Flea rubbishes Red Hot Chili Peppers retirement rumours as ‘silly talk’

The retirement rumours were ignited last week when drummer and Will Ferrell doppelganger Chad Smith said he “didn’t know if the band could continue” beyond their current touring commitments.

Chad told Eddie Trunk: “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?’. 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.”

He continued: “I mean, three of us are 54 years old — Anthony (Kiedis), me and Flea. Josh (Klinghoffer) is 38 or 39, so he’s a young man. But I don’t know if we can continue to do the long tours — the year, year and a half we normally do. That’s a good question.

“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. 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.”

Now, in a fresh interview with TMZ.com, Flea – real name Michael Peter Balzary – says the retirement stories are “silly talk” and the band never look past the immediate future.

“I don't know if you know it, but that's just silly talk,” Flea said. “We never really look past the immediate future, but we're on tour right now, we're rocking out, we feel in the spirit, letting the music move us.

“To be honest, since we first started this band 35 years ago, I've never ever known what's next or round the corner or anything. I think the power of the band lies in that - just staying in the moment and the energy that's moving.”

Red Hot Chili Peppers are playing a series of mainland Europe festivals throughout the rest of this month and play two nights at Dublin’s 3 Arena in late September.