Anthony Kiedis appeared on Jonesy’s Jukebox earlier this week, and he revealed that Red Hot Chili Peppers asked the late David Bowie to produce two of their albums. Alternative Nation transcribed the following quotes:
“Every record we ever made, we had the band discussion.
‘Who should we get to produce this record?’
‘I don’t know, we have to try someone new!’
‘Let’s get David Bowie!’
‘Okay, let’s call him.’
So in the beginning we would call him, and he would say no, respectfully. Then later we would write long e-mails explaining everything, and why it was time for us to really get our ships on, and he always respectfully declined. For 2 minutes I was heartbroken, and then I would hear Chad Smith play drums, and I’d be like, ‘We’re good, we could do something else.'”
“We asked him to produce By the Way, as we were writing By the Way, and then we asked him again for our next record, which was Stadium Arcadium. He said no to us 2 or 3 times, but his mate [Brian] Eno, who we’ve also been asking our entire career to produce a record for us, has said no 8 times.”
David Bowie died from cancer on January 10th, just days after releasing his final album Blackstar. Red Hot Chili Peppers have covered “Suffragette City” in the past.
