New album, “I’m With You,” coming August 30. Check out the video on the right.
BONZAI: Did you ever have a panic attack on stage?
SMITH: I have had stage fright, but it is only when I am in an unprepared situation. When we played the Woodstock Festival in 1994, we played with these big giant light bulbs on our heads, which we had never tried out or rehearsed with. We had silver suits that made us look like giant baked potatoes with light bulbs for heads. We played in front of 300,000 people and it was our first gig with Dave Navarro, who was our guitarist then. I had a little trepidation about how this was going to go. It wasn’t because of the playing, because I knew the songs, but it was the extra stuff. But it was good. You need to take chances, you need to challenge yourself, and you need to improvise. That is a big part of playing music, trying new things and challenging yourself as a musician.
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Hey, fun series of interviews! I had not gotten into them before and now I am spending FAR too much time on them. Damn you, Mr. Bonzai!
Dearest Bonzai,
Your Chad Smith stuff is amazing. Very proud of you sometimes. I realized today that you are the only person I have ever met that can talk relentlessly without ever sounding boring or making a misstep. It’s like an actor performing from a well-written, well constructed script, except it’s live. I think that is really one of your greatest talents. You make interviews seem natural, organic, fresh, but wild and unexpected at the same time. Congrats on being a fine human being. I mean all of this with utmost sincerity. You’re unique. Like a special unknown species of turtle. Not to be eaten, but to be observed and admired.
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