Chad Smith
Chad Smith
Chadwick "Chad" Gaylord Smith is an American musician and current drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which he joined in 1988 and was inducted of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Smith is also the drummer of the hard rock supergroup Chickenfoot, who formed in 2008, and currently the all-instrumental outfit Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats, who formed in 2007. As one of the most highly sought-after drummers, Smith has recorded with Deep Purple vocalist Glenn Hughes,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDrummer
Date of Birth25 October 1961
CitySaint Paul, MN
CountryUnited States of America
Flea got into rock later on in life, came up in jazz as a jazz trumpet player, and then got into punk rock, playing in Fear and stuff like that.
I just played at a club in L.A. called the Baked Potato. It fits like 90 people. It's like playing somewhere in a basement in, like, Indiana or somewhere where all your friends show up. It's really fun and there's a very different energy to that than to play to 50,000 at a Tokyo baseball stadium.
I had sort of exhausted all the avenues playing in Detroit. So again, through the stewardship of my brother, I ended up in California and went to the Musicians Institute in L.A. I wanted to get better as a player.
I just love to play and I get a chance to play with other musicians and I jump on it.
Playing along with records is key. And as far as equipment goes it has gotten so much more affordable and the drum sets are of great quality. I play Pearl; their Export Series is great for a beginner.
That's really the thing that got me into playing a lot - getting excited about playing along with my favorite bands like Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.
The Chili Peppers do a lot of improvising, but it's within the framework of song structures. The Meatbats is from a purely instrumental standpoint. But when you hear the term 'instrumental music' you think it's real serious stuff and everybody's playing a million notes and it's about playing fast. That's not what we do.
Our kids played exceptionally well today. They are doing a much better job of managing the course.
I just played at a club in L.A. called the Baked Potato. It fits like 90 people. It's like playing somewhere in a basement in, like, Indiana or somewhere where all your friends show up. It's really fun and there's a very different energy to that than to play to 50,000 at a Tokyo baseball stadium.
It creates a sense of pride -- that we're not only people of the past, we're people of the present and we're going to be a people of the future.
We have a very young team this year. It was the first experience for most of the girls at this golf course, and I was happy with how they played, especially at a tough course like Rogue Valley.
People will leave here with not a sense of loss. They'll leave here with a sense of hope.
There are exactly four sopranos on the planet who have sung that music. I know Tom's music well, so I knew who these sopranos were.
In some of the L.A. clubs, people can act too cool to get into your music. That can get to be a bit much.