The Belmont Tunnel, Los Angeles, California

Under The Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers

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Sometimes I feel like my only friend
Is the city I live in:
The city of angels
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Unfortunately, drug habits and rock bands go together like peanut butter and jelly. It's textbook to the point of almost being comical. However, it was one songwriter's experience as a junkie that drop-kicked his band into the Top 10 of the early 1990s, when "Under the Bridge" hit the airwaves. Anthony Kiedis and the Red Hot Chili Peppers didn't become household names until their fifth studio album – Blood Sugar Sex Magik – dropped in 1991. Until that time, hardly anybody had heard of them. The second single off this album, "Under the Bridge," hit #2 on the charts with a bullet and propelled the album to sell over 15 million copies.

The truth behind the emotionally charged ballad comes from a very dark place. Kiedis lost his girlfriend and was driving a wedge in his relationships with friends and bandmates. He felt isolated, dejected, and depressed, blaming his addiction to both heroin and cocaine for his troubles. He would often head into the gang territories to purchase and shoot up, and on one occasion, was forced to pretend a gang member's sister was his fiancé just to get inside.

Belmont Tunnel before renovation<br>Photo: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/skunks/92243881/" target="_blank">Scott Garner</a>, via Flickr, CC 2.0Belmont Tunnel before renovation
Photo: Scott Garner, via Flickr, CC 2.0
It was this emotional distress that led him to find a bond between himself and the city of Los Angeles. He spent so much time wandering the streets and hiking through the hills that he felt the spirits of the city were looking after him. No matter how sad or lonely he became, he stopped feeling alone. He began writing the song while still addicted, but finished it after he'd been clean and sober. The optimism in the chorus stemmed from the latter period: I don't ever wanna feel, like I did that day.

So where exactly did Kiedis have to go to purchase his drugs? According to Mark Haskell Smith – ghost writer of the autobiography Scar Tissue, the most likely location is the Belmont Tunnel, located less than a mile from the famed MacArthur Park in the Westlake area of Los Angeles. The tunnel, also known as the Hollywood Subway, is a historic monument remnant of the former Pacific Electric Railway line.

Currently in a state of urban decay, the tunnel boasts a rich history dating back to February 1924 when ground was broken for the proposed Hollywood subway. The line opened to the public about a year later and emerged as a very popular means of transit for Los Angelenos, but the construction of the extensive freeway system in the 1950s led to its closure.

Few changes have occurred since the tunnel's closing with the exception of the city's brief attempt to turn it into an impound lot in the 1960s. Since that time, the area's been largely neglected and its history overshadowed by the dilapidated appearance. It was in this state that Kiedis turned to the tunnel to fuel his incessant drug habit during the 1980s.

What we – as music fans – are left with following the period of turbulence in his life is one of the most passionate songs about drug addiction, withdrawal, and subsequent isolation ever written. "Under the Bridge" has endeared Los Angeles and Anthony Kiedis to his millions of fans across the globe.

Justin Novelli
May 19, 2016
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