| Name |
Flea |
| Height |
|
| Naionality |
American |
| Date of Birth |
16-October-1962 |
| Place of Birth |
Melbourne, Australia |
| Famous for |
Acting |
Flea is an Australian born American 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 Silver lake 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 super groups Atoms for Peace and Rocket juice and The Moon. Originally a jazz trumpet player, 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. The band's concert repertoire grew to nine songs as a result of months of playing at local nightclubs and bars. The Red Hot Chili Peppers entered Bijou Studios to record a demo tape produced by the then-drummer of Fear and subsequently secured a record deal with EMI.
Irons and Slovak however, decided to leave the Red Hot Chili Peppers in order to pursue a "more serious" future with rock band What Is This? Flea ultimately respected the decision, but felt the band would be lost without them. He and Kiedis hired drummer Cliff Martinez and guitarist Jack Sherman to fill Iron's and Slovak's places, respectively. Flea has also appeared in television broadcasts with Red Hot Chili Peppers on several occasions. Several months before Frusciante's departure in 1992, the band performed two songs on Saturday Night Live — Kiedis felt the show was an embarrassment due to the guitarist; he believed, that Frusciante purposely played the song out of tune and incorrectly. Later that year, the band appeared in the popular animated comedy The Simpsons on the episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled". At Woodstock 1994, Kiedis proposed the band perform the first few songs in metallic suits with giant light bulbs placed on their heads. Flea was initially reluctant but eventually agreed: "... when we got to play, the energy of the whole thing took over."
In 2011, Flea appeared in the documentary, Bob and the Monster. The film details the life of musician and drug counselor Bob Forrest. Andy Gill, formerly of Gang of Four, agreed to produce their first album. Gill and Sherman clashed with Flea and Kiedis; they continuously argued over music style, sound, and the album's production. Flea himself felt that the album was stiff and "a big mistake", but also admitted "we were just disrespectful and obnoxious". The band's eponymous debut album, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, was released on August 10, 1984 to largely poor critical and commercial review. After a relatively unfruitful tour, Sherman was fired in early 1985. Slovak, who had been contemplating a return to the Chili Peppers, rejoined the group after being encouraged by Flea. Flea has pursued a minor acting career since the mid-1980s. His first role was as young punk Razzle in the Penelope Spheeris film Suburbia (1984).
Shortly thereafter he starred alongside the Chili Peppers, who played themselves, in the skate drama Thrashin' (1986). He played the ill-fated punker Milo in another Penelope Spheeris film, Dudes (1987). He also made an appearance in the Bruce Weber documentary film about the life and career of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker entitled Let's Get Lost (film) (1988). He portrayed the character Needles in Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Back to the Future Part III (1990), though in an interview he referred to Part II as "a multi-million dollar piece of trash". Flea played a minor role in the 1991 independent film My Own Private Idaho as the character Budd. He played a number of minor roles in films throughout the 1990s, including Son in Law (1993) as a tattoo artist, The Chase (1994) as a monster truck driver, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1997) as a hippie, in The Big Lebowski (1998) as a German nihilist and the 1998 remake of Psycho. He has also lent his voice to the animated series The Wild Thornberrys as the character Donnie.
In 1991 the Red Hot Chili Peppers released a black and white film documenting the recording of Blood Sugar Sex Magik titled Funky Monks. They have released two video concerts, Off the Map in 2001 and Live at Slane Castle in 2003—the latter of which had over eighty thousand attendees.
