Chad Smith, drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, has told Eddie Trunk that the band may be at the point of finally slowing down.
Smith appeared on Trunk’s podcast and said “We all have families and different things, your priorities shift a little bit. You kinda see that what’s gonna work for you maybe doesn’t necessarily work for other bands.”
The Chili Peppers regularly go out on the road for year or more runs of tour dates but that may not be the case in the future. “I mean, three of us are 54 years old, Anthony, me and Flea. Josh is 38 or 39, so he’s a young man but I don’t know if we can continue to do the long tours, the year, year and a half we normally do.”
Still, Smith is grateful for the fans. “We’re just so grateful that people want to come and see us play, and we love to perform. I don’t know in the future how that’s gonna look.”
Smith was not an original member of the band. The Red Hot Chili Peppers formed in 1983 with Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons. Irons was replaced by Cliff Martinez for the band’s first two albums, The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984) and Freaky Styley (1985) while Irons returned for The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987).
After the death of Slovak, Irons announced he didn’t want to be in a band where his friends were dying and Kiedis and Flea temporarily brought in D.H. Peligro on drums but, after a short tour, he was fired and Smith successfully auditioned for the band. His first album with the band was 1989’s Mother’s Milk which gave them their first hits, Higher Ground (1989 / #11 Alternative) and Knock Me Down (1989 / #6 Alternative).
