These Two Red Hot Chili Peppers Will Not Shake Your Hand

It seems Flea and John Frusciante don’t like to shake hands with strangers.

Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney says he went to introduce himself to Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ bassist and guitarist in a restaurant in Madrid, Spain, after the pandemic receded and was stunned when his potential handshake was rejected with a grimace.

“They were sitting there having the most nerdy conversation: Like, ‘If you augment the 7th …,'” Carney said on The Joe Rogan Experience. We were “kind of like, ‘Whoa, they are just such nerds!'” Still, Carney said, “I was like, I’m going to go say what’s up.”

So, he “went over and I shook Flea’s hand, and then I went to go shake John Frusciante’s hand and he’s like, ‘I don’t do that.’ And then Flea was like, ‘Excuse me, I’m going to go wash my hands.’ And they’re like, ‘We’re germaphobes.'”

Carney then quipped: “Aren’t these guys legendary ex-heroin addicts and shit?”

On the Other Hand, Noel Gallagher Was Cool

By contrast, Carney said meeting and working with Noel Gallagher of Oasis was a dream: “He’s hilarious and super talented,” Carney told NME last year. “We were referring to him as ‘The Chord Lord’ because he’s just a perfectionist with it.”

Gallagher supplied backing vocals and guitar on a handful of tracks on the Black Keys’ upcoming LP, Ohio Players’, which is set for release on April 5.