Producer Michael Beinhorn has publicly claimed that Red Hot Chili Peppers vocalist Anthony Kiedis is effectively tone deaf in the medical sense. The multi-platinum funk rock icon’s apparent struggles with perceiving pitch were present at least in the late 80s, according to Beinhorn.
Beinhorn‘s reveal came about during a recent Reddit AMA. During that Q&A, a fan cited their admiration for the second single, “Knock Me Down“, from the Beinhorn produced 1989 Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ album “Mother’s Milk“.
Said fan also asked about why guitarist John Frusciante assisted on vocals, and enquired about some other aspects of the song, including the nature of it being a tribute to the band’s late guitarist Hillel Slovak, who died from an accidental heroin overdose back in 1988.
Beinhorn‘s direct reply read as follows:
“Don’t sweat it, your questions are valid. I’m glad you love ‘Knock Me Down‘ so much- it was a major departure from the RHCP sound up till that point. John sang the song (or rather, his voice was louder in the mix) because the song was melodic and Anthony was/is tone-deaf (ie- he can’t hear pitch). At any rate, John essentially wrote the song, including the melody, so it wasn’t entirely inappropriate for him to song it (plus he somewhat idolized Hillel).
I might be missing something but I don’t think there’s a longer version of ‘Knock Me Down‘ than what’s on the record (of course, this is stuff that happened almost 40 years ago, so I may be forgetting something). As for how the band reacted to the final product…well…I never found out what they thought of the final mix. However, when I finally played Anthony the tracks with the finished guitars on them for the first time (he hadn‘t been to any of the sessions up till then), he freaked out- not in a good way. I think the band kind of disowned the record because of this.”
Beinhorn would go on to producer records from Ozzy Osbourne, Soundgarden, Korn, Marilyn Manson and more in the years after overseeing “Mother’s Milk” and “The Uplift Mofo Party Plan” for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
