Documentary Review: ‘The Rise Of The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel’

*Image of documentary poster taken from the internet and likely copyrighted

I was flipping around the different apps last night, looking for something to watch, when up popped a rockumentary entitled The Rise Of The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel. On doing some research I found out that this thing came out in March of this year but I hadn’t heard a word about it until stumbling upon it last night.

The doc was co-produced by Hillel’s brother James who features in interview sequences. Most of the band also participates, narrating the story through interviews. Anthony Kiedis and Flea provide a lot of the commentary about the early days of the band, along with former drummer Jack Irons. John Frusciante also gets interviewed in the documentary but his viewpoint is that of a fan of Hillel’s as opposed to a friend and confidante.

From what I’ve read – perhaps the band didn’t push this thing on their social media platforms (or maybe I just missed it) – because they’ve said they appeared in the doc out of “love and respect for Hillel” but it is no way a documentary of the band. I was stunned I hadn’t heard about it until last night.

When the band speaks about “love and respect for Hillel,” I have to say that comes through in spades here. You can tell the genuine affection the band has for their erstwhile, fallen bandmate. While Hillel’s story can be considered tragic, this tale is told with a lot of joy. I really dug this rockumentary.

As the title implies, the doc starts with the Chili Peppers in high school and follows their “rise.” It tells the story of how Flea, known as Mike or Micheal back then, and Anthony became friends. They soon became pals with guitarist Hillel Slovak who had been born in Israel and transplanted to L.A. and was in an actual band! He got Flea to change from trumpet to bass guitar so he could join the band…and of course Flea then became the greatest bassist of his generation.

Those guys were all only a couple of years older than me. My dad was born in L.A. and I like to think if his parents had remained out there, rather than returning to the midwest, I might have gone to high school with these guys. Who knows, I might have ended up in the band… despite no musical talent… maybe I could have played triangle.

These three friends really had an amazing chemistry. The doc takes us through their early days of mayhem and rock n roll. Hillel and Flea (and Jack Irons for that matter) all joined and left different bands before coalescing as the RHCPs. They go in depth about Hillel and Flea’s first band Anthym which I was unaware of, which seems to be a theme here.

Hillel and drummer Jack Irons ended up joining Flea and Anthony on stage – with Kiedis taking on lead “vocals” – as a gag. Turns out their chemistry translated and the fans loved them. Hillel and Jack were also in a band called What It Is and when both bands got contract offers, they chose the other band.

Eventually, first Hillel and then Irons quit What It Is and joined the Peppers. They recorded what should have been the Chili’s breakout record The Uplift Mofo Party Plan in 1987. Alas, that’s when tragedy struck and Hillel overdosed. Both he and Kiedis struggled mightily with heroin addiction.

I really enjoyed hearing Anthony and Flea talk about those early days and their friendship with Hillel. Although I have to ask, is Kiedis wearing a toupee these days? These guys have nothing but mad love for each other and it shows. The energy and madness of their early music and tours is well documented and fun to watch. You can feel the potential.

A lot of fans didn’t get on the RHCP bandwagon until Frusciante replaced Hillel and they recorded Mother’s Milk. I had a friend tell me once he “hated their early rap stuff.” I was a late adopter to the Peppers but once I was on the band wagon I went crashing through their catalog which took me back to those early records and I love those things. “Catholic School Girls Rule,” indeed.

Slovak was such an elastic player. It would have been interesting to see where his style would have taken the band. Frusciante comes on and talks about what a huge fan of Hillel’s he was, and how much of his early playing was simply trying to emulate Slovak’s signature style. Hillel was just so funky!

I don’t know how much new material this adds to the legend of the early Chili Peppers but I found it an engaging watch. So many people are fans of the latter day Peppers – they’re rock royalty now – I thought it was fun to see the footage of them as struggling up and comers. They certainly had a ball.

I enjoyed this with a tumbler of something strong and would recommend this one to every fan of the band and of that 80s alternative rock n roll that I frankly missed out on at the time. But my musical spelunking took me back there and I found it as rewarding as this documentary! Enjoy!

Cheers!