The Uplift Mofo Party Plan is the third studio album by Red Hot Chili Peppers. Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band. The album was released by Manhattan Records on September 29, 1987. The Uplift Mofo Party Plan is the band's only album that has the founding members on every song. These people are singer Anthony Kiedis, bass guitar player Flea, guitar player Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons. This is the last Red Hot Chili Peppers album with Slovak on it. This is because he died from a drug overdose in 1988. The album had one single. It is named "Fight Like a Brave". In 1992, "Behind the Sun" was released as a single as well. This was because it was on What Hits!?, a greatest hits album.
The album was much more successful than the band's first two albums. It was the band's first album to go on the Billboard 200 music chart. The Uplift Mofo Party Plan was certified gold by the RIAA. The band went on tour to make the album more popular. Slovak died after the tour. Because of this, Irons left the band.
Background
Red Hot Chili Peppers joined EMI in 1983. After the band did this, Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons left the band. They did this so they could focus on their other band, What Is This?. The other members of the Chili Peppers, Anthony Kiedis and Flea, got new members to join. They hired Jack Sherman and Cliff Martinez. The band made an album in 1984 named The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis and Flea did not like how the album sounded. They replaced Sherman with Slovak, because Slovak left What Is This? a few weeks earlier. Freaky Styley (1985) was the band's first album with Slovak on it. In early 1986, the band started working on their next album. EMI gave the Chili Peppers $5,000 to make a demo tape. The band worked with Keith Levene, one of the original members of the Clash, to make the album. Levene and Slovak saved $2,000 dollars from the money to spend on drugs. They did not tell this to the rest of the band. This made the other members mad. Kiedis and Flea fired Martinez. After this, they hired Jack Irons again.
Kiedis and Slovak were addicted to heroin. Their addictions got worse as the band was making The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. Kiedis was not helping the band make much music because of his addiction. He was asked to leave the band to go to a treatment place. While he was there, the band won the LA Weekly Band of the Year Award. Because of this, Kiedis decided to stop using heroin. He visited his mother in Michigan, and she took him to another treatment place owned by the Salvation Army. He lived with his mother after being treated for 20 days. It was the first time he was not using drugs since he was 11 years old. After he was done, Kiedis felt much better. He wrote the lyrics to "Fight Like a Brave" while on an airplane going back to Los Angeles. He joined the band again to record the album.
Recording
While Kiedis was getting treated, the band wanted to get a new producer. Michael Beinhorn was looking for work at EMI after he had produced other music. None of it was very successful. A man from EMI talked to Beinhorn, and asked him to work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Beinhorn liked the band's music and how they acted. He wanted to meet the band. They told him to meet them at a club in New Orleans named Tipitina's. Beinhorn decided to work with the band. Kiedis talked to Beinhorn about how the album was going to be made. Kiedis wanted to record the album in ten days, and write the songs during this time.
The album was recorded in Capitol Studios Studio B in Hollywood. Kiedis was having withdrawal while making the album, and did not make as much music as he did before. After not doing drugs for fifty days, he decided to take drugs again because he made new music. This made him addicted to drugs again. Making the album was difficult, because Kiedis left many times to find drugs. Beinhorn said that he "really thought the record wasn't gonna get made." Kiedis felt bad whenever he was not recording music with the band, so he tried to write music and find drugs at the same time. The band was not happy that he was using drugs and did not show up to make music. However, they were impressed with how much music he wrote.