Chad Gaylord Smith (born on October 25, 1961 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA) is a drummer in the rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He joined the band after Jack Irons quit because of the distress and chaos over Hillel Slovak's death. In 1993, he released "Red Hot Rhythm Method", an educational video for aspiring drummers.
Smith grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and attended Lahser High School but did not graduate. He then worked a series of odd jobs while playing in a slew of bands, most starting with the letter T: Tilt, Tyrant, Terence. One of them, Toby Redd, put out a record; and opened for Kansas. Later, he moved to Los Angeles where he joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers. According to Anthony Kiedis' autobiography Scar Tissue, following Smith's first audition for the band, Kiedis told him he was allowed to join the band if he shaved his head, to test Smith's devotion to the band, but mostly because of Kiedis' dislike of Smith's more conformitive Rock & Roll hair style (which Kiedis' likened to a Guns N' Roses look), as it didn't mesh with the band's punk-funk image. Smith came back the next day with his hair still in a bandana, yet was allowed to stay as Kiedis found his obstinancy impressive. Smith's tenacity to keep his long hair was most likely due to Smith's discomfort with his receding hairline.
He was married in 1994 to Maria St. John and together had one child: Manon St. John (1997). He has three other children: Justin (1998), Ava (2000) and Cole (2005). The two divorced but he has recently remarried to an architect named Nancy on May 8, 2004 in Hopetown, Abacos, Bahamas. When not onstage or in the studio Smith enjoys scuba diving, baseball, basketball, and riding his Harleys (he owns a black Road King that he has personally done modifications on, and in a 2006 interview with Modern Drummer magazine, said that his 2003 100th Anniversary issue Soft Tail was his "main mode of transportation"). He also lives in a 1929 Spanish house that Cary Grant and Randolph Scott lived in together from 1932 to 1936. Ex-Deep Purple singer Glenn Hughes recorded an album in Chad's "home studio" in late 2005 - early 2006.
Although he is mainly known as the drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smith's drumming is featured on over a hundred albums, not including those recorded with Red Hot Chili Peppers. He has also toured the world extensively performing drum clinics, and recently did a series of clinics with one of his drumming heroes, Deep Purple's Ian Paice.
With numerous platinum recordings under his belt with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chad Smith has gained the recognition he has long deserved by cranking out one hit groove after another.
Post je objavljen 04.11.2006. u 12:26 sati.