How Andrew Watt’s ‘Musical Bromance’ With Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith Led to a Star-Studded Cover Band

New York City has no shortage of cover bands, but few of them can boast surprise appearances from The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, Robert Randolph, The Roots’ Black Thought and Jimmy Fallon.

It helps, of course, that the cover band in question is anchored by Grammy-winning producer Andrew Watt (guitar, vocals), Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Chad Smith (drums) of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and longtime Saturday Night Live Band fixture G.E. Smith (guitar), with Ivan Bodley (bass), Seneca Black (trumpet), Crispin Cioe (sax), Bob Funk (trombone), Charlotte Lawrence (vocals), Ben Stivers (keyboards) and Jared Tankel (baritone sax) rounding out the group.

The band’s nondescript name — Smith & Watt Steakhouse, the product of a jokey 10-second brainstorm – speaks to its casual, unambitious origin. When the Chili Peppers’ two-year Unlimited Love Tour wrapped up in July, Smith headed to the Hamptons to reenergize – but after a few weeks, he found himself getting restless in the sleepy seaside town. “I’m a musician – I love to play music,” he tells Billboard, sitting on a sunny balcony at the Bowery Hotel in Manhattan. “I don’t want to miss out.”

The cavalry arrived when Watt, a frequent collaborator and close friend of Smith’s, found himself in the same area with a bit of free time. “We have this insane musical connection, and we love playing live together. We have this musical bromance,” Watt tells Billboard, seated next to Smith. “Naturally, we want to jam together.”

After pulling together a rock band of musical ringers and creating a setlist spanning their favorite artists (Prince, The Police, Sam & Dave, Fleetwood Mac, to name a few), Smith and Watt took the stage at Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, N.Y., on Aug. 20 and ripped through an all-covers set that had the Hamptons hot spot bumping.

“(The venue) is small — we broke it,” Smith says with a wide grin. “And then at the end of the night, this gentleman decides to come up on stage.”

Gentleman, while certainly accurate, is a bit of an undersell. Sir Paul McCartney, who had been watching the entire show side stage with his family, made a completely unscripted decision to hop up and join them on a cover of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

“I actually whispered into his ear (after that song), ‘Go play drums and show them how much of a badass you are,’” recalls Watt, who has spent time in the studio with the rock icon. “He shrugged me off and goes, ‘I’ll tell you what. One more number. [singing] She was just seventeen!’”

Naturally, McCartney’s surprise performance of The Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There” at a 250-capacity venue made headlines and waves across social media – and sent more than a few folks into a FOMO spiral. When Watt was backstage at Pearl Jam’s Madison Square Garden show on Sept. 4 (he joined them onstage that night), tour promoter Peter Shapiro started griping about how sad he was to have missed that once-in-a-lifetime show. After chatting with the entrepreneur, whom Watt calls “a modern-day Bill Graham,” he decided to give Smith a call: “What are you doing Wednesday?”

For its second show, the Watt & Smith Steakhouse headed to Brooklyn Bowl – one of several venues owned by Shapiro — on Wednesday (Sept. 18). And while none of that night’s special guests can lay claim to British knighthood, it was an eclectic, hard-to-resist roster: A loose, all-smiles Chris Robinson shimmied in front of Smith’s drumkit while belting the Faces’ “Stay With Me”; Black Thought rapped Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” and freestyled over the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog”; and Robert Randolph flexed his slide guitar mastery on Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” before leading the band through an impromptu, off-setlist “Purple Haze.” As for Jimmy Fallon’s full-throated take on the Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues”? It might not place him in the same category of musical excellence, but there was something undeniably special about watching The Tonight Show host let it all hang out onstage just 20 minutes before turning 50. (FWIW, his vocals were a solid cut above what you’d hear at any given karaoke bar.)

“Watt & Smith Steakhouse rides again,” G.E. Smith quipped of the cover band’s Brooklyn Bowl gig. Depending on schedules, that ride could turn into a cross-country trek. When asked about future gigs for the Steakhouse, the RHCP drummer pauses. “Yeah. We’ll see what happens,” Smith says, firing up a fresh cigarette (fittingly, the lighter he uses is a piece of promo merch for Eddie Vedder’s 2022 solo album Earthling, which Smith played on and Watt produced).

“In our relationship, we like to eat,” Watt says. “The point of this band is: we’re going to come to some cities, play in your smallest club and go out to your nicest restaurant.”

Ultimately, the band (which continues Smith’s legacy of meaty side projects, from Chickenfoot to Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats) is an excuse for Smith, 62, and Watt, 33, to hang out, eat out and rock out.

“He’s my best friend in the entire world,” says Watt, who acknowledges that part of him will “forever” be the RHCP fanboy who snagged a post-concert pic with Smith as a teenager, years before the two became musical brethren.

“For me, he could be my son,” Smith says with a belly cackle. “There is an age difference.” (Case in point: the first show Smith attended on his own was KISS in 1975, one of the concerts immortalized on Alive!; Watt’s was none other than the Red Hot Chili Peppers with openers Queens of the Stone Age and the Mars Volta in 2003.) “But when it comes to us, especially our musical thing, we have very, very similar likes and tastes,” says Smith. “It’s such a lucky thing when that happens.”

Plus, Watt & Smith Steakhouse gives the former – who can wail like Roger Daltrey, sneer like David Bowie and growl like Gregg Allman – a chance to step out from behind the boards and up to the mic. “This guy is a performer and loves it,” Smith says. “You better go see the Steakhouse – you never know what’s on the menu.”