Background
Red Hot Chili Peppers was formed by Anthony Kiedis, Hillel Slovak, Flea and Jack Irons while they attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. Originally named Tony Flow & the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem, the group was originally meant as a one-off band for the purpose of playing only one show, but after a positive crowd reception, the band changed its name to The Red Hot Chili Peppers, playing several more shows at various LA clubs and musical venues. The group was noticed by EMI and signed with the record label. Slovak and Irons still considered the Red Hot Chili Peppers as only a side project and so they quit to focus on their band What Is This?, which had signed a record contract two weeks earlier. Kiedis and Flea subsequently recruited guitarist Jack Sherman and drummer Cliff Martinez to complete the band's lineup. Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill produced the first album. Gill, who "didn't embrace musical aesthetic or ideology," argued constantly with the band over the record's style and pushed the band to play with a cleaner, crisper, more radio-friendly sound. Their eponymous debut album, The Red Hot Chili Peppers was released on August 10, 1984. Though the album did not set sales records, airplay on college radio and MTV helped to build a fan base, and the album ultimately sold 300,000 copies. However, the band was disappointed in the record's overall sound, feeling it was overly polished, as if it had "gone through a sterilizing Goody Two-shoes machine".
During the ensuing tour, continuing musical and lifestyle tension between Kiedis and Sherman complicated the transition between concert and daily band life. Sherman was fired soon after, with Slovak returning to the Chili Peppers after growing tired of What is This?. Because the Red Hot Chili Peppers did not have a positive experience working with Gill on their previous record, the group began searching for a new producer for the new album. The first potential producer the band worked with was Malcolm McLaren, who had worked with the Sex Pistols and Bow Wow Wow. However, McLaren suggested they changed their style to play more simplified, 1950s-style rock and roll and make Kiedis the central character, a change the group vehemently opposed. After receiving comparisons from fans to Parliament-Funkadelic, the band indicated to EMI Records its desire to work with frontman George Clinton. The band contacted Clinton and sent him their debut album and demo tapes, and Flea and the band's manager, Lindy, traveled to Detroit to meet him. Clinton agreed to work with the band, and EMI paid him $25,000 to produce the album.
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