Flea

Michael Peter Balzary (Melbourne, Victoria, October 16, 1962), better known as Flea, is an Australian-American musician, bassist and actor, known for being a founding member of the funk rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers.

His work with the group includes a multitude of styles, from aggressive slap to more melodic techniques. In addition to his work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, he has collaborated with a multitude of artists including Metallica, Nirvana, Jane's Addiction, Rage Against the Machine, The Mars Volta, Mick Jagger, Alanis Morissette and Slash, and collaborated on the concert series Axis of Justice with Serj Tankian and Tom Morello, among many others. Due to his funk and punk rock influences, Flea focuses on simplistic, minimalist techniques, coupled with touches of complexity that should be used sparingly.

In his early days he was considered a trumpet prodigy, but in high school he learned to play bass guitar from a friend and future founding member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Hillel Slovak, who needed a bass player for his group Anthym (later known as What Is This?). Flea joined the group, but left a few months later to play with the punk rock group Fear. Later he rejoined Slovak's group, allied this time with Anthony Kiedis and Jack Irons; from this union the Red Hot Chili Peppers were born.

Flea has also participated in films of various genres, such as the films Suburbia (1983), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), My Private Idaho (1991, with his friend River Phoenix) and The Big Lebowski (1998), as well as well as the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022). He was ranked by Rolling Stone magazine as number 2 of The 10 Greatest Bass Players Ever He is also a member of the supergroup Atoms for Peace.

Biography

Youth

Michael Peter Balzary was born in Melbourne, Australia, on October 16, 1962. His father, Mick Balzary, was a fisherman who used to take his son fishing with him. When he was 5 years old, his family moved to Rye, New York because of his father's profession. In 1971, his parents divorced, and while Mick Balzary returned to Australia, his mother, Patricia, remained in the United States, marrying a jazz musician shortly thereafter. Flea's stepfather frequently invited other musicians to his house, and numerous jam sessions were held there. Over time, Flea's family moved again, this time to Los Angeles, California, and it was there that Flea's love for the trumpet began. His teachers considered him a prodigy, comparable only to the musician Herb Alpert, who also attended the Fairfax Institute. At this age, Flea still did not feel interested in rock, his most idolized musicians being artists such as Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, among others.

Flea's stepfather was an aggressive alcoholic, who frequently got into shootouts with police. On this, Flea would later say: "I have grown up in a very violent and alcohol-influenced home. I grew up terrified of my parents, particularly my father figure. It caused me a lot of problems later in my life". Flea began experimenting heavily with cannabis at the age of 13.

Flea attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, where he felt a bit left out due to his musical tastes. However, he soon met Anthony Kiedis, who after a confrontation between the two, would become great friends. About it, Kiedis used to say that "we were united by the forces of pain and love, and we became virtually inseparable." We were both social outcasts. We found each other and this became the longest lasting friendship of my entire life". Kiedis was a huge influence on Flea, introducing him to rock, and more specifically punk rock. It was around this time that Flea adopted the nickname of him, given by Kiedis himself, while the two were skiing on a tour, and motivated by the Australian's nervous and capricious nature.

1979–1984: Formation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Flea was also great friends with Hillel Slovak, who was a guitarist in a local band called Anthym at the time. Tom Strassman left Anthym in 1979. Slovak, Irons and Johannes thought it would be good if Michael Balzary replaced him. He didn't know how to play bass, but he had the attitude they were looking for. Hillel Slovak began teaching Balzary to play bass, and after just a few months, Michael—who changed his name to Mike B The Flea, or just Flea—was ready to play with the band. Very shortly after Anthym participated in a Battle of the Bands, getting a second place. During his stay at Anthym, Flea began to develop an efficient skill with the slap, which he would later hone. Anthym then began to play in nightclubs, despite the fact that all the members of the group were minors. Flea, Slovak, and Kiedis became great friends, and began using LSD, heroin, cocaine, and amphetamines for the sheer pleasure of it.

The 3 friends joined the horde of fans of the punk movement that was resurfacing in Los Angeles. Flea went from despising the genre to listening exclusively to it: 'The beautiful thing about punk rock was the intensity, the energy. And punk deflated everything that rock inflated. I think musicians who don't pay attention to punk have a gap in their knowledge that makes it difficult to communicate these days. With this move, Anthym changed their name to What Is This?, and they quickly became a local club favorite, drawing over 30 people per concert. Even so, the internal situation of the group was irregular, so Flea eventually left the group for a punk rock band from Los Angeles called Fear, who were in a fairly favorable situation, although despite their prosperous future. In this group Flea worked as a drummer, but he left the group shortly after his arrival due to being discontent. After that, he tried to join British post-punk group Public Image Ltd., but later turned down the offer, admitting that he had only auditioned to play with the group's frontman John Lydon, former lead singer of the legendary band punk rock, Sex Pistols.

It was then that Slovak, Kiedis and Flea began creating their own music, after finding inspiration in an up-tempo funk group called Defunkt and punk-funk fusion works like Gang Of Four. The evident influence of jazz in the funk genre he made the transition from "Gillespie fan punk" style as natural. The 3 friends reconnected with former Anthym drummer Jack Irons, to form a group that was called Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem. This group only had one song, entitled "Out in L.A.". After the band's debut at a venue called The Rhythm Lounge, the owner asked them to come back, but instead of one song of their own, they would come back with two. After several concerts, and several of their own songs on their setlist, the group finally decided to change their name to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

1983–1990: Four first albums

The group's musical repertoire grew to 9 songs, the result of months of playing nightclubs and bars. The Red Hot Chili Peppers then went to Bijou Studios to record a demo to later sign a contract with EMI. However, Irons and Slovak decided to leave the group to devote themselves more seriously to their other group, What Is This?: Flea respected the decision, but firmly believed that without them the group would be lost. Still, he and Kiedis tracked down a drummer named Cliff Martinez and guitarist Jack Sherman to fill the gap. In addition, Andy Gill, a member of the punk-funk group Gang of Four, agreed to produce his first album. The problem arose as a result of the continuous arguments between Gill and Sherman against Flea and Kiedis, as a result of the musical style and the sound that the album should have. Flea felt the record was boring and a big mistake, but later admitted that, at the time, he and Kiedis were pretty irreverent and disgusting.

Finally their self-titled debut album came out on August 10, 1984, receiving a poor reception in the media. At the beginning of 1985, and after a brief unsuccessful tour, Sherman was expelled from the group, and Slovak, who had followed closely in the group's footsteps, rejoined at the encouragement of Flea.

For the group's second album, they hired funk musician George Clinton himself (leader of the legendary Parliament-Funkadelic collective) as producer. The strong chemistry between Clinton and the Red Hot was felt instantly, and the Freaky Styley recording was brimming with emotion; Flea later referred to Clinton as "the kindest, nicest person in the world." When Freaky Styley came out in August 1985, it received only slightly more attention than his first effort, selling 75,000 copies by the end of the year. Flea was indifferent to the record's low sales, and yet he proposed to his girlfriend, Loesha Zeviar, pregnant with his child.

For the recording of the third album the group hired Michael Beinhorn, their last resort as potential producers. With What Is This? finally dissolved, Jack Irons returned to the group in the middle of 1986, thus expelling Martínez from the group. In turn, Flea, Slovak, and Kiedis were found to be involved in the use of hard drugs, and the relationship between them became strained. Flea, recalling those times, later said: 'Everything turned ugly to me and wasn't funny anymore; our communication was not healthy". Kiedis became addicted to heroin, leaving Flea and Slovak alone to work on the new material. Flea and Zeviar were married, and she gave birth to their daughter, Clara. Kiedis was temporarily kicked out of the group, giving him a month to rehabilitate; After rehabilitation, Kiedis rejoined the group, ready to record their third album, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. Flea considered this album the most rocker of all that the group had made, but despite all this, the album did not get a better reception than the previous two. However, they managed to reach number 148 on the Billboard chart.

After the Uplift tour, Slovak's addiction to drugs increased dramatically: his friendship with Flea fizzled out, and Slovak became isolated and depressed. On June 28, 1988, Slovak's lifeless body was found, dead from an overdose. Flea reflected on it: "I didn't know how to deal with that sadness, and I don't think Anthony could deal with it either." Irons, who had a close relationship with Slovak, was the one who took the guitarist's death the worst, and left the group.

Flea and Kiedis then took some time to gather their strength, but decided to keep the group (or what was left of it) together. Thus, the group was joined by guitarist Wayne McKnight and drummer D.H. Danger, and the group entered the studio to record their fourth album. McKnight created tension in the group, and his style did not fit with the rest; Danger, who was the drummer for the punk rock group Dead Kennedys, knew a young 17-year-old guitarist named John Frusciante and a die-hard Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, so he introduced him to Flea, and the three of them played together at various occasions. Flea was impressed by Frusciante's skill, and stunned by the group's knowledge of the entire repertoire, to the point where he was convinced that Frusciante could bring the spark that McKnight did not: McKnight was kicked out and Frusciante accepted the invitation to join. To the group. Shortly after, Danger would also be expelled, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers hired drummer Chad Smith.

Personally, Flea and Zeviar went on their own together, and the Australian began to reminisce about his teenage years by smoking marijuana. He also collaborated on Jane's Addiction's 1988 album, titled Nothing's Shocking , on which Flea played trumpet. Later, he also collaborated with hip hop artist Young MC playing bass on the critically acclaimed album Stone Cold Rhymin' , and even appeared in the music video for his own song Bust a Move. Young MC.

The Red Hot entered the studio and successfully completed their fourth album, Mother's Milk, in early 1989. The album was met with mixed reactions from critics. In the end, it was more successful than any of the previous albums, signifying an advance in the band's career, although commercially it was not received with much enthusiasm. With all this, it reached number 58 on the Billboard list.

1990–1998: Media success and side projects

The ensuing Mother's Milk tour put a strain on Flea's marriage. Getting money required a tour, and that meant spending time apart from her family. In addition to this, he and Chad Smith were arrested on charges of sexual harassment, after a show on MTV during spring break; The charges were dropped, however. At this point, the group was attracting about 3,000 people per concert, and Mother's Milk was certified gold in early 1990, due to its good sales. Following the tour, the Red Hot Chili Peppers returned to Los Angeles, and Flea and Zeviar agreed to part ways. Flea for his part tried to get the divorce out of his head by smoking marijuana and having sex with willing fans.

The group finally broke ties with EMI to sign with Warner Bros. Records. Big producer Rick Rubin, who previously turned down producing the third album, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, has agreed to produce the Californians' next album: For this new album, Flea thought he had already used the main slap techniques on the first 4 albums, so for this one he opted for something more conventional and melodic. For the recording of the album, Rubin suggested that they move to the mansion that once belonged to the magician Harry Houdini, which Flea received as "a fertile situation for creativity", taking his daughter Clara with him.. Both Flea and the rest of the group, with the exception of Smith, remained inside the large house throughout the recording process. During the time they weren't writing or recording, Flea spent much of the time smoking pot with Frusciante. On recording this album, Flea said that he felt one of the most exciting sensations he had ever experienced:

When we record Blood Sugar Sex Magik We spent a lot of time playing, for hours and hours. I remember that during that time Anthony [Kiedis] went to record a movie, and for a good part of the time we were just John, Chad and I, and we just came in there and played. It was the first time we were going to record and there was no feeling of being intimidated by what was going to happen next.

When Blood Sugar Sex Magik was released on September 24, 1991, it was met with almost unanimous positive reviews. The album reached number 3 on the Billboard chart, selling more than 7 million records in the United States alone. The tour that followed the album was critically acclaimed, and the Red Hot performed over 200 concerts. Joining the tour was the grunge group Nirvana as they toured the West Coast. The massive attention that the Red Hot began to receive, however, caused Frusciante to start to feel really uncomfortable, and during the passage of the Japan tour he decided to leave the group. To end the tour, the group hired Arik Marshall. In the following years, unlike the other members of the group, Flea maintained his friendship with Frusciante.

After the tour, Frusciante's place was filled by guitarist Dave Navarro, a former member of the band Jane's Addiction. Kiedis was in the midst of a relapse into his heroin addiction, forcing Flea to take on the role of writing lyrics for the new songs, something he had never done before. During this stage, he wrote a large part of the song "Transcending", which he dedicated to one of his best friends, the late River Phoenix, as well as the intro of the song "Deep Kick", plus one song in its entirety: "Pea", which features the solo playing bass and singing. These 3 songs appeared on the sixth album by the Red Hot, One Hot Minute, released on September 12, 1995. This time the critics towards the album were diverse, but what is clear is that the commercial success was much less than the previous one. The tour that followed the album was suspended in its final stage, due to injuries suffered by both Kiedis and Smith; the first due to an accident with the motorcycle and the second due to a broken hand. After this the group decided to take a hiatus.

Flea began to practice yoga, and gradually weaned off marijuana. Due to the musical parenthesis of the Red Hot, Flea decided to join the group Jane's Addiction on their 1997 tour, with which they had already participated in 2 albums and where the then Red Hot guitarist also played at that time. Dave Navarro. Rumors that the Red Hot had broken up were growing, until Navarro issued a statement: "I want to clarify that the Red Hot are not breaking up... Flea and I are more than happy to keep both projects." During this time, Flea even considered recording a solo album: Thus, he spoke with Lindy Goetz, the Red Hot's manager, to help him in the recording process and in his future solo career, but he finally abandoned the idea. in favor of offering his services as a bassist to other great artists.

From 1995 to 1998, Flea appeared on more than 40 recordings, from Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, to Mike Watt's debut album, Ball-Hog or Tugboat?. Along with Tori Amos and Michael Stipe, he also recorded a song for the Don Juan DeMarco soundtrack, which featured an old friend of Flea's, Johnny Depp.

After this fruitful stage, in 1998 Navarro was kicked out of the group after a bitter argument, and Flea internally questioned whether or not the Red Hot would stay together: "The only way I see to move on is for us to get John [Frusciante] returns to the group." Fortunately, Frusciante had just completed his rehabilitation process for his addiction to heroin and cocaine, which almost led to his death. Flea thus visited Frusciante at the beginning of 1998, inviting him to return to the group, which he accepted very excitedly..

1998–present: Californication, By the Way, and Stadium Arcadium

The group, with Frusciante back on guitar, began writing new songs in the summer of 1998 in Flea's garage. He and Kiedis were less confident when writing songs, due to the criticism received with the album One Hot Minute. Flea had also broken up with the girlfriend of two years Marissa Pouw, driving him into a depressive state, which he only eased by being comforted by his friends and his daughter Clara.

Flea was being influenced by electronic music during the writing and recording process of the album Californication, and was constantly trying to emulate this style when writing his bass lines. Californication took less than two weeks to record, in contrast to One Hot Minute, which took just over a year. When Californication was released on June 8, 1999, it was met with unanimously positive reviews in the media, selling more than 15 million copies worldwide, more than its Blood. Sugar Sex Magik. The year the album went on sale, the Red Hot were invited to play Woodstock again, Flea attending the event completely naked, something he would do again that same year at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, as well as at other points of the Californication tour.

Flea felt that the public school system seriously underexposed children to music, reducing or even eliminating art-related programs. So he decided to found the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a school dedicated to helping young people progress musically.

I just wanted to fill the gap that public education has cut off from your curriculum. They've dropped the ball by cutting musical programs. I grew up in a public school in Los Angeles, and I was at the music club. It was really important in my life, it gave me something to hold on to, and it was an important escape path for me. Without the music, I'm sure he'd put me in a lot of trouble, and there were a lot more kids like me. I just want to try to get them to have what I had.

Flea acting with the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the 2006 Oxegen Festival.

The year 2001 was spent by the entire Red Hot writing their eighth studio album, By the Way. The four members began to listen to more melodic and textured music, which was reflected in the final result of the album. Frusciante became the hidden force behind By the Way, which initially caused some conflict between the guitarist and Flea: If the Australian introduced a funky groove to the bass line, Frusciante disapproved. By the Way finally came out on July 9, 2002 to rave reviews. Although it was not as financially successful as Californication or Blood Sugar Sex Magik, By the Way sold more than 9 million copies. throughout the world. The tour that followed, however, was really fruitful: The Red Hot gave three consecutive concerts in Hyde Park, London, with more than 250,000 people and a global collection of 17.1 million dollars.

After a two-year tour, the Red Hot began writing their ninth album, Stadium Arcadium. In 2005, Flea became engaged to his girlfriend Frankie Rayder, an American model, and months later that year, he gave birth to his daughter Sunny Bebop. Unlike the recording of By the Way, Flea and Frusciante were stylistically close when writing the new songs, drawing inspiration from Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Eddie Van Halen among others. The double disc that makes up Stadium Arcadium was finally released on May 9, 2006, to generally favorable reviews, selling more than 7 million copies in less than two years. In 2007, Flea's $4.8 million home in Malibu, California was engulfed in a wildfire. However, the location was not his habitual residence.

With the group exhausted after years without a break, the Red Hot announced a long hiatus, and Flea began taking music classes at the University of Southern California. In the fall of 2008, Flea began studying music theory, composition, and jazz trumpet. Flea attributed this interest as a means to calm a resurgent desire to further his musical knowledge and understanding:

It's very fun to learn all these things because I've never known anything. I played the trumpet at school, and learned things I liked to play, but I never learned why a note was going with that other note, and why that sound was produced. Or how to create tension in composition. Knowing the structure is really fun.

Flea also revealed his plans to record a solo album, mostly instrumental, recorded in his own home, and with collaborations including Patti Smith and the Silverlake Conservatory Choir.

In September 2009, Flea participated with other stars in the recording of Slash, the first solo album by his friend Slash. Flea appears on the track "Baby Can't Drive" with Alice Cooper, Nicole Scherzinger and Steven Adler.

Flea with Atoms for Peace at the 2011 Fuji Rock Festival.

In 2009 it was announced that Flea would accompany Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke on his solo tour, along with Joey Waronker, Mauro Refosco and Nigel Godrich. The band's first performance was at the Echoplex in Los Angeles on October 2, 2009, where Thom Yorke's solo album The Eraser was performed in its entirety, as well as some new songs and the side. b by Radiohead called "Paperbag Writer". It was followed by two concerts at the Orpheum Theater in the same city on October 4 and 5. The band, with Yorke as soloist and Flea as a permanent member, became known as Atoms for Peace in February 2010. The formation went on tour in April 2010 in the United States, ending at the Coachella Festival. On August 1, 2010 the band performed at the Fuji Rock Festival. On September 6, 2012, Atoms for Peace released the single "Default" on iTunes, at the same time as they present their website. The group released their first album on February 25, 2013 under the title Amok, on XL Recordings. On February 28, the video clip of the song "Ingenue", belonging to the album, is uploaded to YouTube. That same year the band went on tour again.

On June 5, 2010, Radio 2 named Flea the best bass player according to a vote that sought the best band of all and for this the members of this band were voted. The vote was carried out on the chain's website.

Personal life

Relationships

From 1988 to 1990, he was married to Loesha Zeviar. His daughter, Clara Balzary, was born in 1988.

Flea has been engaged since 2005, though never married, to model Frankie Rayder, who was once named the world's sexiest woman by GQ magazine. They had a daughter, Sunny Bebop Balzary, born October 26, 2005. The song "Hard to Concentrate" from the 2006 album, Stadium Arcadium, was written by Kiedis as a marriage proposal between Flea and Rayder.

In 2019, he married businesswoman and fashion designer Melody Ehsani. In July 2022, it became public that they were expecting a child together. Their son was born on December 12, 2022.

The Viper Room

On October 30, 1993, he was playing at The Viper Room with the band P while his friend River Phoenix suffered from a drug overdose outside the establishment. When this reached his ears, he left the facility and got on the ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Hospital. In August 2022 he appeared on two songs by the Phoenix band Aleka's Attic to commemorate the fact that it would have been 50th birthday.

TV and film appearances

Flea began his acting career in the mid-1980s: His first role was as a young punk in the Penelope Spheeris film Suburbia in 1984. In the drama Thrashin&# 39;, from 1986, appeared playing himself as a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Years later, when fame was already with him, he played Needles in Back to the Future Part II , from 1989, and a year later in Back to the Future Part III ; on Back to the Future II Flea commented that it was "billion-dollar garbage". Motorama (1991). He also participated in the independent film My Private Idaho, along with his great friend River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves, to later appear in numerous supporting roles in films such as Son in Law (1993), where he played a tattoo artist, and The Chase (1994), as the driver of a monster truck.

A short time later he made his appearance in two great movie masterpieces: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, from 1997, where he played a hippie, along with Benicio del Toro and Johnny Depp, and The Big Lebowski, in 1998, where he played a German nihilist. He also starred for a few moments alongside Viggo Mortensen in a store scene, in Gus Van Sant's 1998 adaptation of the Hitchcock film. He also doubled as Donnie in the film The Thornberrys .

In 1991 the Red Hot Chili Peppers released a black and white documentary of the making of the Blood Sugar Sex Magik, titled Funky Monks. They have also edited, to date, 2 concerts: Off the map in 2001, and Live at Slane Castle in 2003. They also participated in the Woodstock concerts in 1994, with metallic suits, and in 1999, where Flea played totally nude.

On television, Flea has appeared numerous times alongside the Red Hot: before Frusciante's departure in 1992 they appeared on Saturday Night Live, an appearance that Kiedis recalls as embarrassing, as he believed that Frusciante had knowingly misplayed the songs. That same year they also appeared in the mythical television series The Simpsons, in the episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled", and later, also in 1992, they appeared in the Ben Stiller show, where Flea beat Ben in a basketball game.

In 2017 he played Eddie in the movie Baby Driver.

In 2019 he appeared in the film Queen & Slim directed by Melina Matsoukas.

In November 2019 his autobiography, Acid for the Children, was released, which tells his story up to his start with the band.

In 2022 he appeared in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi.