Flea Promises Something Different With New Red Hot Chili Peppers

07/05/2011
. (Gibson) With a new album, I'm With You, set for release on August 30, Red Hot Chili Peppers seem poised to carry on a winning streak that began with the group's fourth album, Mother's Milk, in 1989. That album not only marked the L.A. funk rockers' entry into the Billboard charts, but also the addition of guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith. Smith is still around, on hiatus from the supergroup Chickenfoot, but Frusciante has moved on�marking a major shift for the band.

"Well there are a few huge differences [between this album and the last]," bassist Flea told Stereogum. "The number one difference is John Frusciante left the band, and he was a huge part of our creative process for a long time. I'm so grateful for him. He wrote the principal parts for many of our most popular songs, and the parts for many of our most artistically profound songs, which weren't necessarily popular. He just gave us so much as a songwriter, as a player, as a human being, and just his relationship to music, which is such a beautiful and pure and powerful one."

The dervish-like bassist explained the transition: "We took two years off from the band during that time he left, and I didn't think I'd want to continue the band without him. But once he left, I realized that dealing with this different situation, it seemed like it would be, I just felt so much love for the band, and love for Anthony [Kiedis], I just wanted to keep doing it and once we made that decision I decided to get Josh, so my point is�I kind of went on a big tangent there�a big difference is having Josh Klinghoffer as our guitar player, because he's a much different guitar player than John." more on this story

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