Red Hot Chili Peppers Pay Tribute to Eddie Van Halen on New Single ‘Eddie’

Red Hot Chili Peppers have released an anthemic new single, “Eddie.” The soulful, meditative rock number reflects on late guitarist Eddie Van Halen and nods to David Lee Roth, who departed Van Halen in 1985.

“It’s only 1983/ please don’t remember me,” Anthony Kiedis croons over the mid-tempo rocker. “For what I did with David/ you know I’m talking David Lee.”

“Sometimes we don’t realize how deeply affected and connected we are to artists until the day they die,” Kiedis said in a statement. “Eddie Van Halen was a one of a kind. The day after his death Flea came into rehearsal with an emotional bass line. John, Chad, and I started playing along and pretty soon with all our hearts, a song in his honor effortlessly unfolded. It felt good to be sad and care so much about a person who had given so much to our lives. Although the song doesn’t speak to Eddie by name, it talks about his early days on the Sunset Strip and the rock ‘n’ roll tapestry that Van Halen painted on our minds. In the end, our song asks that you not remember Eddie for dying but for living his wildest dream.”

“Eddie” follows single “Tippa My Tongue,” released last month. Both tracks will appear on the Chili Peppers’ upcoming double LP, Return of the Dream Canteen, which drops Oct. 14. News of a new Chili Peppers album comes just months after the group released Unlimited Love — the band’s first record with fan-favorite guitarist John Frusciante since 2006 — making Return of the Dream Canteen the band’s second studio album to debut this year.

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“We went in search of ourselves as the band that we have somehow always been. Just for the fun of it we jammed and learned some old songs,” the band said of Return of the Dream Canteen in a statement. “Before long we started the mysterious process of building new songs.” They added: “Once we found that slip stream of sound and vision, we just kept mining. With time turned into an elastic waist band of oversized underwear, we had no reason to stop writing and rocking. It felt like a dream.”

Red Hot Chili Peppers recently wrapped a U.S. stadium tour. They will headline Austin City Limits Music Festival on Oct. 9 and 16 in Austin. Their stadium tour continues in January 2023 in New Zealand and Australia.