Although The Red Hot Chili Peppers are currently still on their extended hiatus after the release of their hugely successful album "Stadium Arcadium" the band continues to explore other endeavors outside of the band. Flea has enrolled in music theory classes at USC, Chad Smith has formed Chickenfoot with Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar, Anthony Kiedis is currently working on a series for HBO based around his relationship with his father and John Frusciante has recently released his 10th solo album "The Empyrean." As if that wasn't enough to keep them busy, Flea, Chad Smith and Kiedis also formed The Insects, which also includes Rolling Stone guitarist Ronnie Wood, guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and keyboardist Ivan Neville. The Insects performed at The MusiCares MAP benefit which honored Anthony Kiedis for his commitment to helping other addicts with their addiction and recovery process.
Artisan News caught up with
Anthony Kiedis of
The Red Hot Chili Peppers to get his thoughts on forming
The Insects and choosing the song list.
"We are The Insects tonight and that features Ivan Neville on keyboard, Ronnie Wood on guitar, Josh Klinghoffer on guitar, Flea on bass, Chad Smith on drums and myself on vocals. Throw away the expectations and be open minded for whatever you get. Song wise when I was choosing for the band I looked to the era of a young Ronnie Wood with The Faces and we're going to do a Faces song and we're going to do a Kinks song and we're going to do a Yardbirds song and we're going to do a song that Howlin' Wolf popularized but I think it was actually written by Willie Dixon and another Faces instrumental."
We also caught up with Flea to get his thoughts on making a few calls to some friends when he was forming The Insects for the MAP benefit show.
"Oh The Insects, a couple of phone calls and the next thing you know, you're in The Insects. I think we're going to do some renditions of Bartok and Stravinsky and a little bit of The Butthole Surfers."
It seems Flea was joking with the song selections as The Insects tore through a cover of The Yardbirds 1965 hit "For Your Love," "Spoonful" by the likes of Howlin' Wolf, The Kinks song "All Day And All Of The Night" and The Faces song Ooh La La, which benefited The MAP fund, which provides a much needed safety net of critical assistance for musicians in times of need. As of press time, The Insects don't have any further plans of performing live.
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Anthony Kiedis On The Insects
