During his October 2022 appearance on "The Joe Rogan Experience," Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis discussed the genesis of "Under the Bridge," among other topics. According to Kiedis, producer Rick Rubin (pictured above) played a pivotal role in convincing him to include the reflective, mellow track on "Blood Sugar Sex Magik."
As Kiedis recalled to Rogan, Rubin would often ask him and his bandmates to show off the songs they were working on, and a lot of these tunes were on-brand for the Peppers — "sexy songs" and "heavy, funky songs" that had some potential. One day, after Rubin asked Kiedis if he had anything else to contribute, the singer said that he'd written a poem that had a melody but didn't quite fit the Peppers' brand. That, however, didn't deter the producer. "'Well, let me hear it,'" Kiedis said, quoting Rubin. "I was like, 'it's kinda embarrassing, it's a little sentimental.'"
Kiedis went on to explain that as a producer, Rubin felt that there were no hard, fast rules and that he believed the Red Hot Chili Peppers could impress listeners with a song that nobody expects from them. "So I sang him 'Under the Bridge,' and he was like, 'that's your best song.' I was like, 'eh, it's just a poem,'" Kiedis said, adding that Rubin insisted he sing the song for his bandmates to hear. "So without Rick's push for the counterintuitive, sensitive-guy song, we might have never had a chance to write that."
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