Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith has revealed the band is currently at work on its 12th studio set. Blabbermouth transcribed sole of Smith chat on New York City’s Q104.3, where he said, “There’s a gag order on me. I do so many Zooms (video interviews), and they’re, like, ‘Why’d you say that?’ There’s something coming. 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.”

The still-untitled unannounced new album will be the first since the Chili Pepper’s 2016 top two collection, The Getaway, and the first since guitarist John Frusciante’s return to the band in 2019,replacing the man who took over for him, Josh Klinghoffer.

Variety reported sources citing the Chili Peppers “selling their song catalog to Hipgnosis Songs for upwards of $140 million.” There has been no official announcement about the deal from the band.

Chad Smith is set to be the guest artist and host of the Ad Art Show 2021, now running virtually via mvvoart.com during Frieze Week. According to the report, “Artworks by Smith will be exhibited on the monumental screens of the Oculus at Westfield World Trade Center the final weekend of the show on May 29th and 30th.”

FAST FACTS

  • In December 2019, Red Hot Chili Peppers parted ways with guitarist Josh Klinghoffer with John Frusciante rejoining the band.
  • Frusciante’s two previous stints in the group were marked by some of their biggest commercial successes.
  • Klinghoffer was in the Chili Peppers for a decade, playing on the band’s last two studio albums, 2011’s I’m With You and 2016’s The Getaway.
  • Frusciante joined the Chili Peppers following the death of founding guitarist Hillel Slovak in 1988. He first played on 1989’s Mother’s Milk and 1991’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the two albums that marked the band’s transition from struggling act to breakout stars.
  • A heroin addiction took Frusciante out of action in 1993, but he rejoined the Peppers six years later, playing on 1999’s massively successful Californication and 2002’s By The Way. He left again after 2009’s Stadium Arcadium, making some 14 studio LP’s during an eclectic solo career.

CHECK IT OUT: Excerpts from Red Hot Chili Peppers’ first show with John Frusciante since 2007 on February 8th, 2020 live in L.A. — with Stephen Perkins sitting in for Chad Smith: