Flea Recalls Wild Story About Almost Getting Into a Brawl While Naked Snowboarding With Woody Harrelson
If there’s one thing that everyone knows about the Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Flea it’s that the veteran funk-punk bass slapper is never shy about letting it all hang out. And while 61-year-old rocker doesn’t hit the stage in the altogether as often as he used to back in the band’s sock-only days, while chilling with his pal actor Woody Harrelson on this week’s episode of the Woodman’s SiriusXM Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast with former Cheers co-star Ted Danson, Flea told a chillingly hilarious story about a naked adventure he had with the Triangle of Sadness star.
Flea opened by asking Harrelson is he remembered the time the two of them went on a nude snowboarding run. “He and I snowboarded naked. I have footage of Woody Harrelson and I snowboarding stark naked down a big snowy mountain,” Flea told Danson about the trip to Utah by the two pals.
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Harrelson said the footage is “great,” with Flea noting that he was ready to post it on Instagram before Woody’s wife, Laura, “cautioned me against it.” Always a gentleman, Danson joked that it was cold, after all, so the footage might have come up short, if you know what he means. Woody added that he and Flea always have a great time and good laughs when they hang out, some of his greatest times, in fact, even though Flea balances his Zen nature with a competitive side.
That explained how a friendly buff bomb down the mountain almost ended in fisticuffs.
Flea confirmed that he is super-competitive, though he doesn’t really care if he wins or loses, before throwing friendly shade when Harrelson said he also doesn’t care who’s on top when they play basketball or race on their snowboards.
“I’ve seen you sulking after losing. I remember one of the last times we went, we were racing, and we were both reckless ’cause let’s face it. We go very fast, but we’re very average snowboarders. We have to admit that we’re average,” Flea said. “So we’re racing and I’m like out of control rocketing down this mountain and I nearly take a lady out, but I don’t. I see her and I’m like, ‘Whoa.’ Swerve out of her way and I miss her. All’s good. We’re racing. I can’t remember who won. Probably me, probably me, and we get down there, but then the lady, we’re getting ready to get on the lift and we’re laughing and yelling at each other, and this lady comes up and she’s infuriated.”
Flea said the woman chewed him out for nearly running into her, saying he was out of control and prompting the bassist to apologize and admit she was right. “‘I’m so glad that I didn’t hit you, but I’ll be much more careful next time. Please forgive me. I’m very sorry,’” he said he told her. “As you know, I’m neighborly. I’m polite, I’m considerate.”
When Danson asked if Flea meant it, the Chili Pepper said absolutely, acknowledging that it was probably a bit scary to see a naked man ripping by her on the mountain. “I didn’t even touch her, and she was like, ‘Well, you’re an a–hole.’ Blah, blah, blah, and I was like, ‘Ma’am, I’m very sorry,’” he reiterated. But then things got weird when Flea said the woman stuck her ski pole in his face, which agitated him. That’s when Harrelson skied up and saw the tense pole dance and came to his pal’s defense.
“And then she goes, ‘Well, my husband’s gonna come down here and he is gonna show you what for,’ and then that’s when you’re like, ‘Bring the f–king husband. I want to see her bring the husband,” he said Harrelson told the woman. The pair decided to exit the tense scene and hop on the lift, but not before Harrelson, “itching for a brawl,” started yelling, “‘I’m waiting at the top of the lift. I’ll be waiting up top!’”
Harrelson, who says he’s much more chill now, told Flea at the time, “nothing could make me happier,” than if the woman’s husband joined them at the top of the mountain, acknowledging back then — they didn’t specify when this adventure happened — the time the actor used to derive great joy from “impending chaos.”
Watch Flea and Harrelson tell their naked ski skirmish story below.
