 " Under the Bridge " was slightly altered since it contained personal lyrics by Anthony Kiedis and the All Saints covered it because they liked the overall sound and feeling of the recording . The All Saints version contains samples of the original recording , the most important one being the distinctive guitar playing in the beginning . The original Japanese edition of the album version features a different , more R & B version of the song . Anthony Kiedis said of All Saints ' version " It was kind of funny , they looked so pretty and clean , it looked like they didn 't know what they were singing about " . The Red Hot Chili Peppers ' original is said to deal lyrically with Kiedis 's drug addiction , and the final section which contains the line " Under the bridge downtown / is where I drew some blood " was omitted in the All Saints version . The guitar on " Under the Bridge " was played by Richard Hawley . 
