Green Light with Chris Long - Flea joins to talk NBA, The Lakers, Current Events in America, Music School, and Neil Young Tweets.

Episode Date: August 28, 2020

0:49 - Open. 9:45 - Flea on NBA and the Lakers, Current Events in America, and Neil Young Tweets. Silver Lake Conservatory of Music (Flea's LA Music School) - https://silverlakeconservatory.org/ Flea's Newest Music School Project in the Watts Community - https://wattscommunitycore.org/ Flea's Book - Acid for the Children: A Memoir Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

But it was just one particular peach. I had it in France. I came into a hotel room at like 4 o'clock in the morning after a gig, and they had presented me with this lovely peach on a ceramic dish of my bench perfection. And I was like, wee, we, monsieur, yum, yum, yum.

And it was the most fantastic fucking thing that ever happened to me. My body was a light. And at that exact same moment, I turned on the TV, and Kobe Bryant was hitting a game winner. Happy Friday, everybody. This is the Green Light Pot.

your host, Chris Long, and while it's been a long week in the sports world, I do have a treat for you that's a bit sports, a bit music, a bit everything, flee from the red hot chili peppers. I'm excited about this one, not going to lie. Already did the interview and enjoyed it thoroughly. It's a guy I've really admired, obviously, for his musical talent, but also what he seems to stand for. and after interviewing him, I feel even, I like, I like Flea even more. What a good dude. He was awesome.

Got him for about 80 minutes. Covered a ton of ground, including his Lakers fandom, you know, his NBA fandom and what he thinks of what's going on right now. But he made me feel, I'm not going to lie, a little bit better about 2020. if anybody could lift my spirits a little bit because I hit him up a year ago myself and said, hey, I'd love to have you on the pod. He was like, I'd love to come on the pod. I can't right now. I'm kind of busy.

You know how these things go, man. Like, I can only imagine how busy this dude is. And I didn't follow up because I kind of forgot. And then we followed up relatively recently. And he hit us back right away and got a great surprise. Midweek this week. Hey, we're going to have flea on the pod. And this is a big fucking moment.

If you guys had told me early in the fall when we were a couple thousand listeners and we were doing the YouTube thing and didn't know what the hell we were doing, I still don't know what the hell we were doing, that we were going to have Flea on the pod by springtime. I'd have said, thanks for the pep talk. That's a fantasy. You're blowing smoke. But we got them.

And I was hyped to talk to flee about everything, you know, but music, basketball, fun stuff. We still get there. But the main event right now is that people are hurting, and especially in the sports world. I mean, there's no escaping it, which is the point. I mean, this is the point of what these guys are doing is I have a sports podcast, you know, and if I wanted to avoid police brutality right now, I could if this were a normal year. But athletes are stepping up and using their platforms, and it's effective, whether you like it or not, it's effective.

So I had, you know, I wondered how to handle the interview today. And I hit his people up and said, hey, listen, it's a tough spot. I don't want to put you in a bind here to feel like you have to talk about everything in sports or do you want to talk about fun stuff at all. Like, kind of, what do we do, man? I'm kind of nervous to have the dude on and this week of all weeks. And his people hit us back and say, we're excited to, you know, flees excited. to come on the pod and he's sure it'll be an excellent conversation.

So at that moment, I said, well, it better be a fucking excellent conversation. Hope I can hang with the dude. And he was great. So I'm really glad we followed through with it and you'll enjoy it. But first, you know, it's been a tough week. The wound is reopened. Everyone feels uncomfortable. And that's the point.

Again, this thing will develop on a league level. This thing will continue to develop as it pertains to Jacob Blake. Okay, this week I've heard a lot of he was resisting arrest. He was. He was resisting arrest. But resisting arrest doesn't justify seven bullets in the back. It just doesn't. And then most people would say, but it does put you in peril to resist arrest.

Okay. That's the fucking problem, buddy. You have set the bar so low for police officers and use of force. I know it's a tough job. I know there's good cops. You might not believe me. Some of y'all are rolling your eyes, Chris Long, Social Justice Warrior again,

or, you know, is there ever a time Chris agrees with the police or Chris hates, you know, thinks that should be a state with no police? I've literally done ride-alongs, like on the low. I've had conversations. I have friends who are police officers. I've discussed this stuff. I've heard other perspectives. Nowhere in those discussions, nowhere in the ride-alongs, nowhere in some of the friendships I've forged.

Was I convinced that resisting arrest should be a death sentence? It doesn't have to be. Can we get there? You know, then I hear a lot of, but white people get killed too. Yes. Yes, they do. White people like you also get killed by police. So why are you rooting against your own fucking interests?

by the way, I know the point you're trying to make black people are killed at three times the rate. If you do the statistics thing and you look at the population and you adjust it for that, black people are killed at three times the rate. I know you're seeing that more white people are killed by police than black people. That's because there are a fuck ton of white people in America. And can we get to the point where there's a police force, you know, in our country that isn't among the league leaders in killing folks? Let's just get there.

Why is it that hard? It's not that hard, man. I mean, it is hard. I guess it is. But it happens all the time. I see cops all the time making arrests where people are resisting. There was an entire show called cops where people wrestled around with the police for hours on TV. And I don't remember anybody getting seven bullets in the back on the show.

I see videos get shared in times like this where people do get apprehended. And usually those people are white. I mean, like, this is very anecdotal, but I see it happen. So it can be done. And I'm not making Jacob Blake out to be a hero. I don't give a shit about the warrant. I don't care if he was indeed the one who was somewhere he wasn't supposed to be. If the call was about him, I don't care if he's a good guy or a bad guy.

I don't know him. He's a human being. And he's paralyzed. You want to argue the facts of a case. you want to argue what you see in a video, do that. And good luck. I mean, good luck defending seven shots in the back with he resisted arrest. You want to do that.

That's one thing. But don't shout down black pro athletes who are very clearly hurting, authentically hurting, not doing this thing for fun, not like shutting down the bubble for fun for a couple days. Like these are visceral raw reactions to things that are not new. And, you know, this is not the first instance. It's not the last. We've seen it before. It just happens to be the most recent instance.

And people are tired of it. People are tired. You know, like so listen, man, if you listen to this pod and sometimes you disagree with what I have to say, I'm not trying to run you out of the building, but just try to listen to somebody this week that doesn't look like you, somebody you trust, maybe. and if you don't have friends or people in your life that don't look like you, I think that's one of the biggest tragedies. You know, I've been so lucky to be on organized sports teams, man. I've never had to strain to listen.

I mean, like, because I've had a plethora of strong voices and people that I trust, who have been open enough to share experiences with me. So call somebody that doesn't look like you if you're having trouble understanding this thing and really say, hey, help me understand. I mean, like, make an effort. I don't know. Anyway, me and Flea hit some of it. We also hit Kobe, the Lakers, meditation. He teaches me how to meditate. Drugs, youth. He had a pretty interesting life. And I'm not a big reader. Evidently, Flea is. It doesn't surprise me. I got to read his book. After talking to him,

I'm psyched about reading his book called Ascent for the Children. Came out a couple of years back. Guys have a super interesting life. We talk a lot about sports. We stay away from the band stuff. I think musicians, they get asked so many questions about, you know, their bands and that sort of thing. He does mention they're working on something, but I didn't prod. So sit back, relax, enjoy. And by the way, this guy is housing watermelon, has like a bottomless bowl of watermelon that he's just crushing the entire interview. And I was like, could this guy be any fucking cooler? I just ranked watermelon, number one fruit on my fruit pod rankings about a month ago.

So we talk about that too. Sit back, relax, enjoy, flee. This is great. I took a shot in the dark trying to get you on the pod a year ago. And I was just sharing offline that I think we're better equipped to handle this, this awesome interview. I'm assuming it'll be. So thank you so much, Flee, for coming on the pod, man. How are you?

Well, I'm flattered and honored that you invited me onto your pod. And just good to be here. I'm doing really well. Thank you. You know, these past six months or so with the pandemic hitting and everything, I feel like, you know, there's this real collective grown worldwide, and particularly in United States, about the inconvenience of it and what a drag it is. And undoubtedly, it's awful. You know, like people are really hungry. They don't have money.

They don't have work. People are struggling. But in another way, it has really forced us, you know, like an introspection. And I don't think, you know, without the pandemic, we wouldn't be having the civil rights movement that we're having right now, which is, you know, clearly of profound importance. and though difficult, really important, and I think it's igniting a sense of self-awareness all over the country. And even though I'm disheartened about the divisiveness and sometimes, you know, the lack of common sense and just like human decency involved and all the, you know, like when criminals get involved and all this craziness. But in general, I feel like, you know, when Donald Trump

became elected nearly four years ago now. For me, I was really displeased about it. I don't like to talk about him much or talk about. Yeah, I've tried to do the same. I used to be gung-ho every day fighting the battle, but now I'm like, I don't want to give this fucking guy that, I don't want to give him the time of day. Yeah.

There's a lot of battles and beat him. Yeah, well, I also don't want to judge people who believe in him. Like, I want dialogue. Like, I think part of his thing is to have a difference. divisiveness and to divide us into different camps. And if someone has a worldview drastically different than mine, I don't want to just hate them. You know, I don't want to be against them. I want to talk to them. I want to hear. I want to listen. And I hope that they can extend me the same courtesy and that we can come together because I have faith in humanity, you know. And like, like for instance,

like for me, I'm like a real hardcore environmentalist. It's really important to me that at all cost we protect our environment. And so, but you know, to someone who's a coal miner and their grandfather was a coal miner and their great-grandfather was a coal miner, and that's what they know, but this is really bad for the, you know, for the ozone layer, you know, there needs to be conversation to come to a place, like between these two different camps and, you know, outside of, you know, what's currently going on with civil rights, we're just like, you know, police killing black people and police brutality and civil rights. Like, for me, there's only one. way forward and that is to continue to work to create equality and addressing America's

you know systemic racism and finding ways to to help that. I've never felt and you've been around longer than me and you've seen movements in the U.S. and you've been influential in so many different circles. Have you ever seen a time where we felt more divided? No, not when it was so apparent. I mean, I think that, you know, the current landscape of social media coupled with the current administration, really it empower, it's a power, it's everyone's like, like, revved up to share their, their anger and their frustration. And, and like you said, it gets like ad nauseum, just this battle on social media going back and forth. Anything you post, like, I try to post positive things that are important to me, whether it's about art or humanity in general,

or athletics or, you know, things that I love. And even then, I'm just met with, you know, anger and putting out my hypocrisy and like, hey, maybe you're right. Maybe I'm wrong. But, you know, there's just not really room for dialogue. I think, you know, right now that the real, like, The big difference, I feel like, you know, with the current administration and with Trump is just the pettiness and it's so transparent and the, you know, the constant, like, if you don't agree with me, you're completely full of shit and you're worthless and you're nothing because you don't agree and never giving credence to anything that might be a little bit different or just trying, you know, and so, you know, I have hopes, you know, I have hopes that things can be better.

And I was going to say earlier when Trump got elected, you know, my biggest hope was that we've been sleepwalking for a long time and just kind of accepting things as they are and that it would bring about, you know, activism and awareness and consciousness and get the wheels turning where there could be real positive evolution for this country. And I think that is happening and I think it's possible. And I think, you know, like we're talking about with civil rights and like, you know, with the basketball. players saying they weren't going to play yesterday. It's really beautiful for me, you know. I mean, and it can be argued whether it's more helpful for them to be there in the bubble and playing and being in front of a microphone and talking, but not going to play as a really powerful thing. And if they shut down the season, look, selfishly, I'm a basketball fan. Yeah, I mean, you love basketball way more than me from what I gather, but I love the NBA.

I mean, I'm sure we both feel like, and I think it's also proven on one hand, COVID has proven how much of a unifying force sports can be. And like, you know, sports, art, music, they're all things that they can be either used to numb the sensibilities of a population or to bring people together. And I feel like basketball players yesterday said, we're not going to be the conduit to you numbing the sensibilities of this population. We have a captive audience. That's why George Floyd happened.

George Floyd was not the first abhorrent incident. we've seen. I mean, I played in St. Louis during the Mike Brown thing. You know, we've seen viral videos kind of come, which is another positive of social media, the accountability factor. But, I mean, these basketball players is well within the right. We're not here to entertain you if you can't respect our humanity. I think that's the key. If you can't see us as people, we're not going to distract you from COVID or otherwise. And as well as, you know, using it's a position of power, you know, and it's using what they've got to make a statement that is important for them and important for all of humanity, you know, and it's like they're willing to sacrifice.

Like, I know these guys make good cash, you know, but they're, you know, their playoff money is their playoff money, you know, and they're sacrificing their playoff money. They're hurting the networks, hurting the NBA, you know, by these things that are worth a lot of money. If they shut down the season, that's, like financially, that's a big deal, man, you know, for for everyone involved in that whole economy. And, you know, that makes people listen. That makes people listen.

And if that happened in the NFL, way more so. Yeah. And I've been at the table having these talks, and I've heard some of the tone-deaf stuff coming out, owner's mouths and the commissioner missing the boat, and obviously the way they handle the cap thing. The NFL is going to be a totally different beast to tackle because it is so much less of a player league.

And you know this. Well, the basketball fan, those guys do as good. I've said this on the pod repeatedly. The NBA players, the coaches, and Commissioner Adam Silver, they have done a terrific job of orchestrating this thing, to have no positive tests, to hear the players, you know, to hear them out, hear their concerns, do this bubble the way they, you know, that they would do it preferably and execute it. I don't think the NFL could ever pull something like that off because they're just not as much as a player's league. You know, their union isn't as strong, and I worry about them in the fall and the way this might come to a head.

So we'll see. But I wondered if you'd seen a parallel in music, a moment as powerful as the Bucs saying, enough is enough. No, I guess it's there. Yeah, I have seen, but music works differently. And because, you know, live music is shut down because of COVID right now, I think if there was live music going on, things would really be expressed in a much more immediate way in terms of things people were saying at gigs, what sort of message would people be sending through live music, which is a really powerful thing. And what I'm hoping is born of this is some really powerful protest music, because you know,

what happened in the 60s and what gave birth to really like the whole, you know, what blew up into making rock music the biggest thing in one of the biggest things in the world for a long period of time was the protest music, you know, the protesting Vietnam War and civil rights protests of the 60s, you know, from the voting rights act to the, to Martin Luther King being murdered, to the Vietnam War protests, like what happened at Ohio State when they killed those students. Yeah. And all the protest music that came from all the great musicians from the 60s. And it had a real thing.

You know, Ohio. Yeah, yeah. you know that Crosby still isn't Nash that you know um that the and young the the the the and so many so many great protest songs you know uh from nina simone and from uh gill scott heron and from jimmy hendricks and from bob dillon and all these great musicians and they really defined a culture and um in a lot of ways i think it really propelled us forward as a country in a positive way so um i'm i i'm and i'm and anticipating, and particularly from young musicians, a real on a real, a burst of energy from

protest music. And I haven't heard it yet. And I'm really hoping that that comes, you know. I think that it could really buoy us all and give great energy and positive energy, because everybody likes good music. And even if you, you know, if you're someone who has racist tendencies or has ideas that to me don't seem humane, I think that music can bring us all together and bring us to a place of like, hey, you know, that's a good point. Yeah, well, I mean, like, people could grow up loving y'all's music and love you.

And then, you know, I had Tom Morello on recently. And Tom laughed at the fact that some people were like, I just realized what you were saying about, fuck off, I'm not a fan of Raging Against a Machine anymore, which seems entirely insane on its head. it means you weren't ever listening. But you know, you being an instrumentalist and somebody who's an icon, you know,

in the age of social media and that sort of thing, your views are very easily shared. Have you had people that have said, I just figured out who you were, somehow they didn't know all these years, I'm out on flea or I'm out on the red hot chili peppers? Yeah, I mean, I get a lot of your belief. Yeah, a lot of things that, you know,

when I post things about my feelings about civil rights, mostly, is when I get it. And people just, you know, you're a Hollywood elitist trying to tell me what to think. You're an idiot. I don't like you anymore. Unfollowed. You're just stirring the pot and adding to more, you know, racial problems. And, you know, I don't know, man. I don't really understand it.

to me it seems so clear, you know, the disparity of the way that poor black people are treated in America. You know, I spend a lot of time in some, you know, poor black communities in Los Angeles. And it's like, I meet just all these guys I meet that are like good people, good dudes. It's all been to prison. And they've all been, you know, felt like there was nowhere to turn and no one, no one, cared and from a young age, they are targeted by the police. They can't, you know, walk down the street. It's like breaking probation to walk down your own street because they pick you up because

you're in a known drug area. They sell drugs here. I live here. You know, and it's just, you know, it's hard, man. Like, you know, they're suffering and like the resilience that I feel from people in that community, like all the stuff that they've had to do. deal with and they stay strong and keep loving their hearts and still care and still be humane. Like, that's amazing, you know.

Yeah, you do a great deal of work in communities bringing music to communities, don't you? The Silver Lake. Yeah, well, I started a music school about 18 years ago, a nonprofit music school called the Silver Lake Conservatory of Music, which is in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. And, I mean, we actually just reopened for private lessons, but we're basically shut down because of COVID. but I'm starting a new music school with some other friends and other nonprofit music school in Watts, California

and you know serving just everybody that lives around Watts in that area that can get there and it's a real low-income area and I'm so excited to get it going and I've been working on it for about five years and it's all the wheels are turning we're about to do the construction we're just kind of waiting on permits and stuff

but through making friends in that community, when COVID hit, I was concerned about, you know, people who live barely check to check as it is. I'm really, really struggling for food and stuff. And so started, got, you know, got involved with a group called the Watts Community Corps. And working with them every Friday, we, you know, we spend the day there every Friday. And I bring, like, my band financed a food truck. We bring a food truck every Friday. That's awesome. And, you know, I work with them.

And then we bring all kinds of food and other people have donated food. And we give out food every Friday. And I just, like, actually joined the Watts Community Corps. I'm on the board of that organization now. And just really working to help out in Watts, you know, and hoping. And the more I get involved, the more I just kind of fall in love with that community. Like one thing I've found out is when you're, you know, in a housing development like that where people don't have much, man.

There's very little. It's just so little money and opportunity and justice. But there's such a sense of community. Everybody knows everybody. You know, you go into the projects, man. It's like, like there's the place I've been hanging out there. There's 1,100 units, housing units in this project. And everybody knows everybody.

Yeah. Everybody looks out for everybody. And it's really nice, you know. even though it's so difficult, it's nice to feel that sense of community and nice to connect with all the love and potential and greatness there. And I'm so excited to get the school going and just to continue an ongoing relationship with that part of the city. What has COVID done to group music? You know, like youth group music, the disruption that these months off have created, the isolation where maybe a kid's picked up a skill and ran with it and said, I love this.

You know, I've heard you talk about when you first heard jazz music. It was like a gift. You know, how many kids are getting denied that gift or denied the nurturing of that gift? And is it very disruptive? Can it be fixed? Well, it can always be fixed. Yeah. But, you know, denying kids a good education, you know, I'm focused on music education,

but any type of education. You know, yesterday I was hanging out at the, this upscale boarding school. And I was talking to a guy there, and he was, you know, this is a real, like, you know, up upscale school. Every kid gets a horse, you know, they get up at 5 o'clock in the morning. If they exercise their horse. Every kid gets a horse.

Yeah, yeah. I'm going to go to this boarding school. Oh, man, it's out in the country. And the kids get up in the morning. They exercise their horse. They clean the stables. They bathe the horse, feed the horse. Then they start their day at school.

Yeah. You got a backpacking and hiking. They're outdoors. You know, high level of academics. It's a beautiful place, right? But you've got to have cash to go there, man. And I was talking to some of the faculty there about helping bring kids who would never have an opportunity

to go to a school like that. And how does this work? And it's like, well, they say, well, it's very hard because kids from low-income areas were very academically rigorous. So this school starts at high school and they don't get the academic grounding, you know, they're not ready for the math

and all the stuff that they have to know. Yeah. You know, and so, okay, gosh, you know, like, I don't adhere to any political party. I have my beliefs. That would surprise some people that I don't either for any of y'all listening. I'm not a big fan of either party, but...

Yeah, I just, like, I have my beliefs. Once in a while, my beliefs might even line up with a real conservative belief about a certain thing. In general, you know, they're pretty progressive. liberal ideas but uh oh oh i was just like i know i was thinking about you were going to sponsor me to go to that that that horse school oh yeah yeah yeah that horse school yeah but just thinking about like like how like for me like what this country needs to do more than anything else is put the highest level schools the best schools in the poorest neighborhoods no doubt you want to have like like fairness

in our communities and fairness and really give everyone a shot So it doesn't matter, like, where you're from, what the color of your skin is, like, whether, you know, so for black people who are trying to outrun 400 years of systemic racism coming from slavery to now, and, like, everything that's built up to making things so difficult for them, and them having to, like, work five times as hard to achieve the same goal, like, this is something concrete we can do. Like, can't that kind of legislation be passed? and then like you called a socialist that that's what you think

but that's what I think. No, I mean, I'm with you on the education thing. We did a lot of work in Philly in education when we had those talks about social justice and a lot of things that Cap was talking about you know, I wanted to help in police reform. I wanted to help in all these issues

but I just felt like the most, no pun intended, black and white situation we have here that we can get right now boots on the ground and start bridging this gap that's been created by, as you said, 400 years of, you know, slavery to Jim Crow to housing discrimination to you know hey guys you know bootstraps but you can't own a home um hey guys just go to study you i'm going to put you in the shittiest school district with no

with no resources um you know hey guys say no to drugs but we're going to pump drugs into your community school is the way that we can most easily rectify some of these these problems that we've created and i think i think everybody can get behind education so i think it's awesome you know that you're working in that space. What about musicians as adults and not being able, like bands, like real bands that have been used to being able to see each other whenever? Are we finally hitting the point where you can do some socially distancing, kind of playing and hanging out, or have people been on islands? I think there's a lot of both. I know with my band, when COVID hit, we were just, you know, our guitar player, John Fashante had just come back to the band

and we started rehearsing again and just kind of starting to write music for a new album, which we're really, really excited about. And COVID hit, and we just stopped for a while. And we all went to our separate homes for the first couple of months. And then we decided to, you know, after the original, you know, kind of panic died down. Yeah. And we all knew that we know we were all negative and being careful and quarantining and whatnot. We started getting together and working again.

That's what we're doing now. So we rehearsed most days. days and we create communally. So we're rehearsing and writing and getting ready to make a new record. You just got married. Can we talk about that being married in the age of COVID? Like honeymoon stage hits? Yeah.

We got married a little over a year ago, a little under a year ago. And we didn't have our honeymoon until a couple of months after our wedding. And it was just before COVID hit and we went to tie up. and you know we went through China on the way and like I remember we were up in northern Thailand and we walked over into Myanmar and to Burma and And and we're just kind of tripping around there going through these markets where they're selling eels and bats and You know all this crazy stuff that's so like you're like you know like this wild things that we don't have in our culture And and then walking back across the border and they were like these handwritten notes on a at the border crossing with like you know scrawled in pen if you are from Wuhan province

please let us take your temperature like they were already on and we're like what Wuhan province what's going on like before we anyone had heard of the coronavirus and so it was already you know there and and outbreaking pretty hard and so we got lucky that we didn't you know I mean I don't know maybe I look back at it you would have gotten sick in the first way I was in Africa in February yeah dude I just like I was in Africa and I remember like you know how you feel I don't know about you but I always feel like super weird when I'm in another time zone. Like it puts me in a like laying in bed at night. I feel so alone. And I'm, I miss my kids. I miss my wife. And, you know, everybody thinks traveling is so cool. And I'm sure as a musician,

people do this to you. But like, I just feel lonely and I'm reading, I'm opening up, you know, my browser. And the first thing I see is it's, it's in Italy. And I'm like, I might not get back. I mean, it was that kind of hit or miss. And so I don't, I don't know, man. Like, I feel like if you can make it in COVID as a marriage, as a family, you can make it any time. I think this has brought me and my family closer together. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like with me getting married, I have two kids, not from my current marriage, obviously. And, you know, navigating all that stuff and, like, the complications of merging lives.

It's really, like, bought under, like, intense focus because we're just constantly. And it's really good. You know, I think sometimes it's difficult to deal with things up front and all the time. But it does test you, it makes you deeper and stronger and kinder and creates more empathy and, you know, gets you better at navigating through the things that we all have to navigate through in life. But let me ask you, where were you in Africa? I was in Tanzania. I have a clean water initiative called Water Boys.

that's like a bunch of NFL players and we've had NBA players as well and we bring veterans over amputees to climb Killingmanjara every year and we raise money for clean water so we've done almost 100 projects we do these large solar powered wells we've got 500,000 people served our goals a million

so one year if you get a wild hair when this thing passed you want to climb a mountain come holler at me oh man well I would love to you know who climbed it Jeff Jeff Jeff from Pearl Jam Jeff well no So he said to say, what's up? I talked to him today.

And he's like, talk to him about jazz, talk to him about punk. I love that stuff. I own Jeff a trick shot. I'm planning on, because he, like, challenged me to do a trick, NBA, a basketball shot, and I haven't done it yet.

I got a good one for him now. He said he misses you. He said to tell you he misses you. I love that guy. And, yeah, we used to hang out a bunch. I haven't seen him in a while. He's the one who sold me on Kelly the first time I went, because the first time I went to Killman and Jaro was just kind of on a whim in an offseason.

And, you know, the way I know Jeff is from up in northwest Montana, Flathead Lake. Have you heard of? Yeah, I know he lives up. He's from up there. Yeah, we got a spot right down the way. I was just on his dock a month ago. So, yeah. In Tanzania, if you ever get out there.

Yeah. Because I've been, I've spent time in Ethiopia and Nigeria and South Africa. And every time I go to Africa, I love it so much. And I'd love to go to Tanzania. My wife has family in Uganda. So we'd been meaning to go there as soon as things go better. And I'm a big climber, hiker. Yeah, so I saw on the IG, you had quite the,

you had some sort of trip that looked gorgeous this spring maybe before shit hit the fan. Yeah, I don't know. I do a lot of, like, in Malibu. I don't know wherever you're going. It looks like you're in the middle of Alaska, but you're probably right off the PCH. Up above Malibu, there's all these trails.

I do a lot of trail running. I'm into running. Yeah, yeah. But I'm actually supposed to be in Yosemite right now for my annual backpack. trip. I do a big backpacking trip, but the smoke from the fires is just like canceled the trip. Oh, yeah, it's tough. I hate that. You know, I feel like a lot of the ills of society could be cured by people getting in nature and

kind of getting calm and connecting with that kind of power. I think, you know, gives you the tools to deal with each other. Like, I think, like, the way that we isolate in the cities and the places where we live in, in this country really gives fuel to that. like anger and frustration and looking for someone to be mad at. No doubt about it. I feel like if everybody got a one day reset or a 48-hour isolation, nature reset a month, we'd all be so much happier. It's a chance to pause the stimulation,

pause the voyeurism with the arguments and just get it out of your head for two days. I bet we'd all come back better. Yeah. It gives you a sense of self and it fills you with love. man I you know it's really like ultimately like everything we're talking about and the disconnects and the things that are difficult like love heals everything and yeah um and real love you know not like I guess just you know love for for for ever once surge the singer from Sistina Vadan we're talking one day and he goes and he said there's two kinds of people in

the world there's people that know that we're all connected and there's people that don't know And I feel like when you can connect to nature, it gives you the tools to know that we're all connected and all are one. And, you know, you can be out in the most beautiful place and someone with a polar opposite point of view and someone who, you know, you just like think they're mean, spirit and mean, like get out in nature and it births brotherhood and camaraderie. It's humbling. It's a humbling setting. It sure is. One of the things that I've used to really put in perspective how long we've been at this 2020 thing is Kobe Bryant. And I'm like, that seems like five years ago for me.

I mean, he passed right before things got crazy. And I guess I wonder, you know, when does he pop in your head right now in time? Oh, yeah, often, you know, particularly being a, you know, a basketball fanatic and a Lakeland. Yeah, there you go. You know, and I enjoy being a sports fan and acting like a two-year-old. About, you know, my team's the best, the other ones are all enemies. But, you know, often being a basketball fan and, you know, obviously it was his birthday the other day, and there was a big Mamba Day thing and stuff.

That was just so shocking. This guy who had been through a lot who had, you had, you know, you know, accomplished so much as an athlete and was going on, like coaching girls basketball, like working really hard, making films, making kids' books, doing all these things. And then, you know, you get hit with the news and he just like evaporated into nothingness, into thin air. And then, and then like a half hour later, and his daughter's dead too. Yeah.

And it was just devastating. and I, you know, I just, you never know, it just hits home to really treasure our moments and to try to create, do what you can in your community, do what you can in your life to create light because you never know, like, things go quick, man. Everything seems fine and then someone just disappears and is burnt to a crisp in a second. But it doesn't feel like he's gone to me. It's like you can't. know him like he came and spoke because he was an eagles fan and he came and spoke to us the super

bowl year and it was awesome he treated everybody in the room like he knew who they were and then i saw him at the espies and you know i went to you know like when you walk by somebody you don't want to be a bother but i also don't want to like if he did recognize me for some strange reason i want to just brush by him so i kind of saw the eye contact i was like okay i think Kobe remembers me and so you go in for the dapp and i'm like hey Kobe chris long from the eagles he's like I know who you are with a big smile. And I'm like, that's probably how he made everybody feel. I mean, and I think what was said in the wake of his passing was he made me feel special.

I heard that in so many different iterations. I think it was really cool. And that's why I think for a lot of people, it's hard to believe he's gone. You know, it's just, that's the idea I get in the basketball community. And he lived like he could die any day. That's how he was living. And it happened. And the biggest tragedy for me,

is he had so much left to offer after basketball. I mean, you climb this mountain. You say, I'm going to start my second life, really, reinvent myself, which is one of the most beautiful things about retirement I've learned, and you don't get a chance to do it. Yeah. I mean, I've often, I mean, in his case, he was, you know, constantly working and constantly trying to expand his universe

and to do positive things in the world. And just, you know, quickly, real quickly, he also made me feel special, like, a number of times. Like, I just, you know, I don't. I always feel like, you know, I have these fancy Lakers seats. I sit courtside, and for the last couple of few years, I've had these seats. And I never, you know, I never want to, like, intrude onto the player's world. I'm so with you.

They're like these mythological heroes to me. I just watch, and I'm in awe. But, you know, a couple of times he just came by and said, hey, I appreciate your support. And, you know, engaged me in conversation. And the last time I saw him, he had already been retired. I was sitting with my wife. And he was just walking by. and it was like Kobe Kobe and he stopped.

He gave me a hug and, you know, we had a little talk. And I just, you know, he was just so kind that way, you know, really generous of spirit. But you got to do the anthem his last game, huh? I did. Yeah, that was really fun. USA Today told me, said it sounded like someone threw a toaster in a bathtub. Man, well, I don't know if that's good or bad, but who gives a shit.

I thought I did like the greatest musical performance of my life, you know. I got to go back and listen. I'm sure it was awesome. What was that night like? Because I felt like that, like of all games, and admittedly, I'm a Knicks fan, okay, long suffering. You got to suffer, man. Yeah, I know. But I never liked the Lakers because I always wanted to see them lose.

But the fact that I still respected Kobe said a lot, that night, even though I don't like the Lakers, even though Kobe wasn't my favorite player. I felt like that game was like more of a living organism than a game. I mean, it was just the most electric basketball game, including playoffs that I've, like, damn near ever seen. It was like, I'm just going to see how many points I can score. And everybody in this arena is in the audience more so than like in the crowd. It was different. Everybody was willing it to happen. I wonder what the atmosphere was like that night.

The atmosphere was electric. But the crazy thing is that night I was playing at a fundraiser later that evening. for local food banks. Oh, no. Yeah, so I came, I played the anthem. I watched the first half, and then I had to go do it. Oh, that is such a bummer. Yeah, so, and the second half was when he really went off.

At least you were doing something good. You had a good. Yeah, no, I mean, I never would have done it for, you know, when they asked me, when, you know, and he requested me to do the anthem, and it really meant a lot. So normally I wouldn't have done two gigs in one night, but I had to do it.

Was there a Lakers moment that outside of that you got to see live that you'll never forget? Millions. I mean, I've watched, you know, I moved to Los Angeles in 1972 when I was 11 years old. And a few years after that,

Lakers got Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and I really fell in love with Kareem. You know, back then was just a sports section, but everything he said, every move he made, the beauty of his shot. That's what really got me into basketball. It was him.

I just have always admired him. I've read all his books. I just, I love Kareem. Yeah. And every time he swung left, turned right, and did that sky hook. It was the most immaculate, perfect thing that a human being could do. And then magic. And, you know, and magic's probably my favorite basketball player of all time,

probably my favorite athlete of all time. Just I like his, you know, the way that his game, manifested itself as this real lifting everybody up around him, you know, making all-stars of everybody around him. Like he made Byron Scott, James Worthy, all these other guys looked so good. And it was so exciting to see. And it was like, for me, it was like a metaphor of life, you know, and I've always tried to think that way as a musician.

You know, as a bass player, which is you're kind of like laying the groundwork for everyone else to do the stuff on top. And even though I'm a type of bass player that goes up top myself sometimes, but by Max And magic was like that as well. So, but I always, you know, I looked at it. It's like, you know, being a jazz musician with that. And as you know, being an athlete like that acutely, that like hair trigger awareness of adapting to a situation. I know.

I know. So you're a linebacker, right? No, I was a defensive end. So like basically out of the tennis rush. But I played outside backer in like one or two spots. But yeah, defense event. Okay. But you're a guy that, and I don't know football well enough.

Yeah. But you're the guy that runs into sack the quarterback, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to sack the quarterback. If things are going well for me, that's what I'm. Yeah. So, but you also have to react, whether he's doing it, he's faking the handoff.

He's going to go back and pass you a tack, or do you fade back to go? It's muscle memory. It's, it's, and when you're in the zone, and I've heard musicians say this, like, we aren't thinking at all. Yeah, you're seeing things develop and you have to react so quickly, right? You know? Yeah. And I love that.

Like, I feel like that's when we're at our best as human beings, you know, when you're, you're like you're in the zone, you're beyond thought, you're in a place where you're like really channeling the moment because you're completely present with all of your mind, your body, your spirit, everything. And so I think all of us, you know, athletes, artists, painters, anyone, writers, anyone that's like doing anything creative, that's a magic place to be. But it's not easy to get there. At least all the field. Okay, so like, I wonder if people listening or like, okay, if Flea gets up there with a guitar, he's automatically in the zone. Or if I was playing and rushing on third down in the Super Bowl, the only thing I'd be, I mean

ideally, but sometimes your mind wanders. Like, I'm ADHD. Okay, so I'm on the field and I'm bouncing around like crazy. Some thought might pop into my head that has nothing to do with the game. And I'd like to say that I'm always 100% focused, but battling that can be really tough. Yeah, I, for me too. And anything, like I act sometimes, too, and I act in films, the same thing. Like, can I forget that there's a camera?

I know, bro. You're the face of nihilism. Yeah, that one of my favorite movies all time. Yeah, I've been, you know, a few situations. But, like, the same thing. Like, can you forget there's a camera there? Forget that you were just talking to the other actor about the basketball game at the craft service table?

Can you forget everything and be completely in a moment? Like, and all the things you're talking about. And in music, for me, the big one. Like, where I'm, because I know I'm at my best around beyond thought. I'm forgetting about everything, including music, and just letting this channeling this thing, letting it come through me from awareness of the moment, and forgetting all the rules I knew all of it.

But the thing to do, like, you know, we all know, like you as an athlete, we're yearning for that thing, work. We're beyond thought and in the zone. And in the yearning to do that, you do all the physical preparation. You get yourself, like, physically and mentally where you're in a place where you're ready that when you get, get in your zone, you have all the tools and you've developed yourself, but you can't make yourself go there. You have to, like, you know, be practiced at it and be ready and have the skills to do

everything to try to get there, but then you have to trust in the gods to let you let go, to give you the strength to really surrender and let go. It's like, you know, it manifested so clearly with surfers, I think. You know, I really love surfing. And there's that thing, like, you can do all the work to be a good surfer or not do the work, but you don't have to be. It's a mean there's a wave's going to come. You know what I mean? And you do all that stuff. You get an ocean foot, but so when the wave actually comes, can you let go and trust yourself to ride this thing that could kill you? Yeah. It can crush, snap your spine when it's a 15 foot wave, you know. The fucking sharks don't get you, man. I'm not getting water out in, uh, outside big sir or anything, bro. Like,

I know it looks majestic, but I don't believe these people that say you have more of a chance to get hit by lightning than attacked by a shark. I'm not sure where you stand on that statistic. I'm very pro get in the water and the sharks are my friends. Well, you're also, you've got Australian in your blood. So they got the big boys over there, just like the West Coast. Do you ever forget, like, a performance because you are in such a zone? Is there ever a moment where you're trying to recall it and you can't? Because when I think about the Super Bowl, I remember a smell.

I remember a sound. I got a flash, like a photo flash. But I don't have continuous memories. Yeah, I mean, I remember most every show I've ever done. and there's thousands of them in some way, like something will trigger a memory. But even like when I know that I was gone, and like I come back and I like, you know, emerge from it

and I know that I was really gone in a magical place and that I've been doing the work so I could articulate the magic. In those times, I remember, like I just more remember the feeling and the connection and that it was beyond my mortal control. Yeah, it wasn't all you. Yeah, and it never is.

I'm not a religious person, but I am a spiritual. I have spiritual practice, and I pray and I meditate, and I do stuff like that. And I really believe that when we're at our best, and being in the zone, what it means is letting go and letting God work through you, through whatever it is that you do. And that might just mean like, you know, smiling at someone when you serve from a hamburger, you know. Yeah. Yeah. How do you meditate? Because I saw that you meditate and you do yoga.

Yeah. I've tried it before. And I'm like, dude, my head is just all over the place. So I guess that's the point. Yeah, that is the point. You know, and I think like with most meditation, I mean, there's lots of different types of meditation, especially now with all the apps stuff, you know, where it's like guided meditation. you're basically you're letting go of letting your thoughts and your physical sensations and your inner dialogue dictate what you're doing.

So whether it's really active, sometimes it's really active, sometimes it really isn't. I think the more you meditate, you're able to get less active mentally. But sometimes I'll sit down to meditate. My mind is erasing. I can't stop thinking about, you know, this person's fucking with me. I got to go do this thing. music school, why is this teacher, why didn't show up to teach three Clarenet students today? What am I, you know, am I going to have to fire this person? I love this person.

You know, like all the stuff that's working all the time, you know, creative thoughts. The idea when you sit down to meditate is to let the thoughts go by. And no matter how many there are, you remove yourself from the quality of the thoughts, meaning as like whatever they are, just, hey, it's a thought. Going back to my mantra, going back to my breath, going back to my breath, going back. to whatever type of meditation I'm doing. And there's a real, a lot of power in that. Yeah, because I can tell because I've been trying to stop thinking for 35 years.

I lay in bed. Yeah. And my mind just races. You know, like mine too. Mine too. And you talk about ADHD stuff too. And, you know, I've never been diagnosed, but I know I have a million. Likewise.

I got a cognitive test after football, actually, like, before my last year playing. I took the same test that I took to test out of language at the University of Virginia, which in college I was taking that because I was hopeful I wouldn't have to take Spanish. But at 32, I was taking it to make sure my brain was good. They told me, hey, a lot of people would love to have your brain. You definitely have a little bit of ADHD, buddy. And I'd never been prescribed with anything. I've never taken medicine or anything.

But I can definitely tell because at night, I just can't stop thinking. And to try to actively suppress a thought is just this mind fuck. Yeah. Quite literally. Yeah. No, I get it. I get it. I've been there, like, and dealt with a lot of, really, like, debilitating anxiety and a sense of, you know, thoughts racing.

And just, it's kind of a sense of an impending doom and not feeling safe. Like, what's happened? What's wrong here? Yeah, like, hoping bad's going to happen to me. And or just not, and not for any good reason. Sometimes maybe for good reason. Maybe, you know, whatever. But I think, you know, when you think about meditating and stuff,

and something, this is something I read this once in it, it's kind of the thing, like, because I grew up, I was a complete atheist. I was a wild street kid. I was on drugs, doing dumb robberies. I was just headed for trouble. And then I ended up, you know, finding a lot of meaning in music and having this music career that's worked out really well.

But, but I remember. I remember once reading, there was someone gave me a spiritual book to read, because I've always liked to read. I enjoy it. And the guy talked about how if you take away your thoughts and you take away moving, you take away anything like if you can imagine for a moment and you can imagine it, like having no thoughts, no idea, no anything, just being a blank slate. What is the thing inside you? What is it? Yeah. Like what's left? you know are you are are you you're not your thoughts that's not what you are like you're you're not your physical body that's not who you are like yes they're huge manifestations you know our actions

our thoughts our words are our our movements but what is that thing like and that's so mystifying to me like that's your soul yeah the thing that's not thought it's just your soul like disconnect from all those things and the idea of that being an entity beyond all the things that we all identify with every day as being who we are, you know, how we, what we have, what we do, is really fascinating if you, you know, and like, if you strip it all the way down, it's like, you know, a thought is temporary. That's who you are temporarily. If you can, I don't know if I'm just white noise inside or some sound machine or, you know. I think you're something like really incredible. Like there's something in there. And so meditation is a way to, you know,

to assist you in getting away from all that stuff and just get into that soul of who you are. And sometimes you have to work and strip through a lot of deep stuff to get there. And it can be terrifying too. Did I hear, did you talk at length about microdosing? Or is that something that you? Oh, I mentioned that the other day because I had been considering microdosing. You know, when I was a kid, I took a bunch of acid and mushrooms and psychedelics and stuff. But I stopped it.

I stopped doing it. I was a 35-year-old I did that too. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it can really be great and great assistance. It can also be, you know, in the wrong circumstances, it can be, you know, really difficult. But I just, I've been reading a lot about it and thinking about it. And by all accounts, it can be really helpful. I think it's like any drug, you know, if you use the wrong way, it can just be a crutch that takes you away from yourself.

And so I just wondered, you know, because I'm just wondered, you know, because I'm, you know, I know that like that thing you're talking about getting in the zone, like I know athletes are always wanting to get into that spot as well as, you know, artists and and right and all, everyone wants to be completely present in the moment. And by all accounts, this can be something that can really help you to get into the moment, not just when you take the stuff, but so you remember that that exists, that you have that tool inside yourself. So I just wondered, you know, is that a thing?

Yeah. I hear it's effective. I hear there's people who are very productive and very normal. Like, you could tell them with microdosing. It's just, it's, do you think microdosing could help you like to like the Clippers? You know, the Clippers are an abominable organization. The Clippers, look, Steve Baum is from Seattle. I hear they have a nice big empty arena up there.

There's a key arena still up there. They probably knocked that down. Yeah, key. But look, they could go right up there to Seattle, take the spot of the Supersonics. And for the- Got out the Frank Brickowski and the many soldiers of the 96. Bikowski was a Laker for a minute, too. Yeah, I know.

So you know Brick. I know Brick, too. I saw him a couple weeks ago. You know? I don't know him. I just... Okay, so my Brick are tight. So, like, it's funny.

I used to watch all those matchups up there in Seattle. They were a likable team, but they just could never get over the hump. Yeah. I really loved that. I loved Sean Kemp a lot. Oh, yeah. The Wayne, man, like, he was, you know, he kind of like he really sort of dissipated at the end of his career.

But, man, those first, like, those years of him and Gary Payton, that was thrilling. The glove got a raw deal in the last dance. I thought they, they, I don't know if you saw the last dance. I did. I thought they led the glove down a little bit of a path. to make him look like he got the best of Jordan, which he did sort of. I mean, Jordan wasn't perfect in those games. Yeah, well, yeah.

I mean, I remember, like, what the Bulls went up, 3-0 or 3-1, and then the Sonics won a couple of games. Yeah, exactly. So do you have a clipper that you hate the least or dislike the least? I don't, I mean, it depends. If you really want me to be an adult about this, it's possible that I can do it. You know, I like you just hate them, but, you know, I admire a great basketball. all. And, you know, Kawhi Leonard is, I don't think we've ever seen a player like Kauai Leonard,

a guy that is just so, like, surgical in his moves. Like, when he just gets in that mid-range game, and he wants to, like, you get him one-on-one, he wants to, like, fade back a couple of feet and hit that 15-foot jumper, like, there's no you're going to do. And he's such a smart, conscious player that it's, you know, I've never really seen a player like him. I've ever seen a player so mysterious relative to the 24-hour news cycle. I mean, like, who is this guy? Yeah, and he's not a real, like, especially not being a Laker fan. Like, I'm just booing him all the time because he's on the Clippers.

But he's not like a fun player. No, he's like wicked. He's like Darth Vader, man. And he doesn't, you know, he doesn't show himself, you know, and he keeps himself private. And, you know, it's respectable in this day and age to do that. And it's also respectable that he doesn't showboat every day of time. He does something amazing. He's down and plays defense and is really, you know, in so many ways, even though he's a massive superstar and can do anything he wants, he's really selfless, you know.

So it's awesome. I just want him to lose. Yeah, I do too. Actually, I'm really pulling for Luca. He's just, I haven't seen anybody like him in quite some time. Do you hate their uniforms as much as I hate the Clippers uniforms? I think those uniforms are important. Go back to even the Lamar Odoms.

I'll take those over these bad ones. It looks like Grant Pepato. Yeah, I liked when they had Darius Miles and Lamar Odom, and they weren't a threat to beat the Lakers. Yeah, exactly. It's a little different now. How about the new stadium? Because, you know, I read that, like,

if you had to identify as a football fan, as L.A. Rams, they got a new stadium. Yeah. Do you, as a fan, really gravitate towards the older, kind of character-rich buildings that are going by the wayside? Like, I love playing at the Coliseum. The locker room suck. But when I walk out on the field and saw that flame in the end zone,

You know, just something primal about that. The new things, they're sterile, they're, you know, like, and I wonder with your perspective as a performer, as somebody who's basically, you know, just like us, when you walk in as a fan, do you like the old buildings or new buildings? I love the old buildings, man. I mean, yes, there's new buildings. Like, sometimes, like, acoustically, the sound will be a lot better,

and it's a more convenient experience for everybody. But I like buildings that are designed for one particular thing. like you go into music buildings like these old you go play like uh uh where did the grand old opera in uh memphis yeah yeah yeah yeah like these old music buildings that are just in music going away not only is they have it so dialed in to make the music sound good

but this the history of everybody that played there and you want to honor it and you want to you know and um I felt that way in the forum with the Lakers and they got the staples and it was easier to go to the bathroom and easier to like go get a hot dog or whatever Man, like the great basketball arenas as a basketball fan. And we're going to the old Bull Stadium and seeing Jordan like a second or third year. We were in town playing at the metro, this club in Chicago.

And like sitting there with the guys like head in front of me like right on my crotch. You know what I mean? It was so steep. And everywhere, like I was in the nosebleeds and I was right over the court. Yeah. Because it was designed for basketball. And I like the whole, the crowded, the old like. Yeah. And the Colise.

Yeah. It's an appeal for football, man. Yeah. And that's a great football. I saw, you know, went to many a Raider game there, you know, back in the day. I remember I was at the game where Bo Jackson's career ended, where he got tackled up. It was, I think, against the Bengals. Yeah.

And I used to go all the time, and that was so much fun. And part of it is just that feeling of history, you know. So I don't know with the new buildings. I mean, the thing is, they make a new building, and in 50 years, someone that when they're tearing that one down or in 30 years but the thing is they're not like the new things they make they're not just for one thing they're multi-purpose yeah yeah it's a PSLs luxury suites and that's what about you and you and a guy you meet in high school playing at the fucking pyramids you know yeah I mean like what was what's what's that like that's almost like one of

these like in the video games where you can fight in any stage around the world you got to like street fighter goes anywhere like any setting you got to play in a fantasy setting. Yeah, that was, well, just going to Egypt was incredible. Tripping around the town and we got to go to the pyramids when no one was there because, you know, they have all the tourist stuff in the day and then they shut it down. And we got to go walk around them. It was like still light out and there was no one there.

And we just like climbed up on them and walked all around them. And it was really like these words get used commonly, but so on spying and mystifying and, like, there's so much power and energy. And it's like, how did they do it? Like, you look at the bottom of, like, one of these pyramids, which is, like, four football fields or something. And they did this thing. They didn't even know how many thousands of years ago. Ancient aliens.

They engineered this perfectly flat thing and then put these, like, each brick weighs, like, two tons. And mathematically, the whole thing is this perfect structure, and it's so massive. and they didn't have any of the tools and how did they see it from the top to know how to do it and engineer? I mean, it's just like any wonder, like all the intelligence that we've lost, you know,

any intelligence that we continue to lose by the convenience of modern technology. No, you're right about that. You're right about that. I don't think Apple's making me any smarter, but... No, it makes me dumber. Yeah, it makes me feel dumb too.

Yeah. But I guess I wonder, you go to a lot of basketball games, and honestly, what prompted this question, I asked my friends from my morning jacket this recently was seeing you at Bonaroo jumping around like a fucking madman two years ago, three years ago. When was it, y'all played at Bonneroo, 18, 17? Yeah, we done it a couple times. 16 maybe, I can't remember.

Well, my years of Bonarro all run together much the same. So, like, I saw you jumping, and your vert has to be, still to this day, your vert has to be really strong. I mean, you've got to admit that you can jump. And I'm thinking to myself, if I tried to jump and I'm full of, I'm full of liquor and God knows what else and I shouldn't be feeling any pain, I would throw my back out and you're 20 years, my senior, and you're jumping to 40. Are musicians, athletes? Not always. No, most aren't. For me, playing live has always been an athletic event. And I push myself till I collapse, you know.

mostly just because I care so much about people that change their lives to pay money, to come and see me play, and I just feel like I owe them everything. And it's my job to give every single ounce of every physical, mental, spiritual, emotional fiber of my being that I can give. And so I just always go for it. And I'm very, I love playing sports. I love exercising.

I love using my body. For me, it's as important as exercising, you know, the creative parts of myself or the intellectual parts or anything. To me, without, like, having all of those things working, you can't really be a complete person. You'll be deficient in one way or another if you're not. And I think if you don't, like, let your body be strong and open

and it can't really channel all the stuff it's supposed to channel. It doesn't matter how old you are. You know, it doesn't matter. So, you know, I'm such a proponent of diet and exercise and self-care. Do you sleep after a show like that? You know, all the intensity that you bring, like, do you just hear it all night? No, it takes me a long time.

So, like at a show like Bonner, you usually play really late, like at midnight. Yeah, you y'all are late. But usually, like, you know, like an average show and we're, like, doing an arena tour. We usually play like 830 or 9 or something, get offstage around 1030. I eat by the time I'm at midnight. I don't get to bed until four or five in the morning. Sounds like a night game. I mean, like when we play on Monday night,

you book it 5 a.m. You're just too revved, right? I get like for every show, we do so many shows in every show afterwards. I'm shaking. You know, I'm like exhausted and like, like just by adrenaline is pumping. Everything's pumping.

And, you know, coupled with the fact that, and it's probably the most difficult thing for me about touring and being an abandoned general, is it takes so much, you know, attentiveness and, and vulnerability, you know, with the other guys in the band and the physical part of touring and just like dealing with egos and audiences and all the stuff that I can get to. And I don't know, I wonder if this happens in sports. You know, the thing is I think like when you're in sport, most athletes are relatively really young. Yeah. So it's different when you're that young.

But I push myself so hard that I feel so raw. Yeah. And I don't know if you get that in sports. You feel like it's really easy to get perturbed or thrown off your kilter. Like that's why it's so important for me to meditate and stuff. But like someone can just say a little thing and I get real like frazzled by it and things bother me and stuff just because I get, because I push so hard. I get really like in a state of exhaustion, it's much harder to kind of keep your psychic defenses up and all of that. And that's really the hardest part for me and the thing that I have to, you know, develop.

I think the hardest part for a ball player is. not bringing it home, which I thought, you know, to pat myself on the back, my lovely wife, Meg, who is in the other room, she would say I did a pretty good job of that. But, I mean, it is a challenge to come home and having a dad who played for a long time seeing the number one thing that he maybe regretted was not being able to be present as much during his career. It was one of the biggest reasons why I waited to have my two kids until, you know, I was older. So I could enjoy more of them growing up and not being like, you know, like you said, under the gun, the adrenaline. And then, going from 100 miles an hour to getting home and eating dinner with my wife and my kids. So I'm with you. And you can be irritable. You know, you can be exhausted, be hydrated, you can be. All of those things. And it's amazing that you were able to be thoughtful enough to do that, to maintain.

You know, that level, like, let me wait until I get through this before. Well, we were lucky. My wife and I weren't in a rush anyways, but just seeing how my pops, it's just hard to be present. And I guess let's do a lightning round real quick and get you out of here because I know you've got a billion things going. This is a good lead in here. One piece of advice for fathers. This is a quote from Maya Angelou. Every time your kids walks into the room, see the sun rise and sat.

I like that. I really like that. You know what I've been thinking about lately? you know in the movies when they go into like kid vision and the kid has a flashback of seeing what their dad said to them or how they built him up or broke him down and they always they always make the kid look so small like picture any conversation i have with my son through that kind of movie lens like what how does how does he see this interaction yeah it just hit me the other day because i was you know what i mean like you're so big you're so big and so powerful to them you know and you don't realize your power either you know And something else is like, when you look back, I know, I'm sure when I look back at my parents, and I wasn't really parented that much, I was kind of a street kid, but I looked back and it was never anything that they said. You know, there might have been a few like pearls of wisdom that got dropped my way or things that I was like, that's ridiculous. But more, it's how it made you feel than anything.

So anything that you say, you might, like, I'm going to let them know, this is, I'm going to teach them a lesson with this big important statement. Like, it never, they're going to learn. Everyone's going to hear you. They're going to learn on their own shot clock. Yeah, but they're always going to remember how you made them feel. And did you make them feel like you were a sanctuary that you were a place that they could come home to and say anything to and talk about their stuff? Because they just trusted and loved that you were available. Yeah.

That's what matters more than anything. You know, I just tell my kids, you can do anything you want as long as you don't hurt yourself or anybody else. How about a record you would play? So like by the time we had kids a couple years ago, they say, if you, play music, you know, you can put a speaker on the belly and the kids can hear the music, you know, whether they're absorbing it or not. We played a ton of music for my first son, Waylon. And I wondered if you could play music or one album for a newborn or a kid in the womb, what would it be? A Love Supreme by John Coltrane.

Nice. I had a feeling it might be Coltrane, knowing it's so good. But, you know, there's so much like magical music that that's yeah that's a real signpost for me how about uh best NBA Twitter account like an NBA journalist that you trust oh my favorite guy is Max Kellerman really yeah I really like Max man you're gonna love that yeah I don't know him but I just I'm a fan I always uh I just think he's super smart and insightful and gets a big picture for a guy who's not a player yeah no you know what I do I do like a lot of his takes honestly, and that's hard to do when you're showing up every day and you're feeding the sensationalist machine that can be. He's pretty measured a lot of the time.

Yeah, and in terms of players, like, LeBron's awesome. I think he really grew up and learned a lot since he was a kid. But he's consistently, even when he's super emotional about stuff, as he is now, is thoughtful and intelligent and noble in his responses, I think. So you've been munching watermelon the whole time we've been talking, which is which we just ranked fruits the other day. I shook the whole thing up because I said apples are overrated. I think, you know, it depends where you're from. But I think, you know, I don't know. Apples are, I think the most overrated fruit is the strawberry.

Hey, dude, it's second to apples for me in the overrated category. But I saw that you love blueberries, okay? They were in my top five. Give me your top three fruits. Watermelons won for me. Okay, well, blueberry, the blueberry is number one for me. Then I have to go with the blackberry. Ooh, but it's got to be the right one.

They can screw blackberries up. That's how I feel about strawberries. The strawberry, you know, you get one out of ten. Like once a year, you might get a good batch of strawberries. The rest of them are like white on the bottom or they're mushy or they're just something. There's always something. They're at the bottom of the turtom pole for me. And then I don't know.

I kind of have the pineapple and the watermelon tied for number three. Okay. Hey, listen, I just want the listeners out there since we did the rankings, white peach is skyrocketing. It's white peach is one of the most underrated fruits in the fruit kingdom. Well, I feel like if you're in Hotlanta, the peach is number one. Yes, I got to be very. I mean, every street is called peach, but like I've had peaches in the south.

When I'm in the south and I get a good peach. because I actually, if I'm completely honest, the greatest piece of fruit I've ever had in my life was a peach. But it was just one particular peach. I had it in France. I came into a hotel room at like 4 o'clock in the morning after a gig and they had presented me with this lovely peach on a ceramic dish of my bench perfection.

And I was like, and it was the most fantastic fucking thing that ever happened to me. My body was a light. And at that exact same moment, I turned on the TV and Kobe Bryant was hitting a game winner against the Pistons. And then they lost in five, I think, to the Pistons. But you had to respect that Pistons team. But yeah, that, yeah.

They caused me great torment because I was on tour in Europe. The games came on at four or five in the morning. I would go find a bar somewhere in like Bielfeld, Germany at five o'clock in the morning to watch the game. And watch Ben Wallace, like, beat us and like walk back, like a, zombie, you know, sacrificing all my sleep to suffer and, you know, to go to a... That's the least the universe can do to you, Lakers fans. You've been so, so spoiled, dare I say. Well, look, we've been suffering for seven years.

Yeah, okay, here we go. Explain this tweet I saw a month ago from you, in all caps. Neil Young is alive. Hmm. Um, I think I might have been listening to, uh, I don't remember which record. I think it was, um, tonight's the night. Yeah. And, you know, just having a Neil moment and being really into it.

I have many Neil Young moments. Oh, great. Yeah. I mean, he's so, you know, transcendent as a performer, a songwriter, a soloist, just like the spirit of his power, the power of his music. And, you know, the line that he's always walked is just the best. But I think in that moment I was thinking about, I often, you know, someone will die and their legacy will become so apparent in their death. Like, they leave us, like, when Kobe left, like, there's this big emptiness, you know, or any great musician that. dies and I'm like oh man this person meant so much to me I did it the other day too with Wayne shorter who's a great great jazz sax the phone player yeah um but Neil I was just like he's here now give him his fucking power I was just celebrating him you know like he's still relevant and he still

doesn't give a fuck and he's still just like making wild music that's completely rebellious and powerful and beautiful he can still write a great of a song as he ever could he's just the best Do you have a favorite song on Tonight's The Night? Well, Wait, Tonight's Tonight has the live version of Needle and a Damage done on it, right? Let me pull up the tracks here. I got my own answer, because it might be one of my favorite Neil's songs.

Albuquerque is my favorite Neil's song at the moment. That's a great song. I mean, tonight's the night itself, which is also about a heroin overdose. Yeah. And having lost friends at a young age to heroin overdoses, just, um, there's always, you know, get me crying. A bit of a somber experience.

Yeah, they just, but also like hope and identification of feeling less alone, like that feeling of connection with someone like, you know, I mean, everybody wants their pain to be understood, you know. Um, Neil was really able of doing that. And I grew up in such a drug culture and there was so much damage and destruction wrought by it that, um, it's, uh, you know,

we all want to feel less alone, man. So, but, uh, needle of damage done is kind of, I think, you know, the best, a really good song about that. Now, the last one here. This is maybe the most important one. This is another tweet I saw from you. They said, what was the TV character whose death really just hits you the hardest? And you gave, you were, DeAngelo from the Wire was your answer.

But I would ask you, what about Wallace? Where's Wallace? Well, Wallace's death was devastating. I was crushed. Yeah, I was crushing, man. And, like, and, you know, that character, like him always getting up, getting the juices for the little homies, you know, like taking care of the little guys and being sweet and kind of looking for a way out and the cops sold him out. I guess, like, with DeAnne, and it was heavy. You know, I got so into that show.

But when DeAngelo died, like, I had been watching it and becoming really emotionally invested, it was such a well-made thing. And when it got to the point where I knew DeAngelo was going to die. and he was like, you know, getting into literature and reading in the joint and he's walking through the library and you see the guy lurking around who's going to kill him and you know it's going to happen. Like they're just setting you up. I have been watching that show feverishly like two, three episodes a day on a tour bus, right? I'm on tour.

And that came up and I literally couldn't watch it. And I let a month go by before I turned it back on because I knew in order to go on, I had to watch it. And I couldn't bear to see it. It was so painful for me. Yeah, and they did a great job before. I mean, you knew when somebody was marked for dead in that show. It just took a while sometimes.

Yeah. Yeah, it was rough. It was rough. Greatest show in TV history, in my opinion. I think the greatest drama show. Drama, drama. Okay, yeah. Definitely the greatest HBO show, in my opinion.

Definitely. Okay, good. Is there anything new you're working on that you want the people know about or anything that, you know, how can they help Silver Lake Conservatory, that sort of thing? You know, if they want to help Silver Lake Conservatory, it's silverlake conservatory.com. I'm also involved with the Watts Community Corps, and I can't remember the website's name, but it's called the Watts Community Corps. And if they want to help out there, that's awesome. And in terms of like my own artistic endeavors, I'm, you know, working all the time right now really focused on the chili peppers.

and that's the consuming thing right now. That's exciting, man. We look forward to more music, and I hope we get over this hump. Come back another time, man. It's been a real privilege and a pleasure. Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Chris.