RICK’S RETURN

“The feeling in the room when Flea, John and Chad play together is transcendent,” Unlimited Love producer Rick Rubin tells Classic Rock of the band he’s worked with, on and off (mostly on), since 1991. “Then when Anthony sings it becomes the Chili Peppers. The musical highs they are capable of channelling on a regular basis is otherworldly, truly a case of the ingredients tapping into something much larger than the sum of its parts. And the parts are as good as it gets.”

John Frusciante isn’t the only person to have returned to the Chili Peppers fold for Unlimited Love. The other is Rubin, who ceded production to Danger Mouse for the Chilis’ previous album, 2016’s The Getaway, largely at the request of then-guitarist Josh Klinghoffer. “Rick is a family member,” says Anthony Kiedis. “I didn’t know how much I’d miss him until we decided to make a record without him. As an energetic force, a dynamic force and a mysterious force, he was missed.” Rubin was successful before hooking up with the Chilis, having worked with the likes of Run DMC, Slayer, The Cult and, most notably, the Beastie Boys, whose debut album Licenced To Ill sold more than 10 million copies. But Blood Sugar Sex Magik was a mutually beneficial experience, kicking the Chili Peppers’ career into the stratosphere and establishing Rubin as one of the key sonic gurus of the modern era. “Nobody can listen like that man can listen,” says Kiedis. “He sat there and just let us play all of this music, and he listened and he smiled and he bopped around. It was: ‘Okay, we are back. We now have the power of Rick Rubin on our team.’”