Both Brian Eno and David Bowie turned down offers to produce Red Hot Chili Peppers albums

By Sam Barsanti | January 29, 2016 | 12:21am

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After David Bowie’s death, a number of stories have come out about projects he was working on or had wanted to work on at some point that never actually happened. Earlier today, we reported that he had auditioned for Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings movies and really wanted to play big-shot elf dude Elrond, but the part eventually went to Hugo Weaving. Now, Alternative Nation (via Pitchfork) has a story about a thing that David Bowie absolutely did not want to do, despite the fact that it could’ve been really…something.

Apparently, the Red Hot Chili Peppers asked Bowie on more than one occasion to produce an album for them, and he turned them down every single time. The Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis says this happened “two or three times,” and Bowie always turned them down “respectfully,” but Bowie’s longtime pal Brian Eno is even less interested in working with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis says they’ve been asking Eno to produce an album for them for their entire careers, and he’s turned them down “eight times.” For those keeping score, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have released 10 studio albums, so Eno saying no that many times is some real dedication to refusing to work with this band.