Red Hot Chili Peppers have a new double album on the way, Return Of The Dream Canteen, their second album of 2022 following this past April’s Unlimited Love. They released “Tippa My Tongue” from it last month, and received the Global Icon Award at the VMAs not long after that.
Today, RHCP are back with a new single, “Eddie,” which is a tribute to the great Eddie Van Halen, who passed away in 2020. “Sailing the Sunset Strip, I’m a bit of a king/ Granny would take a trip, I’ll be bending the strings,” Anthony Kiedis sings on it. “Got hammers in both my hands, such a delicate touch/ They say I’m from Amsterdam, does that make me Dutch?”
“Sometimes we don’t realize how deeply affected and connected we are to artists until the day they die,” Kiedis says in a statement about the track. “Eddie Van Halen was a one of a kind. The day after his death Flea came into rehearsal with an emotional bassline. John, Chad and I started playing along and pretty soon with all our hearts, a song in his honor effortlessly unfolded. It felt good to be sad and care so much about a person who had given so much to our lives. Although the song doesn’t speak to Eddie by name, it talks about his early days on the Sunset Strip and the rock n roll tapestry that Van Halen painted on our minds. In the end, our song asks that you not remember Eddie for dying but for living his wildest dream.”
Listen below.
Return Of The Dream Canteen is out 10/14 via Warner Records.
