Red Hot Chili Peppers’ hit single “Scar Tissue” is from the Nineties. The song was released in 1999 as the first single from the band’s album Californication.
“Scar Tissue” marked an important turning point for the group. Guitarist John Frusciante returned to the band for Californication after several years away, replacing Dave Navarro. His melodic, restrained guitar playing became a major part of the song’s sound, while Anthony Kiedis’s lyrics explore pain, recovery, isolation, and emotional scars.
The single was commercially successful and helped reintroduce the Red Hot Chili Peppers to a broad audience. It won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 2000, and its accompanying music video features the band driving through a stark desert landscape. The track remains one of the band’s most frequently performed songs.
Because Californication was released near the end of the decade, listeners sometimes remember “Scar Tissue” as an early-2000s song. Its release date settles the question: it belongs to 1999 and therefore to the 1990s.