Flea, the bassist of Red Hot Chili Peppers, is currently working on a ‘trumpet album’ that will feature a collaboration with Australian singer Nick Cave.
In the March issue of Nick Cave’s online platform The Red Hand Files, where he responds to fans’ questions, Cave was asked about the truth behind his well-known Red Hot Chili Peppers quote, which often circulates on social media.
Cave’s infamous remark from over two decades ago was: “I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the f— is this garbage?’ And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”
Acknowledging the truth of the statement, Cave wrote in The Red Hand Files: “Around twenty-five years ago, I made a flippant and somewhat unkind comment about the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There was no malice behind it; it was just the sort of obnoxious thing I would say back then to provoke people. I was a troublemaker, a s— stirrer, most at ease in the role of a societal irritant.”
Years later, Flea, whose real name is Michael Peter Balzary, expressed on Facebook that he was “hurt” by Cave’s comment but continued to post an “open-hearted love letter” to Cave’s music.
Cave wrote this week: “I remember being genuinely touched by his words and thought what a classy guy Flea was. I felt, on some deep, unspoken level that I wasn’t yet able to fully understand, that Flea was a human being of an entirely different calibre, indeed, of a higher order.”
Since then, the two have stayed on good terms, and Cave revealed that he recently recorded vocals for a track on Flea’s upcoming trumpet album.
Flea, a passionate trumpeter and jazz enthusiast since childhood, played the trumpet on Jane’s Addiction’s 1988 album Nothing’s Shocking. He also performed on the trumpet during concerts and in 2008, studied music theory, composition, and jazz trumpet at the University of Southern California.
“Last week, Flea sent me a song and asked if I’d like to add some vocals. It was for a ‘trumpet album’ he is making,” Cave shared with his fans. “It’s not for me to reveal the specifics of the song, only that it’s one I cherish deeply, with what I consider to be the greatest lyric ever written. It’s a song so precious that I would never have dared to sing it unless Flea had asked me to.”
“I went into the studio on Wednesday and recorded my vocals. The track turned into a beautiful conversation between Flea’s trumpet and my voice, full of yearning and love. The song transcended its individual parts and became a slowly evolving cosmic dance, a form of reconciliation and apology.”
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