Who's gonna tell him? Busker drums Red Hot Chili Peppers song without realising drummer Chad Smith was watching

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By ( Louder ) published

Watch busker play Red Hot Chili Peppers' Otherside to an audience of one – the man who plays on the record

Chad Smith watches a busker drumming to a RHCP song
(Image credit: tiktok.com/@joeymccarthyy)

A busker playing drums along to a Red Hot Chili Peppers track was blissfully unaware that the band's drummer Chad Smith was taking it all in from a matter of feet away.

Los Angeles-based TikTok user Joey McCarthy captured footage of the man playing along to the Chili Peppers' smash hit single Otherside, released in January 2000 and taken from the multi platinum-selling 1999 album Californication.

The busker is lost in the moment and doesn't realise that Smith is perched on a wall just feet away, nodding along and clearly enjoying the performance.

McCarthy explains in the comments for his TikTok that he later told the man that Smith had been watching and showed him the video.

His caption reads: "Imagine shooting hoops in front of Michael Jordan and not even realising it?"

The TikTok has been 'liked' more than 8 million times.

One user says in a comment: "The fact that Chad Smith is just sitting there vibing is just about the biggest compliment you could ask for bro. Good job."

A street performer called Armond Davis later revealed he was the drummer in question, and admitted he had no idea it was Chad Smith watching him until later.

In a 'stitched' TikTok response, Davis says: "I am the drummer that played in front of Chad Smith. Honestly, as a street performer sometimes we have incredibly slow days and that was one of them.

"I played at least five songs back-to-back and I got zero attention. So after a little I just zoned out into the music. By the time I was halfway done with Otherside I realised somebody was sitting in front of me and he had really good energy.

"He was bobbing his head and I could tell he had to be a drummer because he had good subdivision with his feet. He looked familiar but I just couldn't quite put my finger on it at the time."

Watch the original clip and Davis' stitch below.

Stef Lach

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.