Cracked CHILI PEPPER's remedy

[KiwiCoromandel]

Anthony Kiedis, the charismatic 44-year-old frontman of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, reckons rehab's overrated.

Or, at least, his own experience suggests that the current crop of stars checking themselves in for all manner of bad behaviour (from racist remarks to too much shopping) are kidding themselves if they think rehab will do for them what they're not willing to do for themselves.

Kiedis and the band wrap up the Australian leg of their world tour this week with three nights (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday) at Sydney's Acer Arena.

The band blitzed crowds from Adelaide last weekend to Brisbane last night. I caught up with the band during the week in Melbourne to ask Kiedis about his well-documented stints in and out of rehab.

In his 2004 autobiography Scar Tissue, Kiedis tells how he did drugs even before his teenage years. The book's a cracking read, with stories about partying with Led Zeppelin - and being babysat by a naked Cher.

Given the current climate of rehab being almost compulsory for young stars, I wanted to know if he thought it would have been harder to get through had he been more famous at the time.

"My insanity was such that scrutiny probably wouldn't have affected me too much," he said. "I was rather oblivious to the scrutiny of anything at that point. But, you know, rehabs have their good points and their bad points. If you're having a hard time breaking a bad routine, it's a nice way to get away from your destructive routine.

"But rehab is also full of a lot of quacks that want to instantly diagnose you as this or that, or with something that you might not actually have, just because you're on a bad drug run or something.

"And that can be very depressing and you show up and suddenly they decide you're a manic depressive, when really you've just had a hard run of it.

"So I dunno, rehab's . . .you know, if you wanna get well, you'll find a way to get well no matter what's going on with the media, or the format for getting well. You'll just, you know, keep trying until you find something that works."

I had to ask the obvious question: does he feel for Britney Spears?

"No . . . not so much," he said. "I mean, on a human to human level, sure, I feel for her, if she's struggling but, you know, I think she's creating her situation as much as the media is."

Source: The Sun-Herald

image:AP:RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS...Doesn't rate rehab...Anthony Kiedis...

[bear]

The key element in a peaceful journey is being on the right path.

Everyone's path is different, I guess, but I tend to agree with Kedis' philosophy. When you find something that works for you, you'll know it.