The Red Hot Chili Peppers performed alongside Bruno Mars at the Super Bowl, however, their instrument audio was pre-recorded.
Speculation grew as people noticed that the band's guitars were not plugged in or hooked up to an amplifier. And since there is currently no wireless Bluetooth technology for instruments, there really wasn't any explanation, but the truth.
According to CNN, Chili Peppers' Bassist, Flea, spilled the beans. "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." Flea admitted.
Given the moral dilemma the band was put in, members thought long and hard as to whether they would do the show or not given the circumstances that the NFL placed on them. They allowed lead singer Anthony Kiedis to sing live vocals, but the drums, guitar and bass sounds were not played live.
"We decided that, with Anthony singing live, that we could still bring the spirit and freedom of what we do into the performance, and of course we played every note in the recording specially for the gig." Flea said.
The NFL was worried about the show being "botched" because of bad audio from the instruments. The Chili Peppers made it clear that they were not out to deceive anyone, they were simply following orders.
Flea later tweeted out to his followers, "No trickery. No choice, but no trickery," according to CBS Sports.
Does it bother you that the NFL made the Red Hot Chili Peppers play unplugged? Feel free to post your thoughts and comments below.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
