During a lengthy discussion on the latest episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, the musician spoke about his past drug abuse, and recalled moments that changed his life on his journey to sobriety.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers performed and toured for years, but didn’t make it big until the early 1990s, which coincided with a time when Kiedis was making efforts to get clean.

While discussing his past issues with Rogan, Kiedis recalled a day when he and the band had performed for producer Rick Rubin and the Beastie Boys. After they’d finished performing, Rubin and the other band members all left quickly. Years later Rubin told Kiedis it was because they thought someone would “get murdered in that rehearsal space.”

“That’s how dark we had become. That’s how dark I had become as he was afraid someone was gonna die, and it was time to leave,” Kiedis said. “There was darkness in the room. When you’re following that lifestyle, instead of a magical energy, there’s a very discernible dark energy. But I didn’t realize it was dangerous.”

Kiedis described himself as a “junkie” when he was a young man, as he got addicted to cocaine and heroine. He said he was always likely to head down the “drug road.”

“I think the road was already in me from birth. A combination of predisposed to addiction, physically. And then emotionally, I developed the tendencies that I needed to squash some of the noise, [and I was] spiritually a little depleted. So I started smoking weed and loved it,” Kiedis said.

Eventually, after years of abuse, Kiedis reached a breaking point. “I felt whole by putting these things in me until I had to pay the toll. You know, it’s like you steal from Peter, you got to pay Paul the next day. And it’s a terrible paycheck to write.”

Kiedis described how at the age of 27, he eventually went to rehab for the first time, spending $10,000, all the money he had at the time, to attend.

“I went and I checked in and it was 30 dope fiends in the room from all walks of life, but all with a common sickness. And the counselor said, ‘I’m looking at 30 of you and stats wise one of you is going to get sober out of here.’ Wow. And I was like, ‘Get out the way because I’m taking that spot.’”

After that time he had moments where he fell back into bad habits, but he has now been committed to being sober for 21 years.