‘How Do You Think We Should End This?’ – Red Hot Chili Peppers Ponder Road Retirement
After 33 years of making music and touring, the Red Hot Chili Peppers may be considering retirement from at least one of those gigs. In a recent interview, drummer Chad Smith revealed the band has at least tossed around the idea of how to "end this."
In the interview with Sirius XM's Eddie Trunk, Smith noted that three of the four band members — himself, singer Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea — are all 54, and finding the rigors of touring to be taking a toll.
"We were riding in a van after a gig and Flea was like, ‘How much longer do you think we should… How do you think we should end this?',” Smith said. “I was, like, ‘I don’t know!’ I want to make records, I still love making records, but the touring part … I don’t know if we can continue.”
Smith said their tours that typically stretch between a year and a year and a half may be too much of a burden for them at this point. But instead of quitting the road, he suggested they may simply consider paring down their commitments.
“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,” he said. "But again, 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.”
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