In a statement written by Flea on the Red Hot Chili Pepper's website, the bass player gave away what millions of Americans have already speculated: the Super Bowl performance was pre-recorded, but the vocals were in real-time, CNN reported.
After watching the performance, some people questioned why the guitar's weren't plugged into anything, leading fans and critics to bash the group for faking the show, according to CNN.
"When we were asked by the NFL and Bruno to play our song Give It Away at the Super Bowl, it was made clear to us that the vocals would be live, but the bass, drums, and guitar would be pre-recorded," Flea wrote on the website.
"I understand the NFL's stance on this, given they only have a few minutes to set up the stage, there a zillion things that could go wrong and ruin the sound for the folks watching in the stadium and the t.v. viewers. There was not any room for argument on this, the NFL does not want to risk their show being botched by bad sound, period."
Flea added that he, alongside Anthony Kiedis, Josh Klinghoffer and Chad Smith, truly debated whether to to the show on the NFL requirements before accepting, according to the letter.
"We decided that, with Anthony singing live, that we could still bring the spirit and freedom of what we do into the performance, and of course we played every note in the recording specially for the gig. I met and spoke with Bruno, who was a beautiful dude, a real talented musician, and we worked out something that seemed like it would be fun," Flea wrote.
Flea insisted in the statement the band did not intentionally hope to deceive their fans, CNN reported.
"For the actual performance, Josh, Chad, and I were playing along with the pre recorded track so there was no need to plug in our guitars, so we did not."
He then stated: "Could we have plugged them in and avoided bumming people out who have expressed disappointment that the instrumental track was pre recorded? Of course easily we could have and this would be a non-issue. We thought it better to not pretend. It seemed like the realest thing to do in the circumstance."
Overall, Flea said the band was happy to be given the opportunity to perform with Bruno Mars, and if need be "would do it all the same way again," according to CNN.
