Red Hot Chili Peppers replace Foo Fighters on Jazz Fest, pay tribute to Taylor Hawkins on ‘Howard Stern’

Manny Sanchez

Nine Inch Nails replaced the Foo Fighters on Boston Calling and Welcome to Rockville, after the Foo Fighters cancelled all of their tour dates following the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers will be replacing them on New Orleans Jazz Fest. Tickets for Jazz Fest are still available.

The Chili Peppers, who are back with John Frusciante and released their first album with him in 16 years earlier this month, also paid tribute to Taylor Hawkins during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show. Chad Smith played with a bass drum skin that says "Taylor" on it, and when asked by Howard about the Foo Fighters drummer, Chad replied, "I loved Taylor, he was one of my best friends. We're still shocked and so saddened by his passing."

"He loved life. He was a real beacon, and full of positive energy," Chad continued. "I miss him so much. He was the godfather to my son Beckett, and we spent a lot of time together. [Motioning to the rest of RHCP] These guys loved him too; we toured a lot back in the late '90s and 2000s, played a lot of shows with the Foo Fighters."

"When I asked him to be my son's godfather, I said, 'Taylor, do you think you'd be the godfather to Beckett?' and he goes 'Yeah! Of course, what do I gotta do?', I go, 'not really anything,' he goes, "Okay great I can do that!'"

Howard also talked to the Chili Peppers about touring with Nirvana, what brought John back to the band, and more, and they performed their classic songs "Under the Bridge" and "Give It Away" alongside a song from the new album. Watch clips of all of that below.

RHCP have also been saying that they already have enough material recorded for another new album with John, and in a recent interview with Total Guitar, John said, I definitely feel like we saved a lot of some of the best stuff for the potential next album, so I'm excited about putting that into a shape." Stay tuned for more on that.