After a nearly five-decade (and counting) career as one of his
generation’s defining rock bassists, Flea releases his first full-length
solo album, Honora, March 27, 2026, on Nonesuch Records. Time and space have finally allowed him to return to his first musical loves:
jazz and playing the trumpet. The song “Traffic Lights,” co-written with
Thom Yorke and Josh Johnson, accompanies the album
announcement.
For Honora, which takes its name from a beloved family member,
Flea composed and arranged the music, and also plays trumpet and
bass throughout, joined by an elite crew of modern jazz visionaries:
album producer and saxophonist Josh Johnson, guitarist Jeff
Parker, bassist Anna Butterss, and drummer Deantoni Parks. The
record features vocals from Flea, as well as friends Thom Yorke and
Nick Cave. Mauro Refosco (David Byrne, Atoms for Peace) and
Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes), among others, also join the band. The
album comprises six original songs–including one co-written by Flea,
Johnson, and Yorke–as well as interpretations of tunes by George
Clinton and Eddie Hazel, Jimmy Webb, Frank Ocean and Shea
Taylor, and Ann Ronell.
Though Flea dreamed of being like his heroes Dizzy Gillespie, Miles
Davis, and Clifford Brown, Flea’s path went a different direction: His
close friend Hillel Slovak asked him to pick up the bass and join his
rock band when he was sixteen, leading Flea into a decades-long
career with the hugely successful Red Hot Chili Peppers.
As Flea neared his sixtieth birthday, he realized if he did not pick up
the trumpet again, he probably never would. So he resolved to
practice every day for two years–in the midst of a stadium tour with
Red Hot Chili Peppers, with a wife and newborn at home. At the end
of those two years, he would make an album, regardless of where his
knowledge or talents ended up.
Until Honora, Flea had never been scared of making music before.
He worried that the all-star band he had assembled would think he
was “a non-playing motherf*cker, charlatan, rock poseur or fan.” But,
he says, “It turns out they were all the most genuinely supportive
people, moving me deeply and daily with their generous
spirits…Sitting in a room and playing the music with them made me
feel like I was on drugs. I was buzzing, tripping and floating around
the studio. I love them, they truly gave of themselves. I bow all the way down.”
