Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Disc Pirated

The group’s bassist, Michael "Flea" Balzary, confirmed the news on the Californian band’s official website.  The disc, which is to be released next week, is the first studio album from the Red Hot Chili Peppers in four years.

Flea wrote, "For people to just steal a poor sound quality version of it for free because some asshole stole it and put it on the internet is sad to me."

He added, "I cannot put in words how much this record means to us, how sacred the sound of it is to us, and how many sleepless nights and hardworking days we all had thinking about how to make it be the best sounding thing we could.  Now for someone to take it and put it out there with this poor sound quality it is a painful pill for us to swallow."

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are not the only artists to have experienced the same frustration with pirating.  The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Radiohead, Oasis and U2 have all had the same problem.