Music fans were out in force on Hollywood Boulevard for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Hollywood Walk of Fame star dedication ceremony.
Music fans were out in force on Hollywood Boulevard this morning for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Hollywood Walk of Fame star dedication ceremony. With a soundtrack provided by the USC marching band, and in front of hundreds of cheering spectators, Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith and John Fruiscante made the most of the photo opp, going so far as to lick the star once it was revealed. The band, which is releasing a new album on Friday — “Unlimited Love,” the Chilis’ 12th full-length release, via Warner Records — holds a deep personal connection with the famous boulevard. As bassist Flea, a self-described ““Hollywood street kid” told Variety ahead of the dedication, at 15, he and frontman Anthony Kiedis would run around Hollywood in the wee hours of the night, “doing stupid little crimes, hustling for food. I’ve walked over every one of those stars — every sidewalk, every crack, every one of them. To be recognized and be a part of the physical fabric of those sidewalks means a lot to me.” Added Kiedis: “I’m pretty sure that I have inadvertently vomited on Hollywood Walk of Fame stars in my lifetime. I’ve certainly slept on top of Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame stars in my lifetime. I’ve trod upon them not as a tourist but as a person running from the authorities or possibly running from somebody that I owed money to.” How things have changed in 39 years. As Bob Forrest, a veteran music, former addict and recovery advocate, who was on hand to help present the honor, said at the ceremony: “In 1983, Hollywood was a different place, and there were crazy kids like us, who were tossed out and drug addicted and traumatized and we came to Hollywood Boulevand and we found each other and build a community of connection and love and that love is still here 39 years later.
