Michael Peter Balzary was born on the sixteenth of October 1962, inMelbourne, Australia. When he was four, his parents divorced andMichael, his sister Karen and his mother Patricia headed for New York;they didn't stay long and soon ended up in L.A. (in 1972), where hisstep-father, a jazz musician named Walter Urban Jr., intended to start acareer. Flea would often sit in on weekly jam sessions with hisstepfather and the constant flow of musicians who trucked through. Highschool was not always an easy road for young Michael. He was a misfitbecause of his unusual musical taste. While most of the kids were intodisco and dance music, Flea preferred jazz artists likeMiles Davis andDizzy Gillespie. Flea's first musicalinstrument was the drums, but soon he also began playing the trumpet.After school he would race home to listen to his Gillespie records andplay along with his idol. He counts as his greatest childhood memorythe time his mother got him back-stage to meet Gillespie after one ofhis concerts. He also played with the Los Angeles Junior PhilarmonicOrchestra. Influenced by some of his friends from school who shared thesame passion for music - among them,Jack Irons andHillel Slovak, who would later play in theRed Hot Chili Peppers with him - his musical interests thendiversified: he discovered funk music, andJimi Hendrix became his new idol. At theend of 1977, he met Anthony Kiedis. For some reason, Michael washolding a young schoolmate named Tony Sherr in a headlock, when Kiedis,who was Tony's best friend at the time, came to rescue him; they almosthad a fight. After this meeting, they soon became aware they were madeto be friends, and have been inseparable since. The two became knownfor their mischievous antics, which often got them into trouble. Thisis also when he gained the nickname Flea, while he was joking with somefriends about calling each other a cartoon name. Around 1979, due toFlea's obvious musical talent, he was sought out as a recruit for aband formed by his school-mates, Anthym, withJack Irons (drums),Hillel Slovak (guitar) andAlain Johannes (vocals and guitar) asmembers. Flea picked up the bass, which he had never played before, andbecame so good that within a few months he had forged his very ownstyle, which later would make him one of the most famous and talentedbass players in the world. After a shaky start the band got a few clubgigs but no major breaks. Anthony Kiedis, who was always there tosupport them, became the presenter of their shows which he opened witha few jokes or improvised poems of his own. In 1982, Flea joined theL.A. punk band Fear. He also landed a small role in thePenelope Spheeris film Suburbia(1984). John Lydon of PIL asked Flea to join his band when he left Fearin 1984, but Flea instead decided to rejoin his friends. With Kiedis,Slovak and Irons, they started another band together, the Red Hot ChiliPeppers, which soon earned a good reputation in the Los Angelesunderground music scene. Flea was married in 1985 to Loesha Zeviar,whose first name he got tattooed above his left nipple - close to hisheart. They have since divorced, but still share daughter Clara, bornon September 16, 1988. Clara sometimes goes on the road with her dad,and has done artwork for the Chili Peppers' t-shirts and promotionalmaterial. In 2001, along with friends Pete Weiss and Keith Barry, Fleafounded the Silverlake Conservatory Of Music, an organization whose aimis to provide affordable music lessons to everyone and to encouragechildren's musical education.