Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea pays tribute to "kind" and "uplifting" Taylor Hawkins

1 April 2022, 17:32 | Updated: 1 April 2022, 20:23

Flea pays tribute to Taylor Hawkins

By Jenny Mensah

The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist spoke to Radio X's Johnny Vaughan about the "devastating" loss of the Foo Fighters' drummer.

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Flea has paid tribute to Taylor Hawkins, who he's praised as a "kind and generous" guy.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist spoke to Radio X's Johnny Vaughan about the tragic loss of the Foo Fighters drummer, who sadly died on 25th March.

Asked how he felt when he heard the news, the rocker replied: "Absolutely shocking. I love Taylor. He was an uplifting dude.

"You know, before I ever met Taylor and long before he every played in the Foo Fighters, one of my best friends growing up, my friend Tree who I started a music school with, he was teaching music in a music school down in Orange County in LA and he said ‘Man there’s this kid here selling guitar strings and he’s a star. He’s a drummer and I’m telling you he’s going to be a rock star’ and it was Taylor.”

Listen back to the interview on Global Player

Flea on the Johnny Vaughan 4-7 Thang. Picture: Radio X

“I’ve always loved Taylor," added the musician. "I had fun with him. We toured with them for years and years and you know, he’s best friends… was extremely close with our drummer Chad Smith and it’s a very devastating experience for Chad and everyone who was close to him, because he was a kind, generous, just fun dude and a killer drummer.

“And love to his family and love to everyone that knew him and god bless his beautiful heart”.

Asked if there was anything he would have wanted to say to the Foos drummer that he didn't get to tell him, the 59-year-old rocker reflected: “Nah, man. I’m pretty up front with my feelings. I was always like, ‘Taylor I love you dude, you rock’. That’s what I would have wanted to say. ‘You’re a beautiful person’ and I’m sure I told him that.”

He was a kind, generous, just fun dude and a killer drummer.

- Flea - Red Hot Chili Peppers on Taylor Hawkins

Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea and the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. Picture: 1. 2. Scott Dudelson/Getty Images for ABA

Red Hot Chili Peppers' Unlimited Love album is released today (1st April) and Flea told Johnny Vaughan why it's absolutely the "best" they have to offer.

"I can just tell you that this record is the best of us," he beamed. "It’s the best that we have to offer. We dug as deep as we could. We don’t take one second ever for granted. We made the best music and look, like or don’t like it, there’s nothing else like it. You can’t go hear another record that sounds like the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Unlimited Love. You cannot. It is physically impossible!”

"I can’t know what records mean to other people," Flea mused when quizzed about the band's longevity and whether they get bogged down in their fans' favourite eras."

"We’re always searching and yearning and we’re always trying to get better and we’re always trying to learn from our mistakes. And anything we’ve ever done that one person might say ‘That old one’s better’ and some person might think ‘Oh the new one’s better’.

"Everything is a lesson and everything is a part of us, so we’re always just trying to build on it and grow on it and add on. And you know. This is our life’s work. This is our mission. We don’t need the money.”

Listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers' 12th studio album and their first record with Frusciante since 2006's Stadium Arcadium.