Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has used an interview with Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready to bemoan rock music as “a dead form”.
During their chat on SiriusXM’s Pearl Jam Radio, Flea and McCready got to discussing the current state of rock, and as Alternative Nation points out, Flea compared today’s rock world to what he remembers it was like to be in a rock band in the ’90s.
“I just remember being so excited that we were playing with [Pearl Jam] and with Smashing Pumpkins, because it was just an exciting time for rock music,” Flea says in the interview. “A lot of times, especially recently, I look at rock music as kind of a dead form in a lot of ways.”
Flea goes on to point out that he believes Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam are both still “relevant bands that come with a fucking real energy”, but he suggests that forming a rock band in the 21st century is very different to how it used to be.
“When we were kids, when I said, ‘I want to be in a rock band and that’s what I’m doing for my life,’ that’s what I was going to do, no question — you’d get [told], ‘You are a fucking lunatic, you are crazy. You’re never going to get a decent job in your life. What are you doing? You’re ruining your life.’
“I was like, ‘Fuck it. I don’t care. This is what I want to do, this means everything to me,'” Flea continues. “I found a home. I’ve been a weird, neurotic, loner kid all my life, I was always the kid you called ‘fag’ in high school.
“It gave me a home, punk rock. But nowadays, you decide you want to be in a rock band it’s like, ‘Oh great, let’s get you an image consultant, and a lawyer, and a manager, and let’s see what we can do here. It’s a great money making opportunity for you junior.'”
Given that Flea appears not to realise that there are a tonne of up-and-coming rock bands which operate without image consultants, lawyers and managers, there are definitely a whole bunch of musicians who would love to give him a piece of their mind, or just do this to him…
Elsewhere in McCready’s interview, Flea discusses the luck involved in the Chilis becoming a huge rock band, his experiences with acid and the revelations he experienced at punk shows by the likes of Fear, Black Flag and Circle Jerks.
Red Hot Chili Peppers, who definitely do have lawyers and managers, are set to release their eleventh studio album The Getaway in June. They shared their first new song in five years earlier this month.
Catch Flea’s full interview with Mike McCready, below.
Listen: Mike McCready Interviews Flea (And Other Chili Peppers) On SiriusXM
