Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea Admits Band Nearly Split During 'Dysfunctional' Period

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Clara Balzary

The Red Hot Chili Peppers return this August with 'I'm With You,' the band's first new collection since 2006's double album, 'Stadium Arcadium.' During the hiatus, the band lost guitarist John Frusciante, who's been replaced by Josh Klinghoffer. But as bassist Flea tells Spinner, Frusciante wasn't the only one who had doubts about going on.

"I just felt like I wanted to take two years away just to really look and see if the band was something we should still be doing," the bassist says. The fact the band is back with a new Rick Rubin-produced collection answers the question of whether or not he thought it was worth continuing. In this very honest interview, Flea opens up on how his relationship with frontman Anthony Kiedis helped save the band, the change in guitarists and the new album.

We talked to Anthony during the making of the last album and he said it was such an intense experience and you guys recorded so much music, but it's been five years. Did that time reinvigorate you for the making of 'I'm With You'?

Very much so. The record was more than intense and the tour even more intense. We toured for a year and a half on that record and at the end of it, it was just time. I said, "Let's take two years off." And I talked everyone into it and some people were more prone to it than others, but it just felt like we needed to stop. We've been going really hard for a lot of years with small breaks here and there, but never a major break. And I just felt like I wanted to take two years away just to really look and see if the band was something we should still be doing.

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