Flea

Flea

Michael Peter Balzary (born October 16, 1962), better known by his nickname Flea, is an Australian-born musician. He is best known as the bassist, co-founding member, and one of the composers of the rock band and 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Flea is also the co-founder of Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a non-profit music education organization founded in 2001. Flea also briefly appeared as the bassist for such bands as What Is This?, Fear and Jane's Addiction. More recently he has appeared as member of the rock supergroups Atoms for Peace and Rocketjuice and The Moon. Originally a jazz trumpet prodigy, Flea learned to play bass in high school from close friend and future Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak, who required a bassist for his band Anthym. Flea soon developed his own style and joined the group, but quit several months later in order to play for the punk rock outfit Fear. He then rejoined Slovak to form an intended one-off band Tony Flow and the Majestic Masters of Mayhem along with fellow high school alumni Anthony Kiedis and Jack Irons; the impromptu collaboration would ultimately give birth to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

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