Best voted letters to Anthony Kiedis
Dear Anthony Kiedis,
I know you don't know me, and I suppose I don't know you, but I think that in a very strange way I have come to know who you are. Maybe we knew each other in a past life, or maybe you and our connection was meant to be in some way, but I wanted to let you know I was out here, and that you mean something very profound in my life. Your life has been an inspiration to me, a muse, and a point of focus to my own. I relate to you like I have never related to anyone else, despite how vastly different our lives have been. My first introduction to you was on my thirteenth birthday. I was living in Arizona on a farm on fourty acres of land, spending most of my time alone save for my Dad, the most important person in my life. Being the enthusiast he is, this particular day he had bought your CD Stadium Arcadium, and he was about to do dishes, so he put in the jupiter disc
and turned it on really loud. One of the good things about living in the middle of nowhere is that you can blast the music, and no one cares. I was sick with a cold this birthday, an annoying habit my body was doing, and I was fooling around on the computer because I couldn't really convince myself to do much else. When the CD started playing, I perked up a bit, feeling much better. I'm not honestly sure what it was about that music or that moment that made such an impact on me, but I remember that moment listening to Dani California for the first time as though it was yesterday, and it was the beginning of a very important psychological journey for me that is continuing today.
I am an artist, always have been, always will be. I can't remember a time when I wasn't, probably because there wasn't one. So my journey with your music has been most of all an artistic experience. It inspires me and helps me create,
helps allow the universe to feed me the inspiration required to dream and create the art that I have in my life. I'm not going to say I am an incredible artist, I am still learning the tools to create, and I am only eighteen. But being tapped into the creative flow has been a talent of mine for a long time that many people struggle with it. I owe a lot of my ease in this world to my parents allowing me to be who I am, but I think I mostly started out this way. But everyone struggles to get in the flow sometimes, and one of my methods to do so is to listen to music. For whatever reason, your music connects me to that mood faster than anything else. I try not to say that I get obsessed with things because I don't think that's what it is. But I fixated on your music stronger than anything else. I have to tell you, it is in my nature to get attatched to things, and I have done it to many things in my life, but after a few years the fixation usually fades, especially with music. I grew and changed and the
music would have to with me. But ever since that day on my thirteenth birthday, your band has been a constant. A couple years after aquiring Stadium Arcadium, I went in search of more of your music, and ended up buying all your CD's over time. Sometime this year, I was wandering through the Barnes in Noble in Boston as book stores are my favorite haunts for my creative mind. Out of the blue I looked down, and by this time I'd gotten pretty familiar with your face, and there you were. I can't tell you how surprised I was honestly. Just about as surprised as I was to see Flea's face when I randomly turned on the TV once. I spent the first five minutes in disbelief, but my facial recognition is too good for it not to be him. So instead I laughed. Your book was obviously much easier to recognize because hanging by a rope was clearly your style. I picked it up and read the first chapter in the bookstore. I was hooked by then, so I bought it and read the rest of it. By the
way, it is a really well written book. It is such an amazing feeling to finally know the story of a person you have been more or less thinking about for five years. Somehow wikipedia never cut it for me. I have to say, there was very little in your story that surprised me, you were exactly who I thought you were, and that made me more convinced that we had some sort of connection. There are little parallels in our lives that are hard to explain exactly. Sometimes I feel like a fool for making those connections. Hundreds of people could have picked out those things, but it's not a feeling that is easy to shake either.
The most obvious connection is that we are both Scorpios. I realize that is a small thing to be excited about, but I think in some way that has given me a lot more insight in to who you are and how you feel. When I was reading your book, I knew why you made the choices you did, it made sense. If I lived your life I might do all the same.
The weirdest part about that is I had suspicions that you were a scorpio long before I ever found out. It was a random chance event actually. I scrolled over a picture of you with a necklace with the scorpio symbol on it. I don't even know how I came across that image, but it made a lot of your music click for me all the sudden. I spent a lot of time just enjoying the sound and the poetry, but not necessarily knowing or even caring what you were saying because that wasn't the important part that lead me to my creative space. But I had always enjoyed the lyrics, and when I found out you were the same sign as me, I began to see where it connected to you, and reading your book has given me so much insight to the words, that your music is so much more to me now. Because I love astrology and you gave me all the information I needed to do it, I looked up your chart. More parallels started to show up. We both have Sagittarius energy, we both have venus scorpios,
and you had libra energy which is something I admire in my dad. My dad is a libra, and he was born a year after you. Because of this, he grew up in the same times you did, and while his life was also very different than yours, being a military brat (it didn't rub off on him at all) he listened to the same music, and was part of the revolution of a changing society. I have heard a lot of stories from his child hood, and got a pretty good feel for what life was like energetically then, and your book only reiterated what I had felt about his stories. That particular time period actually feels very comforting to me, and the people who came out of it on the leading edge of change like my dad and you have always felt like the best kind of people. I wonder if perhaps I would have belonged in that generation more than I do in my own.
There have been several other things that relates your band to my life. I realize none of these connections would make a regular person feel like
there was purpose there, but I have never found my intuition to be wrong, and it tells me that in some way I was meant to fall in love with your music, and your music was meant to inspire my creations.
My dream as it is now would be to go to a concert where I can have the full experience of your art. We tried once as you were in new england for your "I'm With You" tour, but the money didn't pan out. I also dream one day of meeting you in person, merely just to say hello so that somewhere inside you would know that I existed, and know that your creation is causing more creations to happen. As an artist the thing that would mean the most to me is to know that my art moved someone else, and I think it is important that you know that too, to have someone look you in the eye and tell you what your life means to them. I know that it may be unlikely for me ever to do, but it is a dream I hold dear, and if I never do get to look you in the
face, I thought at least this letter might reach you one day. It is a difficult thing to hope for, I imagine you get hundreds of fan mail every day, and I imagine each of them probably care that you get their message as much as I do. But if I never tried, you would never know. So I ask, if by some miracle you get this letter, I ask at the very least in return, could you send me a hello? Just so I know for sure you've heard me, so I know that a connection was made? Thank you for living Anthony Kiedis, you've improved my life by doing so.
A friend,
~Zarah R. Avalon
P.S. If you let the rest of the band know what they mean to me too, I would really appreciate it. I love them for their contribution to my life just as much.
Hi Anthony,
I know you don't know me but in a strange way I feel I know you. I've been reading Scar Tissue and listening to your music since I learned what music was.. You really had a tough start to your life but it looks like it all paid off! Reading about your childhood recovery and your struggle has only made me respect you even more! As I read this book and listen to all my Red Hot Chili Peppers albums, I can't help but feel like I know and respect you. Putting pictures in your book was an amazing way to make your fans feel like not only fans but friends. I wish I got to see your show with nirvana and pearl jam back in the day! That show must have been kickass!!!! Your a very handsome and strong man. You've seen a lot and it shows through to your lyrics. I'm not sure if you actually read your fan letters or if you have someone else reading/replying for you... I sure hope it's actually you! Your music got me through the toughest time in my life, I was hit by a truck going 50 mph while I was crossing the street walking home from work. It was a struggle but your lyrics helped me get through a lot of it. I wasn't supposed to live but here I am. I may be a little tainted and busted but I'm still kickin! I wanted to thank you for your music, your book, and just you. I hope you take the time to read this and reply. Tell flea hello for me and I hope you have a wonderful day Anthony.
P.s. hope it's not weird for a fan to tell you they love you, but I truly love your soul Anthony Kiedis ❤
Love always ❤ Tarra Messina
you're one of those guys i dream of getting date-raped by even though you kind of look like a horse. Oh, and you're a pretty cool guy, keep it up. also, can you tell Flea that I love him? thank you.
I want you to know how much your music and everything has changed my life. I always thought your music was awesome, but it wasn't until January 2012 when I strongly became into your band and learned all about you.
I have Asperger's Syndrome(high-functioning Autism) and I have recently found a gift I have for feeling ground vibrations and into the earth, tectonic plates. I have recently moved to California-I live in the Southern California(San Bernardino County). I am so thrilled to finally be where I belong after suffering from depression, extreme frustration, and anxiety after coming back and being stuck in FL for 3 more years(though I've had several trips to visit family up in Tennessee) after my first trip to California.
I was out of highschool at the end of 2007 and homebound after suffering from severe emotional distress. In late 2008, I was taking off of prescription meds and stopped seeing a psychiatrist, where I'd be developing my spiritual wellbeing more.
At that time, it was also the beginning of my fascination with tectonic plates, earthquakes, and geology which later prompted me to want to take a trip to California("Californication" was what I'd listen to at the time-the lyrics "Destruction leads to a very rough road, but it also breeds creation and earthquakes are to a girl's guitar, they're just another good vibration" struck me because that got about as close to how I felt about those forces of nature as it could compared to how people would generally see them) to experience that energy from deep in the ground and I did(in November 2009).
It's a long story. I realized that everytime there is an increase in earthquake activity(when I was in FL and far from any tectonic plate zones, I would feel it from all over the world), I feel this pressure or pain in my side, mainly my left side(kidney area) and I want to let people know what I'm feeling and I believe that I could let them know ahead of time and that way, they'd less likely be caught off guard if/when there is an earthquake.
I have had a lifetime of being misunderstood and overtime the frustration of failing to reach out to people, unintentionally offending them, and further isolating myself has festered and I've been struggling with feelings of intense anger and other emotions.
Your music has helped me out tremendously. It's not just your music, but you as a person. You're so deep that I never would feel that way about any other musician or band. I never thought the other stuff I'd hear would strike my core like you guys did.
I get the true power of music and the elements that keeps a band together to where they keep generating all this amazing energy and don't let anything stop them. That's my nature. I keep going and I let nothing stop me.
You've inspired me to want to channel what I feel deep inside more. Ever since I became a serious fan of you, I've been more creative and making pictures on the paint program on my computer. Over the past 5 years of being out of school, I've very much lived as a hermit and reaching adulthood was the hardest, most painful times of my life and I was also becoming more and more spiritually conscious.
Now that I'm finally in California, I want to get out there. I've been alone and living in a shell for a long time, like a ghost and it's no fun. I have been looking to find a way how to get what is deep inside me out into the world, but I wouldn't know how to.
I've been wandering aimlessly and under the pressure of seeing everybody else doing things in the world and they know exactly what to do.
I have read "Scar Tissue" and it has inspired me. From that, I learned how to not beat myself to a bloody pulp if I mess up again and again and not to feel bad about myself, about who I am. It helped me not be afraid to open up and be raw and show my vulnerabilities. I completed that book within a week and it was over 400 pages. I've never been that interested in reading books, but I couldn't put this one down.
I have been working on healing myself too from all the pain I've suffered deeply in recent years. I've even resorted to self-injurious habits from arguments because I'd feel so angry and out of control inside that I couldn't let go and I would open sores and beat and scratch myself to get it out and I also felt like I couldn't do anything right or get it together so I would feel awful about myself. I've made myself bleed and left bruises and some scars on my arms.
I have been writing lyrics and wanting to make music. I feel that channeling what I feel through art isn't enough. I want to write it out and put sound to it all. I just have poured words into this notebook. I want to find a place where I can use a bunch of sounds-from deep ambient music to your music. I mean, I won't steal your sounds. I mean add a touch of it along with other sounds along with my voice to generate something that vibrates so greatly in amplitude that it reaches out and grabs people.
You have inspired me, you have forged me to channel what I have trapped deep inside of me that has been eating at me like a persisting parasite and making me itch and go crazy.
You all seem like the kind of people I would feel no shame in being who I am around and the love I see in you all is truly beautiful. I've never seen anything like it. I just cannot help but feel touched and a soothing feeling in my heart as I watch your interviews, listen to how you feel about everything and how conscious you are of nature. It makes me feel really good. You guys make me really happy. I want you all to know that I could hug you all right now and I think of you so much.
Hi. Very few musical acts move me like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I watched you guys grow up in front of my eyes, both outwardly and in your music. I think the message that you put out there in each song is real, you talk about what is real to you, and what is going on closest to you. I love how you guys have grown as writers and performers throughout each passing year. You're doing a wonderful job and reaching so so many people who need it. Much love always and forever.
Your forever fan and friend
Lauren Lepouski
Dear Anthony,
My name is Jessie Pettibone and I have been listening to the chili peppers pretty much my whole life, even though I'm only 16. I just recently formed a band called Myrtle Lane and I draw a lot of inspiration from you as a songwriter. Your lyrics are poetry and i admire them so much. I wrote a song called Myrtle the Turtle because of the song Yertle the Turtle. I hope to bring unique aspects to the bad as a female funk punk artist. I am always thinking of Hillel and John when writing a guitar solo or riff, and i even learned bass a little because Flea is such a badass. I love all the stages the band has gone through, and i think it's so cool that every album is so different. I love the first three albums so much because you guys rocked so hard and hillel had such unique vibes and such a cool sound to his playing. I also love what John brought into the band, and the strong emotions brought in on By the Way and i also love how easy it is to get high listening to One Hot Minute, and personally i love I'm With You and i like the vibes Josh brought into the band. I am hoping to come out to my first pepper's concert whenever i get the money, and if you read this it would mean the world to me. If you responded i think i would die of happiness.
Love,
Jessie :)
Hey Anthony... I'd like to tell you that I listen to the rhcp for like 7 years now and I'm only 16 so... I'd say you are the first 'real' band I ever liked and you're still one of my favourite bands. Also you saved my first date, because when we didn't know what to talk about we started talking about your music and all the songs that mean so much to us. Thank you.
Hi, Anthony
I've been listening to your extremely deep and poetic songs for 4 years and my love for each song has only grown stronger over time. You are my favorite singer and songwriter in all of music. I REALLY hope to see you in concert one day. I love you, the band and your music.
Your truly, Maite
P.S. I'm 12 years old and I live in New York. Also, my favorite song by you and the band is Under the Bridge.
Hi Tony, i may possibly be one of your biggest fans ever. I just finished reading scar tissue (lovedd) and I listen to your music every single day as im walking to class. I go to ST FX in nova scotia, Canada. I heard rumors of chili peppers coming to Halifax, n.s. which were false. It broke my heart to hear that the only time you're coming to canada is during my clinical (which i cant get out of or i wont complete my first year of uni, which i cant afford to do) PLEASE COME TO NOVA SCOTIA or NEW BRUNSWICK, you wont regret it, we're awesome. tickets will be sold out in less then a week i can guarantee, some of your biggest fans live here. In my residence EVERYONE listens to the chili peppers, i love wearing my shirt cause i get some many compliments.
Yours truely,
you're biggest fan
and if that doesnt justify, i live in a building full of your biggest fans.
ps. a concert at X would be even sweeter then halifax.
Hey Anthony!
Will you come to play with your band in Israel soon?
