Red Hot Chili Peppers Are Back With New Album ‘Return of the Dream Canteen’

Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis announced the band’s second studio album of 2022, Return of the Dream Canteen, from the stage at a sold-out Empower Field at Mile High show on Saturday night.

Here’s what the band had to say about how it all came together:

“We went in search of ourselves as the band that we have somehow always been. Just for the fun of it we jammed and learned some old songs. Before long we started the mysterious process of building new songs. A beautiful bit of chemistry meddling that had befriended us hundreds of times along the way. Once we found that slip stream of sound and vision, we just kept mining. With time turned into an elastic waistband of oversized underwear, we had no reason to stop writing and rocking. It felt like a dream. When all was said and done, our moody love for each other and the magic of music had gifted us with more songs than we knew what to do with. Well we figured it out. 2 double albums released back to back. The second of which is easily as meaningful as the first or should that be reversed. ‘Return of the Dream Canteen’ is everything we are and ever dreamed of being. It’s packed. Made with the blood of our hearts.”

The new album, due Oct. 14, will be produced by Rick Rubin, who also produced the band’s platinum-selling Unlimited Love in April, as well as past classic Red Hot Chili Peppers albums such as 1991’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik and 1999’s Californication.

The Chili Peppers have had a strong commercial year: In April, Unlimited Love hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 97,500 album equivalent units moved, marking the band’s first LP to top the listing since Stadium Arcadium in 2006. Lead single “Black Summer” also reached the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 78, and topped Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay listing for four weeks, marking their record 14th No. 1 on that chart.

Meanwhile, the band is on its first-ever stadium tour, which includes Empower Field, and drew 50,000 fans for Saturday’s show with Haim and Thundercat. The tour is the band’s first with guitarist John Frusciante, a core member during the band’s ’90s and ’00s commercial and artistic peak, in 15 years.