See Red Hot Chili Peppers Honor Chuck Berry With ‘Johnny B. Goode’ Cover

Red Hot Chili Peppers paid tribute to Chuck Berry Saturday night during the band’s concert in Vancouver with a surprise cover of the rock pioneer’s breakout single “Johnny B. Goode” following Berry’s death. 

The band’s electrifying rendition of the song segued into the Chili Peppers’ “Me and My Friends.” Later, drummer Chad Smith tweeted a photo of him and Berry backstage at a 2008 concert.

Red Hot Chili Peppers were among a half-dozen artists who strayed from their usual set lists this weekend to honor Berry with a “Johnny B. Goode” cover.

Green Day also performed the 1958 classic at their London, Ontario gig. Sting (at a winery), Bon Jovi (at a Columbus, Ohio concert), Gene Simmons (at his first ever solo show) and the Roots (at SXSW) each performed “Johnny B. Goode” ”“ Number Seven on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time ”“ at their respective shows.

“We lost Chuck Berry yesterday,” Sting wrote on Instagram Sunday next to a snippet of his solo acoustic rendition of “Johnny B. Goode.” “Without Chuck Berry, there’s no Rolling Stones, there’s no Beatles, there’s no me. He was an incredibly influential musician and amazing lyricist. Though I’d never sung this song before, I wanted to find a way to pay tribute to him because we owe him so much.”