One rock star's tardiness gave birth to a new band.

The Bombastic Meatbats, an instrumental rock group that will play Club Bijou on Saturday, features Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on drums, former Toledoans Jeff Kollman on guitar and Kevin Chown on bass, and Ed Roth on keyboards,

Smith told The Blade in a recent interview that the 'Bats were formed after he, Kollman, and Roth began playing together in the studio while waiting for Glenn Hughes, the bassist and singer in legendary rock band Deep Purple.

The trio enjoyed stretching out on funky instrumental rock numbers, especially the songs from guitarist Jeff Beck's mid-1970s albums "Blow by Blow" and "Wired."

"I said, 'Man, we should do something with this. It sounds good and it's fun,' " Smith said from his home in Southern California. "A lot of times you do that with people and say, 'Yeah, we should play, we should play,' but nothing happens. Nobody follows through. But this time we did."

The trio added Chown, another Toledoan who has been a longtime collaborator with Kollman, on bass. The two Toledoans have played together since the 1980s, when they were in the regional rock group Edwin Dare, and Chown plays in one of Kollman's current bands, Cosmosquad.

A guitar virtuoso, Kollman moved to Los Angeles in 1995 and has built a career by putting his versatility to work. Equally adept at jazz, punk, and metal, he has toured or recorded with such diverse artists as UFO, Wayman Tisdale, the Michael Schenker Group, Lyle Lovett, and Lao Tizer and gives corporately sponsored guitar clinics around the world.

Smith, who joined the Chili Peppers in 1988 before the group became one of the world's most famous bands, said that after nine years of nearly nonstop recording and touring the group decided last September that it was time for a hiatus.

"We looked at each other and said, 'I love you but I think we'll take a break. Take a year off, see your families, do what you want, and after the summertime we'll get back together.' We're not mad. We're not breaking up," Smith said.

But Smith, a native of Minneapolis who moved to Detroit when he was 3, added that he was not going to just chill out for an entire year.

"Everybody's got other gigs and if I'm not playing with the Chili Peppers, I've got to do something," he said.

After the side project began to click, the musicians started planning a few shows in Los Angeles and a short tour in Japan earlier this year. That forced them to come up with a name, and Kollman threw out the Bombastic Meatbats. Smith and Kollman both said the rest of the group basically said, "Yeah, why not?"

The Meatbats earned some rave reviews for their L.A. concerts and the tour of Japan also was encouraging, Smith said.

"That was cool. We played these little jazz clubs, 300 or 400-seat clubs, and we played like six shows and had a great time."

He was surprised that Red Hot Chili Peppers fans would turn out to hear the drummer's side project play in Japan.

"The fans came just on the strength of my name. We have nothing out, just a little bit on the Internet," he said. "You know, it's kind of nutty because I'm just a drummer. I'm not the singer. We're not playing Chili Pepper songs."

The Toledo date is the only one on the band's schedule. Smith said it came about because he was heading to Detroit for a reunion of his former band, Toby Red, on Sunday and Kollman was going to be in the Toledo area. They decided to take advantage of the opportunity and play a show in two of the Meatbats' hometown.

The members of the Bombastic Meatbats wrote and recorded 11 original songs and have recorded several cover tunes, Smith said, but the band has not signed with a label.

"There's not a real market for this instrumental rock music that we're doing anyway," he said. "This is just a project for fun, just friends hanging out. We're not trying to be anything. It's not a put-together-by-a-record-company thing. We're doing it just for the love of the music. That's the best way. That's the Meatbats."

The Bombastic Meatbats will be in concert at 8 p.m. Saturday at Club Bijou, 135 South Byrne Rd. Tickets are $15. Information: 419-536-2582.

Contact David Yonke at:

dyonke@theblade.com

or 419-724-6154.

First Published May 29, 2008, 12:12 p.m.