Red Hot Chili Peppers played both The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel Live! in one night as part of an April Fool’s joke.
Kimmel and Fallon swapped places, hosting each other’s shows for the evening as part of the elaborate prank. The Chili Peppers were able to join in on the fun by performing simultaneously on two different networks.
The Los Angeles group, who formed back in 1983, returned with their 12th studio album ‘Unlimited Love’ last Friday (April 1).
For Kimmel, the band performed ‘These Are The Ways’ atop the Roosevelt Hotel in a pre-recorded segment that was filmed earlier in the week. Meanwhile, for The Tonight Show, they played ‘Black Summer’ live from NBC Studios in New York.
During the broadcast of the shows, it appeared as if the band were playing live on both ABC and NBC at the same time. Watch the videos below.
Speaking about ‘Unlimited Love’ during a Big Read cover interview with NME, Anthony Kiedis explained: “I really didn’t want to tell the same old story that we’ve been hearing for the last 50 years in rock music.
“I liked reaching out in 10,000 directions and seeing what was out there. We weren’t limiting ourselves but trying to tap into something that is honest and emotional. Hopefully, we’ve said something that hasn’t been said before, or at least said it in a way that hasn’t.”
In a four-star review of ‘Unlimited Love’, NME’s Ali Shutler wrote: “There’s a lot to ‘Unlimited Love’, both in scale and ambition. It’s at once familiar – without being boring – and fresh (but never at the expense of the band’s identity). On their 12th album, Red Hot Chili Peppers not only get comfortable with their own impressive legacy, but prove there’s plenty more to come.”
The band were also recently honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame to mark their four decades in music.
Taking to the podium first, guitarist Frusciante – who returned to RHCP in 2019 after almost a decade – recalled first moving to Hollywood as a teenager in 1987 before thanking “everybody in the world who our music means something to”.
George Clinton and Woody Harrelson gave speeches about the band at the ceremony. The former produced the band’s 1985 album ‘Freaky Styley’, and also recently joined them at their Fonda Theater show in Los Angeles on April 1 to perform the Chili Peppers’ 1991 hit ‘Give It Away’.
The post Watch Red Hot Chili Peppers perform on ‘Kimmel’ and ‘Fallon’ for April Fool’s stunt appeared first on NME.
