Red Hot Chili Peppers are back this week with their latest album, The Getaway, but the disc didn't come without its bumps in the road (or bumps for the members) along the way. During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, bassist Flea stated that a broken arm from a ski trip resulted in a delay in recording and some concern over his playing.

Frontman Anthony Kiedis and Flea took a snowboarding trip to Montana when the bassist had an accident. "We were jetting down the mountain, going, like 50 miles an hour, when I just wiped out. It was like, bam. My arm started swelling up right away. I broke my arm in five places. Big pieces of bone were shorn off."

The bassist says he managed to snowboard down the mountain where he was met by an ambulance and taken to a hospital where he underwent major surgery to repair nerve damage. And it wasn't just a simple "stitch and sew, good to go" transaction, as he had to undergo six months of rehabilitation to play the instrument he'd mastered over the years.

"I went to play one note and a bunch of pain shot up my arm," Flea recalled. "I tried to play the simplest things and my hand just wouldn't do it. It felt like I let everyone down, because we couldn't work on the record." But eventually the rehabilitation paid off and the band was able to resume recording, this time mixing things up with Danger Mouse producing.

The results show as the band still has the funky rock style that fans have come to embrace, but employ more melodic and soulful elements that feel fresh within their musical palette. The Getaway album arrives this Friday (June 17).

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