After his exit from the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2009, guitarist John Frusciante has recently rejoined the band in order to work on the rock band’s newest album, Unlimited Love. Now, Consequence Sound has spoken to the Peppers’ bassist Flea to get the band’s take on Frusciante’s reentry into the group.

When asked about the situation between the band and Frusciante, Flea began by explaining the messiness of the whole situation, stating that “Of course, there’s a lot of ins and outs and in-betweens and hereto wherefores and stuff. Like something like that is never real clear cut,” but explains that what is clear is that “John left the band. He was gone for 10 years. He and I remained friends and in contact the entire time.”

Flea recalls an emotional moment between himself and the guitarist “One night he was over for dinner, and we’re talking and listening to music and hanging out and talking like friends. And I was just like, ‘Dude, just from my heart,’ I just said, ‘I fucking miss playing with you. Sometimes I really miss playing with you a lot. And when I said it… I felt this big well of emotion with tears flowing out of my eyes and stuff.” He explains that he tried to not overwhelm the guitarist so as to influence him to make a decision that he didn’t truly want to make, saying that he “hadn’t said that to him [before], because I wanted to respect what he would want to do.”

However, the guitarist seemed to feel the same way that the band did, having said to Flea that “I really miss playing with you too.” Flea described what he felt having his feelings about the situation reciprocated by Frusciante, stating that “And I felt the same feeling — that I was happy — inside of him. And this moment of connection that was something you can’t talk about or describe, you know what I mean?”

Frontman Anthony Kiedis notes that the moment of reintroducing Frusciante back into the band was a bittersweet one, involving the departure of the band’s previous guitarist Josh Klinghoffer. Kiedis states that “It was heartbreaking to say goodbye to Josh, but it was also heart opening to have John back.”

Unlimited Love, which features the comeback of Frusciante, was released on April 1. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have scheduled an international tour for Summer 2022, featuring such acts as A$AP Rocky, Thundercat, The Strokes and HAIM.