Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith said producer Rick Rubin was brought to tears while working with the band on its latest material.

It’s turned into a prolific year for the funk-rock legends. After releasing their 12th studio album, Unlimited Love, in April, Red Hot Chili Peppers are readying another LP, Return of the Dream Canteen, due out Oct. 14.

Both albums were produced by Rubin, who helped the band score massive mainstream success with Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The 1991 album began a long and fruitful friendship between the Chili Peppers and the producer. In total, Rubin has produced eight of the band’s LPs, but a decade had passed prior to their most recent projects together.

“Having Rick come back, he came to hear us rehearse. We hadn’t played any of our new songs for anybody,” Smith said during an appearance on ALT CTRL Radio on Apple Music 1. “We played him probably 20 or so of our songs. He came back in the studio, and where we were rehearsing, and he was just walking around amongst us.”

According to Smith, Rubin was visibly moved by being back with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“He was so overwhelmed with the fact that here, four guys that only make this music, the sound and the way they play, and the interaction, the chemistry. He was like, ‘These four people that I love are back together doing it,’” the drummer explained. “[Rubin] got really emotional. He told me later that when he was on his way home he was crying. It was just such an emotional thing for him. I get it, man. We don’t take it for granted. We do have a thing that we do, for whatever reason, we’re put on this universe.”

Red Hot Chili Peppers recently released “Tippa My Tongue,” the first single from Return of the Dream Canteen. The band is in the midst of a nationwide tour, which concludes with performances at the Austin City Limits festival in October.