Greatest Hits Red Hot Chili Peppers -

The second new track came from a darker place. John played a riff that sounded like a siren, and Anthony wrote about a friend who’d just relapsed—a man who called from a payphone, voice wet and shaking, saying he’d lost everything again. Save the Population . The chorus was a desperate prayer: “I want to save the population / But I can’t save myself.”

“They’re the best we’ve done in years,” Anthony said. “And that’s the problem.” greatest hits red hot chili peppers

“They’re good,” Chad said quietly. The second new track came from a darker place

Flea unfolded himself. “Then let’s write something we haven’t written before.” The chorus was a desperate prayer: “I want

Anthony Kiedis stared at the tracklist on the studio wall, a strip of gaffer tape with twenty names scrawled in four different colors of marker. Flea sat upside down on a couch, his legs hooked over the back, blood rushing to his bald head. John Frusciante tuned his ’62 Stratocaster for the seventh time that hour. Chad Smith drummed paradiddles on his own knees, impatient.

In 2004, they played a secret show at the Viper Room. No cameras. Just the four of them, sweating, laughing, screwing up the bridge to Soul to Squeeze . Afterward, on the curb, John lit a cigarette and looked up at the Hollywood sign, its letters glowing like a lie worth believing.