Chad Smith Simply Rocks, From Stages To Classrooms

The drum set, as it is known today, is as indigenous as jazz and blues. Dating back to the late 1800s, brass band drummers would often play in groups, each responsible for various drums and cymbals at any given time.

The dawn of the 20th century changed all that. With a little innovation, one musician could now play every element at once—the bass pedal driving the beat, with red wooden temple blocks and exotic China-type cymbals assembled around the nucleus of the drum set, the snare drum.

Chad Smith’s first drum kit looked nothing like this. He had made a few innovations of his own. Presented with a set of empty Baskin-Robbins ice cream tubs, the 7-year-old immediately snagged a pair of Lincoln Logs and started banging away.

It was the early stages of what would become known as his sound with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, landing his name among the greats that had come before him: Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich, Keith Moon and Neil Peart.

Seated on top of a wooden picnic table overlooking Fort Pond Bay at his summer home in Montauk, Mr. Smith recalled that day.

“Yeah, you know, my dad actually found those ice cream tubs in the garbage—nothing but the best for the Smith kids!” he joked. “The tubs didn’t last long, but I was hooked. And I guess you can say it was my first taste at playing drums. Ba-da-ching!”

Mr. Smith has an easy, thoughtful way of speaking, an infectious sense of humor, and a style of drumming that can be described as alternative rock/funk with impossible intensity and groove. He grew up outside of Detroit and found himself drawn to his school’s music programs.

“Those classes meant everything to me. It was the reason I went to school,” he said. “Not to take anything away from math, science or English, but music was the thing that sparked my imagination—it was the fun part of the day. Playing music was the only thing I wanted to do.”

He had help from his older brother, Brad, who played guitar and exposed his protégé to popular bands at the time: Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Mott the Hoople and Humble Pie. He was horrified when a young Mr. Smith’s fandom landed on KISS.

“KISS was my first rock concert—I was 13 and I loved the show, the blood, the fire breathing, the makeup, the drums bellowing smoke all over the stage,” he said. “My brother, Brad, was, like, ‘How can you like those guys when there’s bands like Led Zeppelin and Cream?’”

After his family moved to a suburb outside of Chicago, Mr. Smith bought his first drum set with money saved from his paper route and shoveling snow. It wasn’t long before he and Brad formed a band, Rock of Conspiracy.

“We were very political because it was around the time of Watergate,” Mr. Smith said. “We had one original song called ‘Chain of Leather.’ It was a dedication song, a love song that pulled at the heart strings … We were like the Rage Against the Machine of Homewood, Illinois.”

By age 18, Mr. Smith was back in Detroit, playing drums professionally with Tilt, a local band, making $165 a week while performing at some of the most foul-smelling, skuzziest dive bars he had ever seen. “I was loving life,” Mr. Smith recalled with a smile, “I had a full-time paying gig, there were girls and booze. It was very rock and roll, and I remember thinking, ‘This is great.’”

He grew to know and love the scene, eventually meeting percussionist Larry Fratangelo along the way. The seasoned veteran took Mr. Smith under his wing, driving him to band practice and listening to songs on the radio. “Larry would point out the arrangements of songs,” he said. “It was then that I really went from being a drummer to a well-rounded musician.”

After nearly a decade, it was time to go. Mr. Smith packed up his car and left Detroit behind for a cross-country trip, landing him in the City of Angels, Los Angeles.

“When I first got to LA, I would go out to different nightclubs. It was the late 1980s, so guys like Slash from Guns N’ Roses would be hanging around. Billy Idol would come out of the bathroom and sneer at me with his lip up,” he recalled. “I was supposed to be studying at a place called Music Institute, but this newfound nightlife of mine made it difficult to concentrate, if you get my drift.”

He soon heard about an audition for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and nailed it, but the band members were concerned about his appearance. “I looked more like a heavy metal dude, with a Metallica T-shirt, a bandana—exactly the kind of look the Chili Peppers were trying to steer clear of,” he said. “Fortunately, it was my playing that cut through all of that, and I got the gig.

“I remember really pushing the groove at the audition, and I was yelling at the guys in the Chili Peppers to play harder,” he continued. “They probably thought I was nuts, but after the audition the Chili Peppers producer at the time said, ‘That’s your guy.’”

In 1991, the Chili Peppers, with Smith now firmly behind the kit, released their seminal album “Blood Sugar Sex Magik,” its first single being “Under the Bridge,” a song about topophilia, alienation, and drug addiction. And it almost never happened.

“It was originally a poem that Anthony Kiedis, the Chili Peppers lead singer, had written,” Mr. Smith said. But at the urging of the record’s producer, Rick Rubin, the poem was introduced to the band to work up as a song. “Under the Bridge” went on to number two on the Billboard charts, becoming one of many sing-along anthems for Generation X in the early 1990s.

Following fame, multiple world tours and an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Mr. Smith has refocused his attention on music education in schools across the country—where he uncovered his talent. “It’s amazing to me that schools have no problem spending money on shoulder pads for the football team, but music education? It’s always the first thing to get cut from the curriculum.” Smith said.

In 2013, the National Association of Music Merchants asked Mr. Smith to lobby politicians in Washington, D.C., for increasing funding for music education in public schools. Next year, through Barack and Michelle Obama’s music and arts initiative, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, he was appointed the ambassador and music mentor at Mary Chapa, an elementary school in Greenfield, California.

“When I visited Mary Chapa for the first time, attendance was way down and the kids were quiet and nervous. I’m not sure they really knew who I was, but they were blown away that the president and first lady picked their school—one of eight at the time—for the music and arts program,” he said. “When I visited Mary Chapa the second time, attendance was up 80 percent, and the kids were fully involved in the music programs. I couldn’t believe the transformation—it was like night and day.”

Smith is also an active member of a charity called, “Little Kids Rock,” a non-profit organization that provides free music lessons and instruments to schools countrywide.

“Music education helps kids think creatively, and that creativity is a thread that can make a big difference in a child’s overall scholastic learning,” he said. “Music plays such an essential part in all of our lives and I can’t think of a better way than to teach that appreciation to young kids.

“Music education got me through school and it transformed my life,” he continued. “And, so, it is very important for me to pass that passion, dedication and love for music along to younger generations.”