Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats

During 2009 drummer Chad Smith juggled multiple high-profile commitments, including laying down tracks for the supergroup Chickenfoot while also completing work on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ tenth studio album. Amid those obligations he still carved out space to form the all-instrumental outfit Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats. The project grew directly from Smith’s longstanding friendship with bassist and singer Glenn Hughes, previously of Trapeze and Deep Purple. While jamming alongside Hughes, Smith connected with guitarist Jeff Kollman and keyboardist Ed Roth, both frequent members of Hughes’ solo band. The four musicians soon captured their interplay on tape, recruiting bassist Kevin Chown in Hughes’ place. Their first release, Meet the Meatbats, appeared on Warrior Records in September 2009 and evoked a collision between vintage Billy Preston and the funk-jazz-fusion of Return to Forever. The quartet opened a string of Japanese dates in late October 2009, yet additional shows remained scarce because of Smith’s Red Hot Chili Peppers schedule. He reconvened the group for the 2010 album More Meat and, two years later, documented a 2009 concert on the release Live Meat and Potatoes.