The Red Hot Chili Peppers reunion last year with guitarist John Frusciante might have been spoiled by the pandemic, but drummer Chad Smith acknowledged that the band hasn't let all of the last 14-plus months go to waste.
Despite what he described as a "gag order," Smith let slip Monday to Q104.3 New York's Jim Kerr and Shelli Sonstein that RHCP has been in the studio, working on a follow-up to 2016's The Getaway.
"There's a gag order on me, I guess I do so many Zooms and they're just like, 'Why did you say that?' ... There's something coming!" he said. "I can say this: we're making a record, we're making new music and it's very exciting. I don't know when it's coming out, but we can't wait for people to hear it. And we can't wait to perform for people, just like everybody else that really misses that experience."
Smith is in New York City this week guest-hosting the MvVO Ad Art exhibition at the Oculus at the Westfield World Trade Center, where some of his own visual art is on display. While he's anxious to get back onstage with the band, he says events like the MvVO exhibition are more signs that we'll be able to go to concerts again.
"I'm just gonna hang and see it and be there and be part of the experience," he added of the MvVO show. "It's all ready to go; I'm not there creating anything. Sometimes when I got to these gallery things, I do a little bit to some of the artwork. But this is all digital and it's really cool. I'm just gonna be there like everybody else, I'm just gonna be checking it out."
For more on MvVO Art, go here.
Frusciante's return to the Chili Peppers was announced in late-2019, a decade after his last departure from the band. He performed a short set with RHCP in February of 2020 for charity, but the band's reunion tour never got off the ground due to COVID.
RHCP have no tour dates announced yet for this year.
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