"I was so shocked I just fell on the floor, gasping for air." Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea pays tribute to the "beautiful boy" who changed his life and broke his heart

Flea and Hillel Slovak — (Image credit: Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has paid a touching tribute to his late friend and bandmate Hillel Slovak, who passed away in 1988.

Slovak died at home in Los Angeles on June 25, 1988 as the result of an accidental heroin overdose. A former school mate of Flea and RHCP vocalist Anthony Kieidis, and co-founding member of the Californian punk-funk band, the Israeli guitarist was 26 years old. His bandmates learned of his death two days later.

"It was devastating," Flea tells Britain's MOJO magazine. "Just unbelievable. When it happened I was so shocked I just fell on the floor, gasping for air."

"When Anthony and I met him, we were young," the bassist remembers. "We were out hitch-hiking the street and we saw him and he had a car. He was fucking 16 and he had a car! A Datsun 510.

"He had a stereo in the car and he was smoking weed and listening to [Led] Zeppelin. He gave us a ride and I think he gave us some weed. He showed me Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck and then the Gang Of Four, all this stuff.

"I looked up to him," Flea continues. "I was in love with him. He was a beautiful boy and troubled like all of us were, difficulties at home, difficulties everywhere.

"His guitar playing was beautiful, his hair, the way he dressed… everything. A beautiful friend. And really sadly a drug addict, heroin, and he didn’t make it through."

Red Hot Chili Peppers later paid tribute to their friend's tragic passing with the song Knock Me Down, on their 1989 album Mother's Milk.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Knock Me Down - YouTube

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At the time of Slovak's death, Anthony Kiedis, was dating Hollywood actress Ione Skye, perhaps best known for her starring role in the film Say Anything, as well as her acclaimed performances in films such as Rivers Edge, The Rachel Papers, and Gas Food Lodging. In her best-selling memoir, Say Everything, she recalls the fateful night that she and Kiedis learned of Slovak's death.

The singer's friend Bob Forrest, frontman of cult LA band Thelonious Monster, phoned the couple's home on the evening of June 27, 1988, "crying so hard that he couldn't get words out". When Kiedis heard the news of his friend's passing, according to Skye, he immediately sought to numb the pain by shooting up heroin.

"Of course he was shooting up," she wrote. "He’d just lost his best friend. Who wouldn’t numb that blow if they could?"

Returning to the present day, Flea will release his debut solo album Honora on March 27 via Nonesuch Records.

Flea plays bass and trumpet on the album, which features original songs, as well as covers of classic songs including Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman, and Funkadelic's Maggot Brain. Guests on the album include Radiohead's Tom Yorke, who has performed with Flea in Atoms For Peace, and Nick Cave.

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.

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