Addiction and relapse
Otherside is about the fight not to relapse. According to Songfacts, Kiedis writes in his autobiography Scar Tissue (2004) that the song is about his own addiction, and that the slide in the chorus stands for relapsing after a period of being clean.
Source: Songfacts
Is it about Hillel Slovak?
You see that claim everywhere, but we found no statement from the band confirming it. Hillel Slovak, guitarist and one of the founders, died of a heroin overdose in his Hollywood apartment on 25 June 1988. He was 26. In 2022 Rolling Stone carefully called the slide line an apparent reference to Kiedis’s drug use, "and perhaps the addictions of Peppers past like Slovak." So it is a reading, not something the band has said.
Source: Wikipedia (Hillel Slovak) · Rolling Stone, 2022
What Frusciante heard in it
John Frusciante read the lyric differently: as a fight between the conscious and the subconscious mind. He told Guitar World in 1999 that the words were inspired by Aleister Crowley, the British occultist whose books appealed to him. "It’s the kind of lyrics that I really love," he said. We know that interview only through the passages Rolling Stone quotes.
Source: Rolling Stone, 2022
The sound
In the verses Frusciante plays only two or three notes. The part is built around Flea’s bass line: together, guitar and bass imply the chords. "I’m not thinking of my guitar as the center of it; I’m thinking of my guitar as a portion of it," he told Guitar Player in 2022. On the record he played a 1955 Gretsch White Falcon; for the breakdown, a 1961 Gibson SG through a cranked Marshall.
Source: Guitar Player, 2022 · Guitar Player, 1999
The video
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris shot Otherside in black and white, on sets that draw on German Expressionist film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari being the best-known example. It is a young man’s dream. Kiedis stands in a castle tower, Frusciante plays a rope like a guitar, Flea plays high-voltage wires like a bass, and Chad Smith drums on a rotating medieval clock.
Source: Wikipedia
The song
Otherside came out in late 1999 as the third single from Californication, and in the US and UK in January 2000. It spent thirteen weeks at number 1 on the US Modern Rock chart and reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the UK it peaked at number 33. All four band members are credited as writers; Rick Rubin produced it.
Source: Wikipedia · Billboard Modern Rock · Billboard Hot 100 · Official Charts
Do De Peppers play Otherside?
Otherside isn’t one of the eight songs we play at every show. You can see which ones those are under our songs; around them, the set changes from night to night.
Sources
- The 40 Greatest Red Hot Chili Peppers Songs (11-04-2022) · Rolling Stone
- Otherside by Red Hot Chili Peppers · Songfacts
- Hillel Slovak · Wikipedia
- John Frusciante gives his most revealing interview yet (14-12-2022) · Guitar Player
- John Frusciante on Californication (09-1999) · Guitar Player
- Red Hot Chili Peppers chart history: Alternative Airplay · Billboard
- Red Hot Chili Peppers chart history: Hot 100 · Billboard
- Otherside · Official Charts
- Otherside · Wikipedia
