There's a new song from Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea. It's called To Plea and lasts almost eight minutes. After a long instrumental part, the bassist recites a sort of jazz prayer full of life and hope to a nation divided by hatred. It is the first extract from an album that will be released in 2026 in which the musician is accompanied by what he calls “a dream band of modern visionary jazz musicians”.
In the piece, in addition to singing and playing the electric bass, Flea returns to his first love, the trumpet. With him there are Anna Butterss (double bass, vocals), Deantoni Parks (drums, vocals), Jeff Parker (guitar, vocals), Mauro Refosco (percussion), Rickey Washington (alto flute), Vikram Devasthali (trombone), Chris Warren (vocals), Josh Johnson (alto sax, vocals). Yes, a super band.
In the video directed by his daughter Clara Balzary, Flea dances as only he can, to a choreography by Sadie Wilking while singing the lyrics about “longing for a place beyond this, a place of love, where I can speak my mind and be myself.”
“I don't care about your fucking politics,” Flea sings. “I'm not interested in politics as an act,” he explains in a statement. «I think there is a place that transcends it where it is possible to establish a dialogue that helps humanity and all of us to live in harmony and productively, in a way that is healthy for the world. There is a place where we meet, and that is love.”
