Red Hot Bassist Flea: USC's Coolest Undergrad?

It takes drive to go back to school after you've already sold millions of albums, won loads of awards and brought your city the type of cred it often tries to buy. But Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has enough drive to do all that, blog on the Lakers, start his own music school, and enroll in University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music.

I can't wait to hear his thesis.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Flea is hitting the USC campus several times a week to brush up on his jazz trumpet. Meanwhile, the campus he already founded, Silverlake Conservatory of Music, is hosting a fundraising concert on Saturday featuring jazz trumpet phenom Roy Hargrove and more. And though he's already a world-beating bassist, Flea sees no reason to rest on his resume.

I think most people see it as being about commerce –- you only go to school to make money, and you already make money playing music so why would you go to school? It seems backwards but it makes perfect sense to me. My whole musical life has been an educational process and I’m just furthering my education and filling in the blanks. There's stuff that I want to know that I don't know.

this audio or video is no longer availableI'm with that, Flea. So here's something I want to know that I already don't know: Is Flea the most talented bass player in rock? And if not, given what he has done and is doing now, is he at least the coolest?

Photo: RedHotChiliPeppers.com