Songfacts®:

• "My Lovely Man" is about the Chili Peppers' former guitarist Hillel Slovak, who died of a heroin overdose at age 26 on June 25, 1988. After his death, his brother James published his diary Behind the Sun.
• In 1992, Rolling Stone interviewed frontman Anthony Kiedis, who said the following: "'My Lovely Man' is about my love for Hillel and the fact that eventually I will find him. It's kind of like when I die, I am counting on him to save me a seat. And whenever I sing that song, Hillel is completely in my world."
• This is a track on Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the first Red Hot Chili Peppers album produced by Rick Rubin. Thanks to the songs "Under The Bridge" and "Give It Away," it was their commercial breakthrough, expanding their audience considerably. Rubin understood that a tribute song didn't need to be a dirge and let the band fly their funk flag on "My Lovely Man," which is certainly how Hillel Slovak would have wanted it.
• Slovak's death wasn't the last tragedy the band dealt with. In 1993 their good friend River Phoenix, who gets a shoutout in "Give It Away" ("There's a river born to be a giver..."), died of a drug overdose. The band was also struggling internally because they were stressed out and burned out. When their Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour ended in 1992, bass player Flea suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome and had to take a lot of time off. Guitarist John Frusciante left the band in the middle of the tour. Their next album, One Hot Minute, wasn't released until 1995.