It’s been a busy 2022 so far for Flea, who, along with his Red Hot Chili Peppers bandmates, wrote and recorded the band’s recently released album, Unlimited Love, which will be promoted on a mega world tour later this year.
Meanwhile, the bass guitar icon has also found time to continue his acting side hustle and update his comprehensive list of pop culture cameos, with Star Wars News Net reporting – on the eve of Star Wars Day, no less – that Flea himself will be starring in Disney+’s upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
While he won’t have a starring role – though Obi-Wan Kenob-Flea is a Star Wars spin-off we’d definitely watch – the bassist will still reportedly make a somewhat-notable appearance. Per the original report, Flea will apparently “be wielding a cool-looking blaster”.
The report adds up, too, given Obi-Wan Kenobi director Deborah Chow was behind RHCP’s Black Summer video, released back in February.
Despite the release of two trailers, footage of Flea with his “cool-looking blaster” is still yet to emerge, meaning we’ll have to wait for the show’s premiere on May 27 to catch the bassist in action.
As it turns out, Flea isn’t the first bass guitarist to pop up somewhere in the Star Wars universe. Earlier this year, fusion maestro Thundercat made his acting debut on The Book of Boba Fett – another Disney+ spin-off show.
Of course, it’s not Flea’s first rodeo in front of the camera. Over his career, the RHCP bassist has racked up a number of onscreen cameos in Back to the Future II and III, The Big Lebowski, Baby Driver and more.
While the decision to swap four-strings for fantasy firearms may only be temporary, Flea announced he’d made a more permanent – and arguably more significant – switch in both his live and studio setups earlier this year.
In an interview with Bass Player, Flea revealed he ditched his tried-and-trusted Gallien-Kreuger bass amps while recording Unlimited Love in favor of Ampeg SVTs, and announced he liked them so much he’ll be taking them on the road when RHCP tour this year.
“I’m actually switching amps on this tour for the first time in a long, long time,” Flea said. “In the studio, I started playing Ampeg SVTs, and I’m switching to them live.
“To be honest,” he continued, “I’ve always thought it doesn’t fucking matter. You’re bringing your heart and your fingers and that’s all that really matters, but I’ve been really enjoying [the SVTs] – they are the center and the character of the sound that I love.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on May 27 on Disney+.
