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Jan 16thBecause John was so young and inexperienced, he came in for a lot of good-natured ribbing. He was a kid who’d spent most of his young life holed away in his room, practicing his guitar, so everything about being in a rock band was new to him. Flea and I used to continually tease him, calling him “Greenie” or “The Green Man” or “The Green Hornet.” Years later, John confessed to me that all this ribbing made him incredibly self-conscious, but at the time, we had no idea of the effect we were having on him. Flea and I didn’t consciously want to make him feel bummed out or insecure; that was just the playing ground of our comedy. The litany of green names spoke of something else – a huge sign of affection. You’re in our graces and in our hearts if you have more than one nickname. All that Green stuff was because we loved this kid and we were so happy to have his creative energy in our lives. If we did it with a smirk and a poke, maybe it was just to not show how much we cared about him. If you look at it like “Whose phone number are you dialing the most and whose house are you going over to the most and who are you sharing the most experiences with,” it was dear I was completely in admiration of this young man.
Anthony Kiedis, 2004
(Source: fanaticbychoice)
