Michael ‘Flea’ Balzary

Michael Balzary, known as Flea is widely regerded as one of rock’s most talented bassists in the world, and for a reason – he has his own, original playing style that is hard to copy (even though many tried). He combines funk-style with psychedelic, punk and hard rock utilising all three major bass playing techniques. One of his specialities is going crazy and wild when on stage, creating a great atmosphere with his energetic performance and unique bass sounds.

Flea was born is Melburne, Australia, but at the age of five, his whole family moved to New York where his mother Patricia fell in love with jazz musician Walter Urban and thus filed for divorce from Mick, Michael’s faher. They soon moved to Los Angeles where his step-father intended to start a career. Urban infliuenced young boy’s musical tastes and affinity for music, so Flea first played the drums and then began playing the trumpet at the age of nine, while at the same time falling in love with jazz music and having no interest in rock at all, as his initial aspiration was to become a jazz musician like his step-father.

Attending Fairfax High School, for young Michael, brought a lot of troubles as he found it hard to fit in, mostly because of his oddity and unusual music taste but it also brought an unusual friendship that was about to change his life for good… On better, of course. By a strange coincidence, he met Anthony Kiedis in the school yard when he was fifteen. For some reason, Micheal wanted to beat up his schoolmate, Tony Sherr, Anthony’s best friend at the time, but just as he drove him into a corner, his best friend came rushing to his buddy’s defence. Michael and Anthony almost had a fight, but became aware that they were made to be friends instead, and from that moment on, they became inseparable. Soon, Michael introduced the new best friend to the world of jazz music, but it was not until he met Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons, that his musical taste strayed from jazz to rock and punk/funk music, and Jimi Hendrix became his new idol.

Hillel and Jack started a band Chain Reaction with two other friends, but as they didn’t like their bassist, Slovak suggested to Michael that he joins them, which he gladly accepted, even though he has never playes the bass before. He took just one formal lesson from Hillel, learned the rest all by himself and within a few months became so good that he even figured his very own style, that would make him one of the most famous bass players in the world. The band was now called Anthym. It was somewhere around that time that he earned his long-standing nickname, Flea, while he was joking with some friends about calling each other with cartoon names, and it became a singular name associated with the musician. Then he joined a punk band called Fear, but wasn’t their member for a long time as his wild mixture of punk and funk styles, wasn’t something Fear wanted. After he left the band John Lydon of PIL asked Flea to join his band but he decided to rejoin his friends instead – starting the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with Anthony Kiedis, Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons.