Feb 2, 2014; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea Red Hot Chili Peppers vocalist Anthony Kiedis and Recording artist Bruno Mars perform during the Super Bowl XLVIII half time show at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have admitted that they were playing the air guitar during the Super Bowl. Flea sent out a message on the RHCP official site on the reasoning behind it:
When we were asked by the NFL and Bruno to play our song Give It Away at the Super Bowl, it was made clear to us that the vocals would be live, but the bass, drums, and guitar would be pre-recorded. I understand the NFL’s stance on this, given they only have a few minutes to set up the stage, there a zillion things that could go wrong and ruin the sound for the folks watching in the stadium and the t.v. viewers. There was not any room for argument on this, the NFL does not want to risk their show being botched by bad sound, period.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers stance on any sort of miming has been that we will absolutely not do it. The last time we did it (or tried to) was in the late 80’s, we were thrown off of ‘The Top Of the Pops’ television program in the U.K. during rehearsals because we refused to mime properly, I played bass with my shoe, John played guitar atop Anthony’s shoulders, and we basically had a wrestling match onstage, making a mockery of the idea that it was a real live performance.
Looks like we can look forward to more air guitars during future Super Bowls.