What a lovely, incredible life in service of music, soul and spirit that has guided you through the other lives and filters of so many talented people.
You've given us so much music.
Flea.
Thank you and it's good to see you.
Um, those are very kind words and i appreciate it.
You know, i'm always yearning, always trying.
So curious man, i just, i live for it, i live for music.
Every day i get up, i get on my knees, i pray to, like you know, honor the truth.
Yeah, and speaking of which man?
Courtesy of the good folks at None Such Records.
Yeah.
This brand new album on vinyl, bro.
It always feels good to have this in my hand on vinyl.
Yeah, it's very exciting for me.
It's exciting for me.
I've made a lot of records, but I think this is the first one that I've been able to just express.
I'm always expressing myself and obviously in the Chili Peppers, you know, it's a communal creative act and we're all working together, expressing ourselves.
But for me to have the opportunity to just express all these different facets of myself that are purely me Stretch out.
Yeah, it's just really nice.
But even saying that, the people that I played with Deontay Parks Jeff Parker, Josh Johnson, Anna Butters, Mauro De Fosco like it's as much their record as it is mine.
Well, I wanted to talk to you about that because you know, When you decide to make a solo record, you know you have the ability to be able to handle, certainly now that you're playing the trumpet at a point where you feel you know you feel inspired enough to want to make music and communicate and express yourself through that instrument.
You have the bass, of course, and you know you have great instrument musicians around you, but this does feel very much like you put a band together in order to find these songs and find this music.
Why did you decide to do that and not just get a couple of players to sort of more support your vision even more?
Yeah, well, initially, I was gonna do it all by myself.
I was making demos at home just with a 808 playing bass, playing horn on it, a little synth, and it was raw and it was good and it was very unique.
You know, arty, this arty, raw thing.
And then I was listening.
You know, I was listening to Michelle and Daigie Ocello's record, The Omnicord Real Book, And Jeff Parker made this record called The Way Out of Easy.
And there were two records that really had my ear.
And both of them had Josh Johnson in common, who's an alto saxophone player, a woodwinds player in general.
And I realized after about the 10th listen through Michel's record that he had produced it.
And I knew him because he played on the last Chili Pepper record.
Oh, he did?
Yeah.
And I was very impressed with his musicality and just relationship to music.
You know, with great musicians, you can feel it in one note.
And he started blowing, and you could just feel how connected he was to the universe.
And so I just asked him to produce it, and I knew that he knew these musicians who I really respected, who played on both of those records.
And they agreed.
And I didn't...
I put the band together, but when we got in the studio, I had never played with any of them.
Yeah, because it opens the door to a room you haven't been in before, so it's like, okay.
Yeah, and I was a little scared.
I was a little worried.
I didn't know what it was going to be, but I was cool with failing.
It was more important to me to try and make myself vulnerable and bleed my heart out onto the tape and see what happens.
But when I got in the room with them and started playing, it felt so connected.
Zane, it was so like emotionally fulfilling and just a deep, good feeling.
And I know that feeling, you know what I mean?
I know what it's like to be in the studio and trying with people that you love and to just- It's not there.
You don't always get there.
It's like you have good days, you have bad days, but every day with them, every minute, every second.
I was like you know, like when someone dies or someone's born, and it's like that really rich feeling of life, like almost you could be on the verge of tears or the verge of laughter, just feeling meaningful like that.
It felt like that every minute in the studio like almost like drug, like just tripping around the studio.
And I'm so grateful for it.
And the music really reflects that.
It reflects that feeling and that sense of purpose and meaning.
No, you captured it beautifully.
It really does.
And I put it on.
I found it really moving at times.
And I also, you know, I love the whole dynamic rhythm section.
You've got cooking under there and there's hints of Bitches Brew in there and Sun Ra.
The way that they would just sometimes they'd slip into a groove and you'd be like, oh, stay there.
And you only get it for like six and a half bars.
And then I'm out, I'm off somewhere else.
But I just want that groove, you know?
That's why we sample shit, Flea.
That's why we sample shit.
I could do an hour long song, you know, some of them were really long and we cut them down.
And then like every time we cut off like, you know, five minutes of tape, it broke my heart.
I said, oh, what about that part where my kidneys do the Watusi, you know?
So why do that?
Why this?
You know you've got this beautiful framework with the chili peppers, where the four of you can carve this up into something as close to what a chili pepper song should sound like at any given time.
In this particular case, with your musician friends around you, you can extend it out.
Like i'm not mad at a 20 minute song on a record, why did you decide to keep it 10 songs and give them focus?
Well, I recorded a lot more than that and just used an amount of songs that fit together and would go on a record.
I think just because I wanted to cover a wide spectrum of emotion.
And I knew because it was all so organic to who I am, I could cover a pretty wide spectrum.
You know what I mean?
Because there's all different kinds of stuff in it.
There's funky stuff, there's ethereal stuff, there's hard stuff, but it's all from me.
But I did want to express many facets as I could that we had touched upon.
So I just wanted to get it in there.
Oh, you did, man.
I mean, I can't wait.
I'm sort of speaking out of turn here, but it's a little flex.
But your version of Wichita Lineman with Nick Cave is just fucking perfect, bro.
Thank you so amazing man, just the just the pace of it and how it just introduces itself so delicately and then nick comes in and does what nick does.
Man just finds that space.
Yeah, I mean, I've been a huge fan of his forever.
He always gets right down to it.
Initially, it was going to be instrumental.
I had no plan for anyone to sing on it.
So you would have dealt with the top line on trumpet primarily?
I had dealt with it and loved it.
And it was one of those things that I'm sitting there listening back to and it's so beautiful and recalled in my like the few times in my life that I've conversed with Nick that he loved Jimmy Webb.
Like we had spoken about Jimmy Webb and who was the composer of Wichita Lineman.
And I just thought, oh man, maybe Nick would wanna sing on this.
And I was already happy with it. but Nick, you know, I mean, and I sent it to him.
He responded within a half hour, like, yes, I'll do it.
I'm leaving on tour in two days, but I'll try to get in the studio right away tomorrow and do it.
And he did it.
And he was just like, it's my gift to you, take it.
And he was.
So I don't know, he's just such a kind, soulful heartbeat of a man.
Yeah, you talked about earlier like tapping into, like feeling the universe with those other artists in the studio and i feel, like nick, as somebody who is a long time fan, is somebody who's able to tap into that sort of like ethereal divine.
Um, what did you take away from learning just being able to work with him on that sort of one-to-one level?
Yeah well, unfortunately I wasn't in the room with him when he did it, but just how much he cares and how much it means to him.
Like I sent it to him, he recorded it right away.
He sent it to me.
I'm like sobbing.
I was sitting with my wife like in tears.
Cause it was so.
I mean, he's a poet first, you know, like keep that in mind.
Yeah, well, he was in touch with the narrative of the story in such a soulful, real way.
And you can tell, I mean, he feels every word.
He nurtures the arrangement in the most delicate way, when the original obviously goes searching for something, a place to ascend to.
And I loved how, at times people will hear this soon enough how Nick chose to sit in a few of those moments and not rise to the original arrangement, just do it his own way.
Yeah, he doesn't need to show off.
No, he's just like the humanity.
He's a very humane person.
He's a very in touch person.
And when I spoke with him right after we did it like you know, we got on a FaceTime and um uh, I could tell that it meant a lot to him to do it and that he really cared about it and that he saw the song itself as this infinitely powerful vehicle.
And then to inhabit that vehicle meant he had to really bring it.
And he did.
It starts to finish such a beautiful overall experience.
It is one of those records that you put on and I'm like I do want to go back and start at the beginning again.
I do want to find myself at the start of this.
I get something very complete out of listening to it.
I know you put a huge amount of thought into the flow of this album as well.
And we're going to come back and talk more about that.
Flea is our guest in the studio right now.
I'm going to play a song featuring Tom York, but people who haven't heard this, get your ears around it, understand it.
We'll come back.
We'll talk a little more about it.
But this beautiful album that Flea has created, Anora, coming out March 27th.
So happy to have you here, bro.
We were just talking during this beautiful piece of music called Traffic Lights from our guest Flea, from this wonderful album Onora, featuring Tom York.
About what do you love?
You know.
It's a really important question in your life.
What do you love?
What do you like?
And I think often we apply that question with too much pressure.
It's like, oh, I've got to answer what I love about my life right now at a certain age.
It's like no, just start somewhere.
Yeah, and the only way you can ever know what you love is by letting go of pressure and embracing like the light within you and let it guide you.
You know, i mean, we all have those feelings like when you're a kid.
You're just like laying around staring at the sky yeah, and those little meandering thoughts that you have like great internal work.
Yeah, that's where the real work is true.
The real work it's always like this culture of grinding and hustle and all this stuff.
I get it, there's a time to grind and hustle.
I'm grinding and hustling right now.
But the real work, The real work is in knowing yourself and that comes from sitting still.
I think that has to speak to the timing of this album as well.
To get to a point.
Through all of the grinding and the hustle, it's not like the chili peppers haven't exercised all of your gifts through the hardest work ethic of all time.
I mean, the hours and the countless times you put into giving that beautiful organism life.
But to get to a point, you talk a lot about the universe and about just kind of being comfortable and trying to find balance.
I feel like this record reflects real balance in your life, even through the tough emotions that show up on it.
Well yeah, the balance which comes from hard work.
But for me, the hard work yes, the hard work of being in a studio every day, when you could be on a beach eating a papaya, smoking a joint, but every day you roll up your sleeves and you get in a room and you get down to music.
That's physical work.
But the real hard work is going through life in a conscious way, dealing with pain, dealing with the fact that sometimes you're a fool and an insensitive buffoon and that you want to grow and learn to be a kinder bigger, more clear person and to open yourself up to the positive forces in the universe, like all of that stuff.
That's really the hard work and that's when a person is capable as a musician, especially over a long term, to continue to make music and to get better and to be a humble student of this thing that is so infinitely deep and to always be open to learn.
Like for me as a musician i'm, i'm focused, i'm a student.
Every day i'm studying, i'm working, i'm practicing and um, that's why it's exciting for me, because if i make one little like centimeter of improvement, Like I go home today I pick up my bass or my trumpet or sit at the piano and I'm doing one thing like oh, I couldn't do that before.
Ah, now I see how that mode fits over that scale and I can get this feeling that I want that.
I haven't quite known or I failed.
I get to it sometimes lucky, but I can't always get to it.
Like ah, now I can exercise this angst within me and may turn into something beautiful because of my work.
That's a beautiful thing, man.
And that's where the excitement is.
That's where it's like.
That's why people like Duke Ellington or David Bowie or Stevie Wonder or John Coltrane their whole lives are evolving.
They're getting better.
Each record is different than the last, you know?
That's what I'm into.
It also requires a word which I think scares a lot of us, which is discipline.
And one of the things I really admire about you is that I feel like you at least attempt to live a disciplined life to some degree.
You try to give yourself framework and architecture.
There's this clip.
I don't know if you've seen it. where this guy runs up on flea.
I don't know when it was, some time ago with a camera.
Oh, it was in New York.
It was in New York.
Fucking hell, this guy runs up.
And I mean, this is like a thing now.
This is like, because it's a social media thing.
This is a thing.
Like, hey, who are you?
What do you do?
What are you wearing?
It's like, what the fuck?
And you just reacted in a way that I was like actually low-key applaud, because I was like finally someone just was like what the fuck is wrong with you?
I'm just literally walking here.
Why do I have to be part of your camera life?
Like it was brilliant.
There was no discipline from that guy.
I felt kind of bad afterwards because the guy stuck his camera in my face.
I'm walking down the street with a friend sticks a camera in my face and had some I don't know some question that you ask people.
And I was like, dude, just get the, I don't know if, I'm sorry.
Yeah, get the fucking camera out of my face.
Yeah, get your fucking camera out of my face, period.
And he was offended and like, why?
And the funny thing is you could do something totally beautiful and it's online and it's like oh, that's cool.
But then you do like, you know, get pissed at some dude.
Be human.
And millions of people look at it.
I know, I know.
But the thing I took from that was that this guy showed up with no discipline.
He shot a shot, fair enough.
And people do it, but there was no discipline in that decision.
It wasn't a thoughtful experience.
Well, there wasn't the most discipline in my reaction either, but I was pissed.
But unexpected, you know what I mean?
Completely justified.
No, but I stand by it.
Get your fucking camera out of my face.
Yeah.
But, you know, there's this other thing online that I keep seeing.
Yeah. where I'm on stage and I'm playing and my ear monitors are out, like we play ear monitors.
When I get on stage to play a concert, like I go into another mode.
I let go of the entire world.
I live for this sometimes violent animal, sometimes like heavenly ghost, all these things.
But I'm gone and all of a sudden I can't hear and I didn't think my ears were.
The earphones were out.
But I didn't know.
And I'm yelling at the monitor guy, I can't hear, I can't hear.
And I start mother and I get you know, getting madder and madder.
I run motherfucker, put it the phone And granted, this is someone I work with every day and I respect and love, but you know I'm gone.
And there's almost like, I'm just bathing like a two year old, you know?
And then this is the thing that's got like 80 million views.
I'm like, what about that time I played that really beautiful moment of pointed God like, you know?
Nothing about philanthropy, nothing about charity.
The internet wants our blood.
Yeah, that one time you lose your shit.
That's cool, they can have my blood.
There's also.
There's another great one as well, where Anthony's talking to you and John and he's really deep and he's on stage and it's a closeup and he's talking for like about a long time, gesticulating and you're just both super engaged with him and listening really carefully and the internet's obsessed and everyone wants to know what was going on in that conversation.
Was he mad?
Was he happy?
Were you guys talking about something in the crowd?
But you and John are just so dialed into him in that particular moment.
I think if he's talking to us I don't know that one, but if he is, it's probably something going on in the show that he's struggling with.
That's usually what something like that would be.
It's rarely like, you know, what did you have for breakfast?
Or I'm really happy about this particular moment.
That was a really nice solo you played.
Do you guys want sushi after the show?
What do you want to do?
Do you feel like any, like, I mean, do you want to go vegan or what do you guys want to eat?
What do you want to eat?
No, I think it's, we're trying to work through a Imbroglio.
You know, a band like us, man, we're wild.
We get on stage and we're just- You're figuring it out.
Letting the moment take us.
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
Every show is entirely different for that reason.
Even from the very second you and John and Chad start up, start warming up, start going through your licks and figuring it out, finding the chemistry you need to pull that show off.
I always feel that that first- a minute to two minutes of the three of you playing before it's normally can't stop or something kicks in.
You guys are like where are we right now?
I gotta find you.
Where are you?
I gotta find you.
We're gonna catch each other.
When we do, we're off to the races.
We're just jamming.
And that's the thing is.
It's like when you have an exact formula and you do it on stage every time fine, it might work.
You be a professional and you can get it done.
You know what works, what doesn't work.
Put together a professional show.
But for me, the excitement is in the risk and the improvisation and the vulnerability.
And it's always been that way.
And that's what I want.
You're going to have that, man.
We're going to talk about shows to honor Anora coming up very soon.
But I did say we were going to talk a little bit about working with Tom on this.
I mean, you gave Tom such a sweet spot here with this groove.
You know I love that Radiohead have come out recently and been honoring some of their earlier records and rediscovering Planet Talix and some of these beautiful songs that we all still love.
But for the longest time you know and you know this, having been in being in Atoms for Peace that Tom is a groove obsessive.
He's searching for the groove, something that's gonna move him and gonna allow him to paint.
And you really gave him something to paint on here.
It's a very, very sweet spot for him.
Yeah, I thought that he would like it.
And once again I had no intention for having any vocal on this song and I was very happy with it instrumentally.
And I was more like you know.
We went out in the room and played it and I'm sitting back.
You know, walk back into control room sitting there, listening to it through the speakers and just thinking man, this is cool.
And then having the thought, I can't wait to play this for Tom.
He's gonna love this.
This is right up his alley.
And then, which led to the next, you know segue to the next thought was God.
Maybe Tom would wanna sing on this.
Say to Josh next to me, God, maybe Tom would wanna sing on this.
And he was like, mm-hmm, you know, gave me that smile.
Well, it feels like a continuation of the conversation that Tom was having across those Smile records.
You know what I mean?
It just feels like you know talking about being a groove obsessive.
This feels like what a perfect continuation of what he was experimenting with on those two albums to do this.
Yeah, I mean, I hadn't even thought about that.
I just, but that's a good point.
I just, you know, knowing Tom, I just thought he would dig it, you know, and he did and he sang and it was beautiful and everything that Tom does, you know.
I think people think of Tom, as this very sort of cerebral, cold, you know what I mean?
Like a scientific type musician.
Yeah, kind of dismissive away from his music.
Yeah, he's really not that.
Like, he's the warmest.
I mean, he can be that.
Yeah, well, so who can't?
Who can't, you know?
I mean...
He's a man of many, many things, but he is a straight jammer.
That dude will get down and dirty in a jam and be lost in a world of looseness.
And I love it.
I think that's what came from that success.
A lot of kids won't realize the pressure they were undergoing into the new millennium with OK Computer and trying to find their way through with Kid A.
They were the band that everyone had put their hopes and dreams and anxieties into because the music resonated so deeply.
You were right there, you know firing, you know with the chili peppers, and also trying to figure out what your next, you know what the next point oh, is going to be sort of doing that as well, and so people don't realize that these, these lives, you live man they, they go up and down and all.
And neil young said it man, it's a roller coaster.
Yeah, and Neil Young also said, when I said earlier about I was okay with failing when I went in to make my record.
He also and he inspired me with that thought, because before I made Honora, I was thinking like I'd have moments of like, you know, wild overconfidence and moments of like oh my God, what if I'm not good enough at the trumpet?
What if I'm, you know what I mean?
What if this doesn't work?
You know what I mean?
And then I read a quote from him saying how important it was to embrace failure.
And if you weren't on the risk of always failing, you're not doing shit.
You know what I mean?
You're just like, greasing the skids or whatever, trying to make money.
And for anyone who wants to live an artist's life, who wants to live a fulfilling artist's life and an evolving artist's life, you have to be willing to fail.
And I think, like with Tom or like with the Chili Peppers obviously very different entities, you know Radiohead, Chili Peppers very different bands but there's always this thing of just like honoring your instincts and where it's taking you, and it's not necessarily always figuring out like, oh well, this would be a good idea to do this thing, because it's, you know, counter to this other thing or different than what we did.
It's just like, as an artist, you're always trying to just live a life that honors yourself and your instincts and the things that you love, like we were talking about earlier.
And then, you know, making them tangible, giving them form, going for it.
So it's impossible, I think, to follow your instincts and be thought out.
I also love the fact that's all very true, but at the same time, i love the fact that you acknowledge the insecurities that can still plague us all at times when you know we've we've achieved so much.
What a life, what a life you live, and yet you can still find yourself in a, in a situation where you're asking yourself like man, am i good enough?
Like How am I going to be able to stand in a room full of people who listen to this kind of music?
Like I have my whole life.
And am I going to match up to whatever they think that I should be doing?
And it's all just totally intangible.
None of that actually is real, right?
Yeah, but it's part of being a human being, you know?
It's the anxieties and the fears.
And you know like I tell my kids, like I'm dealing with say, my kid is going through an anxious hard time.
And I'm like.
Look, I understand anxiety and fear is very difficult to navigate, but it is your superpower.
Yeah.
The reason you're anxious and you have fear is because you care.
And this is a beautiful thing.
And embrace that care.
You can tell your anxiety, hey, you know what I mean?
Like, I don't need you right now.
It's not serving me.
But it's there because you care, because you want to be beautiful and you want to make some things whole and you want to be connected to God.
You want to be connected to yourself and build bridges of love in the world.
Man, I'm so grateful you've made this album as a music fan.
I'm so impressed that you've found a way to do it in such a personal way.
From the album title, the artwork.
I'd love you to share a little bit about that, because obviously the feeling of the record isn't just in the music, it's in through the art and the whole experience.
Yeah, the title, Honora is named after my great great grandmother, who was in Ireland when the famine happened, when she was about 13 years old and her entire family starved to death and she was left alone, orphaned and put in a workhouse in Limerick, Ireland.
And being in a workhouse meant being in a place where you do menial labor all day.
For young girls, they were routinely abused, raped, just terrible situation.
She was about 15 or 16.
In Australia.
They had eight men to one woman and basically needed breeding stock and she was put on a ship with a bunch of other girls sent to Australia.
She got there, she married a Hungarian miner who was there for the gold rush.
They were living below poverty.
They had a few kids real quick.
He got dysentery and died, next thing I know.
I'm finding out about this.
I'm seeing her arrest records.
She was getting arrested in the street for selling booze.
And I did this on this show, Finding Your Roots.
I found out this stuff with Henry Louis Gates on PBS.
And it really, when I heard her story, it just, man, it really affected me.
Because I didn't know my people.
I don't know anything about my family tree.
And all of a sudden I'm like relating to this woman and her struggles and her strength and her sense of perseverance and what she did to raise her kids in this difficult situation.
And I just felt like, God, I need to honor her.
I need to honor my people, you know?
And her name is Honora.
So and I just like it really tied into my record and how it affected to me like the real core of who I am, like letting that speak.
And then the cover model is my mother-in-law, Shaheen Badian, and you know I wouldn't have made my record or be in a position to be stable enough to continue to grow, without my awesome wife Melody, who you know.
In all my life, I've struggled with just being okay a lot.
I put myself in situations that are difficult and I have someone who's made my home such a nurturing loving, stable place where I feel like I can work all day.
It's cool.
You know what I mean?
Like, it's all right.
We get mad.
I act like an asshole.
She's like, you acted like an asshole.
It doesn't mean I don't love you.
You know what I mean?
Like having a real, mature life that I've been wanting to have my whole life, that I've dreamt of in this intangible way.
Now to really have it.
And with her, that sense of family and stability and strength gives me a launching pad to work and to grow and to be the best person I can.
What a gift.
And when I first met her she had this picture of her mom up and I always was like look at it, because it's such a beautiful and I love her mom.
You know her mom comes and brings us Persian food every Sunday and is just so happy with her little grandchild and stuff.
And so it's a beautiful photo of her and just has the feeling that I want for my record on it.
Yeah, so that's my thing.
What a gift.
Yeah, man.
What a gift to find somebody that helps you complete a really important part of the puzzle, because it's all just a puzzle.
And we're raised to think like you gotta figure this out for yourself, you gotta do it all yourself.
But nah man, it's like the people around us.
I'm the same.
I've been married 26 years man, and my wife has saved my life, literally saved my life.
And it's never a straight route.
It's not like, oh, that's what I want, I'm going right there.
Maybe on some things sometimes, But depending on your childhood and how you are, you have to take a circuitous route.
You have to learn, you have to make mistakes, you have to suffer and you get to experience the deepest joy.
If you're lucky.
If you're lucky.
If you're lucky.
I always say, if you're lucky, you get your heart broken.
You know what I mean?
That's like an important part of the whole experience, to know that you were there.
Yeah, love is a terrifyingly brutal, uplifting, godly thing.
Someone who writes so beautifully about that concept and chooses and moves with such purpose is Frank Ocean.
Even saying his name sometimes I have to be conscious of just...
Because it brings with it so much anticipation and joy and excitement and mystery, because he moves in his own way.
We don't actually talk often about Frank on the air because it's-
I mean, for good reason, you know what I mean?
Like, exactly like you said.
You know you put up the bat signal, people are like They get excited about it.
I love what you've done with this beautiful song from Channel Orange.
You've landed it.
That's what I can tell you, man, is you landed it.
You landed the trick.
You landed the 16 stair 180 kickflip, bro, with style.
Well, you know when the Chili Peppers were doing like a two-year-long stadium tour off our last album and the whole time I'm in my room practicing trumpet every day.
You know, every single day getting ready.
And when I got home and started putting the music together for this album, the very first thought was that I would play this song that I played thinking about you.
And I demoed it at home, kind of just the way it is, with not as good of a string arrangement with Nate Walcott gave me a killer string arrangement.
But it was the first one I wanted to do.
And I just in the jazz tradition of taking great songs and interpreting them.
You know I just love the song.
It's a timeless song.
It will, long after we're all gone, it will be a great song.
It could be played by a man alone with a flute, by a kid with a.
You know can barely play a synthesizer by a Bulgarian opera singer.
It's just a great song, a beautiful song and it's a beautiful, it's an absolutely beautiful interpretation of it.
Man, from a wonderful album called honor, march 27th shows to play.
We're going to finish uh, our conversation talking about that as well.
Um but yeah man, what amazing, amazing experience for you to put this body of work together.
When you listen to it mastered for the first time, i'd imagine the emotions were very high.
Yeah, I mean, at that point it's real, just focus and work and wanting to get it right.
But I think the first time I played it for other people was when I really felt the emotion of it for me, like a deep feeling of connection and satisfaction.
And this is really me.
This is just the essence of me, the best of who i am and at the right time, in the right place, saying the right thing.
That's how it feels.
You know your friends are obviously going to be very proud of you.
You've got such a deep relationship, lifelong relationship, with these guys and the chili peppers and But it must be really beautiful for you to be able to share this record with them and for them to hear this lifelong dream of yours come to life as well.
Just breathe new life into it even.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I mean, it's great for me to share it with everybody.
And I've had these really good.
You know, when I made it, I didn't even know what I was going to do when I you know in terms of putting it out or anything, when I recorded it, or you know, or what it would be.
But when I started meeting with record companies, I was having groups of people over at my house or just friends and having these like listening sessions.
And just sitting down with people quietly listening.
It just felt like such a beautiful communal, connected thing to do.
And it makes me just want to have I mean, you know, being a DJ, you're doing it in a real, it's a real big community but just like regularly have people over and sit and listens to records and connect.
Yeah.
But doing it with this record with my friends, always felt like I'm showing you a part of myself that I haven't been able to show before.
And I'm really grateful to do it.
Don't you just want to get to album number 25?
Don't you just want to just keep rolling these, just keep going?
I do, man, and I will and I am.
I like artist's life for me.
Ho, ho, ho, an artist's life for me.
Yeah, it's all I want.
It's all I want every day.
And making this record.
Having never done something like this before, like in such a realized way, it really opened a portal for me.
Like it made me, it's like, oh, I can do this.
Like I can just follow my instincts, just be free, embrace the love, the warmth, the energy, the yearning, and it's good.
And it's something I want to continue to do always.
And like anything, Chili Peppers has been my home for so long and it continues and will always be my home.
But every time I've ever done anything in my life outside of the Chili Peppers, playing with anybody, Anything.
Every time I come back to the Chili Peppers, I have more to offer.
I have more to give.
I'm a more complete person.
And so this is just another thing that gives me more tools, more colors to paint with and more connection to the gods of music.
Your life as a collaborator has been, in itself, an incredible journey.
And people forget you were in Jane's Addiction.
I was.
People don't even think about that because there's so many others that float around.
You and the circle jerks too.
Exactly, you and the circle jerks.
I mean the records you've made with Mike Watt, and just like there's so many amazing experiences you've had working with people and at different points in their lives as well.
Fuck, I think about that Jane's Addiction era.
That was a wild period and a wild band's history.
It was a wild band.
And those first two albums really the second two, Nothing Shocking and Ritual de lo Habitual.
They're incredible albums.
And I think maybe the best albums of I mean, they're kind of like just the end of the 80s, right.
I'm with you.
I'm with you.
Ritual, man.
I don't think there's anything better.
Yo, it takes off.
It's like they take off.
For me.
I always talk to my friends whenever it goes into like Ain't No Ride or the second and third song.
It's just like I say to my friends listen, it's like a fucking jet fighter taking off.
That moment when Dave winds up and he's like, When it's like, that's right.
Boom, it's like fucking subsonic.
Rock it.
I am skinny nose, but I am pointy nose.
That motherfucker makes me try.
It's unbelievable, bro.
It feels literally like you're actually on a rocket ship.
Yeah no the, the that the chemistry of that band is unbelievably great and i you know what a crazy roller coaster of a strange.
Seriously yeah, It's kind of ended, as of right now, the way it was always destined to fucking end.
I feel a strange way.
You know what I mean?
Like always the most, probably the most dangerous.
I think the most dangerous.
I mean, you know, there's- Outlaw shit.
Yeah.
I mean you could go back to like Robert Johnson and find a lot of danger, but for sure, like the fact that, like you know, that they just didn't explode, you know, into smithereens in 1989 is a phenomenon in itself.
Yeah yeah yeah, just wild.
And i mean i just got to be able to start some of those songs man yeah fun, it was really fun.
Um obviously, in recent years you know the chili peppers.
I mean congratulations.
I spoke to anthony in depth by the last record.
I love the album.
You went on a sold-out stadium tour as well, you should, reaching as many fans as you can, and the time you a lot, and it just it's something that you must just feel very, very proud of to know that a you're all still here.
Um, the no disrespect to anybody else obviously, but the timeless modern lineup with john back in the band, and just to know that you know it's there for you, the band is, it's humming, it's simmering, it's there for you do you know always, and it's never felt like it wasn't.
And there was no time ever.
I mean sure we've all had our times of frustration.
We've dealt with Hillel passing away, we've dealt with John quitting, with Jack leaving the band, like all of these things that could have really thrown us and it just never felt in doubt with me.
And I think when Anthony and I were kids, when we were 15 years old and running around on the streets of Hollywood getting into trouble and trying to figure out how we were gonna eat lunch and all this stuff, just being these little street rats we forged a friendship that is kind of beyond.
Even when there's times when we grow really far apart from each other, then we kind of come back and we're in alignment again.
You know we see the world differently or whatever it is, because we're different people.
But there's this, there's something when you forge these kind of relations when you're a little kid and you have nothing and all you really have is each other and the love, and I remember being 15 years old with him.
You were at Fairfax, right?
Fairfax High?
Fairfax High, but going up in the mountains.
We're going to go on a six-day walk through the mountains.
We don't even have backpacks.
We're carrying bags of chocolate bars and nothing, starving in the woods, sleeping in the dirt, because we wanted to know what it was like.
These kind of feelings um, they last forever, you know, and and more than ever, like i and i think, in times like now when the world can be pretty damn divisive, you know, and sometimes i feel like the divisiveness is worse than even the issues facing us.
I mean, i don't know, that's maybe crazy to say, but Right now there's so much divisiveness and they just really encourage people to not abandon people because they see things differently than you, even when you find their views repugnant.
But to be there and to be open to building bridges and creating love with your friends and treasure your friends and treasure the humanity, because it's really easy to abandon people right now that are different than you.
And that's the worst thing, you know.
That's where the learning is.
I mean, it's the hardest lessons for us to learn is to face down the inconsistencies and sometimes grave inconsistencies that we experience in our own species.
And there are times when I just cannot understand and I'm having a lot of those times right now where I just can't understand how I'm so far removed from somebody or some people that are of the same species as me.
I'm like, we are the same in so many ways.
And yet, how are we so different right now?
Like, I just can't understand, like, I just don't understand these men who make these decisions.
I'm like, what is driving you?
Fear, fear, fear, greed, fear.
I mean, but to your point, there's always a baseline humanity that you can reach.
And you know what I mean?
You're going to do a lot more trying to educate than turning your back on somebody.
But you're still a punk.
You've got that punk spirit, right?
That's the thing.
You're still that guy who's like, get that fucking camera out of my face.
I did not want that fucking camera in my face, but there was this punk thing, and i always i feel this with rick too, who you obviously know really well rick rubin who's like this, incredibly enlightened human being who searches for space and balance and peace, but sometimes when you say something that gets his goat boy, that goat comes back fast.
Oh yeah no, Rick is not taking shit from anybody.
He's not taking shit from anybody, right?
He'll be like everything is peace, and I'll be like you know what it fucks me off and I'll lean right in there, you know.
Well, you know, peace and love is something to stand up for.
And when you care about things like I have this song on my record called A Plea, that I'm gonna play later.
And there's a part of it where I say I don't care about your politics.
Build a bridge, shine a light.
I don't want to hear about your politics.
We're human beings right here.
We're together.
We're on this earth together.
We need to build with one another.
And when I say that, it doesn't mean I don't care about the issues.
I care deeply about civil rights.
I care about oppressed people.
I care about the environment.
And I care deeply about these things, but I don't think yelling back and forth with people online you know what I mean on social media is gonna.
I just to me, it's just like everyone agrees with you.
It's like yay hooray, you're so great and everyone doesn't agree with you.
It's like oh, fuck you.
You know what I mean.
Like it just furthers division oftentimes.
And I just feel like yeah, live your life in a way and act in a way that supports the things that you care about.
But you got to be there for people who see things differently, because they were bought up differently.
They've been dealt with a different hand and a different set of circumstances.
And you don't know what shoes they've walked in to end up thinking the way they think.
You had this front row seat of that because you've traveled the world multiple times and you've been in situations where I'm sure you found yourself in cities and whatever, and surrounded by things you don't understand better or for worse.
And I mean it's got to foster that sense of like.
If we're not all on the same journey from different directions, then what is this experience supposed to be about?
Yeah, and yes, I've traveled around the world, but I travel around the world right in the city.
It's like you can be in Beverly Hills in a half hour if the traffic's not bad.
You'll be in Watts in the projects.
You know what I mean?
And it's like the worlds are very different.
People are growing up in very different circumstances with wildly looking at things from different angles and different ideas about things.
It's really important to get out of a bubble and to embrace people and to listen to people.
And like you said, fear.
People are so scared of one another.
And you just travel with respect.
Travel with the mind of a student, of a humble student.
Be a traveler, not a tourist.
You know, we have five more minutes with you.
And then later on, you're going to be doing a radio show with us, which is going to be amazing.
So thank you for doing that.
We love that.
I want to talk about a couple more things.
The tour forthcoming shows that you've got lined up great, healthy first run man.
I mean some great cities giving yourself a couple of days to enjoy it, so it doesn't feel like you know you're actually there's.
There's not a lot really, because there's shows.
In between, i think there's some festivals and stuff.
That's true actually.
There's a couple back to back.
You're right.
You're right.
It's pretty full.
It's pretty full.
I was talking about before I got in here.
I've done a tour like this in a long time.
That's true, actually.
Let me just pull that one back.
I made it feel like you're on a busman's holiday.
You're not on a busman's holiday.
No, we're grinding on that one, man.
I'm so excited to play music.
I love talking about music too, but I like playing it a lot more.
Yeah, for sure.
And I'm excited to play.
I'm really excited to get in a room with My band is DeAnthony Parks on drums, who is a national treasure.
Yeah, he's a beast.
He is unbelievable.
He does things that no one else can do.
Um, Jeff Parker on guitar is awesome.
And a butter on upright bass.
Um, he was just one of my favorite bass players on earth.
And Josh Johnson, you know, who produced my record as a saxophone player, who will be playing piano and keys.
And, um, I'm really, that's a lean and perfect, isn't it?
I mean, just to bring this music to life.
Yeah, and I don't even really know what kind of shape it's going to take yet.
We're going to get in a room, but this is going to be music with a lot of improvisation, a lot of jamming, and I'm just so excited to explore with these musicians who are all so sensitive and deep at connecting.
Mm-hmm.
Like before we recorded this record, I had never played with them.
We got in a room and just started going for it with these like loose structures, and doing that for a musician like me is really exciting and fun.
I'm just going to put a vote out there for maybe Golden Wingship into Free, As I Wanna Be, as a one-two punch out the gate.
I really like the idea for some reason of Free As I Wanna Be as an opening statement.
I know it ends the record beautifully, but as a starting live statement I think it's a hell of a first statement to make.
Just saying, just for whatever it's worth.
Could be.
Could be, could be.
I'm so bad with that.
Track listings and show listings.
I'm just like undeniably annoying with opinion on that stuff because I'm obsessed with how things flow.
Well, next time I got to talk to you, because I get stressed out about those things.
Rarely do I get stressed out about playing sometimes with a trumpet.
I got a little scared because I was like I hadn't done it before, really recorded a trumpet record.
But you know, Ian McKay, one of my favorite people and dear friends, he did it with me.
He did the sequencing with me.
And song picking too, because I had a lot of music.
Amazing.
And did he talk you through it as he was doing it?
Because he's got such an interesting thought process, Ian.
Yeah, yeah.
Well he, you know, he was at my house and I had just finished mastering.
You know, I mean not mastering, I mean mixing.
Everything was done.
And I was playing it for him just like I was playing it for my friends and started talking with him.
And he was like well, and he knew how to like operate a computer program where you can put the music in sequence, because I don't know how to do it.
And we sat together and he made the sequence for me.
And I realized the other day I was looking at the credits.
I was like, oh man, I left Ian out of the credits.
But he really did that with me with the sequencing and whatnot.
Two more minutes with you.
I have to honor myself and all Chili Peppers fans.
Where are the band at right now?
Obviously, the focus is this, and you have shows to play and maybe another record to make this year, just off of your own, if you want to.
But where are you at with the guys?
We're writing.
We're writing.
We've been writing.
Getting together, putting the songs together feels really good, feels different.
Yeah, and it's gonna take shape.
When you get into the room with each other to do that, is it the same?
Are there some guiding principles that remain the same?
Would you try to create an environment that feels different in order to try to create something fresh?
The environment that we're doing it in right now is entirely different than we've ever done it before.
And I don't know.
You know, I feel like I might be letting the cat out of the bag too soon by talking about it.
But yeah, we've been doing it kind of yeah, I don't, I can't, it's different.
All I can say is it's really different, but we're putting together music and it feels beautiful.
Amazing, we can't wait, everything.
Flee, it's been such a joy to see you again, to be able to speak about this album, Honourer.
March 27th with shows going through May.
I'm looking at, it looks like 11, maybe 11 shows over three months.
Really taking your time on this tour, huh?
Oh no, it's a month.
No, it's a month.
No, I'm just kidding.
You little rascal.
I'm just kidding.
You little scallywag.
No, it's a hustle.
It's a hustle.
I think we're doing one show a month because I need a lot of recuperative time.
Exactly.
I've gone back to basics, kind of.
No, it's a special, special record, start to finish.
And it's one that I will listen to many, many times in my life.
So thank you for having the courage of sharing it.
Thank you very much.
Coming out into the world and just being part of the universe of music means everything to me.
I'm so grateful.
So are we.
Thank you, man.
It's been great seeing you.
Flea's going to be back on air in about, I don't know, like an hour and a half maybe, I think it is.
He's going to be doing this amazing thing.
Oh, it's 11 a.m.
I've got it at 12.
Oh, it's 11 a.m.
You're on in half an hour.
Shit, you better get your shit together, man.
Let's go.
Okay, we're going to play Chili Pepper Sonic.
It sends you on your way.
Eeny, meeny, miny.
Oh, that's a fucking impossible thing to do.
Which one are you playing?
Exactly.
How the fuck do I know?
There's so many amazing ones.
What about, do you have... Go, help me.
What's that one?
On The name of that one, I really love it and we didn't play it enough on tour and I forgot the name of it.
I love how he stumped Flea on his own.
We have a lot of songs, and I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, but just give me a minute.
I'm going to tell you right now the record that I want to play.
Because I was just literally drowning in chili peppers.
It's on Unlimited Love, and it's one of my favorite songs.
It's called It's Only Natural.
It's only natural.
We're going to play this right now and we're going to sing it.
And you're going to hear it and you're going to be like, oh, this is a good song.
Like, why didn't they release this as a single?
Love you, man.
Thank you for hanging out with us.
No, thanks so much.
Love you too, man.
Thank you.
