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WATCH: Red Hot Chili Peppers Cover Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Published / Tue 1 Nov 2022

Red Hot Chili Peppers closed out their benefit concert for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music by covering Nirvana’s iconic song “Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Photo: Red Hot Chili Peppers closed out their benefit concert for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music by covering Nirvana’s iconic song “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”  /  Credit: Nirvana

As a benefit concert for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music ended on Saturday, Red Hot Chili Peppers closed out their set covering Nirvana’s iconic song “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Watch below.

When the Red Hot Chili Peppers took to the stage frontman Anthony Kiedis, had his face covered with a shirt and sunglasses while handling vocals before giving way to Guitarist John Frusciante who sang the iconic grunge chorus.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers previously toured with Nirvana in 1991, as the band recently recalled during The Howard Stern Show. Bassist Flea stated:

I remember just feeling like they’re good bands, but Nirvana, they were really carrying a heavy magic with them, just this feeling like they are a powerful entity to be respected.

Frontman Kiedis admitted that he was “pretty nervous” being around Kurt Cobain, because he was “in awe” of his work and Cobain “wasn’t the type who wanted to discuss being a frontman, he was just kind of shy and in his energetic state.”

Red Hot Chili Peppers recently became the first rock band in 17 years to achieve two No. 1 albums in a calendar year thanks to April’s Unlimited Love and October’s Return of the Dream Canteen.

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Red Hot Chili Peppers toured with Nirvana (which also featured Pearl Jam) in 1991 and 1992 so they have a lot of history together and while the two bands had different sounds, they shared a similar punk rock ethos.

Recalling the pressure of their early days to Howard Stern, Guitarist John Frusciante said:

When we were playing together in ’88, ’89 — when we were still playing in the clubs — it really felt like a life or death thing, that we had to succeed at what we were doing. Not just commercially, but our shows had to have an energy, our shows had to move people, people had to be dancing.

Our styles were in large part developed because we put ourselves under that pressure of wanting to be good.

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