Red Hot Chili Peppers Bassist Flea Calls Nick Cave "The Greatest Living Songwriter"

In a new interview with The Guardian, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea called Nick Cave the "greatest living songwriter."

Speaking on the band's inspirations, Flea said: "Creativity waxes and wanes. We're very lucky. We've made bunches of fucking money. We could be sat on the beach eating burritos, but even when we're pissed off with each other we sit in a room and work. Igor Stravinsky sat at his piano every fucking day. Some days it was rubbish and his wife was chewing his ear off – but he stuck at it. The same thing goes for Nick Cave, the greatest living songwriter. He goes to work! Every day. And that's what we do."

You can read the full interview here

The Red Hot Chili Peppers will released their new studio album -- the first to feature guitarist Josh Klinghoffer -- on August 30. You can check out the video for the first single, "The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie," here.

For outtakes from Guitar World's October 2011 interview with the Chili Peppers, click here, and for an exclusive interview with new Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, head here.

Josh Hart

Josh Hart is a former web producer and staff writer for Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado magazines (2010–2012). He has since pursued writing fiction under various pseudonyms while exploring the technical underpinnings of journalism, now serving as a senior software engineer for The Seattle Times.