Cultural nostalgia has a 15-year-cycle for a reason -- it takes about that long for teenagers to grow up and create art that reflects their youth. Not to say that Billy Talent's ferocious new album 'Billy Talent III' sounds dated, but both the record and the rockers behind it are heavily influenced by the "alternative" revolution that roared through the early 1990s.

"It was a beautiful time to be a teenager," says Billy Talent's lead singer Ben Kowalewicz. "To look at all the bands -- Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Green Day -- that's pretty insane to think about. Those are still the bands that everyone turns to now. They set the precedent."

For their third major release, Billy Talent (which includes guitarist Ian D'Sa, bassist Jon Gallant and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk) didn't just pay lip service to their past. They actually hired legendary producer Brendan O'Brien, the man behind the boards for countless alt-era classics by bands like Rage, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Three-fourths of the Red Hot Chili Peppers got together this past weekend in Los Angeles to honor Anthony Kiedis for his sobriety as part of the MAP MusiCares benefit. With guitarist John Fruiscante unable to make it, Kiedis, bassist Flea and drummer Chad Smith brought in the Rolling Stones' Ron Wood to form one hell of a bar band. With time for only four songs, the multi-national, cross-generation hybrid of L.A. '80s alternative and '60s British Invasion bypassed the Chilis' hits to channel their youthful days of garage rock with covers of the Kinks' 'All Day (and All of The Night),' some Howlin' Wolf and a song Woody knows oh, so well: the Faces' classic 'Ooh-La-La.'

The night brought out an eclectic array of musicians and outfits, including longtime Chili Peppers friend and peer Bob Forrest, known now for his work on 'Celebrity Rehab' and a respected songwriters from the '80s L.A. scene for his work with Thelonious Monster and Bicycle Thief. Having been with Kieids for many wild times, he reflected on the night to Spinner. "I didn't think I'd live this long. If I'd have known I was gonna live this long I would've paid my taxes," he said jokingly. "[But] that's alright, we made it through. It's a beautiful night."

The Red Hot Chili Peppers will have a reunion of sorts tonight when the MusiCares MAP Fund honors Anthony Kiedis with the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award for his dedication and support of the fund and for his commitment to helping other addicts.

As part of the celebration, drummer Chad Smith, currently of the Sammy Hagar-helmed band Chickenfoot, bassist Flea and Kiedis will perform alongside Ron Wood and Ivan Neville of the Neville Brothers.

Like Slash and James Hetfield before him, Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis will be honored for his sobriety by MusiCares, the Grammy-related branch that helps artists stay clean. Kiedis will be presented the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award at a benefit dinner May 8 in Los Angeles, at Club Nokia.

"I've seen firsthand the physical and emotional toll addiction takes on people -- not just myself, but so many other artists and friends as well," Kiedis -- whose battle with addiction was well-documented in his autobiography, 'Scar Tissue' -- said in a statement. "The pain of addiction is leveled only by the promise of sobriety and the MusiCares MAP Fund provides access to the kind of resources that can help people genuinely change their lives. I'm proud to be honored and help raise funds for this critical work."

A new report suggests that Red Hot Chili Peppers' singer Anthony Kiedis narrowly escaped kidney failure this past summer.

The New York Daily News reported Tuesday that Kiedis made several visits to Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai hospital during the summer of 2008 where he was treated for a serious kidney disease attributed to his past drug and alcohol abuse.

Although representatives for Kiedis, who has a history of heroin and cocaine addiction, denied to the paper that he was suffering from kidney problems, an unnamed source close to the singer suggested the RHCP singer was code blue.

"Anthony's health was pretty bleak," the source told the newspaper's Gatecrasher section Tuesday. "Organ failure was a possibility. There was talk of how to get him on a transplant list, to cover all the bases, but that opened up a whole new can of worms because people with histories of drug and alcohol abuse are less likely to receive the organs they need."

Meanwhile, another insider told the newspaper, "The general consensus is that the treatments helped, and he's getting better."

Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis is developing a series for HBO, tentatively titled 'Scar Tissue,' which will be based on his unconventional, rock 'n' roll childhood.

The series will focus on Kiedis' relationship with his father who sold drugs to the likes of the Who and Led Zeppelin. "[My father] introduced me to the arts, to a more culturally magnificent life," Kiedis told Daily Variety. "But some of it was this heavy, adult matter that I wasn't quite capable of digesting."

"It was a very rich but kind of challenging period of my life. I was thrust into this adult mentality by age 11," Kiedis added. Hollywood veterans Marc Abrams and Michael Benson ('Entourage') approached Kiedis for the project after Benson read the singer's autobiography.

On This Date in 1962: Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis is born in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The Almanac Advises for November 1: "The Scoville scale measures the intensity of chili peppers. According to this scale, the hottest chili is the Naga Jolokia, found in Bangladesh and northeastern India, which is more than three times as intense as the Habanero chili."