Anthony Kiedis

Kiedis is the son of actor John Michael Kiedis, who worked under the name Blackie Dammett, and Margaret "Peggy" Nobel. His parents divorced when he was three, and he spent his early childhood with his mother in Grand Rapids before moving to Hollywood to live with his father shortly before his twelfth birthday. Dammett died in 2021. Kiedis also has a much younger half-brother.

Kiedis was in a relationship with Heather Christie from 2004 to 2008, and they have one child, a son named Everly Bear, who was born on October 2, 2007. Kiedis and Everly appeared together in the documentary Bob and the Monster and in a 2015 Marc Jacobs advertising campaign.

While attending Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, Kiedis became friends with Michael "Flea" Balzary. He also met guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons, and the four musicians eventually formed the group that became Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis initially worked as a stage performer and master of ceremonies before developing the rapping and singing style that became central to the band.

The group first performed under the name Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem, with a repertoire that included "Out in L.A." The band soon adopted the name Red Hot Chili Peppers and secured a recording contract with EMI. Kiedis and Flea continued with the group after Slovak and Irons left, and the lineup later included guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith.

Kiedis has recorded thirteen studio albums with Red Hot Chili Peppers. The band's breakthrough album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991), included "Under the Bridge", which reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and sold more than seven million copies in the United States.

His early vocal approach emphasized rap and rhythmic delivery, while albums such as Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik introduced more melodic singing. Kiedis writes most of the band's lyrics and has drawn on subjects including Los Angeles, addiction, love and loss. Red Hot Chili Peppers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, and Kiedis received the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement from UCLA in 2015.

Kiedis began acting as a teenager under the name Cole Dammett, following the stage name used by his father. His first film role was in F.I.S.T. (1978), in which he played the son of Sylvester Stallone's character. He also appeared in the television special It's a Mile from Here to Glory and the film Jokes My Folks Never Told Me.

As an adult, Kiedis played Tone in Point Break (1991) and appeared with Flea in The Chase (1994). He and Flea were executive producers of Low Down (2014), and Kiedis co-authored the 2004 autobiography Scar Tissue with Larry Sloman. The memoir became an international bestseller. Kiedis later became an executive producer and voice actor for the planned animated series Hellicious.

Kiedis has written and spoken about a long struggle with heroin and cocaine addiction. He entered rehabilitation after Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988, but later relapsed. He has maintained that he has been clean since 2000, and addiction and recovery became recurring themes in his songwriting and memoir.

In 2016, Kiedis was hospitalized with intestinal flu and described the illness as inflammation in his intestines complicated by a stomach virus and scar tissue from earlier hernia operations. He also underwent surgery in 2012 to remove a crushed sesamoid bone and repair a detached flexor tendon. In 1990, he was convicted of indecent exposure and sexual battery after an incident at George Mason University and was fined on both misdemeanor charges.