I'm talking on the phone with Chad Smith, the drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chickenfoot and the Bombastic Meatbats.


Chad, I'm Francisco from the Argentinean Chili Peppers' fan club called "Funky Monks" so, how are you Chad?

CS: I'm good, how are you?

I'm fine, where are you Chad? Are you at home?

CS: Yeah, I'm in Los Angeles in Malibu.

Ok Chad, taking into account that lately you've been very busy with so many projects, what are your future plans with Chickenfoot?

CS: Well, with Chickenfoot we're gonna... I take a little break right now 'cause I'm back to playing with the Chili Peppers and we might do something, hopefully next year and play some more music and write some more songs. That's kind of the plan at the moment, but I don't have any plans to do any touring with them.

That's good... how it's going with the Bombastic Meatbats? How are you feeling the receptivity of the public? I mean, how the audience is responding to the shows?

CS: The Bombastic Meatbats are going good, we're playing a couple of shows around the Los Angeles area this month and next month in January, it's really a fun project to do and I really enjoy playing with those guys, they're good friends of mine and it's fun to do other things, it's really musically satisfying to be able to play with other people and I'm just very fortunate to find people that are like myself that wanna make good music and be creative.

Great, so you're playing in bands that are totally different, they have a wide range of influences, presently, which current bands are the ones that you listen to, which ones of them do think that influence you when you're playing?

CS: Oh, you know, I do listen to the new stuff that comes out that I think it's really good, you know, that's always really good exciting to music, but I would said with the Chickenfoot and the Meatbats those are kind of influences for me from where I was growing up with..

Chickenfoot is more like a classic rock from lates 60's and early 70's, the kind of bands that I grew up with, and with the Meatbats it's kind of a funk thing, you know, there's a little bit of kind of fusion stuff in there, there's a little bit of jazz influence but it's mainly a... we all kind of enjoyed a Jeff Beck, Blow by Blow, Wired Area, Billy Preston, you know, that kind of stuff.

You know, we are not trying to be retro, which is just an influence to us, and we're just trying to do our own version of that, keep it modern... the sounds that we use in the way we record, also that's very typical of the bands from that time.

Now that you've been playing with new mates, and just released the first record with both projects, I mean Chickenfoot and the Bombastics, do you agree that major labels, record labels, force some artists to do commercial material while the artist wants to release his work?

CS: I don't really think about that, I just wanna play music that I like and I can be myself, and that to me it's the most important thing, I'm not trying to, you know, with the Meatbats we're like a ? [sneezes] excuse me, it's like I mean, you know, it's just a mellow music, we are not just trying to compete with the Coldplays and the Lady Gagas of the world, it's just people that are gonna like that music, are gonna hopefully like ours.

I want people to know that with the Meatbats it's not... I play instrumental music, kind of very serious, and it's just per musicians, a bunch of notes and all guys with no sense of humor, exploding music. It's supposed to be fun and have sense of humor. To people who haven't heard it, I want them to know, don't be scared about the whole instrumental thing, the song structures, there are verses and choruses, you know, you can tap your foot to it.

Here in Argentina we have a lot of good bands, have you had the chance to listen any of them and if you had, did you like them?

CS: Not lately, we haven't been in Argentina in a while, on the last tour the Chili Peppers didn't come down to hear music and play in Buenos Aires, we didn't have a... we just toured out so much, that we didn't had a chance to come down. So I miss being able to hear the local favorites and going out and see bands and stuff, but I know there's a lot of good music there and I always enjoy listening to new stuff.

I hear that when you were a teen, you used to play basketball and that you even played with Eddie Vedder. At present time do you have free time or are you playing drums all day long?

CS: You know, we used to tour with Pearl Jam a long time ago. We used to play with those guys, they're great. Jeff [Amment] is quite a good bass player. Jeff is a really good basketball player, you know, he is a big fan. You know, I do. I do get out and do other things. I can't play music all the time. You gotta to get balance.

Right now I'm busy with my groups and so it's taking me a lot of my time. It's ok, I'm not complaining. I love to play, I love that people wanna hear us play and I can fortunate to make recordings and, you know, it keeps me busy. It's what I love to do, so I'm really happy with it.

I know you're a very very good drummer, apart from playing drums, have you played other instruments or ever written the lyrics of a song?

CS: I play a little guitar, I'm not very good, I know a few chords, I don't think anybody has to worry about me, taking out with the guitar stuff. I think it's really important, if you're a drummer, a guitar player, a bass player, a keyboard player, that you should play, at least try and play other instruments, it gives you the sense of... you know, what is like, certainly for me, being a drummer, to play a lot of instruments is really helpful to me with songs, and arrangements of songs and melodies, and stuff like that. It's good to always be challenging yourself and trying to grow and get better as a musician. It's fun, I'm not good, but it's fun [laughs].

Recently I saw a video where you were playing the guitar in Led Zeppelin's song "Rock and Roll" together with Chickenfoot and Jason Bonham

CS: Oh, that was last weekend, right! [laughs]

I didn't know that you played electric guitar; by the way, you seemed very happy doing it. How long have you been playing it?

CS: I've been playing guitar for, I don't know, for ten years maybe?. But yeah, "Rock and Roll" has three chords so that's ok. I'm not a soloist, I leave that to Joe [Satriani], but it was really fun to play that song with Jason, he's a great guy, great drummer, it was really fun.

People want to know what does a day in the life of Chad Smith look like. I mean, I know you're a drummer but what you do all the day?

CS: I have a family, I have two small children, I have a four year old and I have a nine month old baby. So, the life of Chad is getting up at 6:30 in the morning, taking care of baby, feeding him and get them changed, and then my son gets up for school, take him, you know, I'm a dad, I'm like Mr. dad, so that's what I do when I'm not on the road, I'm taking care of my kids and my family and that's really important to me, I want them to have some kind of stability in their lives, they know their dad is around, he's there to care for them and watch over them ... when I'm home, I really wanna be at home, I'm not like haunting clubs and stay up all night, I used to do that, but I don't do that anymore, and that's ok, it's all good, it makes me very happy.

You look like a very good father man!

CS: I try, I try, it's a hard job man! It's hard, full of challenges.

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 something 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, a bunch of different people, I don't know what song we're gonna do yet, but we 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 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 want 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.

So, will the South American fans have the chance to see the Peppers in concert again?

CS: Yes, we will come. On the next tour, after this record comes out, we'll come to South America.

I hope. Is there something else you can say especially to Chili Peppers fans you haven't told to any newspaper?

CS: [laughs] Not really. We love coming to Argentina, we always really love coming down and play for the fans, they're so passionate, they just go crazy and we are so fortunate that people wanna come and see us play and we don't take that for granted. I remember... I don't when was the last time we played there at the stadium, you know, the economy was really bad at the time.

You were here in 2002 with the By The Way tour

CS: Yeah, you guys had a really tough time and we wanted to play and you know, I think we made tickets like 5 dollars or something, really cheap so everyone could come

I didn't get tickets, they were sold out, so I couldn't go to the concert [laughs]

CS: Well, next time you'll come to see us. We will play and we will be looking forward to it.

Surely you have listened to a lot of music all over your life, however, is there a particular drummer that you consider your favorite that had influence you to make your decision to start playing drums?

CS: You know, I have a brother, 2 years older than me and he plays guitar and we would play together, so I started playing when I was really young, when I was 7 and around that time, it was the late 60's / early 70's, English hard rock, blues bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Queen and Humble Pie.

But the band I really connected to first was a band called Deep Purple and its drummer Ian Pace, and his style and their music really inspired me to play the drums. There was a record called "Made in Japan", I really loved that and really inspired me to play. So bands like that, drummers like that, you know, like John Bonham, Ian, guys like that, Mitch Mitchell, those guys really inspired my drumming.

In this age of the internet, when all the information flows so quickly, how do you get along with it? Are you the kind of person that searches his name in Google to see what appears?

CS: [laughs] Yeah, you know, I think it's great. Such an instant way to find out what's going on, that's fantastic and it's just a big part of life, a culture, everybody of the world knows the internet.

It's great, I enjoy going on and see a lot of stuff, it's definitely the way to go, you can see anything and you can hear anything, and get information about anything, and that's fantastic.

Ok Chad, this is one of the last questions. There is an old saying that says that there are three things that people ought to do before dying, plant a tree, have a son and write a book.

I know you have children, but I don't think you like gardening. Which are the things that you would like to do to be able to say "I have done everything I wanted"?

CS: [thinks] Well, that's a hard one. I mean, I've been so fortunate in my life, because music is what I'm very passionate about, I really accomplished most of it, musically I've been so lucky.

You know, I'd say on the other hand, the other side of that, it would be that I just want to be a good father and a good house, have a good family, because I won't be able to play music forever you know. I'm still kind of young and still play well, but, you know, at some point, I'll be old and I wanna be surrounded with a loving family and that takes a lot of work. That's not easy, I'm not good at that, I'm good at doing some music, but the other stuff takes a lot... you have to really work at it, it's a learning experience.

I just want to be a good role model to my kids, so that's really what I want to be on my gravestone "pretty good drummer, great dad, loving father and husband" that would be cool.

That's nice Chad. Could you leave a message to the fans in Argentina?

CS: Hey, we'll see you next year. Thank you for being so supportive with our band for all these years, and when we make the next record we will go on tour and we will come down there and we will look forward to it.

Chad, it was a pleasure to speak with you

CS: My pleasure!

I wanted to tell you on behalf of all the Argentinean fans that we love the band and that we hope to see you soon. I know you love drinking beer, so if you come to make a concert to Argentina, I'm going to invite you to drink one.

CS: [laughs] Ok! Thank you. Thanks for all, I really appreciate it. Happy Christmas!

You too, see you!

Francisco Fernandez.