album, Slovak became frustrated with the band and contacted Flea about rejoining the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This came at an opportune time, as the group was dissatisfied with Slovak's replacement. When Flea asked Kiedis how he felt about Slovak rejoining the band, Kiedis responded by saying "I'd give my firstborn son to get him back in the band."After the culmination of the promotional tour for their first album, Slovak rejoined the band.
Slovak returned to the Chili Peppers for their second album, Freaky Styley, which was released on August 16, 1985. What Is This? had finally disbanded, and Irons returned to the Chili Peppers in mid 1986. Flea, Slovak and Kiedis were involved in heavy drug use and their relationships became strained. When Slovak was under the influence, he would often wear brightly colored clothing and dance in a "shuffling" fashion, which became the inspiration for the song "Skinny Sweaty Man".After Kiedis completed a stint in rehab, he rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Los Angeles to record their third album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. Slovak felt a deep connection to the album; he reflected in his diary "It was so fun. I'm so extremely proud of everybody's work - it is at times genius."Slovak was the subject of the songs "Skinny Sweaty Man", "Me and My Friends", & "No Chump Love Sucker". He was nicknamed "Slim Bob Billy", "Slim", or "Huckleberry", and throughout the albums Kiedis calls him by these nicknames before he starts a guitar solo. On The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, Slovak experimented with different musical styles, playing the sitar on the song "Behind the Sun".
Slovak and Kiedis became addicted to heroin early in their careers, and Slovak often attempted to conceal his addiction from his friends and family.The band generally was more worried about Kiedis' addiction, which was much more open and noticeable to the other members, while Slovak was "much more subtle and much more cunning in his disguise."During the tour in support of Freaky Styley, Slovak's health began to deteriorate. Slovak and Flea would wrestle regularly on tour, but Slovak became too weak to participate. "A roadie of the band who was concerned for Slovak's health contacted his brother, James, who had been unaware that Slovak had ever used heroin.Deciding to give sobriety a chance, both Kiedis and Slovak stopped using prior to their European tour in support of The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, and decided to help each other "steer clear" of heroin.An entry from Slovak's diary on January 21, 1988 discusses his attempts to "begin a new drug-free phase of [his] life".During the tour both experienced intense heroin withdrawal, with Slovak much more unstable than Kiedis. His withdrawal symptoms took a toll on his ability to play his instrument; at one point Slovak had a mental breakdown and was unable to play a show, leaving the rest of the band to play an entire set with no guitar.He recovered a few days later, but was briefly kicked out of the band and replaced by DeWayne McKnight for a few shows.After a few days with McKnight, the band decided to give Slovak another chance, and he rejoined for the European leg of the tour.
Slovak's returning home, isolated himself from the rest of his bandmates, and struggled to resist the drug without the mutual support provided by his friends, Kiedis in particular.He stopped painting and writing in his diary during this time, and little is known about his life the weeks following the tour, aside from a phone call to his brother on June 24, in which Slovak told him that he was having difficulty staying clean despite his desire to stop using.A few weeks after the band returned from the tour, the members attempted to get in contact with Slovak, but were unable to find him for several days.Slovak was found dead by police in his Hollywood apartment on June 27, 1988.After his autopsy, authorities determined that he had died two days earlier on June 25, 1988 due to a heroin overdose.He is interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California.
Slovak's last recording, a cover version of The Jimi Hendrix Experience song "Fire", would later appear in The Abbey Road E.P. and album Mothers Milk. Kiedis and Flea decided to continue making music, hoping to continue what Slovak "helped build".
Musical style and legacy
Slovak was primarily influenced by rock artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Santana, and Led Zeppelin.His playing method was highly based on improvisation, a style commonly used in funk music.He also was noted for his aggressive playing style and he would often play with such force that his fingers would "come apart."Kiedis observed that his playing evolved during his time away from the group in What Is This?, with Slovak adopting a more fluid style featuring "sultry" elements as opposed to his original hard rock techniques.On Uplift, Slovak experimented with genres outside of traditional funk music including reggae and speed metal.His guitar riffs would often serve as the basis of the group's songs, with the other members writing their parts to complement his guitar work. His melodic riff featured in the song "Behind the Sun" inspired the group to create songs with an emphasis on melody.Kiedis describes the song as "pure Hillel inspiration".
Slovak also used a talk box on songs such as "Green Heaven" and "Funky Crime", in which the sounds of his amplified guitar would be played through a tube into his mouth and then back into a microphone, creating psychedelic voice-like effects.Slovak helped to incorporate new sounds in the group's work, including adding occasional drum machines. Despite the fact that the group billed itself as "The Organic Anti-Beat Box Band", Kiedis states that Slovak showed the group that drum machines could be used as artistic instruments.Slovak's work was one of the major contributing factors to the Red Hot Chili Peppers' early sound.Flea, who originally listened exclusively to jazz, saying that "it was Hillel who first got me into hard rockin'".He was also a huge influence on a young John Frusciante.Frusciante based a lot of his playing style on Slovak's work, and explained,"I learned everything I needed to know about how to sound good with Flea by studying Hillel's playing.
.jpg)
The songs "Knock Me Down" and "My Lovely Man" were written as tributes to Slovak.His fantastic work still lives through the music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The memory of Hillel is honored every time John plays. With Hillel Slovak died a great artist and an incredible musician.
In 1999, a book titled Behind the Sun: The Diary and Art of Hillel Slovak was published. The book was authored by Slovak's brother, James Slovak, and features writings from his brother's diaries, paintings, photos and hand written notes from Kiedis and Flea.
On December 7, 2011, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were announced as 2012 inductees to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Anthony Kiedis in a interview that same day said it was very emotional but mostly because of Hillel. He said it's really Slovak's induction that he's most excited about. "He's a beautiful person that picked up a guitar in the 1970s and didn't make it out of the 1980s, and he is getting honored for his beauty" Kiedis said. Flea echoed those comments on the same day by saying “Hillel grew up loving rock and roll so much, he hasn’t been here for some time, but I know how much it would mean to him. It’s a powerful thing."Hillel was a huge influence on my life. Were it not for him, I would never had began to play the bass...Hillel is always with me and my love for him only grows stronger with time.
.png "English"){kind=small}
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)