How this Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute band pays homage to music and culture

Most Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute bands try their best to look the part and imitate their inspiration, not cover themselves in flannels and bandanas.

But Redlands-based group Red Hot Cholo Peppers is not your average Red Hot Chili Peppers cover band. The four-piece, including vocalist David Strickland, also known as Papi Cholo, guitarist Big Al, bassist Fonzo Fresh and drummer Joe-ker, combine Southern California’s cholo culture with the original band’s rock and funk sound.

“Fans of the music can expect to have some fun,” Strickland said ahead of the band’s free show at Fantasy Springs Casino’s The Rock Yard stage in Indio on Dec. 3. “They can expect a great performance, and I love putting some humor into it and sharing my cultural heritage with the people that come to the show.”

Strickland said the idea to form the tribute band came from his coworkers and fellow musicians at Guitar Center about four years ago. While brainstorming, the band’s original drummer, Vince, proposed the name the Red Hot Cholo Peppers as an homage and reclamation of their Mexican heritage.

“I died laughing,” Strickland said. “It was hilarious, but could be really fun and that was the beginning of it.”

He said one of the reasons that he believes the music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and cholo subculture blends so well is that it comes from each scene manifesting side by side in Los Angeles.

“It becomes this building aspect of the place you come from,” Strickland said. “When you know these cultural things originate from the same place, you connect in that aspect, and you can share that with people. Cholo culture has gone through this massive evolution, but the point of it has always been pride in who you are and where you come from.”

Strickland has been playing music for over 20 years and said he did have some success with other bands, but as years passed, he realized that playing music was a labor of love and that anything too serious would require more strict dedication.

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“The older you get, the more you have to think, ‘How much time am I going to put into something?’ and if I want to do something, I really want to have some fun with it and not just feel like it’s a constant struggle to try and get people to listen,” Strickland said.

For Strickland, the answer was turning a tribute band into an experience where he could express the music and culture he was raised with. He grew up with his grandmother, who listened to Spanish radio where iconic Mexican singers Pedro Infante and Vicente Fernandez were staples. He also caught an earful of American music from spending time with his mother.

“I grew up listening to mariachi, banda and whatever else my abuelita would be playing during the week,” Strickland said. “On the weekends, mom would clean and play country music, so I grew up listening to Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline and Kenny Rogers, too.”

When Strickland began taking the bus home, he was introduced to other music that the bus driver would play and realized other sounds beyond the ones he heard at home and church.

“It was one of those times when you start realizing that the world is much bigger than you are,” Strickland said.

He played the violin in his early childhood, an interest that was sparked by seeing the players contribute to the mariachi bands he had grown familiar with. In his pre-teen years, he was given a guitar and and his older cousin introduced him to the music of bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana and Green Day. That combination led Strickland to reconsider his focus.

“Something about growing up and listening to a bunch of new stuff as an 11-year-old and then realizing those guys over there are playing something with strings too, and they’re having a lot more fun,” Strickland said. “So I switched from the violin to the guitar.”

With his influences and music career trajectory, Strickland and his band of homies find themselves playing their favorite Red Hot Chili Pepper songs from albums like “Californication” and having a good time with their audiences.

“Maybe the world has always been crazy, but anytime that you can laugh and have fun where no one’s trying to hurt each other and no one’s putting anyone down, and you can share that with somebody else, maybe you can help offset whatever else someone has going on with their life,” Stickland said. “If you find yourself in a situation where everyone around you is enjoying themselves, it lifts you up and maybe for just one night, you think maybe it’s not so bad.”

The Red Hot Cholo Peppers

When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3

Where: The Rock Yard, Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, 84-245 Indio Springs Parkway, Indio

Tickets: Free; Must be 18-or-older.

For more information: fantasyspringsresort.com