Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has revealed that he was unsure about the future of the band before he agreed to record the new album ‘I’m With You’. ‘I’m With You’ is the Red Hot Chili Peppers first record since the 2006 double album ‘Stadium Arcadium’.
Flea said, “We've been going really hard for a lot of years with small breaks here and there, but never a major break. And I just felt like I wanted to take two years away just to really look and see if the band was something we should still be doing.” He then added, “Things had gotten dysfunctional and not fun, even though I thought we were making great records, doing great shows and were a really powerful, mighty thing as a band. I was proud of what we did. I thought we honoured our position in the rock world. I felt like we always gave our hearts, but we just needed to get away from it.”
Flea then admitted that his friendship with Anthony Kiedis convinced him to give it a go for another album. Flea continued, “I just realised, Anthony, man, he's my brother, I love him so much, and we started this band when we were kids. I wanted to keep that going, I never want to let that go.” Before adding, “I said, ‘Together let's do this, let's make this album, I love you, and let's fucking rock.’ And as cliché as that might sound, I think for us as a band, and for he and I, both of us, we decided to do it.”
‘I’m With You’, the first album since 1995s ‘One Hot Minute’ not to feature John Frusciante, is set to be released on August 29. John Frusciante, who quit Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2009, has since been replaced by former Warpaint guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.
