A Day In My Life With A Chili Pepper

There's nothing that makes for a good perspective check than when you're chillin' with the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the listening party for their new double disc album, Stadium Arcadium, which streets May 9th.

I remember back in 9th grade when Blood Sugar Sex Magik came out. Or in my record store days of One Hot Minute, circa 1995. Or when Ciaobella and I made our first adventure to LA while listening to Californication on the road. I remember sitting in my bedroom listening to music under the red and blue glow that had become my ceiling fan lighting. It was my favorite thing to do back then. To just sit and listen.

I wish we had the time these days to just sit. And listen.

At any rate, when I wasn't listening to my usual 60's/70's rock albums, sometimes I'd take a modern break with the Peppers. When you're fourteen years old and on the roller coaster of life, it didn't get much better than Breaking The Girl. It's funny how I can't remember what I did last weekend, but I remember those moments of listening in that bedroom like they were just yesterday. The smell of the Nag Champa, the sound of Mom cooking dinner downstairs and then yelling up to me when it was ready, the blinds closed, the dim light, the sadness and meloncholy of nothing, the staring out the window...

Single Artwork for Dani, California

...seeing a girl on a horse riding down Sunset Boulevard...

And now I'm living in Los Angeles, working where I've always wanted to work, making music videos and listening to the new Chili Peppers record with them sitting right there!, indian-style on the floor, next to me. Anthony and his new girlfriend and 18-year old twin (the chick on the horse pictured above) looking into the depths of each others souls, Flea jammin' out (yes, still indian-style) as seen on TV, and John and Chad just chillin'...all expressing their deepest gratitude and appreciation to us all.

It was a surreal moment, not because I was sitting there listening to their new record under red and blue lights with them, but because it was a reminder of how sometimes all the hard work does pay off and that sometimes, you really can make dreams come true.