Anthony on the cover of Blender Maga

Anthony Kiedis on Becoming the Rolling Stones and Watching Porn
Anthony Kiedis and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are nominated for six Grammy awards, including Album of the Year. Kiedis sat down with Blender magazine to discuss the Grammy nominations and a few other topics. The current issue hits news stands on February 13th.

On being recognized by the recording industry: "It"s a thrill to hear that the two years we dedicated to making this record mattered. But the ultimate moment of joy and approval happens the minute we write a song. It's the minute Chad hears something in John's playing and I start hearing a melody - and then by the end of the day we have a song."

On becoming the next Rolling Stones: "They've made great music, but they don't seem like something I'd like us to be. They don't seem to have a real band unity. I don't know that they enjoy the process as much."

On his addictive personality: "When I finally got a computer, I discovered this limitless world of pornography. And I realized the feeling that I was having was like the feeling that I used to get when I'd go score drugs. I actually had to make a commitment to myself to stop,"

On his musical taste: "The majority of the music that I love comes from people who are in rebellion against the physical part of their lives. Joey Ramone, for instance. But I think the two go together great. There's something absolutely freeing about being able to turn your body into a whirling dervish. There's a reason why people have danced for 20,000 years. Dancing gets the attention of the spirits."

Giorgio Armani Prive in L.A. 25.02.2007.

Paparazzi pics - RHCP at Claridge's Hotel 15.02.2007.

CHILI PEPPERS CAUGHT UP IN LIVE PENIS GAFFE AT THE GRAMMYS

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS turned the air blue on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles last night when they forgot an interview was going live to US homes. The group was being interviewed by E! NEWS host RYAN SEACREST when frontman ANTHONY KIEDIS sprayed Silly String all over the broadcaster. In an attempt to brush the mess off Seacrest, bassist FLEA inadvertently touched the presenter's genitals, and then joked, "Is that your c**k down there." Red-faced Seacrest had to remind the group his broadcast was going out live.

RHCP WANTS YOU TO MAKE THEIR VIDEO

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have launched a contest on video-sharing website YouTube that gives fans the opportunity to create the official video for "Charlie," from Stadium Arcadium. The winner of the contest will receive 5,000 dollars and a trip to meet the Red Hot Chili Peppers and see them perform live in Paris, France on July 6th.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are reaching out to their fans and budding directors to create a video from STADIUM ARCADIUM after seeing so many creative videos for their songs on sites like YouTube. "Videos are harder than they look. It's very very rare and beautiful and monumental when someone makes a truly good video...this is an opportunity to have that happen for this song," says Anthony Kiedis.

The winning video will be the "official" video for the song. To enter the contest, which runs through April 20th, eligible entrants should visit or http://www.youtube.com/group/RHCPcontest or http://contest.warnerbrosrecords.com/RHCP and follow the instructions to upload their video entry. The contest is open to entrants from the United States, UK, Germany, Australia, Canada and Sweden.

Red hot chili peppers played first gig 6000 years ago

New evidence found by biologists shows that people living in the spicier regions of the world were eating chili peppers as early as 4000 BCE. What's more, they were using them in very much the same ways and the same regions as they are today.

Some regions of South America today have a largely maize-based diet often spiced with chili peppers. New research shows similar food was being eaten 6000 years ago.

Researchers, including a paleoethnobotanist at the University of Missouri-Columbia, recently found fossil evidence in seven archaeological sites ranging from the Bahamas to present-day Peru that showed people were eating domesticated chili peppers as long as 6,000 years ago. This makes chili peppers one of the oldest domesticated food sources in the Americas. The study will be published in the Feb. 15 edition of the journal Science.


By analyzing the grains on cooking tools, researchers were able to determine that people used the same grinding stones to grind corn, chili peppers and a root crop called manioc, and they probably combined these ingredients to make soups, stews and other dishes. Deborah Pearsall, professor of anthropology in MU's College of Arts and Science, found evidence of this diet on grinding stones from four ancient households at Real Alto, leading her to conclude that these foods were eaten by everyone, not just the commoners or the elites.

"Before our research, there wasn't much archaeological evidence to show that prehistoric people in Central and South America were eating domesticated chili peppers," said Professor Pearsall. "Chili peppers don't preserve well because when you cook with them, you eat most of them; you don't have husks or shells that are thrown away and preserved. That's why we used a technique that involved analyzing microscopic starch grains on cooking and grinding tools to find this new evidence."

Professor Pearsall, who studied tools from sites in Ecuador and the Bahamas, teamed with a group of scientists doing research in various locations in Central and South America; the project was led by Linda Perry, a research associate at the Smithsonian National Museum of Nature History's Archaeobiology Program. Perry discovered an unknown microfossil starch grain while doing research in Venezuela, and when the other researchers compared notes, they realized that their work in the Bahamas, Panama, Ecuador and Peru also revealed the same unknown starch grain. After studying the starches of many domesticated and wild plants, Perry determined that the mystery starch was a chili pepper.

"We knew from historic and ethnographic records that people were eating domesticated chili peppers, but this archaeological evidence confirms those findings. It also shows us that chili peppers are one of the oldest domesticated food sources in the Americas and that people in distant areas all ate them. This suggests that these groups might have had some type of contact with each other," Professor Pearsall said.

Loma Alta and Real Alto, the sites in southwestern Ecuador studied by Pearsall, turned up the oldest starch of domesticated chili peppers, at approximately 6,000 years old. Starch of the peppers in other sites ranged from approximately 5,600 years to 500 years old. Under a microscope, the starch grains appeared as large, flattened disks with shallow central depressions, different from the appearance of starch grains from other foods.

Plea to death crash driver

Police are calling for the driver of a car that allegedly struck and killed an 18-year-old South Korean student queuing for concert tickets in Whangarei to hand themselves in.


Sang Je Lee, who was in his third year of study at Whangarei's Pompallier College, had been queuing with friends for tickets to the coming Red Hot Chili Peppers concerts in Auckland when he was struck by a car about 3.25am yesterday while lying in the car park next to the Rebel Sports complex.

Detective Shane Pilmer, of Whangarei, said it was not known how Mr Lee had come to be lying in the middle of the car park, but said it may have been something as innocent as "looking at the stars".

He urged the driver of the car and their passenger to come forward.

"They may have panicked and thought the best action was to take flight ... but they've had time to think about it now."

Though there were up to 30 fans queuing for tickets at the time, none of those spoken to saw Mr Lee being run over, Mr Pilmer said.

"They heard a loud bang, which was the incident between the victim and the vehicle ... then a screech of tyres".

A grey or gun-metal grey Nissan Skyline was then seen leaving the car park at high speed, he said.

Fans raced to Mr Lee's aid and an ambulance was called, but he died in Whangarei Hospital soon after 9.30am.

Preliminary autopsy results showed that he died of shock, from massive internal bleeding to his injured spleen, liver and lungs. He was also thought to have suffered multiple broken bones.

The incident had shocked the American rock band, a representative said. "The band's hearts and prayers are with the family at this sad time."

The band's New Zealand and Australian tour promoter, Michael Coppel, also expressed his sympathy to the parents, family and friends of the young Northland fan.

Mr Lee had been living with relatives in Whangarei while completing his secondary school education. His parents, who live in South Korea, had been told of his death and were on their way to New Zealand, Mr Pilmer said.

Sang Je, was an outgoing boy and a thriving student at Pompallier Catholic College, his host father Byung Kuoog Kim told the New Zealand Herald.

He said Sang Je had been part of his family, had enjoyed golf, soccer and hockey, and had excelled in chemistry.

Sang Je's mother had given her only child money for the Auckland concert ticket as a present for his 19th birthday.

Rebel Sports' Whangarei manager, Frazer Hoani, said that despite the tragedy, fans continued to queue outside and ticket sales went ahead as planned when the store opened.

Mr Hoani said he did not realise how serious the incident was till late in the morning.

Tickets to the Red Hot Chili Pepper's two concerts - on April 21 and 22 at Auckland's Vector Arena - sold out in just 20 minutes, with 80 per cent sold over the internet.

SHOCKED: The Red Hot Chili Peppers have sent their condolences to the family of a Kiwi fan who was killed in a hit-and-run accident while waiting for tickets to the band's upcoming shows in April.