Michael “Flea” Balzary was born October 16, 1962 in Melbourne, Australia. At the age of five Flea’s family moved to New York when his father’s job got relocated. Not long after the move Flea’s parents separated and he moved to California with his mother who soon married a jazz musician who played the bass.
Flea’s stepfather got him hooked on jazz music. His early musical idols were Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Louis Armstrong. Flea learned to play the trumpet and quickly became known as a musical prodigy on the trumpet. Flea’s stepfather quickly developed into an aggressive alcoholic and was arrested after a shoot out with the police when flea was thirteen years old. Shortly after Flea began using drugs smoking marijuana on a daily basis.
Balzary entered Fairfax High School as somewhat of an outcast. Not long into school he met Anthony Kiedis and they quickly became best friends. Kiedis turned Flea on to the punk rock music scene.
Hillel Slovak, who also became friends with Balzary and Kiedis, taught Flea to play the bass so he could replace the current bassist for his band, Anthym (later changed to What is This). Flea instantly fell in love with the bass guitar devoting several hours a day to it until he was comfortable enough with it to perform on stage.
Flea’s proficiency on the bass caught the attention of many other bands. He decided to leave What is This to play with a more successful punk group called Fear. During his time with the band Fear, Flea began jamming with Hillel Slovak, and Anthony Kiedis in what was originally viewed as a side project. Although the band Fear seemed to offer more future, Flea spent more effort on his side project because of the musical freedoms they offered. Flea eventually quit fear when The Red Hot Chili Peppers started to become noticed.
In August of 1985 shortly after the release of the album Freaky Styley, Michael Balzary proposed to his pregnant girlfriend Loesha Zeviar. Balzary married Zeviar and she gave birth to their daughter Clara. After Hillel’s death in 1988 the band was going though many problems as was Flea’s marriage. Flea once again turned to smoking weed on a daily basis to cope with his problems. The next album, Mothers Milk brought on a lot of touring which meant a lot of time away from his family. Not long after the album went gold, Flea ended his marriage with Loesha.
In 1998 after the release of Californication, Flea opened a school for music to provide kids the opportunity to discover music. Flea stated that if it weren’t for music he would have probably gotten into a lot of trouble.
By the Way, released in 2002, brought tension between flea and guitarist John Frusciante. Flea had always had a major sound in the group on his bass and he felt that John was writing more melodic tunes that toned down the sound of the bass.
-Brian Smith
