We're all suckers for a great comeback story and in 1999, we got one for the ages by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
On their seventh album, Californication, the LA legends took us on a wild ride from rock bottom to dazzling new heights that would make their Hollywood hometown proud.
Their 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magik had set them up as one of alt rock's major breakthroughs with the accompanying tour featuring rising acts like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins as openers.
But the glare of sudden huge fame was too much for guitarist John Frusciante whose escalating drug use and deteriorating relationship with singer Anthony Keidis was all too apparent during the band's troubled Saturday Night Live performance in 1992.
Newly recruited guitarist Dave Navarro's tenure with the band ended after One Hot Minute, and with no other options in sight, the future looked gravely uncertain for the Funky Monks.
Following a stint in rehab, Frusciante was asked to rejoin the band. He accepted the offer, and if the situation seemed momentarily dire, bassist Flea, wasn't letting on.
"Should we be surprised that the Chili Peppers got to make another album do you think?" Richard Kingsmill asked in a 1999 triple j interview.
"I don't know if you should be surprised or not, I'm just really happy about it," Flea said.
"I'm mostly happy that we got John Frusciante back in the band, which has been completely awe inspiring and great, because I think he's the best guitar player in the world. Playing with him is an absolute honour and a joy and a beautiful thing.
"It's such an easy thing to play with him. I love the chemistry, whatever the intangible magic is that makes people sound good together when they play, it's all there. And making this record was easy. It was simple. It was a pleasure, and I'm so happy about it. It's just the greatest thing ever."
Opening track 'Around The World' gave us sure indication that the Chili Peppers classic line-up had tapped into an electrifying new energy. It rumbles to life with Flea's demonic bass, Frusciante's frenzied guitar, Chad Smith's bruising drums and Kiedis' rapturous holler soaring over the top of it all.
It sets in motion a slew of undeniably infectious hit tracks, like 'Parallel Universe', the sobering clarity of 'Scar Tissue' and 'Otherside', the funk hijinks of 'Get On Top' and title track 'Californication', which shows off the band's conflicted love of their hometown.
"'Californication' is a song that is about the tremendous influence that Hollywood has on the rest of the world, and how, in a lot of ways, it's pretty disgusting," Flea explained to triple j.
"It's a real double edged sword, this all pervasive Art Media [epicentre], which I think in a lot of ways really robs people of their own individuality and their own sense of searching for their own taste in art and music and culture.
"They deny their own beauty and their own culture and go for what Hollywood forces down their throats. I think that affects the world in a lot of ways. 'Californication' is [like] being fucked by California."
Unlike previous songwriting efforts, 'Californication's' lyrics referencing Kurt Cobain, David Bowie and Star Wars planet Alderaan were developed prior to the musical ideas that would make the song one of the band's most enduring hits across their entire catalogue.
The song and singing across the record showed frontman Anthony Keidis revelling in an especially focused creative zone.
"To tell you the truth, I am so immensely proud of Anthony Keidis," Flea enthused at the time.
"He did the best singing he's ever done on this record. Like leaps and bounds to another level, and I'm just so inspired by him right now. I just feel like he's in a great, great place."
The frontman's positivity was reflective of the band as a whole.
"I know that, right now, our band is probably in the best place we've ever been in," he said.
"Even after we made Blood Sugar…, which I thought was a really great record, it was almost like we were not in the best place. Artistically, we were in a great place, we made this great record. But it was almost like, I knew going on tour was going to be frightening. It was just felt fragile.
"And after making [Californication], it's like, I know, we made a great record, but it feels like everyone's raring to go.
"I think, especially for John Frusciante, at that time, he saw success as his enemy. He saw playing for a lot of people and selling a lot of records as something destructive to his creativity and to his spirit. And now he sees it as a great opportunity to express himself."
For a band to have endured, evolved, and thrived across four decades gives you plenty of room to pause and reflect on their incredible staying power and continued influence right across the music spectrum.
They've weathered heartbreak, tragic loss, drug issues, infighting, the instability of various new players at certain times, at each stage pulling each other through, mapping their battle scars as well as their great triumphs in song as they went along.
For Flea, it was a matter of one feeding the other on Californication.
"My honest feeling is I think [the album is] gonna do really well," he said. "I could be completely wrong, but we're a long term band, we've been around for 17 years. I think that people respect that.
"I think that people understand that this is not like some fly by night novelty hit, like so many are these days on the radio.
"It's almost disheartening to hear these bands that just come and go and come and go. These days someone can have a hit, and all of a sudden, they're huge stars, and then they're gone. It's just like, amazing.
"But, you know, we're an album band, and we make entire albums that are dynamic and diverse and I think this is the best one we've ever made.
"Whatever's gonna happen, is gonna happen, [but] I'm gonna go home tonight and lie in bed, and I'm gonna know that I'm really, really proud of what we did. And I'm gonna know that it's really honest. And I'm going to know that it's truly a result of the emotions of four guys who love each other."
Delve into the finest records of our time on Double J's Classic Albums. Listen to it here on the ABC listen app.