Flea (musician)

"…now that I'm really pursuing being a jazz trumpet player. I’m working really hard on it every day, every day, and it's difficult, you know, and I'm I'm a student… I’m humbled. I am humbled…as I study this craft. The other day I was… I was in New York and I was playing my record for a group of people including a bunch of really good jazz musicians who were there, and I'm kind of insecure around jazz musicians you know, I'm like, I'm not that good, you know, and I was talking to my friend John Lurie and … I said I hope they they weren't like looking down their nose at me, you know what I mean, and he's like “what the fuck are you talking about, you can play man, you're a player, you're a musician” and I realized I was like because of that kind of shit I felt when I was a kid around the jazz musicians, and I admired them so much, and I felt I went to this other kind of music. I've always felt so insecure about it, you know, and I realized… I don't need to… especially… when I went to go make my record and I was playing with these great jazz musicians and I… was insecure with them… I was like, "God, I'm hope… they're not just doing it for a check and they're going to look down on me and think, oh, “he's a no playing fucking rock dude. He doesn't really understand.” …But and it wasn't like that at all …they’re like “we're all climbing this mountain of music”… Where you are in the fucking mountain, you got something to offer that… They were all just wanting to and sincerely… realize my vision with me. Mhm. you know, in the most beautiful way…it moved me like, and I’m just now in my life …conquering … all.. those feelings of inadequacy as a musician, you know, and and just wanting to work and be as good as I can…I now I work more than ever, you know what I mean?"

"We're [the Red Hot Chili Peppers] jamming and that works really well. We don't talk much about songs or how songs should be constructed. We just start to play and see what happens, how they develop. We improvise a lot. We find a groove. We experiment and somehow it turns into music. The Koreans have influenced us a lot, through their loving attitude, evil dictatorship, and funky bass playing."

"The music industry, I've never been concerned with. I've been very fortunate that it has taken care of me. Like a baby being breast fed."

"I smell like vitamin C, rose-oil and old smelly socks."

"I love, I love, I love, killer whales, and I love mangos, and Iggy Pop too, I love Iggy Pop, and eating, getting up in the morning, and going swimming, and taking a good shit, and I love all of you too!"

"People that are uptight about the kiss on the magazine are the same people that are gonna be watching macho football players in tight pants wrestle around and slap each other on the butt and think it's the all russian macho thing to do."

"In Flea’s hands the Jazz Bass becomes both a rhythm and a lead instrument, a clean and a dirty one."

"[Flea is] one of the most versatile bassists around and willing to play with anybody, anywhere. Flea's played with the likes of Jane’s Addiction, Johnny Cash, and Tom Waits. Not to mention, he's also among rock's great characters and noted for his remarkable stage presence, clothed or not."