Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis discussed the stories behind the band’s album covers in a new Woody Show Q&A. He discussed John Frusciante’s dream inspiring an album cover.
“As far as the album covers, we all chip in, in one way or another. I can tell you that the Mother’s Milk cover was directly inspired by a Sly and the Family Stone poster. I was in love with Sly in the 80’s, and he had a poster where he was standing large and holding his band. I thought, how cool would it be if there was a big beautiful woman holding us? So it was kind of a steal and ode to Sly Stone, that particular cover.”
“We had a cover that came to [John] Frusciante in a dream, Californication. That was his dream, that the sky, and the way the water [looked the way it did].”
Chad said, “Flea saw it somewhere, The Getaway image.”
Anthony responded, “Yes, on Tumblr.”
“He was like, ‘Hey, does anyone know who did this? Because I really like it.'”
Kiedis also discussed the band finding out things about each other that they wouldn’t want the world to know about.
“You really don’t want to start painting too vivid of a portrait right now, but I can tell you that everything under the sun has been discovered about one another, due to that proximity.”
He added, “I think we all have things that we wish the world didn’t know about us, but something beauitiful does happen when you get found out, and then people accept you anyways. Like, ‘Oh, you’re a total freak and you do that, and that’s weird, but hey I still love you.’ That’s part of being in a band. We all have that, we’re all full of our mistakes, and our foibles, and our shortcomings, and our misshapen psychological patterns and what not. But in the end, we accept.”
