Chad Smith Ready to Return to Red Hot Chili Peppers After Flings

During the Red Hot Chili Peppers' two-year hiatus, drummer Chad Smith has been one busy dude, joining up with Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, and Joe Satriani for the supergroup Chickenfoot and unveiling his own instrumental combo, the Meatbats. But after those flings, Smith is ready to reenter the Chilis fold when the group reconvenes this October. "That's important certainly when you've been in a band 20, 25 years to find new things to inspire you and you take it back home," Smith tells Spinner. "Nothing worse than doing the same thing over and over, so for me and for the other guys in the Peppers, we have to do other things 'cause that's what keeps us wanting to go back."

"A band is like a marriage" is an old analogy, but Smith says it's true. "The Chili Peppers, for me, it's like being in a marriage and I've been married to these guys for a long time," he says. "You wanna spice things up and these other projects are like my mistresses. They're exciting and fun. Not that I would know anything about that sort of thing, but just conjecturing that then when you go back you bring those other experiences back to your main thing."

He's not the only one in the band who has strayed. "The other guys do the same thing, they do other projects too. I saw Flea in London playing with Ornette Coleman," Smith says.

But with Chickenfoot achieving Top 10 success, Smith has certainly had the most high-profile affairs. So to recap, Smith has gotten to cheat in public with some of the world's best-known musicians, as if he's having an affair with a hot actress, everyone knows about it, and you don't get in trouble. "Wooo," he says laughing. "It's all good."