Spokespeople for Rod Stewart and Flea have both denied to Billboard that the hyperactive Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist would be filling in for the deceased Ronnie Lane during a forthcoming Faces reunion, with Stewart’s flack going the extra mile and saying that despite Ron Wood’s claims that he and Rod went on a debaucherous, songwriting-filled vacation over the Christmas holiday, there were no plans for the band to reunite and tour at all in the near future. Someone’s got a lot of explaining to do, or at least a couple of expense vouchers to reclassify!

Guitarist Ron Wood reportedly told the U.K.’s Daily Mirror that he and Rod Stewart wrote an album’s worth of new material during a Christmas vacation, and that Flea would be participating in an upcoming tour. However, the online version of the piece has since disappeared from the Daily Mirror Web site.

Rumors have swirled since last fall that Stewart, Wood, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones were planning to tour for the first time since splitting in 1975. The musicians reportedly rehearsed last year with Stewart touring bassist Conrad Korsch filling the role of the late Ronnie Laine. But a recent report in the New York Post suggested the members didn’t get along during the process and that a tour seemed unlikely.

The page has, indeed, been scrubbed from the Mirror’s site, although I feel like maybe publishing a “whoops, sorry about that” message might be a bit better as far as clearing up the game of Internet Telephone that is ensuing around this rumor right now. Unless this confusion is all part of a new media strategy to get people talking? Hey, it could happen.

Stewart, Flea Refute Faces Reunion Reports [Billboard]