EDDIE

Recorded during: Unlimited Love/Return of the Dream Canteen sessions
Length: 5:42
Performers: Anthony Kiedis (vocals), Flea (bass), John Frusciante (guitar), Chad Smith (drums).
Live performances.

Anthony had this to say about the song in a Sirius XM feature (EVH died on October 6, 2020):

“Could be my favourite song on the record. And the reason I like this song so much is because it was the most immediately written song that we have. Sometimes songs take month to kind of chip away at, and sometimes they’re just born all at once in one rehearsal. Eddie Van Halen who maybe I took for granted a little bit, until he died. I was like, ‘Woah, Eddie’s gone, that’s not good… we need him, he’s a one of a kind. A huge stroke of cultural importance and made everybody’s life more enjoyable…’ And the minute he was gone, I felt this pain in my heart, and I was probably crying a little bit. Went to rehearsal, I could see it in Flea’s face, I could see it in John’s face, the loss of Eddie Van Halen to the world. Flea started playing this bass line that he had specifically written as soon as he found out that Eddie died, and it was very emotional. John started playing and I just started singing these lyrics which kind of referred, it’s a little abstract, it says ‘please don’t remember me, for what I did last night,’ which was imagining that Eddie was up to some kind of harmless tomfoolery along the way. But really it’s an opposite, it’s like he’s saying - ‘I’m gonna be remembered.’ We were all there just pouring our hearts out for the love of Eddie, and all that he brought the world, and we tightened it up a bit and the song was called Eddie.”