His real name was Michael Peter Balzary, he was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, October 16th, 1962.
His parents divorced and his mother remarried in 1967 to a jazz musician named Walter Urban Jnr. In the same year he moved with his mom, stepdad and sister Karen to N.Y. His stepdad was a big influence on him, he often visited the weekly jam sessions with his stepfather. In 1972 they moved to L.A.

In High School Flea was often teased both because of his funny part Australian part New York accent and his "weird" musical taste. Most of the kids in his age were in to disco and dancemusic, Flea prefered Dizzy Gillesipie, Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman. At this time Flea had started to play the trumpet, he were really talented and practised a lot. He played with the L.A. Junior Philharmonic and with the school orchestra and was a favorite of the teachers. He often played along with his idol Dizzy Gillespie and at one occasion he met his idol. Flea's mum took him backstage after a concert and Flea talked with Dizzy for 15 minutes about how much he liked his music and how he copied his trumpetting style. But it wasn't that kind of music Flea would play later on. When he heard his first funk album he got stuck. He listened to funk band like Parliament, Funkadelic, P-funk, Defunkt, The Meters, Sly and the Family Stone and James Brown. He also listened a lot to Jimi Hendrix who became his new idol.

He met Anthony Kiedis during a fight on Fairfax Highschool. After they had beat the shit out of each other they decided they'd be better of as pals. They did a lot togetheter for instance they got specialized in jumping off tall buildings into swimming pools. The first real band Flea joined was "Anthym" (later renamed What is This?), formed by Jack Irons and Hillel Slovak. Flea played the bass, an instrument he had never played before. After some time he quit What is This and joined the L.A. punk band Fear. Anthony who were known as a funny guy were asked to come up with something to open up for a local band with. Anthony were at Flea's place and Flea were playing some funky basslines. Anthony said that he had a rap that would do perfectly with the bassline. He started to rap and the result was a song called "Out in LA". They decided to play that song as the open number. It was mostly meant as a joke. Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons were invited to play with them. They hadn't even rehearsed the song before going onstage but the audience loved it. Flea quit Fear to work on the new band. They called themself "Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem". After a while they changed their name to "The Red Hot Chili Peppers" a name that, according to Flea better described their music...

In 1985 Flea got married to Loesha Zeivar, he tattoed her name on a place close to his heart, round his left nipple. The marriage didn't last that long though but they were married long enough to create a child. Loesha gave birth to their daughter Clara on the 16th of September 1988.

In 1996 he was appointed as 'Bassist Of TheYear' by Bass Player Magazine. On October 31st 1993, River Phoenix, one of Flea´s best friend died.Flea got very sick and the doctors said it would take him 9 months to get better. Flea was is part of Jane's addiction in 1997, participated with Dave in Alanis Morissette "you oughta know" ; Porno For Pyros "Freeway" "hard Charger" ;Jane's addiction's Nothing Shocking and Kettle Whistle albums.

In 2002 Flea was featured in BASS Player magazine for his role in By The Way, entitled 'Flea Evolves'. Flea today is much better then what he was many years behind. He learnt so much from side projects, listening to the Beach Boys, Studying Jazz, and open a Music School in LA. He plays with pick, Fretless Bass, and try to keep everything as simple as it can ~ more melodic. "I enjoyed that" as Flea came with fresh figure of himself. Where did Slap go? It stays inside, but not as often as before. It's a part of Flea's maturity.
"The only way I'm going to keep growing and changing is to be vulnerable as a human being. People I admire and musicians who have remained relevant throughout their entire lifetimes seem to be the ones who age with dignity and who have love in their hearts. That's my goal." - flea



Suburbia (1983)
Tough Guys ~ with Anthony, Cliff, and Hillel (1986)
Thrashin' (1983)
Stranded (1987)
Less than Zero ~ with Anthony and Jack (1987)
Dudes (1987)
Blue Iguana (1988)
Let's Get Lost (1988)
Back To The Future Part II (1989)
Back To The Future Part III (1990)
My Private Idaho (1991)
Motorama (1991)
Roadside Prophets (1992)
The Son in law (1993)
The Chase (1994) ~ with Anthony Kiedis
Just Your Luck (1996)
Liar's Poker (1997)
Gen13 (1998)
The Wild Thornberrys (1998) : Donnie Thornberry
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
PSYCHO (1998)
Gen13 (1998) : voice of Grunge
Mascara (1999)
Goodbye Casanova (2000)
The Wild Thornberrys ~ the Movie :
Donnie Thornberry (2002)