He is the founding drummer of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers until he departed in 1988 and is a former member of Pearl Jam and Eleven.

Alongside his work with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam, Irons has been a member of Eleven, The Wallflowers and Mark Lanegan Band.

He has worked with Joe Strummer and The Latino Rockabilly War, Redd Kross, Raging Slab, Spinnerette and The Les Claypool Frog Brigade.

In 1995 Irons and the other members of Pearl Jam recorded and toured the Mirror Ball album with Neil Young.

[1] Irons, along with former drummer Cliff Martinez, joined the band onstage for the first time in 24 years for a performance of their 1991 hit "Give It Away".

[4] Irons attended Bancroft Jr. High School in Hollywood, where he met future bandmates Michael "Flea" Balzary and Hillel Slovak.

He then went on to attend Fairfax High School in Los Angeles alongside Balzary and Slovak, as well as future bandmates Anthony Kiedis and Alain Johannes.

In 1983, Flea formed a "one-off" band, Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem, with Kiedis, Slovak and Irons.

Their performance was a hit and, after deciding to continue past the single concert, they changed their name to Red Hot Chili Peppers, quickly gaining popularity around Los Angeles.

had signed a record deal two weeks earlier and Slovak and Irons considered the Red Hot Chili Peppers a side project, they quit.

In the meantime, Irons played on several recordings by Walk the Moon, a duo made up of Johannes and Natasha Shneider.

Irons played drums on the Red Hot Chili Peppers' first demo tape and their third album, 1987's The Uplift Mofo Party Plan.

[8] On August 12, 2012, Irons and Martinez performed "Give It Away" with the Red Hot Chili Peppers at a Los Angeles concert.

[9] After a brief stint with Joe Strummer's backing band the Latino Rockabilly War, Irons teamed up with Johannes and Shneider in 1990 to form Eleven.

Irons had formed a friendship with Vedder after meeting him through the Southern California music scene and played basketball with him.

[17] As a member of Pearl Jam, Irons brought a unique drumming style to the band, particularly in the way he played his fills and with his use of a trash can lid as a cymbal.

Irons started creating his first pieces of drum music in 1994, but it wasn't until fall 1999, about a year after he left Pearl Jam, that he seriously began recording himself for a possible solo album.

The album features appearances by former bandmates such as Alain Johannes, Flea, Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, and Les Claypool.

Johnny Loftus of Allmusic said, "Attention Dimension is the drummer's chance to be in the bright white klieg light.

In 2000, Irons played as part of the initial line-up of Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade.

Irons is featured on the track "Milky Ave" on the album Ultra Payloaded (2007) by Perry Farrell's band Satellite Party.