Watch the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ First TV Appearance on Alan Thicke’s ‘Thicke of the Night’
Earlier today (Dec. 13), Growing Pains star Alan Thicke died of a heart attack at the age of 69. Thicke had a syndicated late-night talk show called Thicke of the Night, which lasted only through the 1983-84 season, But it was enough to give the Red Hot Chili Peppers their first-ever television appearance on March 16, 1984, only three months before the show was cancelled.
The group, which was then comprised of Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, guitarist Jack Sherman and drummer Cliff Martinez, were still a few months away from releasing their debut LP; neither Keidis nor Flea are sporting tattoos. They performed two songs. “Get Up and Jump” is embedded above and “True Men Don’t Kill Coyotes” can be found below. Flea and Kiedis also engaged in some silliness at the beginning, some of which had to be bleeped, and at the end, where they jumped all over Thicke.
Prior to Thicke of the Night, Alan Thicke had become a popular in his native Canada, hosting game shows and talk shows. And he also wrote the theme songs to several TV shows, including Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life, with his then-wife Gloria Loring. But it was as the father of the Seaver family on Growing Pains that made him a household name in the U.S. The program ran on ABC from 1985 until 1992.
According to Billboard, Thicke was playing hockey with his son when he suffered the heart attack and was pronounced dead at the hospital. He is survived by his wife, Tanya, and his sons Brennan, Carter and Robin, who has had a successful musical career of his own, with his most famous song being 2013’s global smash “Blurred Lines.”
Watch the Red Hot Chili Peppers Play “True Men Don’t Kill Coyotes”
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