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Red Hot Chili Peppers Are Set 'Free' In 'Maggie' Video

'We wanted to go be outside and be free and play and see what happened,' Anthony Kiedis says during 'MTV First: Red Hot Chili Peppers.'

The Red Hot Chili Peppers wowed fans with their new video for "The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie," the first single from their upcoming album, [article id="1666877"]I'm With You.[/article] The video's MTV debut was followed by a lively and playful chat with the Peppers themselves: Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith and Josh Klinghoffer.

Conversation flowed as easily as a face-melting lick from Flea's bass, and the topics covered included their much-needed "hiatus" and how it reinvigorated their music-making, along with details about the forthcoming album. Naturally, one of the main topics to address was the "Maggie" video, which, according to frontman Kiedis, was inspired by their home state of California.

"We wanted to go be outside and be free and play and see what happened," he said, mentioning that the clip's first concept, which was "indoors and dark and dank," was scrapped because it didn't match the fun of the song. "So we thought, 'Let's go with the opposite of that,' and the opposite of that was a rooftop."

[article id="1667412"]How did Flea's hour-long bass groove turn into "Rain Dance Maggie"?[/article]

"We knew that if we just got with our nature of where we live that it would be beautiful," Flea chimed in. "We shot it on 16mm film, which really gave it a nice look, and we love each other, we love playing our music and we love our song."

"It's a nice place to be," Kiedis added about the band's fondness for the clip's location of Venice Beach. "There are palm trees, there are waves, there are people."

It's a little gritty too, we offered.

"I think Chad Smith brought the grit," Kiedis joked of the drummer.

[article id="1669115"]"Maggie" director Marc Klasfeld explains how the "simple and iconic" video was made.[/article]

Speaking of grit, the band revealed that there were no railings or nets to prevent them from tumbling off the edge of the rooftop.

"We were hanging out," Kiedis said of the daring lack of safety equipment on set. "There was a character at the end of the video -- I don't know if you saw him, but he looks a little bit like Mickey Rourke in 'The Wrestler.' I thought that he would probably catch me if I fell," he laughed.

Be sure to check back with MTV.com for highlights from the Q&A, including the band discussing the early inspiration for their iconic videos, where they feel they belong in music history, whether Anthony Kiedis will ever join Twitter and more!

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