Synopsis

The Red Hot Chili Peppers travel through the Mojave Desert in a battered convertible, their faces and bodies marked with bandages and bruises. As the car rolls across the empty landscape, the musicians perform with damaged instruments and an air of exhaustion, isolation, and persistence. The journey builds toward a sunset performance by John Frusciante, whose extended guitar passage becomes the video's emotional centerpiece. When the solo ends, he throws the broken guitar from the moving car, leaving the band to continue down the road.

Factoids & Trivia

• Released in 1999 as the first single from *Californication*, the video accompanied the band's return to a more melodic sound.

• The desert setting was filmed in California's Mojave Desert, giving the video its stark, road-movie atmosphere.

• John Frusciante's position behind the wheel carries added meaning: he was returning to the band after a long absence, although he does not drive in real life.

• The convertible used in the video was a 1967 Pontiac Catalina.

• The battered instruments and bandaged appearances echo the song's themes of damage, survival, and recovery without turning the video into a literal narrative.

• Anthony Kiedis cut and bleached his hair before the shoot, adopting the platinum-blond look associated with the *Californication* era.

• Frusciante's closing guitar solo lasts roughly 30 seconds and ends with him discarding the broken, stringless instrument.

• A similar road-trip concept had reportedly been considered for the earlier "Soul to Squeeze" video but was ultimately abandoned.