Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Nolan Randall playing the closing guitar solo of “Scar Tissue” by Red Hot Chili Peppers from their 1999 album Californication for Warner Brothers Records.

Words and music by Anthony Kiedis, John Frusciante, Michael Balzary, and Chad Smith

Scar tissue that I wish you saw
Sarcastic mister know-it-all
Close your eyes and I'll kiss you
'Cause with the birds I'll share

With the birds, I'll share this lonely viewin'
With the birds, I'll share this lonely viewin'

Ah, push me up against the wall
Young Kentucky girl in a push-up bra
Ah, fallin' all over myself
To lick your heart and taste your health, 'cause

With the birds (Share this lone—), I'll share this lonely viewin'
With the birds (Share this lone—), I'll share this lonely viewin'
With the birds (Share this lone—), I'll share this lonely view

Blood loss in a bathroom stall
A southern girl with a scarlet drawl
I wave good-bye to Ma and Pa
'Cause with the birds I'll share

With the birds (Share this lonely), I'll share this lonely viewin'
With the birds (Share this lonely), I'll share this lonely viewin'

Soft-spoken with a broken jaw
Step outside but not to brawl and
Autumn's sweet, we call it fall
I'll make it to the moon if I have to crawl and

(I will share this lonely)
With the birds, I'll share this lonely viewin'
(I will share this lonely)
With the birds, I'll share this lonely viewin'
(I will share this lonely)
With the birds, I'll share this lonely view

Scar tissue that I wish you saw
Sarcastic mister know-it-all
Close your eyes and I'll kiss you
'Cause with the birds I'll share

(I will share this lonely)
With the birds, I'll share this lonely viewin'
(I will share this lonely)
With the birds, I'll share this lonely viewin'
(I will share this lonely)
With the birds, I'll share this lonely view

*Song Facts*

"Scar Tissue" is the first single from American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers' seventh studio album Californication (1999). Released on May 25, 1999, the song spent a then-record 16 consecutive weeks atop the US Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. It also spent 10 weeks atop the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and it reached number nine on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was also successful in Iceland, New Zealand, and Canada, reaching numbers one, three, and four, respectively. In the United Kingdom, it charted at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart.

It's considered to be representative of the new, more melodic rock sound the band experimented with on Californication. (In contrast with the psychedelia of One Hot Minute, and dry funk of Blood Sugar Sex Magik.) "Scar Tissue" is notable for its mellow intro guitar riff and for its slide guitar solos throughout. Guitar World placed the guitar solo 63rd in its list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos". The tune won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 2000. In 2004, lead vocalist Anthony Kiedis published an autobiography titled after the song.

The music video for "Scar Tissue" was directed by Stéphane Sednaoui, who also directed the video for "Give It Away". The opening shot is of John Frusciante driving down a strip of desert highway, a metaphor for Frusciante's return to the band. (He does not drive in real life.) But the four of them are battered, beaten and bandaged. They are traveling in a rusty wreck and playing broken instruments on the comeback trail. The video ends after an emotional thirty second Frusciante guitar solo at the moment of sunset, with John tossing the broken, stringless guitar from the car. The car Frusciante pretended to drive for the video was a 1967 Pontiac Catalina convertible. A very similar concept was considered, then scrapped, for the earlier "Soul to Squeeze" video. Prior to the video shoot, Kiedis had his hair cut and bleached his brown hair to platinum blond, a look he kept throughout the promotion and tour for Californication. It was filmed in California's Mojave Desert.

"Scar Tissue" is widely regarded as one of the band's best tunes. In 2021, Kerrang ranked the song number three on their list of the 20 greatest Red Hot Chili Peppers songs, and in 2022, Rolling Stone ranked the song number two on their list of the 40 greatest Red Hot Chili Peppers songs.

The tune has been a live staple in the band's setlists since its first performance in 1998. It's the band's fifth most performed song overall. American band Mr. Bungle performed a mock version of the tune in 1999, as part of a Halloween concert parodying Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The Californication album was produced by Rick Rubin. Who has produced most of Red Hot Chili Peppers' studio albums over their career. It's the band's most commercially successful studio album to date, with more than 15 million copies sold worldwide. Over seven million copies were sold in the United States alone. As of 2002, Californication had sold over four million copies in Europe.

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