Flea isn’t just one thing. He is a symphony of contradictions. A father. An actor. An iconic stage presence. An inductee into the Hot Ones family of celebrities suffering from severe decision-induced gastrointestinal distress.
More than that, Flea — birth name: Michael Peter Balzary — is the bass player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a band from a far-off era called the 1990s, when all the tips were frosted and kids still had the audacity to dream of Californication. Since before the band had landed on a name, Flea has been laying down some of the most iconic riffs in contemporary rock and roll, becoming one of maybe three bass players that anyone would recognize walking down the street – two, if Gene Simmons isn’t wearing the makeup.
Born in Melbourne, Australia on October 16, 1962 and raised in Canberra, New York and California, Flea grew up in a series of varyingly bohemian environments, with both parents engendering a lifelong love of music in him. By his own recollection, Flea came by his pseudonym in high school, earning the nickname thanks to his inability to sit still. Friends would call him “Mike B. the Flea,” a sobriquet that he’d carry with him into early performances, being credited as such in some of his earliest acting work in 1983’s Suburbia. Presumably in a bid to ruin the lives of future CD insert writers who got paid by the word, he later shortened it to “The Flea,” then “Flea.”
Where to look if you’re itching for more Flea
On the subject of his acting career, Flea was apparently unsatisfied with a life building up to being voted Rolling Stone’s second-greatest bassist of all time. He also had to dip his toe into on-screen performances, via some of the most memorable movies and television shows of the last four decades. Flea can be spotted playing a nihilist in The Big Lebowski, one of the members of the heist crew in Baby Driver, part of Biff’s gang in the second and third Back to the Future films, and playing a musician in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He voiced the feral child Donnie Thornberry across the Wild Thornberrys TV series, movies, and video games. He’s also developed a frustrating habit of showing up in music videos for songs performed by bands he’s never been a member of, causing moderately-to-severely stoned college sophomores to ask “Wait, was Flea in The Beastie Boys?” since 1986. Through his work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea is a multi-platinum artist with more than two dozen mainstream awards under his belt, including three separate AMA wins for Favorite Alternative Artist, six Grammys, and, in 2003, a Hungarian Music Award for International Rock Album of the Year for By the Way.
Interested parties with a desire to better understand just how wrecked the ‘90s were are encouraged to check out any documentary about Woodstock ‘99, where Flea danced and played bass naked in front of thousands of people while the festival burned to the ground.