The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist will release his debut solo album, Honora, later this week
Flea stopped by The Tonight Show to perform his cover of Frank Ocean‘s “Thinkin Bout You” and to discuss his music career with host Jimmy Fallon.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist took the stage alongside a live band and orchestra, and showcased the ambient instrumental song on both bass and trumpet. The jazz-inspired track comes off the musician’s debut solo effort, Honora, out March 27 and is a reimagining of Ocean’s 2012 hit from his album Channel Orange.
“When that record came out, it really blew me away,” Flea explained in a statement when he released the cover last month. “I listened to it ten million times. It was something I just couldn’t stop listening to. I loved it so much and still do. Just one of those real watershed moment records for me. ‘Thinkin Bout You’ is one of the many great songs on that record, and I thought it would be fun to play on trumpet.”
Flea sat down with Fallon to chat about the album, which came about in tribute to the musician’s love of jazz. After emerging on the late-night show’s stage in a handstand, Flea explained that he began playing the trumpet when he was “a little kid.”
“I was in love with it,” he said. “I wanted to be Dizzy Gillespie when I grew up. I met Dizzy Gillespie when I was a kid. He hugged me into his suit. I still remember the smell of his cologne, his nice suit, and his kindness with me. Trumpet was my first instrument.”
He recounted getting into the bass in high school and only revisiting the trumpet “every once in a while” after that. “It’s always alive in my head and my heart,” he noted. “A few years ago I decided I’m just going to play trumpet every day, no matter what, and after a couple of years of doing it I’m going to make a record and what comes, comes. It wasn’t really about a means to an end. It was just the process, the learning process. And I’m so happy that I had the opportunity to do it.”