The Tapes Archive

Marc Allan: Hi Flea, how are you doing?

Flea: I’m fine, thank you. How are you?

Marc Allan: Okay. Guess I want to start off by asking you, is it strange to think of yourself as an arena band?

Flea: No, not really. I mean, because we’ve worked for so long to get to this point where we’re playing arenas. You spent so many years starting in the smallest little dingy clubs working your way up to mega domes, and it’s been a very gradual thing. So it hasn’t been like all of a sudden we’re playing these big, huge arenas like it is for so many bands. It’s been a very gradual working thing for us. So it’s, you know what I mean?

Marc Allan: Yeah. Are you glad that you worked your way up that way?

Flea: I feel good about where we’re at and how we got where we’re at. I feel like that we’ve worked hard and we have a good understanding of what it is to be where we are. We understand the value of work, and we understand the value of discipline, and then understand the, the fruits of creativity.

Marc Allan: Do you feel like this is the best lineup since the first lineup with the band?

Flea: I can’t say that now. I think this is an excellent lineup, and I think that was different than any other line up. And I think that we are smoking, but I think that the John Frusciante lineup was very amazing. And I think that the original lineup is really strong and was the initial impetus for the first band. It’s hard to compare them, you know, all, hello John Frusciante and Dave Navarro, all very different people with very different ideas and very different ways of expressing themselves. I think this is a great one. If I didn’t feel like it was, like we were the most smokin’ band in the world, I wouldn’t be out here playing arenas.

Marc Allan: Was it a goal to get to this level?

Flea: I came to like often some foggy distance, perhaps as a goal to play arenas, you know, but I more thought of like playing, that there was a place called, in Los Angeles theater, called Perkins Palace. I think it holds about 1500 or 2000 people. And then I go see bands down. I think God, that was my biggest goal, was Perkins Palace. And that was always what I thought, if we could just make it to play Perkins Palace, that would be like my dream come true. The greatest thing in my life.

Marc Allan: You kind of eclipse that haven’t you?

Flea: Yeah. Well, I just thought if we could do that, you know obviously, if you can play Perkins Palace you can make enough money to pay the rent and to eat. You don’t have to have another job in the air. You’re doing good.

Marc Allan: Chad, and I think it was in the Rolling Stone piece refers to this as a new band with new priorities. Is that the way you see it too?

Flea: I don’t know. My priorities aren’t any different. I don’t know what he’s talking about.

Marc Allan: All right.

Flea: It’s a new band. I can think, you know Dave definitely has different priorities in his life than anyone else has ever been in this band has in their life, his ideas of personal satisfaction.

Marc Allan: Well, what made you pick up a bass when you originally started playing bass?

Flea: Hillel Slovak said to me, we have a bass player in my band and we don’t like him, and you should learn how to play the bass.

Marc Allan: Yeah. That’s, that’s how I think most bass players start down here. The band needs a bass player and, and, and there you go.

Flea: Yeah, I guess so, yeah.

Marc Allan: And did you become as great at it as you want it by just, just constant practice and planning or, I mean, was-

Flea: You want to call me great. Thank you.

Marc Allan: I do. I do want to call you great.

Flea: Thank you very much. I, I developed my style on the bass by just playing and by listening to music that I like, and listening to it like a full wide variety of different musics and trying to, you know, understand different feelings of music, and lots of different types of music, and just about being myself and not trying to be anyone else. And by really loving it mostly I think, you know just truly loving, loving the way it feels when my fingers hit the strings. Loving the way it feels when I get inside, you know, someone’s kick drum.

Marc Allan: Yeah, yeah. Did it come naturally to you?

Flea: Yeah. Pretty naturally. Rhythm in music comes pretty much.

Marc Allan: Can you play other instruments? Do you play guitar or anything like that?

Flea: Yeah I play guitar, well I do a lot of songwriting on guitar,

Marc Allan: Oh, okay.

Flea: I don’t really, my guitar playing is very not virtuosic. You would say that. I really like, I couldn’t perform on the guitar, even though I do occasionally quote shows singing and playing guitar by myself, but I don’t do either of those very well. It’s more the solo thing, you know, I do, I play, I played trumpet, and I played trumpet before I started playing bass. My main goal in life was to be a jazz classical trumpet player, until much to my parents’ dismay, I gave it up and went to being a punk rock bass player. Actually, they always supported me.

Marc Allan: I’m always interested in people playing bass. I played bass and I was just horrible at it. And, and I’m always curious about when I talked to people about who play it, you know, cause it’s just remarkable to me when, when people are great at it, you know, when people are really proficient and stuff, and really understand the instrument as you seem to, and, and know what you can do with it, and then take it other directions as well, so.

Flea: Well, to me it’s like the same as any instrument. That’s just a matter loving it and doing your own thing, and not doing anyone else’s thing, and you know putting in the hours, you know?

Marc Allan: Yeah. Can you talk a bit about the song Pea what, what inspired that? Was it a particular incident or, uh,

Flea: I think it was mostly inspired by being in nature, and by having the feeling of, uh, getting away from being in the big city, where I feel like I’m so important in a big city, doing, you know, I’m dealing with all these things that are really insignificant, like you know, money and power and property, and you know, all these material things, and you start to feel, and these those are also meaningless that you start to feel like you’re important because you’re controlling all these these meaningless things. And I get out into nature. I think in Costa Rica or Alaska or somewhere, I’m not really sure. And I start becoming very small, because I’m dealing with things that are actually very meaningful like sky, and rocks, and dirt, and shit like that. You know? Ocean and wildlife, and um, start feeling really small and realizing that that’s really what it’s all about. And that’s what the beauty of living is. We are all insignificant little specks of shit. You realize that is an intense spiritual realization really. I mean, seriously. And that’s beautiful to me. And it’s also kind about these guys that beat me up in the Mayfair.

Marc Allan: It, where was that?

Flea: The supermarket and Hollywood guys beat the hell out of me one day.

Marc Allan: When you were a kid?

Flea: I was a teenager.

Marc Allan: Oh, okay. Okay.

Marc Allan: Shallow Be Thy Game, which I think is my favorite song on the record. It’s very interesting to me that I see a lot of musicians professing their belief in God. I think that for a long time God was a real enemy of, of rock and roll, or, or rock and roll treated God like an enemy. And now I see a lot of musicians talking about that, I guess. How do you feel about that? Do you?

Flea: Well, I feel that the idea of God is a beautiful thing. And, I think that the idea of spirituality and the idea of God, which is a beautiful thing, and I’m very much into. Is one thing. But the idea of organized religion as a uh, controlling thing, which has been used for thousands of years to keep people down and to keep people poor, to keep people ignorant and to keep people unhappy, while the rich get richer, and the fat get fatter is another issue. I believe in God, but I, I’m not interested in an organized religion that is murderous and evil, and has a history of destroying indigenous cultures and destroying people. And uh, only out for itself and financial games and things like that. You know, under the, under the guise of some religious dogma.

Marc Allan: I would say more people have been killed in the name of religion than anything else. I think that song really gets at that.

Flea: Yeah. Well, that’s what it’s about, asking you what the words, and I’m right when I’m on it. It’s not anti spirituality or anti-God. It’s anti-evil, organized religion. I mean, it’s just like him. The crusades, the uh, the Cathars. What happened with the Cathars, with, you know, the Catholics did, what happened with the, all the missionaries going around just like, destroying what they called pagan religions, which are all these like, beautiful ways of life for other people. Beautiful ways of, of creative, spiritual living, but like destroyed, you know, it’s, it’s disgusting. There’s no excuses for it.

Marc Allan: You also don’t have to look very far. I mean, as far as today’s headline to see people killing each other over their religion.

Flea: Right.

Marc Allan: It’s ugly. Coffee Shop, you make a reference to Iggy Pop, and there’s a lot of references in, in all the articles that seem to have been written about you guys this time around, about how different you are offstage from onstage. I mean, Iggy, I guess it’s sort of renowned for being a totally different guy off stage as opposed to onstage. Why, why do you think people are so surprised that you’re different off stage?

Flea: I don’t know, I guess people expect if they see a show and we do the most wild, intense show that we can. I mean, I don’t know. I guess they, they figured that that’s how we were going to be all the time. We’re entertainers, and we believe in being entertainers and giving an entertaining show at like a sonic audio entertainment as well as a visual entertainment and, you know, trying to be a theatrical mix, exciting as we can. As performers.

Marc Allan: It’s funny that people can’t seem to see the difference, but-

Flea: That’s like he liked going, expecting to see a, you know Jack Nicholson act the way he acted in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Now, every time you see him or something, you know it’s kinda ridiculous. But I mean, actually not to that extreme because we, I mean we’re not acting and we are doing our thing, you know, I mean, we’re playing music that is very close to our hearts and we’re trying to do it in the most entertaining way possible, but that doesn’t mean that we were interested in being sensitive, kind, happy, decent people..

Marc Allan: You’ve got a, what, I guess, 15 or 20 rows that are taken out so that people can mosh in front of the stage for this tour is, is that at every stop?

Flea: We always try to have as much general admission space as we can, you know, get you to have a good time.

Marc Allan: Yeah. Is that a kind of a nightmare logistically and insurance wise and all that? Do you get involved with that at all?

Flea: To tell you the truth? I don’t really.

Marc Allan: No? Okay.

Flea: I think that I probably will start getting more involved in it. I never have at all. I kind of like to think about playing good and showing up and playing a good gig, you know as opposed to worrying about all that stuff. But I, I’m starting to realize that it’s more important for myself and us as a band to get more involved in the logistics of planning the shows.

Marc Allan: Are you comfortable with people moshing and stuff? Is that-

Flea: I’m extraordinarily comfortable.

Marc Allan: Okay. All right.

Flea: Milder the better. Don’t try to hurt each other.

Marc Allan: Yeah. Right. Okay. You have a seven year old daughter, is that right?

Flea: Yeah, I do.

Marc Allan: Yeah. I have a four-year-old daughter and I wonder, are you, are you scared?

Flea: Um, no, no I’m not scared, I’m happy.

Marc Allan: Yeah. I mean, I understand being happy about it, but man you look at the world and, and how women are treated in it and stuff. And that’s sometimes I think boy.

Flea: Well, I think the thing, you know, to be a good father is to instill in our children a sense of self-esteem, and give them lots of love and strength so they can love themselves, and take care of themselves, and not be victim to not put themselves in situations where they might be treated less than, than respectfully.

Marc Allan: To the extent you’ve ever thought about it, did you think what you’re going to be like when you’re a 50 year old musician, and I asked that because I see so many 50 year old musicians who, you know, still have the creativity and still want to do it, but it’s hard to keep the audience, you know, and-

Flea: Well, I think it depends on what type of audience you want to keep, what you want to do. And are you willing to grow and change as a musician? You know, I don’t think anyone can keep doing, keep doing the same shit, year in and year out, and expect to keep an audience. Because music and society and everything is always growing and changing and experiencing dynamics, you know, it’s like, sure we can keep doing the exact same Chili Pepper thing. And you know, when we’re 50 be doing like some gig in Vegas or something, you know what I mean? So some like oldies package, or some stupid shit like that, or we can be, you know growing as human beings and growing and changing and doing different things in our life.

Marc Allan: I look at a guy like, I mean John Entwistle The Who, was out on the road, you know? And he, I mean, he’s struggling to get a couple of hundred people to come to see his gigs. And I’m thinking, you know, this is just-

Flea: Oh, is he really?

Marc Allan: Yeah, I mean, you look at it and you see all these guys and you know, guys who were popular, you know hugely popular in the seventies, and you know, they still want to go out and they still want to play but they really don’t have the audience anymore.

Flea: Right. Well, I guess, I mean like someone like John Entwistle, is he a, what is he doing?

Marc Allan: I guess he’s basically doing the sort of there, his solo stuff. And there’s a Who medley and some of the stuff that you know, he wrote a fair amount of songs for The Who especially-

Flea: Is he going out and doing like seventies rock songs?

Marc Allan: Yeah. I guess for the most part that’s probably what he is doing.

Flea: Hey, you know what I mean?

Marc Allan: Yeah.

Flea: That’s like, you can go do seventies, rock songs. It’s not seventies rock song time anymore. You know, if he is not willing to grow as an artist and as a musician, he can’t he can’t expect people to stay back with him. I mean, I don’t know what John Entwistle is doing, so I don’t know, but I’d imagine that if he was like, doing something different there might be people that might be interested in that. Not necessarily arena rock stadium people. but then maybe other people interested. And then at the same time, I’m sure that John Entwistle made lots of money playing in The Who. And I’m sure that he has plenty of money. And I’m sure that if he’s doing it he’s doing it because he likes it anyway.

Marc Allan: Yeah, well.

Flea: I mean, you must be having fun.

Marc Allan: You certainly hope so.

Flea: Because I’m sure he’s not doing it to to put food on the table.

Marc Allan: I hope you’re right. I mean, I think you’re right, but you never know.

Flea: You never know.

Marc Allan: Cause a lot of these guys did squander their money, and such. One of the lines on the record that I really like is where you record the Butthole Surfers that sang it’s better to regret something you did than something you didn’t do. And I know people have asked you to death about drugs and stuff. So I’m just going to ask, is it, Do you regret it? It is better to have done something or then or not done something.

Flea: I think that everything that any person has done, is something that they have to be happy about, because it’s the truth. And people should always be happy about the truth, whether the truth is something that you need to learn from to realize that something you ended up needing not to do again and realize that there’s a better way, when I realized that that was the excellent way. And it’s something that you want to have to keep doing and improve on or whatever. But I think the truth is always good. I think the truth is what it’s all about.

Marc Allan: Two other things. I’ll let you go. One, do you have any particular feelings about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? You expect the Chili Peppers to eventually get in, and do you care?

Flea: I don’t care. Well, hold on a second. I always say I don’t care about those things and it turns out that I do care about it for a second.

Marc Allan: Okay.

Flea: Cause every time I look at the Grammy’s and all that shit, like I don’t give a fuck. But then later I can have a thing in my bathroom. I look at it and I go, oh, that’s kind of cool. You know what I mean?

Marc Allan: Yes.

Flea: So maybe if we got accepted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I would feel proud of being a part of American history possibly. But to tell you the truth, I’m not really sure. I don’t know. As far as I can see whenever I see that thing it’s always kind of a joke. Right? They don’t have Iggy Pop in it, or they don’t have the Lou Reed in it.

Marc Allan: Well, they got The Velvets

Flea: Oh, they got The Velvets? Oh, that’s cool.

Flea: Because Iggy Pop is the King of rock. Iggy Pop is the greatest rocker of all time.

Marc Allan: Do you like the new album?

Flea: I haven’t heard it.

Marc Allan: Oh, you haven’t heard it, man. It’s great. It is great. About every five years.

Flea: I was just thinking about it. Like over the long haul. He’s always been awesome. And over the short haul, like if you did them and like you know, the best five years of any rocker’s career. No, his is just awesome.

Marc Allan: Yeah.

Flea: And he is also like never been an asshole. He’s always been cool.

Marc Allan: And then finally, is there anything else you want to cover that we haven’t talked about?

Flea: No, not really.

Marc Allan: No. Okay.

Flea: So that’s the room service knocking on my door.

Marc Allan: Okay. Well I appreciate your time and see you next Monday.

Flea: Take care.

Marc Allan: Take care Flea, bye bye.