Did you know that in addition to being a legendary bassist, Flea also keeps hundreds of thousands of
buzzy insects on his property? Curious to know what kind of insects and why? Here's a hint:
it's not fleas! Stick around to learn more about the untold truth of Flea.
Michael Peter Balzary, better known as Flea,
lived most of his life in the U.S., but he is originally from Australia. His family moved to
New York when he was a young child. While living in Rye, a suburb of New York City,
Flea and his sister Karyn felt like outsiders with their thick Australian accents, so they decided to
have some fun with their fellow classmates. In his book Fornication: The Red Hot Chili Peppers Story,
Jeff Apter interviewed Flea's dad, Mick Balzary, who claimed that his children
made up nonsense words and pretended to talk to each other in an Aboriginal language.
"Yagadoobeegadobadeboogedydabuhdee…"
From there, the rumor spread that Flea had a bit of Aboriginal blood.
There was absolutely no truth to it, but the rumor persisted even
after he became an adult — so much so that some people believed the Red Hot
Chili Peppers song "Walkabout" was an allusion to Flea's Aboriginal roots.
Flea's early life in America was a tumultuous time: his parents divorced, and the family moved
to Los Angeles a few years later. His mother's new boyfriend, Walter Urban Jr., became Flea's
stepfather, but the man's alcohol abuse made life difficult for the future rock star. On the
other hand, his stepfather's great love of music inspired the young Flea to also take up the art.
Urban would often invite his jazz friends over to jam for hours, and Flea loved every moment of it,
especially seeing his stepdad perform. When talking to The New York Times, Flea recalled,
"I remember watching him play when I was a kid and the intensity when he would go for it.
Just viciously attacking his instrument, with his eyes closed and sweating, and just, like,
going off. [...] He really gave me gifts that are such a huge part of who I am."
The unique atmosphere at home meant that Flea was fully immersed in jazz music,
and he had so much respect for the genre that he cared much less about all the others. His disdain
for punk music was so great, in fact, that he hated the first punk performance he ever saw.
As an aspiring jazz musician, Flea's favorite instrument was the trumpet,
which he began to play when he was 9 years old. However, Flea's perspective on music changed
dramatically after he met the future guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Hillel Slovak.
When they were 18, Flea, Slovak, and lead singer Anthony Kiedis all lived together in Hollywood,
where Slovak would open his best friends' eyes to music they were
unaware of or had previously dismissed. In Behind the Sun,
a book by Slovak's brother James, Flea talked about the impact Slovak had made and said,
"Hillel was a huge influence on my life. I never would have
begun to play the bass [without his influence]. I looked up to him."
"I never played the bass. I knew that being in a rock band meant
everything to him. His band was a sacred thing to him, it's a special thing."
According to Fornication, Flea went on to admit,
"I [had] heard rock music, but it sounded stupid to me. When I met Hillel,
he started playing lots of rock music for me, and I got into Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix."
Like all superstars with unique stage names, Flea was not always called that — he was once
just Michael Peter Balzary. That began to change when Balzary, Anthony Kiedis,
and their good friend, Keith Barry, were teens and about to go on a ski trip.
The group decided to call each other by nicknames, so Balzary became Flea.
Later, Barry began to realize that the name was perfect for his friend because it was a
reflection of his animated and mercurial character. Even Flea agreed that it fit.
But Flea was not truly Flea until he tried out for the punk band called FEAR. Hillel Slovak's
influence had changed Flea's taste in music so much that he began to have deep respect
for the rock genre, and being a part of the L.A.-based band was an incredible opportunity.
At the audition, the bassist was asked his name, and he panicked a little because he
wanted to sound cool. In his memoir, Acid for the Children, the rock star said,
"I'd been called Flea here and there before, amongst other nicknames,
but without thinking, and wanting to appear like a punk rocker, I blurted out, 'I'm Flea.'"
Regardless of the nerves, the bassist smashed the audition
and became the band's newest member. He's been known as Flea ever since.
While recording their famous album Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the Red Hot Chili Peppers worked in an old,
stone mansion built in 1917 that they converted into a studio. But it wasn't
until the band was already living in the giant Laurel Canyon home that they realized the place
might be haunted. Flea was almost certain of it, and he thought the spirits only
helped to improve the music they created. In an interview with Variety, the bassist explained,
"You can't just put good musicians together and tell them to go do something beautiful.
You have to have assistance. The spirits have to believe in you [...] When you surrender to
that world and consciously let go and let it speak, beautiful things happen."
According to guitarist John Frusciante,
Flea was not the only Balzary in the mansion who was both fully aware of and
unfazed by the supernatural phenomena they claimed to witness. The bassist's daughter,
Clara, visited the mansion three times a week and loved being around the friendly spirit presence.
By 2001, Flea had made enough money from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and his side projects to
fund a massive effort that would give back to the community in a big way. The empathetic musician
was frustrated with the way arts education was eroding in public schools. This was especially
the case for his own former school, Fairfax High, which had gotten rid of its music program entirely
for a time. Jeff Apter writes that once Flea read Songs of the Unsung — the autobiography of Horace
Tapscott, who had created a community center for the arts — he became determined to do the same.
"At that moment I was like, 'God, I should start a music school.'"
That's why the rock star established the Silverlake Conservatory of Music,
to give young students an opportunity to study music in the Los Angeles area. To run the school,
Flea employed one of his best friends, Keith "Tree" Barry,
who had spent almost 20 years teaching children how to play all sorts of different instruments.
Even though he was already a famous bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers,
Flea's love of music is so great that he wanted to study it formally at USC. While the band was
on hiatus in 2008, the newly enrolled freshman took classes in composition and jazz trumpet,
along with theory. When asked if anyone on campus thought it was weird that a rock star
would go back to school, Flea told the Los Angeles Times that only people outside of
the academic world made comments like that to him, and that most true musicians would
totally get why he'd want to learn more about the art. He then added,
"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."
Flea is vehemently opposed to the use of pretty much all firearms, and he believes climate
change is a serious threat to the survival of humanity. The Red Hot Chili Peppers were
directly affected by the latter issue in 2019, when they had to stop working on their new album
because of the Woolsey Fire that destroyed over 1,500 homes in California. The proactive musician
has always been very vocal about issues that are close to his heart, especially on social media.
In 2015, the bassist took his daughter to the beach, where she stepped on a ball of tar.
Flea was livid because he suspected it was from the Santa Barbara oil spill.
In a Facebook post, Flea said,
"Some kid in the hood who made a mistake selling drugs will go to jail and have his
life ruined but you, you evil lying scumbags will get away with a paltry fine that means
nothing to you. [...] You are the worst kind of human beings, I am infuriated you disgust me."
Flea has also made several comments on Twitter about how much he hates the lack of gun control
in the U.S., and how he does not understand those who fight it. In one such tweet, he said,
"Why anyone would ever want to own an automatic weapon I will never
ever understand. it's a pathetic useless concept for sick people."
One major way that Flea personally makes a difference in the quest to save the environment
is by working as a beekeeper. According to TMZ, the bassist has a large apiary in his backyard
that can house more than 200,000 bees spread throughout three separate hives. The bassist is
deeply concerned with the ongoing disaster known as Colony Collapse Disorder, which basically comes
down to the fact that without bee pollination, there'd be considerably less food grown.
While the Red Hot Chili Peppers were on a break, Flea spent three solid months devoted to the art
of beekeeping, and he became quite good at it. Affectionately called "Flea's bees," the
insects in his care are not just a hobby for the rock star. He posted several messages on social
media showing how important they are to him, including one that said, "Pleezus more beezus."
Even though Flea seems to appreciate receiving recognition for his achievements,
the bassist has admitted that he doesn't really care about physical awards. To prove this point,
he revealed in an interview with KROQ in Los Angeles that, three years after winning his first
Grammy Award for the Red Hot Chili Peppers single "Give It Away," his mother realized the award
was missing. Flea had no idea that it was gone. After the statue was missing for months, it was
eventually found by the musician's gardener. Flea explained the comical circumstances, telling KROQ,
"You know how the Grammy looks like an old record player with the horn on it?
My daughter had unscrewed it and was using it as a shovel for the garden.
It had been out there in the dirt for the whole winter."
Even though Flea received help from expert biographer David Ritz, Acid for the Children was
written by the rock star after he broke his arm in five spots in a snowboarding accident in 2015.
Ritz admitted he had quite a bit of editing work to do, since Flea had given him so much material
to work with. To make sure the memoir was not ridiculously long, it ends shortly after the
Red Hot Chili Peppers' first performance. That's why it's not surprising that Flea is
considering completing a second volume. In an interview with Forbes, the bassist said,
"I was absolutely certain I was going to because
I initially wrote all the way up to [the] year 2000."
However, with several other projects in mind, he's unsure he will ever get to it.
Instead, he may use his creative muscles to produce a novel.
As an exceptionally productive individual, Flea is clearly not
satisfied with simply being the bassist of a successful rock band — he's always
looking for new projects to branch out into, including feature films and television shows.
"His girlfriend gave up her toe."
In the '80s, the rock star had a small role in both Back to the Future II
and the final installment of the series as the shady character Douglas J.
Needles. Flea has also appeared in films like My Own Private Idaho and Baby Driver,
and has done voice work for animated projects like The Wild Thornberrys and Inside Out.
Fans quickly recognized Flea again in the latest Star Wars series, Obi-Wan Kenobi, as
the despicable bounty hunter Vect Nokru, who gets what's coming to him after kidnapping Princess
Leia as a child. Once the Grand Inquisitor found him, the part was over for the rock star,
but it was still one of the more significant roles he's had in a major production.