The Red Hot Chili Peppers are a multiple Grammy Award-winning American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1983 by Anthony Kiedis (vocals), Hillel Slovak (guitar), Michael "Flea" Balzary (bass), and drummer Jack Irons.

Throughout their career, the band has fused various elements of punk, funk, heavy metal, rap. They hold the record for most number one singles on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart with eleven and have held a record of eighty-one weeks at number one.

Inconsistent and unstable lineups have influenced the band's music, style, and success throughout their nine studio recordings. The most notable of such was the addition of guitarist John Frusciante, following the death of original guitarist Hillel Slovak. With the band, Frusciante assisted in propelling the foursome's once turbulent musical career into a successful and popular affair. Their second album together (fifth collectively), 1991's highly influential Blood Sugar Sex Magik, has gone multi-platinum in several countries and since became an international sensation, selling over twelve million copies. During the process, however, Frusciante became disillusioned with the band's newfound success and abruptly quit in the summer of 1992. The Chili Peppers subsequently enlisted former Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro for their next effort, One Hot Minute. Released in 1995, it failed to meet the acclaim that Blood Sugar Sex Magik saw, and as a result, sold roughly five million units, less than half of its predecessor. Unsolved creative differences between Navarro and the rest of the band led to his departure soon after.

Meanwhile, Frusciante had become severely addicted to heroin and was on the brink of dying. In 1998, he managed to complete drug rehabilitation and rejoined the Chili Peppers at the request of Flea. The foursome returned to the studio in 1999 to create Californication, the band's most commercially successful album to date. The Chili Peppers followed up three years later with By the Way, an album displaing a more subdued side of the band. Most recently, the group released Stadium Arcadium in 2006, making it the first time a Red Hot Chili Peppers' line-up had not changed for three consecutive studio recordings.