yes okay this is some serious [Music] sauce hey what's going on everybody for first we Feast I'm Sean Evans and you're watching hot ones it's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings and today we're joined by flee he's a six-time Grammy award-winning artist author of The 2019 Memoir acid for the
children a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and still going strong with a pair of number one album in the last year and currently on a global stadium tour but how will a founding member of The Red Hot Chili Peppers far today against a flight of blistering spicy wings we'll find out soon flee welcome
to the show thank you very much for having me against I don't feel like I'm going against the wings I'm flowing with the wings I'm in harmony with the wings love that attitude I love that attitude I am one with the wing [Music] [Applause] [Music] you know I always pray before I eat okay here we go as you know I'm a
ritualist we discussed this yes earlier do the whole thing I did there we [Music] go I feel like with each hot sauce you have to let it run it of course I mean a hot sauce isn't always um show itself on the first taste the first impressions can be a little misleading that's someone who's been around the game a
little while yeah I'm not you know it's not my first uh trip on the hot CH sauce car so I know it's Wellborn territory but remarkable that you and Anthony Kus have known each other since you were kids and that the Red Hot Chili Peppers formed naturally amongst this group of tight-knit outcasts from Fairfax High
School in Hollywood yeah from the Crooked queue to the dilapidated duplex at Venice and Hower to Harry Houdini's Mansion is there a jam pad that you look back on and reflect and and uh remember most fondly um I'm very impressed with your knowledge of our of our rehearsal places the Crooked queue uh was an
amazing spot it was had been a pool hall but it it was just this like dingy little hole in the wall down this street in East Hollywood on helot Trope Street and um I have a lot of memories and there some like early early Chili Pepper rehearsals coming up with the first songs for our first album and but you
know the Harry Houdini house it was actually not the Harry Houdini House people called that but it was kitty corner across the street from it and there was there was rumors that there was a tunnel going under Laurel Canyon in Hollywood um from one Mansion to the other during prohibition they would run liquor and party and whatever else you
know shanigan they got up to in h Jinks but um all we had to do was like live in this place and make music all day and and and um it was a dream come true for someone that just wanted to play music you know um yeah we were really finding ourselves in a an exciting way at that time it was incredible house all [Music]
right that's processing it yeah lovely uh has a little depth to it mhm feeling it it's um light y kind of fruity maybe yep yep the shashido pepper is a lovely pepper yep and it has the kind of sort of savory trail that it kind of leaves behind there mhm yeah yeah really nice so while reading your Memoir I was really taken
by the way that you sentimentalize the Hollywood Rock clubs of a bygone era is there an album a specific album that you think best synthesizes The Angst and sound of that late 1970s La Punk rocking um you know I'm very I there are a lot so for me the big one was the germs album GI it touched my heart so
much and and made me feel so much emotion and feeling the same as when I listened to John col train and I realized that it doesn't matter how technically brilliant you are like yes it's great to learn stuff and the more colors you have to paint with the more options incredible but there's something
about working with very simp simple materials and having a lot of restraint and being able to express yourself like Bob Marley always talked about doesn't matter what kind of music all it matters is your motivation and what you're trying to say and um that really hit home to me when I heard that germs
record so that's a huge record for me number three I feel like I just you look have a mischievous [ __ ] look in your eyes dude would be I wouldn't lead you anywhere crazy I wouldn't lead you [Music] anywhere there you go I ate like nine t0 for that one I saw that I saw that so when Dave Gro was on the show he
told this story about how he was performing at a corporate gig and in the middle of it decided to just jump into the hotel pool and then when he got out of the pool immediately electrocuted himself when he stepped on the distortion pedal as a rocker for 40 plus years yourself what would you say is the most bizarre or painful injury that
you've ever suffered while performing I've been hitting ah head with a flying bottle back in the day um I've been spit on numerous times um you know one time um Anthony was swinging the mic around like that and boom clocked me in the head took me out you know I've hit myself in the face with my bass yeah
imagine one time I have like a scar in my head somewhere from I cut my head open you know like bam like that um I used to do this I used to I used to do a flip you know onto my back while I was playing and that [ __ ] me up a bunch of times you know of course a lot of longterm wear and tear from you know
going Going Bonkers um but honestly to be honest it's mostly emotional pen yeah baroa Lo C it's got a kind of a fearsome looking bottle [Music] there you go I saw that got to keep Pace over here I'm not scared sitting back relaxed no problem at all let it come down give it to me so it's interesting to me that after
touring the world and achieving all this remarkable success that you went back to School in 2008 enrolling at USC where you studied music theory composition and jazz trumpet how did becoming a literal student of music influence your approach to making records like did you recognize a tangible difference going from the
classroom back into the studio yeah I had never studied academically you know beyond the most remedial Basics and I really wanted to woo the sauce kind of got a little Ki it got a little staying power it's fun you know the show that's how it feel I'm feeling it anyways I yeah I really wanted to to to start just
mix it up you know and always want to like learn new things to keep me excited like I've always been completely turned off by math and then I started music academically and I started start kind of loving math like seeing how it related to music and like how infinite it is and how far it can go and and um just being
kind of amazed and like starting to see like how music works like if you have a note it goes da that's a sound wave and it say it's going like that and then then you go an octave higher then there's that note up there is going exactly the soundways exactly twice as fast you know what I mean so it's like you
know you know what I mean so and then all these subdivisions of of sound waves and and they math them out and Mack them out and sometimes they become um um consonant and pleasing to the air and sometimes they cause tension and sadness and and a feeling of anxiety and then you have the tension and then you have
different ways you learn of resolving it and making makes you feel good because you get tense and revved up and then ah you feel good you know Hills and Valleys and and just kind of like putting a name and an understanding to all these things and finding ways to navigate music um and it was just super healthy for me as
a songwriter as a musician and I would love to go back and study more I guess the way to say is it took me from a place of like working just on emotional intuition um to also working with um you know with academics and academics are beautiful okay it kind of has Astro Boy on the cover little psychedelic kind of a
pretty color whoa yeah starting off pretty mellow and then it um got a bouquet I can feel the bouquet you [Music] know feel a little something something is it true that Circle jer's front man Keith Morris he once stepped in as lead singer for The Red Hot Chili Peppers at a show in 1984 when Anthony
Kus couldn't make the gig and then here he is the lead singer of The Red Hot Chili Peppers does a whole show doesn't know the lyrics is that true absolutely true I'm not sure as to like whole show and how long but he definitely did it I remember he came out and we just played some funk grooves and because we were
going to get paid we showed up do the gig and it was like 50 bucks a piece and I was like no way not going to play this show and um I just remember he put put your put your left hand in your underwear put your right hand in the air and scream yeah scream and that's all he did the whole time and and he you know did it with
great enthusiasm and then the show was done we're back in a dressing room and kind of like well we did it but also kind of like where the [ __ ] is Anthony you know he didn't show up but Anthony showed up he's like what's up guys let's do the show we're like who did to show is this like the back nine and the
Masters holy [ __ ] it's it's a hot sauce h u t yeah yeah yeah it's a highle label over here you know it's like a nice bottle of wine or something walk in the park can't burn me I'm not scared of anything can't [Laughter] me what makes the trumpet as you call it the king of instruments um well I think
it was the king of instruments until the elect guitar came along the electric guitar came along with a first pedal and a marshall you know and trumpet players were kind of [ __ ] um but um you know it's before the electric guitar it was the loudest the brightest um could soar above everything else the
trumpet is just a beautiful thing I play my trumpet every day you called it a spokesman for the Divine yeah well you know and yeah thanks for so much for reading my book I yeah yeah well we have to yeah oh cool we have to did your work man I appreciate it but yeah you know it's like this the immediate thing of
this thing and it's kind of like a cold metal valves Hol spit oil you know and you kind of warm it up it becomes an extension of you and it becomes this warm like beautiful thing you know and the more you do it the more it just like this direct expression from you your heart like it's breath man it's so
beautiful the wind instruments are just so awesome okay are we going to eat the whole thing or are we going to take a bite I'm going to go wherever you go oh [Music] yeah I feel like you know when you have a little baby I have a little baby and you give them lemon and they like you know they they go like that and then but
then they want more after I feel like that's what's going to happen that's kind of where you you're at with hot sauce yeah yeah so I've heard you say that most songs begin with a baseline is that just standard practice to set the tempo are there subtle ways that you're able to shape the spirit of a song with
that opening Gambit many times they do start with Bas lands and woo hot sa serious yes whoa It's really it's still flowing through my you you feel it and it's going to just build kind of from here you know yeah yeah yeah we're we're a rocket ship and we're just taking off over here this is like a you know this
is fuel it's got some staying power um yeah I mean you know if a song starts with a baseline um there's a lot of uh it's cool because because a baseline can infer Melody it can infer chords and it's nice that it's something that leaves so much open and so much empty space to be interpreted and discovered
writing music is so fun oh my God so fun it's like that you know just the act of doing it sitting down and being lost and kind of like I always for me it's like the drool test if I'm playing something and I just haven't been thinking and I see like a big drool coming down in my shirt that's a sweet spot that's a good
spot that means I'm just like you know what I mean whatever I'm doing is so hypnotic that I'm just vibrating to the point where I'm drooling it's like I took a sleeping pill or something you know well on the topic of vibrating and drooling yes this next hot sauce is the bomb Beyond Insanity now I've heard about
this our Nanny Rachel just told me cuz she's seen the show a lot and she said see that short one yeah yeah the short bottle is going to be the one that's going to [ __ ] you up so what are we going to do here how are we going to handle this give it to me straight don't soft pedal I won't I won't this is me uh
just leveling maybe we start with one bite if all right more than half yeah I think it's a good place to start and we'll see where it goes from there show my lips where my trumpet lips feel it already feel it already Sean Sean if I need you if I need a hug I'm here for you whatever you need all right
fle we're just in this abstract hot sauce storm right now whatever we need to get through it okay and I'm here for you this well it's building yeah it's not going to stop the rocket ship is taken off it's building and we don't know where it's going to go it is building I know I know what did you do today how was you rning
where do you live I live here in New York yeah yeah yeah you live alone I do uh no no I travel a little bit too much but I kind of have a puppy fever thing going on now are good I was looking at him online yesterday yes okay this is some serious sauce yeah yeah this is for real this is
for Real you're you got good information serious Rachel you were right she did not lie she did not lie so know that outside of Music you're a lifelong Hooper you've always sought basketball as an outlet I love basketball season's about to start are you excited do you like basketball I do I Love Basketball live for it what's
your alltime Lakers starting five Magic Johnson Kem Abdul Jabar Kobe Bryant Michael Cooper Joey West said it in stone do you have an all-time favorite or most enduring Rock and jock memory is it cheating to take a drink it's not cheating to take a drink go ahead take I won a three-point shoot off was my my favorite
time you hit like six in MVP and MVP who was MVP me fle was MVP who drained a [ __ ] 10-pointer which is further than a three-pointer on an assist from Mitch Richmond in the waning seconds of the game to put [ __ ] Marky Mark to shame that's who woo yeah man it was so fun that was a really fun day this is a great time
Great era they got to bring that back but I don't even know if something like that could even exist anymore they don't have anymore they have like NBA Celebrity gam yeah but that's not the same the rock and rock and jock hit on a it was like kind of culturally Kind of Perfect you know and I'm better now than
I was then give me a chance put me in I went play the NBA Celebrity Game like few years ago they didn't [ __ ] play me what they didn't play me I said the rocket jock tape did they see that remember my coach was but I was pissed woo it's the back it's the back of the tongue and the larynx you're right the
Ln is great larynx xavia C got x-ray specs y y y i sauce was nothing didn't even knock you off just feeling emotional about the pocy of the moment all right so this next one is just pile on huh cumulative effect there's no escaping hopefully okay going in yeah ma'am I know running nose tearing eyes but we're so close to the
finish line here so close I'm good what's an enduring memory you have of giving a music lesson to Coco the gorilla whose grasp of sign language inspired so many documentaries and academic research well I can't say that Coco smelt so great I would say that Coco is very sexual with me obsessed with nipples
I've read about nipples I going for my nipple the whole time and they were like Coco and then so I'm having the greatest time right I'm like Dr do little with this gorilla that sauce is serious and you tried to trick me no but not like the other one not like the other one fle I'd never I would never lie to you I
would never lie to you um Coco so I've always loved Coco since the First National Geographic articles that were like in the 80s with Coco with her kitten Coco's kitten I'd always been amazed and um the idea of being able to communicate with an animal really exciting and um so I go meet coko
they tell me she might not want you to come in so so I'm kind of outside her enclosure woo I'm talking to coko and they said you know talk to her like she really likes to be complimented and I have my Bas I'm like bu I'm like Coco you are so beautiful oh my God you look so beautiful Your Eyes your face your
whole body you're so beautiful and she starts going like doing a heart sign and come in whatever the sign was all the stuff come in come see me I'm excited I go in she's embracing me but she understood English really well even know she couldn't speak it there was much stuff that she couldn't sign she understood everything that was going to
be said and so at one point we're getting towards end and I had a flight and I was like said to her to her uh carer I said um I've got a flight at 3:30 so I got to get going soon and and um and I you know that I you know and and cook which went like that you know like a little kid like like I don't want you
to go you know what I mean like was amazing and she was really like everything that was being said she understood all right [Music] flea so I'm opening up and dabbing you don't have to if you don't want to who do you think I [Laughter] [Music] am cheers Bottom's Up Bott scratch it and down the Hat what you said
[Music] now not easy but the good news flee the wings of death they're behind us and you know through this whole spice Journey we've seen the way that music has shaped your life beginning when you're in school playing the trumpet and the orchestra then of course it evolves into this insane career and then later on
founding the Silver Lake Conservatory of Music a nonprofit that offers lessons to musicians of all skill levels as someone who obviously cares deeply what letter grade would you give to the current state of music education in America and what do you think is lost when we stop supporting programs of the
Arts um I think that stopping programs of the Arts and public schools or making it so only um people who can afford it can get them and be exposed to them is like child abuse I think that all kids should be have the opportunity to study art at the highest level um it will make our society so much better it will build
bridges of love between all different cultures and economic classes and bring people together and um that's what I care about that's my driving force and being alive each day it's my life's Mission and um just working in communities low-income communities all different types of places and wanting to
uh you know to be of assistance and nothing else makes me happier nothing nothing Well flee what an amazing journey it has been with you today and now there is nothing left to do but roll out the red carpet for you flee this camera this camera this camera let the people know what you have going on in your
life um the red carp for oh for me I you know my life is a ever evolving thing I'm a humble student of the world I uh like I said I just want to build bridges of love in the world I want to play music I want to make art um I want to connect connect with people and do beautiful things I'm a yearner I care you know I want to keep growing
[Applause] did so good yeah the one was hot like it was seriously hot but when I I did the one I watched the Jennifer Lawrence one she started crying what do you mean what do you mean what do you mean you did so good oh thanks man yeah thank you yeah really cool chill hey what's going on hot ones fans
this is Sean Evans and if you would like to get your hands on the Season 22 hot Ones hot sauce lineup at this point you know the drill heatness.com heatness.com that's heatness.com to get your hands on the hot ones Season 22 hot sauce lineup ice cream not included be careful around the eyes don't say I didn't warn you