It’s long been known that Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith has more than a passing resemblance to Hollywood comedian Will Ferrell, with the pair regularly populating ‘separating at birth’ lists.
Given the lack of concrete evidence of the two appearing in the same room together, some have even speculated that there might be more to the Chili Pepper/Ron Burgundy connection than just an uncanny resemblance (I mean, just look at them).
Yesterday, during a reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ session, Will Ferrell finally cleared up the confusion once and for all, confirming that they were indeed the same person.
“It has been acknowledged many times that myself and Chad Smith, drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, share a resemblance to each other,” wrote the funnyman. “A lot of people think that it’s me playing for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But that would be an insult to Chad Smith. The truth of the matter is there is no Will Ferrell. Only Chad Smith.”
Meaning we can take Smith to task not just for miming the Super Bowl Halftime Show, but also for the diminishing returns of last year’s Anchorman sequel.
“Stop impersonating me… Drum battle, me and you… let’s go.”
Great, so if Wikipedia can just consolidate their respective entries, Hollywood – just clear up the royalty revenues, and we can all get on with our lives.
Except now the RHCP tub-thumper is not only refuting Ferrell’s claims, telling the actor to “stop impersonating me”, but also laying down the gauntlet to settle the matter once and for all in a public challenge.
“Drum battle, me and you,” declares Smith in a video posted to the Instagram account of Will Ferrell’s FunnyOrDie.com. “I’ve seen your skills, you don’t got ‘em, let’s go, golden cowbell… winner.. boom!” he adds, in parlance that’s remarkably similar to his lookalike – confusing the matter even further.
Ferrell does have some skill in the musical field. As everybody knows, the actor-comedian is a demon on the flute and rocked some cowbell in his time, but when it comes to the drums – well, if Step Brothers is anything to go by – Chad Smith’s pretty outmatched.
All jokes aside, considering the challenge was issued via Funny Or Die, it’s very likely that this doppelgänger drum-off is actually going to happen. Which is awesome.
In related news, Smith’s bass-playing bandmate Flea recently responded to allegations that the Red Hot Chili Peppers mimed their Super Bowl Halftime performance with Bruno Mars. In short, he admits that the band totally faked it, explaining that rather than “bumming people out” by hiding their mime, they happily slapping along to a pre-recorded track on unplugged instruments. “It seemed like the realest thing to do in the circumstance,” said Flea.
Smith – who is actually auctioning off the kit he played at the event for charity, as Rolling Stone points out – took a much more punctual stance on the Super Bowl backlash on his (or is that Will Ferrell’s) twitter.
FYI… Every band in the last 10 years at the Super Bowl has performed to a previously recorded track. It’s the NFL ‘s policy.Period.
— Chad Smith (@RHCPchad) February 5, 2014
