Michael Peter « Flea » Balzary est un bassiste, pianiste, trompettiste et acteur australo-américain né le 16 octobre 1962 à Melbourne, en Australie. Il est l'un des membres fondateurs du groupe de rock Red Hot Chili Peppers, avec le chanteur Anthony Kiedis. Il est surnommé Flea (puce en anglais) à cause de sa petite taille et de sa façon assez sautillante d'occuper l'espace d'une scène.

Le magazine Rolling Stone le classe second meilleur bassiste de tous les temps derrière John Entwistle.

Biographie

From 1988 to 1990 Flea was married to Loesha Zeviar (Loesha's name still remains tattooed on Flea's chest). Together they had one daughter, Clara Balzary, who was born in 1988. Clara has been featured in many Chili Peppers books and documentaries including the band's Funky Monks documentary. She also has appeared at many shows and as a child even provided artwork for the band's T-shirts and promotional material. She has also documented the band's I'm With You tour through photographs and videos. As an adult, Clara was most recently in the short-lived band, The Tints and is also an aspiring artist and photographer, taking the promotional photographs for the new Red Hot Chili Peppers record. Loesha currently works as a Resident Technician at the Pasadena Recovery Center and was featured on the reality series, Celebrity Rehab along with Flea's longtime friend, Bob Forrest.

Flea married for the second time in 2005 to model Frankie Rayder who was once named GQ Magazine's sexiest woman in the world. They had their first child together, Sunny Bebop Balzary, who was born in 2005. John Frusciante is the godparent of Sunny and Anthony Kiedis is the godparent of Clara.The song, "Hard to Concentrate" on the Chili Peppers' 2006 album, Stadium Arcadium was written by Kiedis as a wedding proposal to Flea and Rayder.

Flea was close friends with actor River Phoenix and was with him on October 31, 1993 the night he died of a drug overdose, even riding in the ambulance to the hospital with him. The song "Transcending" on One Hot Minute was a tribute to Phoenix written by Flea.

In the 2011 documentary, The Other F Word, Flea discussed the joys of being a father by saying "It's funny how you always hear people saying that classic parent attitude of, 'I brought you into this world, I gave you life!' You know, it's just, I think, completely the opposite. My kids gave me life. They gave me a reason."

Flea is a huge fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Lakers. He can often be spotted sitting courtside at Lakers games with some of his bandmates and has even performed the National Anthem prior to Lakers games. He is also known to be a fan of English football team Sheffield United.


Activism, philanthropic and charity work
Flea and the Chili Peppers appeared in 1990 PSA ads for Rock the Vote, a non-profit organization created to encourage 18-24 year olds in the United States to vote in the upcoming presidential election.

The Chili Peppers were invited by the Beastie Boys and the Milarepa Fund to perform at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in June 1996 in San Francisco. They also performed at the June 1998 Washington DC concert as well. The concerts, which were held world-wide, were to support the cause of Tibetan independence.

In 2001, he founded the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a school dedicated to help youth progress in music, because of this. "I just wanted to fill the void that public education has cut from their curriculum. They've dropped the ball by cutting out music programs", Flea laments, "I grew up in LA public schools and was in the music department. It was really an important thing for my life, it gave me something to hold onto, and it was an important access for me. Without music I would've gotten into a lot of trouble and there are a lot of kids like me out there. I just wanted to try to provide something like what I got."Flea felt the public school system was seriously lacking in exposing children to music by drastically reducing, and sometimes eliminating, art related programs.

In September 2005, the Chili Peppers performed "Under the Bridge" at the ReAct Now: Music & Relief benefit which was held to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina. $30 million was raised during the live event which was broadcast across the world on various television networks and online.

In October 2008, Flea (along with his daughter Sunny Bebop) appeared in a Vote for Change ad voicing his support for Barack Obama for president of the United States in the upcoming election.

On March 20, 2011, Flea ran the LA Marathon to raise money for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music through Crowdrise. Flea was also featured in Runner's World magazine discussing his preparation for the race.

The Chili Peppers performed a free concert in downtown Cleveland, Ohio on April 15, 2012 in support of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign.

In May 11, 2013, the Chili Peppers performed a special concert in Portland, Oregon for the Dalai Lama as part of the Dalai Lama Environmental Summit. According to the press release "The musical element of this event is intended to be a display of joyful celebration and an inspiration to future generations to care for our planet. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been great supporters of the Tibetan cause, of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and of the need to work to protect and preserve our environment."

On August 19, 2014, Flea posted a video to his Twitter page where he accepted the Ice Bucket Challenge. Chad Smith did the honors of pouring a trash can of ice water onto Flea.

In May 2015, Flea reached out to fans to help donate to the Special Olympics. Two lucky fans will be selected to be flown out to meet Flea for private bass lessons. Other prizes such an exclusive T-shirts, personalized video from Flea, tickets to a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert and various autographed items by Flea are available.

Flea took to his Facebook page in anger speaking out about the May 19th Santa Barbara oil spill that pumped 100,000 gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean. Flea was at the beach with his young daughter when she stepped in a tar ball. Flea wrote "Dear plains all American pipeline, my daughter just dared step on the beach for a few minutes where we live about 75 miles from the Santa Barbara oil spill you caused. She got your oil shit product all over her feet." Flea stated he can no longer surf there or take his daughter to the beach further saying "Some kid in the hood who made a mistake selling drugs will go to jail and have his life ruined but you, you evil lying scumbags will get away with a paltry fine that means nothing to you. You could have had a shut off valve but you saved cash there too. You are the worst kind of human beings, I am infuriated you disgust me."

Flea has been very outspoken towards guns and gun violence, sometimes speaking about it during Chili Peppers shows. He often expresses his anger on his Twitter page. In 2013 he said "why anyone would ever want to own an automatic weapon I will never ever understand. it's a pathetic useless concept for sick people. Automatic, semi automatic, I don't care. I'm against em........ Melt em all down turn em into sculptures there is no need for them on earth. in many countries the cops have no guns and they do perfectly fine. No civilians should be allowed to have guns. none. and I don't think the cops should have guns either. change the constitution". Following the racially motivated Charleston church shooting in June 2015, Flea again voiced his anger towards gun violence saying "You are kidding me. This is too much. Humans are an over rated species. Sick. God help us." and "The USA land where any sick madman can easily get a gun. disgusting, deplorable, unbelievable.”

In August 2015, Flea added an apiary in his backyard which includes three beehives and over 200,000 bees in his backyard in efforts to restore the honeybee population. Flea commented on his new obsession with beekeeping by saying “Deep to the hive super organism. I love my bees. Flea’s bees.”

Flea will take part in the Pathways to Paris concert in December 2015. The all-star event aims to raise awareness about the urgency of climate action and coincides with the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris.

On September 18, 2015 Flea and his Chili Peppers bandmates were among over 120 entertainers and celebrities to announce that they would be voting for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election for President of the United States.

The Chili Peppers performed at a fundraiser on behalf the non-profit San Diego Foundation on September 27, 2015. All money was donated to ARTS — A Reason To Survive, Heartbeat Music Academy, San Diego Young Artists Music Academy, and the Silverlake Conservatory of Music

Flea along with bandmate Anthony Kiedis will once again host an annual benefit for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music on October 17, 2015. The event, which costs $2,500 and limited to 300 tickets also includes dinner and a silent auction. The Chili Peppers will perform a rare acoustic set and John Legend will headline the event.

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