Back in 2014, Bruno Mars was set to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show and he would
announce ahead of his performance that the rock band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers would be joining
him as well. Rock & Roll seems to have been shunned for several years by the Super Bowl
who were relying more and more on top 40 acts. The last time a real rock band performed at the
show was in 2010 when the who performed and it was a performance that was met with a lukewarm
response. 2005 to 2010 seemed like a great time for halftime shows featuring Prince,
Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. during rehearsals for the 2014 halftime show, Bruno Mars and the NFL
were having conflicts over the singer's planned performance. the NFL wanted to show the audience
wearing light-up bracelets with Mars apparently saying, "if you take that camera off me,
you're doing yourself a disservice." what happened? they spent all of the money on these
things and it didn't work. apparently the budget for the whole performance was around $5 million
and the setlist featured a total of about seven songs with the first five songs being Mars's own
tracks. for the sixth song, the Chili Peppers came out to perform their 1991 hit, "give it
away" from their album "blood sugar sex Magik" there was only one problem though, the Super
Bowl has been known to have halftime acts perform to pre-recorded tracks and the Chili Peppers were
no different. While Mars' performance received positive reviews in the days that followed,
it was the Chili Peppers that got slammed hard from fellow musicians and the press as well as
their fans. even before we address the controversy about the band miming their performance, one story
that went under the radar and underreported is that the Federal Communications Commission or
the FCC would receive numerous complaints about the Chili Peppers' performance from
both men and women who claimed to be offended by the fact that the band or at least some of
the members were shirtless on stage saying that kids were watching. according to spin.com, the FCC
received a total of 53 complaints, mostly having to do with excess flesh. you know in my opinion,
it's a ridiculous argument saying that the Chili Peppers performance is a bad influence on kids. if
you look at the NFL, they have no moral authority. they are sponsored by liquor companies whose ads
are full of sex and alcohol and on top of that, the game is pretty violent and people get brain
damage from it so I don't really see how it's a good influence on kids but getting back to
the story. The whole thing of the Chili Peppers getting in trouble for their performance stemmed
from fans on social media noticing that bassist Flea and guitarist Josh Klinghoffer didn't even
have their instruments plugged into anything. They were also accused of faking their performances.
the whole thing was such a news event that even Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose came out of hiding
to release a statement on the whole matter, which we'll get to in a bit. to be fair the ratings for
the halftime show were one of the highest in NFL history with 115.3 million people tuning in. more
people tuned in to watch the halftime show that year then actually watched the game between the
Denver Broncos in the Seattle Seahawks. Bruno Mars and the Chili Peppers' performance beat
the ratings records set by Madonna a few years earlier when she had 114 million viewers but
Katy Perry would beat Mars and the Chili Peppers' performance the following year when she performed
at the halftime show. drummer Chad Smith would respond on Twitter to the controversy several
days after the performance saying, "fYI every band in the last 10 years at the Superbowl has
performed to a previously recorded track. it's the NFL's policy period." a few days after the
performance bassist flea would release a lengthy statement addressing the controversy saying,
"when we were asked by the NFL and Bruno to play our song and 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's a zillion things that could go wrong and ruin the sound for the folks
watching in the stadium and the TV viewers. there was not much room for argument on this and the NFL
does not want to risk their show being bashed by bad sound period. The Red Hot Chili Peppers stance
on any sort of miming is that we will absolutely not do it. the last time we did it was in the
late 80s. We were thrown off the top of the Pops television program in the UK during rehearsals
because we refused to mine properly. I played bass with my shoe. John played guitar atop Anthony's
shoulders and we basically had a wrestling match on stage making a mockery of the idea that I was
a real-life performance. we mimed on one or two weird MTV shows before that and it was always a
drag. we take our music playing seriously and it is a sacred thing for us and anyone who has been
to our concerts like the night before the Super Bowl at the Barclays center, knows that we play
from our heart. We improvise spontaneously, take musical risks and sweat blood at every show. We
have been on the road for 31 years doing it." he'd go on to say, "so when the Super Bowl gig
concept came up, there was a lot of confusion amongst us as to whether or not we should do
it but we eventually decided and it was a surreal like once-in-a-lifetime crazy thing to do and it
was just fun to do it. we had given this a lot of thought before agreeing to do it and besides many,
a long conversation amongst ourselves I spoke with many musician friends for whom I have the
utmost respect and they all said they would do it if asked." he'd go on to explain how they actually
did the performance saying, "we recorded a track for the day, just bang, went out from our hearts.
that was very like in the spirit of the versions we've been playing live for the last few years
with our beloved Josh on guitar. for the actual performance, Josh Chad and I were playing along
with the pre-recorded track so there was no need to plug in our guitars so we did not. could we
have plugged them in and avoided bumming people out who have expressed disappointment that the
instrumental track was pre-recorded? Of course, easily we could have done this and it would have
been a non-issue. we thought it was better not to pretend and it seemed like the realest thing
to do in the circumstance. It was like making a music video in front of a gazillion people except
with live vocals and only one chance to rock it. our only thought was to bring the spirit of who
we are to the people. Guns and Roses frontman, Axl Rose would put out a statement on the matter. 2013
to 2015 was a weird time to be a Guns & Roses fan. Axl will put out random letters on just seemingly
random topics. Axl would defend the band and say in a statement, "I enjoyed the show and I have
no idea what the real story is nor would I want to suggest or imply anyone wasn't actually performing
or what they were playing wasn't what we actually heard. That said, I feel it's important to always
look on the positive side of things and to give the benefit of the doubt." he would also go on to
crack a joke about the whole situation saying, "so consider that maybe sometime before their
actual performance, that rather than use a guitar cord or standard wireless, that in the name of
science and for all mankind, flea courageously had a newly invented breakthrough in microchip
technology installed in his butt that picked up the frequencies of his base and transmitted
them to his amplifier and besides if the band wasn't really playing or wireless or whatever
and Anthony was really singing, they may have set a new world record for the largest karaoke
audience ever. awesome." my opinion on the whole thing is that I don't really fault the chilli
peppers for miming their performance. typically, bands see a huge spike in record sales following
their performances at the halftime show and ticket sales also go up for their upcoming
concerts. It's also a great way to get your name out there and introduce people to rock who maybe
wouldn't be into the genre. that's my opinion on the whole thing. I'd like to know your guys'
opinion. let me know in the comments section below. Are you guys watching the Super Bowl
this weekend? Are you cheering for Kansas City or San Francisco? Personally, I'm cheering for
Kansas City not because I really have a stake in it but I'm a huge fan of the Howard Stern Show and
nothing would make me happier than seeing Richard Christie's team win and see what the reaction on
the show would be. I mean he was crying on the show this week just because he was so happy that
Kansas City was in. thanks for watching guys. hit the like button and subscribe. If you have
suggestions for future topics I should cover, let me know on the pinned comment below. take care.