Anthony Kiedis is the frontman for one of the legendary Red Hot Chili Peppers and although he was once among the huge number of musicians to train BJJ, he’s since quit the sport. Kiedis has been at the forefront of pop culture since the Red Hot Chili Peppers burst onto the scene in the 80s, even before they started to enjoy the long run of chart success that they achieved in the 90s and early 2000s. The band have since gone on to release an astounding thirteen studio albums to date and Kiedis has been a permanent figure for almost fourty years.
Somehow, throughout all of that recording and touring, Anthony Kiedis has still found the time to try out BJJ and see if the sport was for him. He revealed on a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience that, although he did enjoy what little training he had, he ultimately decided that it wasn’t for him:
“I tried it three times in my life… It hurt. It freaking hurt! It hurt like, I liked it. But I was so competitive that I got home and I realized that there was no skin on my feet from the mats. I have no technique. So, I’m just trying to muscle it you know; dig in. And it hurt.”
To his credit, Joe Rogan had some very sound BJJ advice for Anthony Kiedis, an insight that a huge number of white belts in the sport could probably learn from:
“The key to learning Jiu-Jitsu is to learn how to play. Like the Gracies; they always have this phrase. Rener and Ryron Gracie, they say: “Keep it playful.” And it’s great advice. If you could really follow that advice, that’s how you learn. Because you learn how to not muscle things; you learn only how to use technique and to have fun.”
“And just… Don’t be crazy competitive. Know that you’re gonna get tapped out, know that you’re gonna tap other people. It’s gonna be fine. But if you always try to win every time, [then] you’re not going to learn. You’re going to be too tense. You’re not going to open up, you’re not going to take chances, so you’re not going to learn as much.”
It remains to be seen whether Anthony Kiedis will pick BJJ back up again, but he may very well find that he enjoys the sport more if the takes Rogan’s advice. If Kiedis can find other musicians who have recently picked up the sport to train with or maybe even be more competitive against, he might find even himself in a celebrity superfight in the future.
