Emily Bloch

ebloch@jacksonville.com

Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith is scheduled to hit Jacksonville this week for his latest tour. But he won’t be behind the kit and you won’t find Anthony Kiedis or any of the other Chili Peppers close by.

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On March 21, Smith will be in town for the fourth stop of his new traveling exhibit, The Art of Chad Smith. The show — which consists of about 80 works available for purchase — will be on view March 13-22 at Gallery 725 in Jacksonville Beach. The drummer will do free meet-and-greet sessions on closing weekend.

“It’s colorful, energetic, powerful, rhythmic, fluid, psychedelic,” Smith said in a phone interview.

The 58-year-old Grammy winner was driving along Sunset Boulevard, going through West Hollywood and passing UCLA’s campus when he called to talk about his art.

“It’s sunny and beautiful,” he said. “There’s lots of traffic, but that’s OK. I’m not in a rush.”

He was on his way to band practice with funk-rock legends the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who recently started working on a new album.

“It’s too early to know what the album’s gonna be yet,” Smith said. “We just started everything.”

But one thing’s set: the band lineup. After a decade apart, the band’s founding guitarist Jon Frusciante re-joined the group at the end of last year.

“We’re seeing how everyone’s vibing, taking it easy,” Smith said of the adjustment. “We’re familiar with Jon but it's been ten years. It’s been pretty easy, pretty seamless.”

In addition to work with his own band, the six-time Grammy winner is also in and out of studio sessions, drumming for artists like Halsey, Dua Lipa, Lana Del Ray and notably, Ozzy Osbourne’s newly released album, “Ordinary Man.”

“The Ozzy thing was really fun. It just came out and it seems like everyone’s really digging it,” Smith said. “Although it’s not a band, I know enough of the other musicians, I’ve played with them all enough. I do my pop stuff with Watt.”

Guitarist and producer Andrew Watt is the common thread between Smith’s work with Osbourne and the various pop artists.

“Pop stuff is different for me because it's not my normal wheelhouse,” Smith said. “Whether it’s Halsey, Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus, Andrew works with all these people,” he pauses. “And I’m his favorite drummer, so there you go.”

As for his art, Smith’s new collection starts much like a stage show would: in a dark room, with him behind a drum set.

“I have these fluorescent light-up drumsticks that light up in different colors. I’m improvising around the drums. They photograph me from all different angles with different shutter speeds,” Smith said. “That’s how you get the look of it.”

From there, Smith takes the photos and plays with them in post-production, altering the texture, saturation, how it’s printed and more. He then enhances the canvases with additional treatments, including washes, chalk, paint, even a screwdriver.

“I try to get the power of the way I play the drums to translate. To me, that’s really explosive looking,” he said. “Like all art, it’s open to interpretation. I’m happy with it. It’s another creative outlet for me, but it makes sense.”

“I think the biggest challenge for me is trying to get drumming to transfer to a flat surface. When you look at it you can hear it and see it and often, it doesn’t look like a guy playing the drums.”

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have only performed in Jacksonville two times — once in 1989 at Einstein A Go-Go and almost 30 years later at the Veterans Memorial Arena in 2017.

The drummer isn’t super familiar with our town, but says he’s looking forward to the visit — and that growing up in Detroit, he’s used to towns with a subpar football performance.

“It’s going to be fun,” he said. “I come out and get to meet people. That’s the dream.”