Flea Appears on ‘Hot Ones,’ Handles Spicy Wings Like a Champ

Flea was the latest celebrity to appear on Hot Ones, and as expected, he was a great guest.

A wide variety of topics were discussed while Flea and host Sean Evans indulged in a series of spicy wings. They included his love of the trumpet, his Los Angeles Lakers fandom, songwriting and his passion and advocacy for music education. At one point, he does start scatting after eating a particularly hot wing, which is amazing.

One of the funniest moments came when he recalled participating in an MTV Rock n' Jock basketball game and winning a three-point shoot-off. Flea said, while clearly hopped up on the hot sauce, "Who drained a f---ing ten-pointer, which is further than a three-pointer, on an assist from Mitch Richmond in the waiting seconds of the game to put f---ing Marky Mark to shame? Me, that's who!"

The whole episode is worth a watch. However, it does contain some NSFW language, as indicated in the quote above.

Thinking of how all that hot sauce could impact someone's intestines reminds us of a story Flea shared on social media this year.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist took to Twitter on April 7 to share a harrowing tale of having to go number two while shopping at Target. He wrote, "More rock star glamour: walked to Target to get nail clippers and nose hair trimmer. Employees were right on me asking for selfies and telling me they love me. Two minutes later I get hit with a major urge to take a sh-t."

Flea continues, "They tell me bathroom is downstairs, I go there but ten people in line, I’m about to soil my trousers. I go to employees and plead, please can I use employees bathroom they say no employees only."

His toilet tale gets even more stressful. Flea writes, "I run across the street to some cafe and ask to use bathroom (on the way there a guy waiting outside tells me I’m an a--hole for not stopping to take a selfie with him.) The cafe lady threatens to call security on me for politely asking for bathroom."

Fortunately, this story has a not-disgusting ending. Flea concludes, "I made it by the skin of my teeth to a restaurant a few blocks away. Back to hotel to practice trumpet."

For more than three decades, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have twisted rock, funk, punk and soul into new, surprising, usually fun and sometimes sad jams.

Singer Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea have kept the band together and have stayed relevant far longer than most of their peers or their idols. We took a deep dive into the hits and some album tracks to come up with this list of their 42 greatest songs.

We included every era, not to be fair, but because every lineup had at least a few classics. The early lineup of Anthony, Flea, guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons is some people's favorite. Anthony, Flea, drummer Chad Smith and guitarist John Frusicante created their most successful albums and songs. But credit is also due to former guitarists Jack Sherman, Dave Navarro and Josh Klinghoffer, and ex-drummer Cliff Martinez.

When Johm Frusciante rejoined the band, they showed that the most successful lineup still had something to say (and a lot of it: they released two double albums in a year). Take a look through our countdown of their 42 best songs (and yes, the list surely could have been much longer).