One Hot Minute - One Hot Minute Tour, Navarro's Departure, and Legacy

One Hot Minute Tour, Navarro's Departure, and Legacy

The One Hot Minute tour began several days after the release of the album. The band opened the tour with a European leg. Kiedis felt that as a musician, he was becoming somewhat lackluster. The short European leg ended in early November, and the U.S. portion was scheduled to begin 10 days later; however, it was postponed until early February. A few shows into the commencement of the U.S. leg, Kiedis badly injured his leg while engaging in what he calls "eyes-closed robotic dancing". He tripped over a monitor and fell off the stage, ending up hanging by his calf from his microphone cable, resulting in a cast which he wore for the next two months. Kiedis reflected that it "was nice to see that people were still interested in coming out to see what we do", as there had been a four-year gap since the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Following the conclusion of the U.S. tour, the Chili Peppers took two weeks off before several Australia and New Zealand performances. The band then played at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco, before finishing the tour in Europe.

Kiedis had remained sober the entire tour and maintained positive disposition during shows. Navarro, however, was growing tired of touring, and that was beginning to grate on his fellow band-mates. Kiedis suffered an additional injury in Prague after falling off the stage while attempting to execute a back flip. He was forced to wear a back brace for the next few shows, which restricted his actions to the area around his microphone. After shows in Paris and London, the band returned home to Los Angeles. Kiedis began taking drugs once again, though he forced himself to discontinue after several weeks. The band was then asked to play in the North Pole for roughly 100 contest winners of a concert set up by Molson, a Canadian beer company. While the show was mildly motivating to the band, they returned home after two days.

Months went by without any scheduled concerts due to the album's poor sales. Following another relapse and a stint in rehab, Kiedis and the rest of the band prepared for a summer tour, their first in almost seven months. Before the tour could begin, Kiedis had an accident on his motorcycle and was rushed to the hospital after severely injuring his hand. Due to his drug addiction, it took seven doses of morphine before the pain was assuaged. Following discharge from the hospital, he was forced to wear a full-arm cast for several months, resulting in the cancellation of all remaining scheduled concerts. Halfway through Kiedis's recovery, the band was asked to play the Fuji Rock Festival in July 1997. By that time, Kiedis's cast had receded down to the elbow and he felt well enough to play. A large typhoon had been forecast to hit the festival several hours before the show. The concert took place anyway, and when the Chili Peppers got on stage to play, the audience was being soaked in torrential rains, and the band found it virtually impossible to play their instruments. After eight songs, the lighting and sound equipment was torn from the stage and the band was obliged to an impromptu finish.

Returning home, the Chili Peppers parted ways and, for the most part, remained secluded from each other through the rest of 1997. No new material was written during that time, and it was not until the beginning of 1998 that the band began rehearsal. In Kiedis' autobiography Scar Tissue, Flea refers to 1997 as "the year of nothing." At that point, Navarro had become dependent on drugs, with Kiedis also struggling to remain clean. The band decided they would have a talk with Navarro and attempt to convince him to enter rehab. The discussion escalated into a heated dispute, and Navarro fell over an amplifier in a drug-induced daze. In April 2010, Navarro discussed this incident, stating that: "One was my drug use at the time. The other was musical differences. Anthony says it was because I tripped and fell over an amp while on drugs. I say that he was on more drugs than me at that point. We both had a loose relationship with reality. Who do you want to believe?"

The band made an attempt to begin writing for a follow-up and had written and began recording one song titled "Circle of the Noose" but the song was never completed or released and likely never will be. On June 7, 2011, Navarro was asked by a Chili Peppers fan on his blog about "Circle of the Noose" and said he didn't have the recordings but would love to hear them. At this point in 1998, Kiedis and Flea decided it was time to fire their guitarist. Navarro was furious when confronted by Kiedis and Flea, but eventually accepted his termination. The Chili Peppers were fighting, and on the verge of breaking up. Flea was beginning to question the band's future and thought it may be necessary to break the band up. He made one last attempt to keep the band together, asking Frusciante to rejoin. Frusciante had recently completed a drug rehabilitation program after more than five years of heroin addiction, and gladly accepted the invitation.

Fifteen years after its release, many critics and some fans still feel the album to be one of the band's weakest albums. As of 2012, nothing from the album other than "Pea" has been performed live since 1997. When Frusciante returned, he claimed to have never even heard the album and felt uneasy about performing anything from it, comparing the album to feeling like being cheated on during a relationship. Kiedis stated prior to the band's I'm with You tour that even though he highly valued some of the songs on the album, the band would not be performing anything from it on the tour ("Pea" being the only exception); however, on October 27, 2012, the band's current guitarist, Josh Klinghoffer, briefly teased "My Friends" prior to a performance of "Under the Bridge".