Red Hot Chili Pep­pers, back when I was in high school and col­lege, were pretty anti-establishment. They started out in 1983 and did mainly what I thought was hard-core funk mixed with punk. They wore only socks when they played live, they did gal­lons of drugs and were pretty promis­cu­ous. And now they’re doing ads for NASCAR.

There’s a story about it over at Brandweek -

Nascar Hot For Chili Peppers

June 28, 2006

NEW YORK — Nascar has actu­ally found a way to turn up the vol­ume on its mar­ket­ing: by adding the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

A new 30-second spot, via Nascar Images, Char­lotte, N.C., fea­tures the four mem­bers of the band in con­cert and lit­er­ally in the pits as mem­bers of a Nascar pit crew, played out over the band’s “Dani Cal­i­for­nia.” (“Cal­i­for­nia rest in peace/Simultaneous release/California show your teeth/She’s my priest­ess, I’m your priest.”)

The spot will break on Sat­ur­day, July 1, on Fox dur­ing its cov­er­age of the Pepsi 400 at the Day­tona, Fla., Inter­na­tional Speed­way. Spend was not disclosed.

In the spot, the four Pep­pers yell, “Start your engines,” and Anthony Kiedis and Flea say such phrases as, “Nascar. How bad have you got it?”

What in the name of Dale Earn­hardt is going on here? These guys were so cool and hip, I had friends travel to OTHER COUNTRIES to see them play. Now they’re NASCAR fans, or are they just get­ting old and wor­ry­ing about where the money’s going to come from? This is just so lame. Another exam­ple of your idols (not mine, but other peo­ple think think they are) being less than you thought they were.