"Hillel changed my life. If it wasn't for Hillel, there's no way I'd be sitting here now, because he turned me onto rock music" - Flea
Hillel Slovak was born in Haifa, Isreal on April 13, 1962. He and his family moved to Los Angeles, California when Hillel was five.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers were conceived in 1983 in a living room in Hollywood where four buddies from Fairfax High School (Anthony Kiedis, Hillel Slovak, flea and Jack Irons) were getting ready for their first performance at the legendary Rhythm Lounge. The band was to perform one song before the Minutemen took to the stage. The song was "Out In L.A." which, traditionally, remained their opening song in every show. The band soon developed a strong following in Los Angeles, something unheard of considering the fact that the band had only been in existence for a couple of months and had not yet pressed a single album.
It was at this point that Hillel Slovak and his childhood buddy Jack Irons decided to continue their prior commitment in their former band, WHAT IS THIS?, while Flea and Anthony Kiedis recruited Jack Sherman (guitar) and Cliff Martinez (drums). After being signed to EMI Records this line-up recorded the band's first and self-titled debut album. In 1985 Hillel Slovak rejoined the Peppers.
The band recorded their second album, Freakey Styley, in Detroit with Dr. Funkenstein, George Clinton, as producer.
In 1986 Cliff Martinez was replaced by Jack Irons, reuniting the original band line-up. Their third LP entitled The Uplift Mojo Party Plan was released in 1987 and, as always, the "Hardest working band in show business" followed it's release with a ridiculously extensive tour. They maintained as unusually huge (sold out) live audience, considering their record company had chosen to ignore them purely because of their confusion about the band's type of music. Nevertheless, the tour was great success. Hillel's drug habit was the only downside.
On June 27,1988 Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose, leaving Anthony, Flea and Jack devastated at the loss of a beautiful friend. It was as that time that Jack Irons left the band, unable to continue with a constant reminder of such an intense loss.
Anthony and Flea made the choice to continue on. Anthony says "Flea and I realized that we couldn't stop because of the death of our best friend. It was going to be a permanent source of sadness in our lives, but we wanted to keep the Red Hots going
because, after five years, it had become our lives."
Hillel is buried at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
