Great balls of fire!

(From Malay Mail)

Byline: Adly Syairi Ramly

ARTISTES normally offer their greatest hits compilations when their creative juices have dried up, or are on the verge of breaking up (Suede and Stone Temple Pilots) or have already broken up.

However, a greatest hits collection could also be an end to one chapter of an artiste's career, before moving to another level.

Good examples would be REM's In Time: The Best Of REM and of course, the Red Hot Chili Peppers Greatest Hits.

"The Greatest Hits is not a caper for us! We feel like our best music is still to come, and we're so hungry and excited to go and write new songs. I feel like we can do better music than we've ever done before.

So it's definitely not a caper," front man Anthony Kiedis told Launch.com prior to the release of the band's second compilation last November (their first, What Hits!? was released in 1992).

It could have been a totally different story if one of the creative forces in the group, guitarist John Frusciante, didn't recover from a drug problem and return to the fold in 1998.

Formed in 1983, the band had four albums under its belt - Red Hot Chili …