The most interesting part of the interview is related to Red Hot Chili Peppers, where Flea talks about John Frusciante and his replacement – Josh Klinghoffer. He confirms that John has quit the band and Josh is the new guitarist, which we already knew anyway, but it’s still nice to hear. Flea seems to be ok with John’s decision to leave and is happy for him.

It’s around the 28 minute mark where Flea mentions both of them – John Frusicante and Josh Klinghoffer. And here you can download and listen to that part of the interview.

Thanks to rhcpuniverse for uploading the recording. Visit their website to download the whole interview!

Attention fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: now is your chance to own a unique piece of Chili’s memorabilia: a double gold (Sweden) album presentation for “Stadium Arcadium” and “Dani California.” The back has been signed “To Haiti with Love” Anthony Kiedis 2010. This framed piece is directly from Anthony’s personal collection and is ready to grace your walls now.

Here is direct link.  And this is how it looks. Enjoy!

NA: I hear the lineup has changed any chance you can comment on that?

CS: Expect something new and fresh, Josh not only is a fantastic guitarist but the kid can do it all, sing, bass drums and even piano.

Hmmm… At least someone spoke about it. I am glad the band is with John and they support his decision. Can’t wait to hear the new Red Hot Chili Peppers sound! Enjoy!

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NA: One last question before I let you go: With this new Chili Peppers record, are you guys taking a new direction, or will you be sticking with your more recent sound?

CS: It is a new direction because we’ve got a new guitar player, Josh Klinghoffer, and he’s an amazing musician, so it’s obviously gonna change. But it’s also gonna change because we’ve got a new guy in the group, and he’s very talented, very musical. It’s fresh, it’s fun, everyone is in a good mood, everyone is coming up with lots of good ideas, and I just look forward to what the future is gonna bring. I know it’s gonna be different and exciting. It just makes me really happy to get up everyday and go to rehearsals, because I know something new and cool is gonna happen, and so I’m looking for it; it’s awesome.

NA: Sounds very cool! And I think that since we’re here, I should ask you about tonight. What does the song you’re playing tonight mean to you? Would you say you’ve been influenced by Neil Young?

CS: Yeah, of course! We’re huge Neil Young fans, all of us. We’ve played his show he puts on every year in San Francisco, called the “Bridge School Benefit,” we’ve done that a couple times. He’s fantastic! We love him, and we were just honored to be part of this. We’re playing a song called “A Man Needs A Maid,” and we’re doing our own take on it, and I hope he likes it.

CS: So it’s the first time we’ve played out with Josh, just the four of us, so it’ll be an exciting night for him.

NA: It’s almost like a reunion, or a re-debut for you guys, because you’ve been on a break for a while.

CS: Yep, so we’re taking it slow. One song at a time.

NA: Riding your way up the charts and airwaves like a new group.

CS: (Laughs) Yeah, that’s right, that’s what we are.

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This is just one part of the interview where he talks about Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the way he sees their new start with Josh Klinghoffer. Please go to grammycampblog to read the rest of the interview where he talks about his feelings about drumming, music in general, and his other bands. Gotta enjoy Chad Smith and his sincerity!

Here are some pics from their rehearsal and performance

[Show as slideshow]

For more pictures, go to getty images and wire images (click on a thumbnail to see more pictures inside that category, but keep in mind that you have to log in/register first)

Enjoy!

So we can always hope we’ll get to see Red Hot Chili Peppers performing, and if not, there is always good old youtube friend! So as you already know, this year musicians will honor 2010 MusiCares Person of the Year – Neil Young, and it’s going to happen on January, 29th.

There is also another bit of news you might want to know about, and you probably all expected to hear… Seems like Josh Klinghoffer will be playing with them, and it’s almost certain now, since Dave Rat – Red Hot Chili Peppers sound engineer has just tweeted the following:

Ooh, rehearse Chili Peppers 1st gig w/ Josh K on guitar. Musicares, pre Grammy’s in honor of Neil Young.

I’m looking forward to hear them play again, and am getting excited to see how Josh will play his part! So stay tuned for more news, pictures and videos, I hope.

I really love the band and what we did. I understand and value that my work with them means a lot to many people, but I have to follow my interests. For me, art has never been something done out of a sense of duty. It is something I do because it is really fun, exciting, and interesting. – John Frusciante

You can read the whole blog entry on his MySpace page as well as his official blog.

No one can tell for sure who is going to be his replacement as a new guitarist for the band.  As you already heard, it could be John’s apprentice Josh Klinghoffer. Feeling are mixed and I am not sure what to make out of this. I hope it’s for the best and as you can see he had his own reasons, and it wouldn’t be the way it used to if he forced himself to do something he didn’t feel like doing… It’s really sad to think they will never play together again though.

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Chad, we know that the Chili Peppers are performing on the 29th of January, Neil Young tribute concert… are you going to play a new song apart from Neil’s cover? Is there someting you can tell us about the concert?

CS: I think it’s for the Grammys and around that time they do as always, honor an artist, this year is Neil Young and a lot of people are going to be doing Neil Young songs, he’s gonna be there, obviously. So we’re just really honored to be able to play this great music, we’re just gonna do one song, ’cause like 20 people are playing, bunch of different people, I don’t what song we’re gonna do yet but ? wrote Neil.

I don’t want to bother you with questions of the Chili Peppers, but we have heard rumors about the band situation for almost three years and we would like to know what plans the band has after this concert

CS: Well, we’re writing songs right now, you know, we’re gonna make another record and it’s going really well, we have a great time, we just needed to take a break, we’ve been playing… you know, being a Chili Pepper is a full time job [laughs]. You know, we write songs, we record them and then we go on tour on tour for a long time. We did that for ten years pretty straight, and we just thought it was time to take a break and do other things and live our lives, be with our families and come back fresh with your batteries recharged and once again make new music. That’s why we took the time off, we’re not breaking up or anything, it was just a break and now we’re back and everybody is really happy to be back playing.

That’s great! Well we heard that you have recorded four new songs with the Peppers. By the way, congratulations. Some of them have pianos and it seems to be something different from what you have been doing all these years. What can you tell us about the new sound of the band?

CS: Well, I can’t talk too much about it because it’s really in a early stages, you know, we write music for a long time and get a lot of different things before we end picking what, you know, it’s going to be songs and what’s gonna end up on CD’s. So I don’t want to say “Yeah, there’s gonna be piano”, we’re just doing whatever feels right and whatever people in the group wants to bring to the table. You know, it’s gonna be different. Always different, a very honest representation of what we’re doing at the time. So that’s what I can say…

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