Talk:Flea (musician)

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Assessment comments The following comments were left by the assessors: (edit · refresh) Contents 1 Start class rating 2 Why "Michael Balzary" in title?? 3 Flea's family 4 Lopsided article 5 Nude Photo 6 Request Peer Review 7 Homosexuality 8 Weird 9 Martian 10 Other Bands i.e. What is this? and Eleven 11 Chet Baker rumour? [edit] Start class rating It was a close call between "start" and "B-class," but I chose "start" because the article contains absolutely no references whatsoever. If this article is to be promoted to GA status eventually, it definitely needs some references. -- Cielomobile minor7♭5 02:51, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

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Is there a reason there are very few pictures of him?

A friend of mine, who was very much into Fela Kuti told me that Flea was a big fan of his. I havn't seen anything related to Kuti in this article, but I figured it was true. After checking the cover of the DVD on Fela (FE above LA, spelling FELA reading from left-right) I thought maybe Flea took his name after Fela: by re-arranging the letters, (as the DVD could also be read top-down) spelling FLEA.

-I don't know much about Flea or his music, so I thought I would throw this out there for those who do

-Can anyone verify this?

Where did you get that Flea's style was influenced by Fugazi? Fugazi wasn't even formed until late '87 and IMO Flea's most riveting solos were on the Chili's earlier albums (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Freakey Styley, Uplift Mofo Party Plan).

--He said Lally is the one bassist he admired (not was earlier influenced by), in his 93 "instructional" video.

Is it worth to mention his membership with the punk band Fear, before he co-founded the Peppers? By the way, I think he was rather influenced by Mike Watt, Jah Wobble or Gang Of Four's Dave Allen.

--Probably, because he talks about Fear himself in that 93 video, and in the 94 'Out in L.A.' compilation liner notes.

i've heard that Flea was also briefly in Circle Jerks. Gringo300 14:19, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

About the trumpet: If I'm not mistaken (and often I am but that's not the point) Flea also blows out a few notes on a trumpet on the song Apache Rose Peacock which appeared on Blood Sugar Sex Magik... FB

While Flea certainly dabbled with drugs, sex and alcohol I don't think it would be fair to claim he had "problems" with them.

-- I think it'd be fair to say he was inspired by John Entwistle: hasn't he even worn Skeleton costumes in concert as a tribute? Scotto 02:20, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

--I found Flea's Laker blog. Should we add it to the page? http://aol.nba.com/blog/blog43.html -Tredoslop

Why are links to Chili Peppers site, espeically the official one being removed. The explanation says the links have nothing to do with Flea even though he's only been in the band for 23 years, contributes to the official page and gives news on himJason1978

The wal bass model that flea uses is the "custom". There are three variants of the custom, informally known as the "mark I/II/III". Flea's bass is a custom mark II. There is no official wal basses web site, but the oldest and largest fan-run web site erroneously uses the term "mach" in lieu of "mark". The terms have become more or less interchangeable because of the influence of this site, however the correct moniker (the one that the crafstman who makes wal basses uses) is mark.

[edit] Why "Michael Balzary" in title??

Well, I think Wikipedia should be consistent for a change! Please look at this one: Mikkey Dee He is the drummer from Motörhead, and it is exactly the same thing: not his birth name Michael Dela-something is written as title, but his stage name "Mikkey Dee". I think Flea should have his stage name Flea as a title, because hardly anyone knows him under M. Balzary. What do you think / suggest? -andy 80.129.97.113 21:09, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

This page should most definitely be at Flea (musician). BabuBhatt 10:29, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

I could not agree more. The policy for biographical articles on Wikipedia has always been to use the person's most well-known name (in the case of showbiz folks, their stage name) and make everything else a redirect. Gordon Sumner is at Sting, John Baldwin is at John Paul Jones, John Ritchie-Beverly is at Sid Vicious, Douglas Colvin is at Dee Dee Ramone, etc. etc. etc. I'm going to go ahead and be bold. Dyfsunctional 02:12, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Exactly as I intended it to look like! Thanks for the support guys. :) -andy 80.129.118.155 15:16, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

you know that he pours pee down his nose? source[ http://rhcprock.free.fr/frame.html ]

          yeah actually isn't that strange?

At the top of the article it claims Flea got his nickname from a camping trip. But at the bottom it says he got it on a Ski trip with Kiedis. In Scar Tissue it says he got the name on a ski trip so I think the first camping trip should be taken out and replaced with ski trip.

[edit] Flea's family

Would it be more appropriate to include the information about Flea's partners and daughters in the top biography section rather than in the solo work section?

I moved it, but someone should try to make it fit in with the rest of his biography. Speaking of his bio, the whole thing should get rewritten and we could do without a lot of the information there. DiscordantNote^Cntrbtns 00:25, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lopsided article

This article focuses way too much on which bass Flea played and when, and not nearly enough on Flea himself. Compare Flea's article with the articles on the other members of the other Chili Peppers members. The others are more succinct and direct. While Flea is arguably the most significant member of the band musically, I think that the music needs to trimmed back a bit and a bit more biographical information added. Listing all of the songs where he plays trumpet is a bit much, and it's easy to be come outdated. Freshyill 18:57, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

...I second this... WAY too much gear listing too. I somehow suspect that manufacturers and owners of gear he happens to use are perpetually inflating that section. As for the personal stuff... Flea is one of the only possible candidates for being the culprit on Kathleen Hanna's rant on Mike Watt's first solo record, and he is notorious for treating groupies badly... if we can find sources, is that worth including?

[edit] Nude Photo

I don't think a nude photo is needed in this article...

[edit] Request Peer Review

I read the article and I liked it alot. I think it is a good candidate for a GA (Good Article rating). I requested a peer review so it can get some feedback and to clean it up a little. The biggest need at the moment is to include some references and source the statements in the article, and I noticed that many sources are listed right here on the talk page, so they really just need to be cut and pasted into the article. Gohiking 18:33, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Homosexuality

I've rv'd the paragraph at the top regarding a Rolling Stone article where Flea came out of the closet. Unsourced and probably vandalism. Akdor 1154 00:35, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

That's so not true. Flea has two kids and has been married!

Having two kids (or however many) and being married to a member of the opposite sex doesn't automatically mean one isn't homosexual (and i'm including bisexual in that). I'm not saying I think Flea IS homosexual and/or bisexual, i'm just saying that doesn't prove he or anyone else isn't. Gringo300 19:57, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm not gay or much of a RHCP fan, and have nothing against Flea. However, I recall circa 1996, the band performed an online concert. MTV billed them as the first band to do so, which they probably were. MTV didn't air the concert, but they did show a mini-documentary, and at the time Flea was dating a man. They showed Flea, one of his children, and his boyfriend together, and Flea said something about his boyfriend being "wonderful." Oddly, the RHCP page doesn't mention this concert, and no, I'm not making this up. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.225.244.130 (talk) 07:50, 16 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Weird

I think it is a little weird that they have almost no information on his life with the Chili Peppers, or his drug habits, both significant parts of his life. 69.139.0.62 01:00, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Martian

I think something should be mentioned about Flea's dog, martian, and the fact that she died during the recording of Stadium Arcadium and the song death of a martian is a tribute to her.

[edit] Other Bands i.e. What is this? and Eleven

Flea is associated with the bands What is this? and Eleven, althrough there is nothing in this article regarding it. I removed a Catagory tag for What is this? because really, you could have dozens of tags for all the collaborative work that Flea has done, but I don't think that this helps anyone who is trying to find information about Flea if there is all these other catagory tags confusing his role in Bands such as Jane's Addiction and RHCP. I would like to include his other collaborative work in the article, but we shouldn't bog it down with meaningless tags. Gohiking 23:05, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

This is a follow up to my other post regarding Catagories created for bands that only contain the band members and band name. The problem is that it NOT USEFUL per WP:CAT Wikipedia's Guidelines for Catagories, specifically Guide line number 2 because the band members and band name already have links that associate them together, and someone like Micheal, who has a history of playing with many bands will be saturated with categories that contain nothing more than a list of Band members from other bands and has no helpful use to a reader who is not familiar with the artist and is trying to find information, which is what Wikipedia is all about. Gohiking 18:10, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Chet Baker rumour?

I think it should at least be mentioned that everyone thinks Chet Baker sired this kid. No idea where the rumor came from, apparently it's not true, though there is a striking resemblance in the facial bone structure, and of course, Flea's jazz naziism during his formative years doesn't hurt the story either. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.22.235.25 (talk) 01:38, 16 January 2007 (UTC).

...What? --Soetermans 22:17, 3 February 2007 (UTC)