Flea, Chad Smith, Anthony Kiedis and John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the 2023 Global … [+]
Following the fiery and heavy metal fueled opening ceremony, courtesy of the French metal band Gojira, the Olympics closing ceremony is gearing up to be another iconic moment for rock music, as the legendary Los Angeles based rock outfit The Red Hot Chili Peppers are set to perform at the ceremony. As reported by Variety, some of the most popularized Los Angeles based artists will be performing at the Paris Olympics closing ceremony, including Billie Eilish and legendary west coast rapper Snoop Dogg.
Given that the next summer Olympics will be taking place in Los Angeles, California in July 2028, the theme of course is centered around Los Angeles arts, but it’s not limited to just music. Tom Cruise will be making an appearance at the ceremony in both a live fashion and prerecorded stunt. Cruise will reportedly be performing a death defying motorcycle stunt in France, only to then parachute land atop Los Angeles’ Hollywood sign in a prerecorded stunt. Following the performances, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass will accept the Olympic Torch at the end of the closing ceremony, and preparations for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games will commence. The closing ceremony will be taking place Sunday, August 11th, and will air at 3pm EST.
As it pertains to rock music, The Red Hot Chili Peppers are easily one of the best choices to represent the genre but more specifically the Los Angeles’s rock scene. Beyond being one of the most popularized rock acts of the last 30 years, The Red Hot Chili Peppers embody California in their history and throughout their music with songs “Californication,” “Dani California,” and “Under Bridge” among a litany of others. There’s simply no other rock act like the Chili Peppers that embrace Los Angeles and California quite like them, making them a rather obvious choice for the ceremony.
However, as great and as fitting as it might be to have The Red Hot Chili Peppers play the closing ceremony, arguably it would have been more interesting had the closing ceremony decided to match the intensity of the opening ceremony with a Los Angeles metal artist, namely the biggest metal band in the world, Metallica. While there’s no question The Red Hot Chili Peppers will deliver in their performance, the intensity Metallica bring could more fitting, especially seeing how well Gojira’s performance faired.
Then again, Gojira’s performance wasn’t without controversy as some viewers speculated their performance was evidence of Satanism being injected into the Olympics. While this was not true, the Olympics have reportedly revised the closing ceremony a number of times in order to avoid any similar backlash caused from the opening ceremony, specifically the controversy spurred from the depiction of the 17th-century Dutch painting of the Greek Olympian gods. Knowing this, it’d make sense if the closing ceremony was less in favor of featuring another metal act this time around.
