Flea was born in Melbourne, Australia, on October 16, 1962. Born Michael Balzary, he became a founding member of Red Hot Chili Peppers, with bass parts that helped shape the band’s mix of funk, punk and rock. His playing on “Give It Away,” from 1991’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik, grew out of a musical education that began with jazz and trumpet.
After his family moved to the United States, watching his stepfather play jazz at home gave Flea an early understanding of music’s emotional force. Speaking with NPR’s Audie Cornish in 2019, he recalled being overwhelmed by the musicians performing in their living room. Home could also be frightening, and he sought the closeness of family through friendships in Los Angeles. In that interview, he traced his first meeting with Anthony Kiedis to Fairfax High School in 1977.
Trumpet was his first serious musical pursuit. He described learning the instrument and playing in bands during a 2026 interview with NPR’s Terry Gross, remembering how his stepfather introduced him to records and the intensity of live jazz. Those performances showed him musicians expressing tenderness and anger through their instruments. His own attraction to movement, dancing and physical release became part of the way he approached performing.
Guitarist Hillel Slovak supplied the invitation that put a bass in his hands. Flea bought a Fender Mustang and played his first gig two weeks later. Recalling the beginnings of Red Hot Chili Peppers in a January 1992 Bass Player interview, he described assembling an opening act with friends without rehearsing. Onstage, he started a funk bass part while Kiedis read a poem. The group adopted the Red Hot Chili Peppers name for its next show.
His time in the Los Angeles punk band Fear added another kind of discipline. Drummer Spit Stix taught him to warm up before performing and to use his body to push the music. Flea valued that experience, but his interest in funk increasingly differed from the direction Fear wanted to take. After leaving the group, he concentrated on the Chili Peppers.
By Blood Sugar Sex Magik, he was reconsidering how much a bass part needed to do. In the February 1992 issue of Bass Player, Flea explained that a fuller recorded tone helped him become comfortable playing fewer notes. “Our producer, Rick Rubin, encouraged me to play simply, and the more I did it, the more I liked it,” he said. Exhaustion after touring Mother’s Milk also made him receptive to a less forceful approach.
“Give It Away” tested his judgment about his own writing. He had dismissed its bassline, but the other musicians wanted to develop it. Their encouragement helped turn an idea he doubted into the album’s lead single.
His commitment to music also took the form of a school. In 2001, Flea and longtime friend Keith “Tree” Barry founded the Silverlake Conservatory of Music in response to cuts in arts education across Los Angeles public schools. It opened at Sunset Junction, offering affordable lessons and scholarships for students whose families could not otherwise pay. The program expanded to include ensemble classes, summer camps and workshops.
In October 2016, the conservatory moved to a permanent home on Hollywood Boulevard, giving the music education project Flea and Barry had started a new base in Los Angeles.
