Background
After Red Hot Chili Peppers signed a record deal with EMI in 1983, founding members Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons left the group to focus on their group What Is This?, which had also signed a record deal. Vocalist Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea hired Jack Sherman as guitarist and Cliff Martinez as drummer, and established themselves as a prominent funk rock band with their 1984 debut album The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Disappointed with the results of the production, Kiedis and Flea replaced Sherman with Slovak, who had quit his band, What Is This?, several weeks earlier. The group's George Clinton-produced second album, Freaky Styley (1985), was Slovak's first studio album with the band. In early 1986, the band began work on their upcoming album, and EMI gave the Chili Peppers a budget of $5,000 to record a demo tape. The band chose to work with producer and former Public Image Ltd. guitarist Keith Levene, because he shared the members' interest in drugs. Levene and Slovak put aside $2,000 of the budget to spend on drugs without telling the rest of the group, which created tension between the members. Martinez' "heart was no longer in the band", but he did not quit, so Kiedis and Flea fired him. After the firing of Martinez, original drummer Jack Irons rejoined the band, which marked the first time all four founding members were together since 1983.
Both Kiedis and Slovak struggled with debilitating heroin addictions, which grew worse as the band was preparing to record Uplift. Due to his addiction, Kiedis lacked the motivation to contribute to the band musically, and appeared at rehearsal "literally asleep". He was asked to leave the band in order to undergo drug rehabilitation. During that time, the band won the LA Weekly Band of the Year award which prompted Kiedis to quit using heroin cold turkey. He visited his mother in Michigan for guidance, who drove him to drug rehabilitation immediately after picking him up from the airport upon seeing his unhealthy appearance. He checked into Salvation Army rehabilitation clinic in Grand Rapids, an experience which he initially detested until he noted that the other people in the clinic were understanding of his struggles and were trying to help him. He moved in with his mother after twenty days at the clinic, a time which marked the first time he was completely abstinent from drugs since he was eleven years old. After Kiedis completed his stint in rehabilitation, he felt a "whole new wave of enthusiasm" due to his sobriety and wrote the lyrics to a new song entitled "Fight Like a Brave" on the flight home. He rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Los Angeles to record the group's next album.
Read more about this topic: The Uplift Mofo Party Plan
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