Flea: I almost quit Red Hot Chili Peppers

Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea wanted to quit the band when John Frusciante left.

The 48-year-old bassist admits he had serious doubts about continuing in the American group when the guitarist – who has since been replaced by Josh Klinghoffer - quit for the second time in 2008, but he decided to stay after finding a "profound love" for the funk rockers and lead singer Anthony Kiedis.

He told Q magazine: "I'd thought that if John did go that I would definitely not want to continue the band without him. But after he left, something kind of shifted in me and I found a really profound love for the Chili Peppers and particularly for Anthony."

Flea revealed that Klinghoffer - who has toured with Gnarls Barkley and PJ Harvey as a session musician - is "way different" to John, but he revealed that is the "best" part about the guitarist.

He added: "The trickiest part of getting together with Josh for me was also the best, which is that he's completely different to John.

"There were things that I had come to expect John to do: he's such a phenomenal musician that I was used to playing something and – bam! – John would hit it.

"He and Chad [Smith, drummer] would lock in, and it was undeniably good. Josh is way different.

"He'd be floating around the outside with this ethereal, textural thing. It was like: 'Whoa! When's he gonna do the thing that we know?' And he didn't. I had to consciously say to myself: 'Dude, relax'."