The Red Hot Chili Peppers kicked off the European leg of their By The Way Tour on January 24, 2003 in Portugal with live debuts of two songs they’d have second thoughts about.
The tour would be an epic one, spanning 30 countries and 130 gigs over 18 months, in support of their 8th album that nearly had Flea quitting the group. At issue was the lovable bassist felt he was being nudged out of the creative process and replaced with a soundscape of strings, keyboards and guitars.
His familiar bass funk was pushed to the side on By The Way, an LP guitarist John Frusciante wrote much of the music for.
The irony about the feud between the two musicians is it was Flea who told singer Anthony Kiedis in 1998, after the group had fired Dave Navarro, that the best way to keep the band going was to rehire Frusciante who had been a few years clean after a successful rehab. “The only way I could imagine carrying on is if we got John back in the band,” Flea told the singer.
read more at: Setlist.fm
