The Red Hot Chili Peppers were founded in 1983 by four high school friends out of Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. It started out as a one time performance for Anthony Kiedis, Hillel Slovak, Jack Irons, and Michael Balzary (more commonly known as Flea). This performance was at Rhythm Lounge for a crowd of about thirty people. The performance was greeted warmly by the lounge and the band was asked to come back the next week. With this, a band had started. Several months later, the band signed with the record label EMI. But, Slovak and Irons decided to pursue a career with the band What Is This?, deeming the Red Hot Chili Peppers a side project. Lacking a drummer and a guitarist, Kiedis and Flea hired drummer Cliff Martinez and Jack Sherman. On August 10, 1984, The Red Hot Chili Peppers was released as their debut album. Selling only 25,000 copies, it was considered a flop. After this first album Hillel Slovak returned to the band, replacing Jack Sherman at guitar. Their next album, Freaky Styley, was released on August 16, 1985. This had a more funk sound to it, but it was to no avail. This album was not much more successful than the first. In 1986 Cliff Martinez was dismissed from the band because it seemed he wanted to leave. This led to the hiring of Jack Irons, and finally the return of the original four Red Hot Chili Peppers. Songs formed much more quickly for this album, and on September 29, 1987 The Uplift Mofo Party Plan was released. In this album, they based their music much off of the funk rhythms of Freaky Styley . This album was much more of a success, peaking at number 148 on the billboard top 100. Unfortunately, both Kiedis and Slovak developed serious drug addictions, abandoning the band and all other portions of life for days on end. This addiction led to the death of Hillel Slovak in June 1988. Taking the death of his close friend to heart, Jack Irons abruptly left the group shortly after his death.