Dani (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

Dani is the name of a fictional female character appearing in several songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The first song that references her is Californication where Dani is unnamed in the lyric "Teenage bride with a baby inside". The 2002 song "By the Way" also references her, containing the lyrics "Dani the girl/is singing songs to me/Beneath the marquee...of her soul". A more complete version of the character's story was communicated in the song "Dani California", released on April 3 2006 as the first single from the band's 2006 album "Stadium Arcadium". "Dani California" reveals the most information, suggesting that Dani was born in Mississippi, a poor Southern girl who lived a hard, fast, unsettled life of travel which culminated in her seemingly early death.

Dani was created by Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis. He has described her as being every girl he has ever dated, and as "the daughter of a Southern cop – a criminal-minded girl who thrives on catastrophe but this time meets her maker." Kiedis has also commented of Dani that initially, he did not set out to create the character, but rather gradually realized he was writing about the same girl in several songs when he began to pen lyrics for the music of what would become "Dani California". [ [http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=T9QZHuYpBM8&feature=related YouTube - Red Hot Chili Peppers "Dani California" ] ]

Dani is shown on the cover of the "Dani California" single lying bareback across a horse; the girl depicting her is Heather Christie, Kiedis' ex-girlfriend and the mother of his son.

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