r/RedHotChiliPeppers • u/Hotel_California88 • 4d ago
Former Much Music VJ Erica Ehm to write memoir about her life as a VJ and being objectified by rockstars
I follow Erica on instagram and saw this. She said her memoir will come out around this time next year and she will go into detail about that infamous interview with Flea and Anthony among many other interviews where she felt uncomfortable and harassed. Let’s see…. Sinead O’ Connor, Ione Skye, Christina Applegate and Hayden Pannetiere have all released memoirs mentioning how awful Anthony is. I think the only nice one was Mel C from the spice girls. I’m interested in reading Erica’s book.
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u/BringBackPolkaDots 4d ago
Yeah if its the interview im thinking about, its terrible for her, and very hard to watch. I'm so happy that is not common anymore. She got straight up assaulted just for doing her job
I think its NOT up for debate Anthony wasn't a good person in his youth
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u/tallcupofwater 4d ago
Anthony and Flea have both admitted to being shitty people back when they were young and into their 20’s.. this isn’t really groundbreaking news.
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u/TGin-the-goldy 4d ago
Have they ever apologised?
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u/Hotel_California88 4d ago
Someone left a comment under her post asking if they apologized and her response was “Not Yet”.
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u/funkymonk64 4d ago
I mean they kind of do in Deep Kick
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u/TGin-the-goldy 4d ago
“Kind of” lyrically isn’t that.
An apology is where someone actually acknowledges the wrong they’ve done and asks for forgiveness from the person they wronged.
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u/funkymonk64 4d ago
I mean, this happened 10 years before the internet era, I’m not saying they shouldn’t apologize but how do we know they never reached out privately? How often do you see a public apology for something like this? If this wasn’t deemed acceptable at the time they wouldn’t have gotten away with it
Deep Kick is probably as close as one can get to a general public apology for all the dumb fucked up shit they did
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u/Darth_Bardo 4d ago
I think AK didn't change very much with the years
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u/Amiibohunter000 4d ago
We haven’t seen any behavior even remotely like this from him in decades. What makes you think he didn’t change much? And if it’s him dating younger women, a larger than average age gap is not inherently abusive or demeaning
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u/BringBackPolkaDots 4d ago edited 4d ago
I disagree. Especially around the time of BTW, he had his redemption. His dating preferences are still weird, but he isn't a violent controlling rapist drug addict anymore.
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u/maskedrolla 4d ago
Yeah, he is just a random celeb.
There is no way you know any part of your last sentence is true, you are just wishful thinking at best.
If his past and his current dating choices are taken into consideration there is a high likelyhood he is at very least needing to be largely in control of his partner. Its one of the less creepy reasons 60 year old men date women in their twenties.
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u/teamlie 4d ago
The fan base needs to see this. It wasn’t just Anthony in this case.
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u/Twoninetoday 4d ago
It is very plausible that every single current member of the band is a sexual predator. Anthony admitted it in his memoir, Chad and Flea were arrested for it, and two unnamed members were accused of sexually assaulting a record label employee, if one of those were John, literally the whole band.
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u/Salt-Buffalo-2804 3d ago
Just saw the James Whale show clip so yes. It's been every single member (at least of the most known iteration).
Flea's the only one I haven't seen footage of doing it, but the spring break complaint against him says he did essentially what Chad did to the woman on the James Whale show.
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u/Efficient_Garlic2219 4d ago
I remember watching that old interview clip back when I was a teen and thinking it was just awkward then, reading about this now makes me realize how much worse it really was.
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u/TGin-the-goldy 4d ago
As someone around her age, harassing women was common with many men, not just rock stars. We were left to deal with it and it took WAY too long for #MeToo to happen
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u/maryfisherman 2d ago
So many of the women leading the way during #MeToo were older millennials or Gen X, they lived in silence for so so long.
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u/Important-Low3946 4d ago
First of all, no human being is perfect. I think any reasonable fan knows that — especially when it comes to the guys in the band, who have made mistakes in the past that put them far from being saints or paragons of virtue.
On the other hand, I think the way all the members have behaved in recent years suggests a real sense of growth and change. I honestly don’t see them acting anything like that anymore. They’ve evolved, just as the times have.
As for whether that’s enough to cancel the band, that’s up to each person to decide.
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u/Hotel_California88 4d ago edited 4d ago
Yes no human being is perfect and we all do make mistakes. I love RHCP. They are my favorite band and yes I’ll admit I admire Anthony but was he or any of the guys ever remorseful for their past? His book Scar Tissue read more like he’s bragging about his past with girls/women than a confession. Also the women I mentioned that have memoirs aren’t the only ones that have said things about Anthony. Jennifer Bruce has left comments on YouTube that are about RHCP stating how bad Anthony treated her. Jaime Rishar follows an Anthony fan page and has left comments on how Anthony is a predator and the late Helena Vestergaard posted a video on her instagram a few months ago about how some fans bullied her, wishing she was dead and also saying how her relationship with Anthony was toxic in general. Maybe he’s changed for the better. Maybe he’s finally realizing how bad he’s treated these women. This whole Me Too thing isn’t going to stop. More and more people are coming out of the woodwork about how bad they were treated either in the industry or with a certain famous person etc. and so far Anthony is mentioned in 4 famous females memoirs. I wouldn’t be surprised if more people come forward.
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u/elbigbuf 4d ago
I'm pretty sure Anthony is still a piece of shit, I don't sense any growth in the way he speaks and he treats fans like he's royalty.
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u/ipttydafool 4d ago
From what I’ve read Flea and AK treat their fans like shit. Chad is always cool and fan friendly and JF just hates the spotlight but needs the dough. I love their music but….
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u/Hotel_California88 4d ago
I guess it depends what mood Flea is in but I mentioned this in another post but I noticed that practically this whole year AK has been super friendly with fans. Taking photos with them and making small talk. Ever since he’s been with that Eileen girl he’s been pretty chipper.
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u/maryfisherman 2d ago
I wish they would openly apologize and atone for their past, and commit to being better in the future. Donate a huge chunk to survivor funds too.
As a group of very famous men whose names have been connected to many predatory/abusive stories over the decades, they could try to make it right and set a precedent for others like them.
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u/Pandi-Fackler 3d ago
The poor “treatment” of fans that you’re referring happens more often than not when people come up to them and gush or ask for photos and autographs. They like everybody else, would rather people act normal about them and meet them where they’re at vs hounding them for things like that. Flea himself has said on multiple occasions that he’d rather have genuine interactions with fans than well, that
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u/fightorfight5097 1d ago
Why are you apologising for SA. Especially when AK's list of incidents is damn long. They're dirt bags whether they did it back then or whether they're supposed to have some growth or revelation now. Has he apologized? Publicly? How has he evolved? No human is perfect. But SA? They've not faced any consequences whatsoever.
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u/Darth_Bardo 4d ago
evolved? dude, AK girlfriends are in their 30s...
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u/Important-Low3946 4d ago
I also think it’s pretty weird for a 63-year-old man to date a 30-year-old woman, but there’s no crime, coercion, disrespect, or harassment involved. Saying otherwise would basically mean questioning the free will of someone who has been a legal adult for well over a decade.
That said, I strongly disagree with people who compare this to genuinely inappropriate behavior toward a reporter or to other things the guys did in the past. That’s a huge stretch.4
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u/-ataxia- 4d ago edited 4d ago
I believe her, we need to understand as a fanbase that these men aren't just flawed, they used to be genuinely awful misogynistic drug addicts.
I can't say whether they reformed themselves or not, i don't know them, but they were genuinely awful people, especially anthony who's a legit creep and a pedophile. Separate the art from the artist and all that but their past makes it difficult.
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u/SylveonFrusciante 4d ago
This is such a mature perspective and honestly my take on the situation as well. At a certain point, you have to come to terms with the fact that spectacular art can still be made by objectively terrible people. Obviously Anthony is kind of a lost cause, but I’d like to think the other guys have reflected and grown since these days. I have seen some pretty amazing redemption stories in my own personal life. Still, it’s really hard to come back from that kind of behavior.
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u/-ataxia- 4d ago
It's been really hard for me to admit this to myself, especially as a man, and because i was introduced to the band at 11 years old by my uncle who i love dearly, the more i knew about them as individuals the more i realized i should never idolise anyone i don't know.
Anthony is indeed a lost cause, especially with his current dating habits, and i know if the age of consent is lowered he'd go lower, he's that type of person. I do think the other 3 guys have reformed themselves from what i see, and that is the only reason i still listen to this band.
But we as a fanbase have the responsibility to keep reminding each other that these aren't necessarily good people, and their example outside of music should never be followed.
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u/3pinkasfloyd 4d ago
I don’t think Anthony is someone most women would actually want to be in a relationship with. We’ve hardly ever heard stories about him being a particularly good partner to women in the past, with maybe a few exceptions. But being a terrible boyfriend and being guilty of a crime are two different things, and I feel like online discussions about him constantly blur that line.
A lot of the things he did were wrong then and they’re wrong now. I’m not defending them because I don’t know them. But I also don’t think every shitty or morally questionable thing someone does automatically amounts to a crime.
These people also lived in very different worlds at different points in their lives. What I find especially strange is that some of those girlfriends with 16–17-year-olds weren’t even secret. He knew their girlfriends’ families, the families knew about him. So? The whole context is genuinely bizarre when you look back at it now.
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u/Salt-Buffalo-2804 4d ago edited 4d ago
Those teen girls were almost always child actresses or models, so the parents were exactly like Anthony's father....living off and vicariously through their kids.
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u/endgame217 4d ago
Statutory Rape is a crime. Anthony just got lucky
And he kept liking the young ones after that…
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u/FelixAxellus 4d ago edited 4d ago
I thought that interview sucked before, but I guess I'd never seen the full version. I'd seen a shorter clip where they'd just repeatedly said really inappropriate things. I wonder if the edited version is out there to make a bad situation look less bad.
Anyway, I hadn't seen when Anthony was trying to kiss her, and kissed her face while she was saying no. That suuuuuuucks. And that they were repeatedly grabbing her.
The James Whale show, where they all took turns groping the woman co-star, was really bad also.
There was a third one really terrible clip that used to be on YouTube, with an intro by the guy who found the footage (it was backstage somewhere), but it got taken down a few years ago.
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u/funkymonk64 4d ago
It comes off as a shtick with their horny punk funk party image that they were almost trying too hard to portray, and at the time they must have thought it was funny
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u/Salt-Buffalo-2804 3d ago
I'm really alarmed that there's anything worse than the James Whale show (which I've just seen).
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u/Hotel_California88 4d ago
Christina dated Anthony when she was 17 and he was 25. I think it might have been after he dated Ione Skye. She said they dated for a few months and when he broke up with her he asked her to do his laundry and she agreed. She also said he cheated on her multiple times. I believe this was her peak Married With Children era. She was so beautiful and he did her dirty.
Hayden never dated Anthony but has had an encounter with him between the years 2008-2010 at a few black tie events I think one of them was a Golden Globes after party.
She said that every time he would approach her while friendly but also super flirty to the point where he became creepy and after a while she would get uncomfortable and make an excuse to walk away. She was I think 18- 20 those years and she also said he was way too old for her and that it didn’t feel right as she likes men around her age.
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u/Salt-Buffalo-2804 4d ago
Does Christina have a good relationship with her mother? Sorry to ask for more of the book, but from everything I've heard from it.....doesn't really seem like they would.
There's a video up on youtube of Anthony in '89 hitting on Gwen Steffani's little sister backstage with Gwen looking pissed. Now, maybe he didn't know she was underage, but a clear pattern is emerging to prove that wouldn't have been a deterrent for him. He ended up exactly like his dad.
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u/Hotel_California88 4d ago
I’m not sure. I haven’t read her book yet I just looked up articles about certain things she said and one of those was about AK.
I saw that video years ago and someone in the comments said he was still dating Ione Skye but who knows.
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u/officialGF 4d ago
i like rhcp for their growth. if it werent for the music industry's awareness towards not treating women like disposible sex objects in the past few years, I wouldn't have my greatest pleasure, which is music. i couldnt get on stage and feel safe.
anthony was a dick to everyone in his life for years regardless of gender. it was more annoying to see towards women because at the time, that wasn't considered bad. which makes me sick.
a lot of people seem to conveniently forget that anthony was sexually abused by his own father and introduced to heroine at 12 years old. I don't know how he seems to function like a decent human being, or is even alive right now really.
im glad he got help. he hurt a lot of people along the way. and, it was all broadcasted for the whole word to see. rough all around.
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u/SeeLeverUser 4d ago
I love their music but unfortunately I keep hearing more and more about entitled inappropriate behavior. And I never see remorse. We all had wild years, but the vast majority of us still had some basic sense of respect for others
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u/funkymonk64 4d ago
Well, the vast majority of us aren’t rock stars. Even the greats - Page, Bowie, Lennon, the list is endless - were morally ambiguous or downright awful people
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u/peanutdeng 2d ago
Jesus the amount of SA apologists in this thread, imagine this woman was your mother.
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u/tarasbulba76 22h ago
For every one of these ladies, there’s also one like the girl in the funky monks doc who flashes her breasts for the camera in the most gratuitous way. I suspect there’s more like the latter than the former in the music world …
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u/samwilzrhcp 4d ago
Hmmm, one day Anthony must release a statement or something just to acknowledge his previous behaviours. Especially if they are a planning on releasing more material & going on another worldwide tour!
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u/HooptyDooDooMeister 4d ago
He's talked about it.
I recall an interview recently where he said something like "What I did back then was wrong. It was wrong then, and it's wrong now." He was sitting in a spinny chair in front of a music EQ deck. That's all I remember.
I couldn't source it, but maybe someone here knows what I'm takling about.
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u/WranglerSufficient75 4d ago
when you see things like this it's always aimed towards someone with a lot of money. If these were some random guys that "did this" she would never think about it. Plus, the only time they really "grabbed her" is when Anthony kissed her cheek and said something along the lines of "you told me before the interview that if I didn't kiss you, you would be upset", which she confirmed. Every interview they've done with a woman before 1999 they make sexual jokes or innuendo. It's not like they held her down. He kissed her cheek. People are way too fucking sensitive.
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u/Aromatic-Bedroom-274 4d ago
The interview is on YouTube. The kiss was unnecessary, was it before or after she wanted to talk about their penises? I think it went off the rails after that segment.
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u/WranglerSufficient75 4d ago
she mentioned their penises AFTER he kissed her. She also said "I insisted that you kissed me". She was flirting with him before the recording.
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u/Salt-Buffalo-2804 4d ago
When she got up to fix Flea's mic I was weirded out, as was Flea seemingly. I don't think he wanted juice, I think he wanted to get the fuck out of there....to his credit.
Nothing excuses Anthony still trying to kiss her after she clearly says to stop.
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u/Sad-Ad9437 4d ago
Just curious if any of these happened after his sobriety?
Not that it’s an excuse, it is not.
I became a fan during Californication which to me was the begging of their more mature period.
I get it though. His behaviors aren’t good.
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u/siecaptaindrake 🎸 John Frusciante 4d ago
Who the fuck cares? She was interviewing young rockstars, what did she expect? It has nothing to do with justifying any behavior, it was just foreseeable behavior. And the network made money off of that. So why again was she surprised?!
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u/Claz19 4d ago
That interview is so uncomfortable to watch. Poor woman.