Thursday, November 2, 2006

From: "Michael Balzary"
To: members@redhotchilipeppers.com

hi
today i am in grand rapids, michigan
it is the hometown of my very close friend of many years, anthony kiedis
today is his birthday
i love him so much and on this day i feel very grateful for our
friendship
he and i together have created lots of things
we created a way to steal from supermarkets and sneak into movie
theaters and skip out on restaurant checks when we were kids
then as we learned better, and were students of the kharmic lessons
that life gave us
we created ways to try to improve ourselves and be honest giving people
we jumped off many a hollywood apartment building roof top into the
swimming pool below
we went to many a punk rock concert and danced like untethered animals
we slept in toolsheds and bushes on the side of the road
we hitch hiked all around the place
when i was pulling into grand rapids on my big fancy tour bus today
i remembered when i came from los angeles on the greyhound bus to
grand rapids
it took 5 days and nights of sitting up on that damn bus
to visit anthony who was staying at his mother's house for the summer
and we jumped repeatedly of a train track bridge into a river
it was fun
except anthony got to go back to los angeles on an aeroplane
and i had to ride that damn stinky greyhound bus
i am so lucky to have found a friend as great as him when i was a kid
and we got to create so many beautiful things together
and here we are today in grand rapids, michigan
and we are gonna create one more beautiful thing tomorrow night at
the van andel arena