Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea Goes Full Jazz on New 8-Minute Song

Flea has previewed his first full-length solo album with a eight-minute long jazz song entitled “A Plea.”

You can watch the “A Plea” video, which finds the longtime Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist showing off his interpretive dance skills, below. It was directed by Flea’s daughter, photographer and filmmaker Clara Balzary.

Flea handles bass, trumpet and vocals on “A Plea,” which finds him joined by modern jazz artists including double bassist Anna Butterss, drummer Deantoni Parks, percussionist Mauro Refosco, flutist Rickey Washington, trombonist Vikram Devasthali, vocalist Chris Warren and saxophone player / vocalist Josh Johnson.

A press release announcing the single states that Flea’s album will be released via Nonesuch Records in 2026, and that further details will be made available early in the new year.

Flea Yearns for a Better World in ‘A Plea’

The song’s lyrics find Flea “yearning for a place beyond, a place of love, for me to speak my mind and be myself. I’m always just trying to be myself.”

As he explains in the press release, “I don’t care about the act of politics. I think there is a much more transcendent place above it where there’s discourse to be had that can actually help humanity, and actually help us all to live harmoniously and productively in a way that’s healthy for the world. There’s a place where we meet, and it’s love.”

Flea has released several soundtrack songs under his own name over the years. In 2012 he shared the experimental EP Helen Burns as a fundraiser for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ most recent studio album was 2022’s Return of the Dream Canteen. The band performed live only once in 2025, at the FireAid benefit concert in their hometown of Los Angeles.