Michael Peter Balzary (born October 16, 1962), better known by his stage name Flea, is an Australian-born American musician and actor. He is best known as the bassist, co-founding member, and one of the composers of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers with whom he was inducted into the 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Flea also briefly appeared as the bassist for such bands as What Is This?, Fear and Jane's Addiction. More recently he has appeared as member of the rock supergroups Atoms for Peace, Antemasque, Pigface and Rocket Juice & the Moon. Flea has also collaborated with many artists including The Mars Volta, Johnny Cash, Alanis Morissette and Young MC.
Widely regarded as one of the best rock bass players of all time, in 2009, Rolling Stone 's readers ranked Flea the second-best bassist of all-time in their top ten poll, ranked behind only John Entwistle and ahead of Paul McCartney.