Michael Peter Balzary (born October 16, 1962), known professionally as Flea, is an American musician and actor. He is a founding member and bassist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP) and, along with vocalist Anthony Kiedis, the only member to appear on every RHCP album.

Flea was born in Melbourne, Australia; his family moved to Rye, New York when he was four. After his parents divorced, Flea spent his childhood in the United States and Australia, before settling in California. In high school, he befriended singer Anthony Kiedis with whom he formed the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1983. Flea is also a member of the supergroups Atoms for Peace, Antemasque, Pigface, and Rocket Juice & the Moon, and has played with acts including The Mars Volta, Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, Alanis Morissette, Young MC, Nirvana, What Is This?, Fear, and Jane's Addiction.

Flea incorporates elements of funk (including promiment slap bass), psychedelia, punk, and hard rock in his playing. In 2009, Rolling Stone readers ranked Flea the second-best bassist of all time, behind John Entwistle. In 2012, he and the other members of Red Hot Chili Peppers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since 1984, Flea has acted in films and television series such as Suburbia, Back to the Future Part II and Part III, My Own Private Idaho, The Chase, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Dudes, Son in Law, The Big Lebowski, Low Down, Baby Driver, Boy Erased, The Wild Thornberrys, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Babylon.

Flea is the co-founder of Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a non-profit organization founded in 2001 for underprivileged children. In 2019, he published a memoir of his early life, Acid for the Children.

Early life
Michael Peter Balzary was born on October 16, 1962, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He is of partial Hungarian and Irish descent. His father, Mick Balzary, an avid fisherman, often took him fishing. When Flea was four, his family moved to Rye, New York, for his father's career. In 1971, his parents divorced, and his father returned to Australia. Flea returned to Australia to spend time with his father, completing three years of school in the national capital Canberra. Flea and his sister Karyn stayed with their mother Patricia, who subsequently married jazz musician Walter Urban (1941–2011).

Flea's stepfather frequently invited musicians to his house for jam sessions. The family moved to Los Angeles, California, where Flea became fascinated by the trumpet. He had no interest in rock music at the time, instead idolizing jazz musicians like Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, and Dizzy Gillespie. Flea described his childhood home as violent; his stepfather was an aggressive alcoholic who eventually became involved in shootouts with police. Flea said: "I grew up being terrified of my parents, particularly my father figures. It caused [me] a lot of trouble later in life." To cope, Flea began smoking cannabis at 13, and became a daily user.

He was first called "Flea" as a teenager for his seeming inability to sit still, and the nickname stuck. Nicknamed Mike B. the Flea, he attended Fairfax High School, and was something of an outcast due to his taste in music. However, he soon met Anthony Kiedis, and after a brief confrontation, the two became best friends. Kiedis recalled: "We were drawn to each other by the forces of mischief and love and we became virtually inseparable. We were both social outcasts. We found each other and it turned out to be the longest-lasting friendship of my life."

Flea was introduced to rock music by Hillel Slovak, and particularly punk rock by Kiedis. Flea learned to play bass from Slovak, who shortly after asked him to be a bassist in his band, Anthym. Flea soon developed his own style and joined the group, but quit several months later to play for the punk rock outfit Fear. He then rejoined Slovak to form an intended one-off band: Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem along with Kiedis and Jack Irons, all of them at the time inspired by the free funk band Defunkt and the hip hop act Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

Career

Early Red Hot Chili Peppers albums (1984–1987)
The band changed its name to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, playing several shows at L.A. venues. Their repertoire grew to nine songs as a result of months of playing at local nightclubs and bars. The Red Hot Chili Peppers entered Bijou Studios to record a demo tape produced by the then-drummer of Fear and subsequently secured a record deal with EMI. Irons and Slovak, however, decided to leave the Red Hot Chili Peppers in order to pursue a "more serious" future with the rock band What Is This?. Flea ultimately respected the decision, but felt the band would be lost without them. He and Kiedis hired drummer Cliff Martinez and guitarist Jack Sherman to fill Irons' and Slovak's place, respectively. Andy Gill, formerly of Gang of Four, agreed to produce their first album. Gill and Sherman clashed with Flea and Kiedis; they continuously argued over music style, sound, and the album's production. Flea himself felt that the album was stiff and "a big mistake", but also admitted, "we [he and Kiedis] were just disrespectful and obnoxious". The band's debut album, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, was released on August 10, 1984, to largely poor critical and commercial review. After a relatively unfruitful tour, Sherman was fired in early 1985. Slovak, who had been contemplating a return to the Chili Peppers, rejoined the group after being encouraged by Flea.

Funk musician George Clinton was hired to produce the band's second album, Freaky Styley (1985). The strong chemistry between Clinton and the Chili Peppers was felt instantly. Flea later referred to Clinton as "the warmest, kindest man in the world". Freaky Styley was released in August 1985. It received only a bit more attention than The Red Hot Chili Peppers with roughly 75,000 copies sold by year's end. Flea was somewhat indifferent to the poor album sales as he had recently proposed to girlfriend Loesha Zeviar, who was pregnant with their child. The band hired Michael Beinhorn, their last resort among potential producers, to work on their next album. What Is This? had finally disbanded, and drummer Irons returned to the Chili Peppers in mid-1986 after Martinez was fired. Flea, Slovak and Kiedis especially were involved in heavy drug use and their relationships became strained. Flea recalled that "it began to seem ugly to me and not fun; our communication was not healthy". Kiedis became dependent on heroin, leaving Flea and Slovak to work on much of the album's material by themselves.

Kiedis was briefly kicked out of the band and given a month to rehabilitate. Kiedis completed the rehab and returned with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Los Angeles to record their third album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987). Flea has referred to the album as "the 'rockingest' record" the band has ever made. The Uplift Mofo Party Plan proved to be far more successful, commercially and critically, than the Chili Peppers' preceding albums, registering at number 148 on the Billboard 200. Following the Uplift tour, Slovak's drug use dramatically increased. Flea's relationship with Slovak faded, and Slovak became isolated and depressed. On June 28, 1988, Slovak was found dead of a heroin overdose. Flea reflected: "I didn't really know how to deal with that sadness, and I don't think [Kiedis] knew how to deal with it either." Irons, who was taking Slovak's death particularly hard, left the group.

Flea and Kiedis took some time to collect themselves, but they kept the band together. Guitarist DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight and drummer D.H. Peligro were added, and the band entered the studio to record a new album. McKnight soon began to create tension within the group, as his style did not mesh with the rest of the band. Peligro, the former drummer of the punk rock band Dead Kennedys, was a friend of John Frusciante, an 18-year-old guitarist and avid Red Hot Chili Peppers fan. Peligro introduced Frusciante to Flea, and the trio jammed together on several occasions. Flea was impressed with Frusciante's skill, and astonished by his knowledge of the Chili Peppers' repertoire. Flea realized that Frusciante could provide the spark McKnight was lacking. McKnight was fired, and Frusciante accepted an invitation to join the band. Peligro was fired shortly thereafter; the Chili Peppers brought in drummer Chad Smith as his replacement.

Mainstream success and side projects (1989–1998)
Flea and his wife Loesha started to grow apart, and he began trying to recreate the memories of his adolescence by smoking marijuana on a daily basis. The Chili Peppers entered the studio, and completed recording of their fourth album, Mother's Milk, in early 1989. Upon release, the album was met with mixed reactions from critics, but received far more commercial attention, peaking at number 52 on the Billboard 200. After this, Flea made appearances playing the trumpet on Jane's Addiction's 1988 album Nothing's Shocking, and bass on the critically acclaimed 1989 Young MC album Stone Cold Rhymin'. He would also appear in the video for "Bust a Move", the hit single from the same album.

The Mother's Milk Tour put further strain on Flea's marriage. In order to make money, he needed to tour, and therefore spent time away from his family. Furthermore, he and Smith were arrested on charges of battery and sexual harassment after a performance on MTV's coverage of spring break; charges were eventually dropped. The band was, however, attracting over three thousand people per show; Mother's Milk had been certified as a gold record in early 1990. By the time Red Hot Chili Peppers returned to Los Angeles, Flea and Loesha agreed to a separation. He tried to put the separation out of his mind by smoking marijuana and having sex with random groupies, when the band was on tour for Mother's Milk.

When the successful Mother's Milk tour was over, the Red Hot Chili Peppers severed ties with EMI and signed instead with Warner Bros. Records. Rick Rubin, who had rejected an opportunity to produce The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, agreed to produce their next album. Flea had largely used the principal slap bass technique on the band's preceding four albums, and decided to downplay this style in favor of more conventional, melodic bass lines. To record the album, Rubin suggested they use a mansion that once belonged to magician Harry Houdini. Flea felt it was "a creatively fertile situation", and decided to bring his daughter Clara with him. He and the rest of the band, excluding Smith, remained inside the house for the entire recording process. When not writing or recording the album, Flea spent a large portion of his time with Frusciante smoking large quantities of marijuana. The emotions Flea felt during the album's recording were like nothing he had ever experienced:

When Blood Sugar Sex Magik was released on September 24, 1991, it received an extremely positive critical response. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 200, and went on to sell over 7,000,000 copies in the U.S. alone. The album's ensuing tour was critically acclaimed—the Chili Peppers commonly performed shows with over 20,000 in attendance. Seattle-based grunge band Nirvana also toured with them during the West Coast leg of their United States tour. The massive attention the Chili Peppers started receiving, however, caused Frusciante to feel extremely uncomfortable, and he abruptly quit the band during the Japanese leg of the album's tour, replaced temporarily by Arik Marshall.

Following the tour in 1993, Flea was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and was ordered to rest for a year. Flea and Kiedis felt it best to fire Marshall

due to lack of chemistry and briefly replaced him with Jesse Tobias, although his tenure was very short and he was quickly replaced by Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, who was once recruited in 1992 to replace Frusciante. The band was ready now to record their next album although Kiedis was in the middle of a heroin relapse, which forced Flea to assume the role of lyricist, something he had not yet done. He wrote most of the song "Transcending", and the intro to "Deep Kick". Flea also wrote the entire lyric to a song, "Pea", in which he both played bass and sang. These three songs appeared on the Chili Peppers' sixth record One Hot Minute, which was released on September 12, 1995. The album received mixed reviews and was significantly less commercially successful than Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The One Hot Minute Tour was ultimately cut short due to various injuries Kiedis and Smith received, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers decided to go on hiatus. Flea was so miserable that at one point during the tour he discussed quitting the band. Flea began to practice Transcendental Meditation and yoga, and slowly decreased his marijuana consumption. Due to the Chili Peppers' inactivity, Flea joined Navarro in a Jane's Addiction reunion tour in 1997, filling in for ex-Jane's Addiction bassist Eric Avery. Rumors spread, that the band was breaking up until Navarro stated otherwise: "I want to clarify that the Chili Peppers are not breaking up ... Flea and I are more than happy to do both projects, time permitting."

Flea also had plans to record a solo album. He asked Chili Peppers manager Lindy Goetz to help him promote the record and his future solo career. Flea eventually abandoned the idea in favor of offering his bass services to other artists. He performed on over forty records from 1995 to 1998, ranging from Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill (with Navarro) to former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt's debut solo album Ball-Hog or Tugboat?. He also worked with Tori Amos and Michael Stipe on a track for the soundtrack to the 1995 Johnny Depp film Don Juan DeMarco. Navarro was fired from the Chili Peppers in 1998, and Flea questioned whether or not the Red Hot Chili Peppers would stay together: "... the only way I could imagine carrying on is if we got John [Frusciante] back in the band." Frusciante had completed drug rehabilitation in 1997 after a severe addiction to heroin and crack cocaine left him on the brink of death. Flea visited Frusciante in early 1998, inviting him back to the Chili Peppers; an emotional Frusciante readily accepted.

Californication, By the Way and Stadium Arcadium (1998–2007)
With Frusciante back on guitar, the band began writing new songs during the summer of 1998 in Flea's garage. He and Kiedis were less confident in writing the album after the disappointing results of One Hot Minute. Flea had also recently broken up with his girlfriend of two years, Marissa Pouw, causing him to enter a state of depression which was only lifted when his daughter, Clara who was 10 years old, comforted him after several weeks of crying.

Flea was heavily influenced by electronica during the writing and recording of Californication (1999) and he attempted to emulate this when writing bass lines for the album. Californication took less than two weeks to record; by contrast, One Hot Minute took over a year. When Californication was released on June 8, 1999, it received overwhelmingly positive critical reviews and sold fifteen million copies worldwide—more than Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The Chili Peppers played Woodstock 1999, with Flea playing completely naked—something he would do again at the Reading and Leeds Festivals the same year as well as several other Californication tour concerts.

Red Hot Chili Peppers spent most of 2001 writing their eighth studio album, By the Way (2002). The band began listening to more melodic, textured music, that would reflect heavily on the album. Frusciante became the driving force behind By the Way, causing initial strife between him and Flea. If he introduced a funk rhythm into his bass lines Frusciante would consequently disapprove to the point where Flea almost quit the band because he felt his role was no longer important. By the Way was released on July 9, 2002, to positive reviews, and went on to sell over nine million copies worldwide. The ensuing tour was extremely profitable; the Chili Peppers performed three concerts in London's Hyde Park to over 250,000 attendees and a total gross accumulation of US$17.1 million. It became the highest-grossing concert at a single venue in history.

After another two-year world tour, the Chili Peppers wrote their ninth studio album, Stadium Arcadium (2006). Unlike By the Way, both Flea and Frusciante were more musically conjoined, when writing the record. They found inspiration in Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Eddie Van Halen among others. The double album was ultimately released on May 9, 2006, to generally positive reviews, selling over seven million copies in less than two years. In November 2007, Flea's $4.8 million Corral Canyon home in Malibu was burnt down by a wildfire. The location was not, however, his primary residence and at the time of its destruction was being rented to musician and producer Butch Walker.

Return to school, Atoms for Peace, and Rocket Juice & the Moon (2008–2011)
After the Chili Peppers announced a long hiatus due to exhaustion, Flea enrolled in music classes at the University of Southern California, where he studied music theory, composition and jazz trumpet. Flea attributed his interest to a newfound desire to widen his appreciation and understanding of music: "It's so much fun to learn this stuff because I never knew anything. I played trumpet in the school bands. I learned things I liked to play on my trumpet but I didn't learn why this note goes with this note and why it produces that sound. Or how to create tension in the composition [...] Knowing the structure is really fun." Flea said he planned to release a mainly instrumental solo record, recorded in his home; guest musicians would include Patti Smith and a choir from the Silverlake Conservatory.

In 2009, Flea joined Atoms for Peace, a supergroup formed by the Radiohead singer Thom Yorke to perform songs from Yorke's debut solo album, The Eraser (2006). Flea and the band recreated Yorke's electronic music with live instrumentation. They toured the United States in 2010, and released an album, Amok, in 2013. Amok was followed that year by a tour of Europe, the US and Japan.

The Chili Peppers ended their hiatus in October 2009 without Frusciante, who quit the band to pursue other musical interests. He was replaced by Josh Klinghoffer. The Red Hot Chili Peppers released their tenth studio album, I'm with You, on August 29, 2011. Also that year, Flea played bass on two songs on Tom Waits' album Bad as Me, released on October 21. On October 27, 2011, it was announced that Flea's project with Damon Albarn and afrobeat drummer Tony Allen would be called Rocket Juice & the Moon. The band made their live debut on October 29, 2011, in London, and released an album on March 12, 2012.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Helen Burns, and The Getaway (2012–2017)
The Red Hot Chili Peppers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2012. Flea commented on the induction by saying, "It's always been easy for me to pooh-pooh these awards—the [Rock] Hall of Fame too. But I inducted Metallica a couple of years ago, and it was really a beautiful thing to see as all these people were being inducted. It made me love it. I love halls of fame anyway—the Basketball Hall of Fame, the Baseball Hall of Fame. So I feel grateful for the recognition of what we have done and for the hope and potential of what we'll continue to do."

On July 19, 2012, Flea released a solo EP, Helen Burns, composed mainly of instrumental tracks, except the title track (which Patti Smith sang on) and "Lovelovelove", which features the Silverlake Conservatory of Music's kids and adults choir. It is Flea's first solo release, who has only released solo songs previously on soundtracks and other projects. Flea said of the EP "I am putting it out to raise money for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a community-based non-profit music school that I am an integral part of." The download of the EP is available at "a name your own price" on the Silverlake Conservatory website and was made available through all major digital outlets on August 9, 2012.

On October 16, 2012, his 50th birthday, Flea gave an interview with CNN discussing the Chili Peppers and was asked if he plans to continue with them. Flea responded by saying "I love the Chili Peppers, and I would love to. If there's anything I know, it's every time you start making plans, you don't know what's going to come up next. Anything can happen. So I love being in the Chili Peppers and it's my home, and I've been doing it for more than half my life. Of course, during the course of doing it, there's been all kinds of ups and downs, and moments of extreme (positivity), floating on clouds of greatness, and times of just groveling, and misery, and uncertainty, and anger, and love and all those things. Like being in a family. I really can't predict. But I love being in it for now, and right now, about as far as I'm thinking is getting through this tour that we're doing, performing at the highest level possible, then hunkering down and writing another record."

On April 9, 2014, it was revealed that Flea was working on a new musical project, the band Antemasque, with former Mars Volta members Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Omar Rodríguez-López, and Dave Elitch. Two songs were released in early April though Flea has confirmed that he is not a member of the band and just recorded a few songs with them. Antemasque released their self-titled debut album on July 15, 2014.

Flea occasionally performs a bass rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner before games of the Los Angeles Lakers at the Crypto.com Arena (formerly called Staples Center), in a similar manner as Jimi Hendrix. His most famous rendition was before NBA superstar Kobe Bryant's final game against the Utah Jazz, on April 13, 2016.

The Chili Peppers released their eleventh studio album, The Getaway, on June 17, 2016. The band embarked on a 151-date world tour which concluded in October 2017.

Gang of Four tribute, Unlimited Love, Return of the Dream Canteen, and Bonfire of Teenagers (2019-present)

In December 2019, the Red Hot Chili Peppers announced that guitarist John Frusciante would be returning to replace Josh Klinghoffer. The band will focus on making a new album, which they hope to have released in 2020, along with performing on a few festival dates.

Since the summer of 2020, the Chili Peppers have been working on their twelfth studio album however due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been delays in the writing and recording along with their 2020 tour dates being postponed until 2021.

In January 2021 it was announced that Flea and John Frusciante contributed a cover of "Not Great Men" to the upcoming tribute album to Gang of Four titled The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four. The double album was released on June 4, 2021.

In October 2021, the Chili Peppers announced the dates for their 2022 world tour that began in June 2022 and will conclude in July 2023. The tour includes the band's first-ever headlining stadium shows in the United States in support of their twelfth and thirteenth studio albums, Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen, which were respectively released on April 1 and October 14, 2022.

Flea along with Josh Klinghoffer and Chad Smith collaborated with Morrissey on his upcoming album Bonfire of Teenagers, which was supposed to be released in February 2023, but in December 2022 it was announced that its future is in limbo, as Capitol Records has decided not to release it.

Film and television
Flea has pursued a minor acting career since the mid-1980s. His first role was as young punk Razzle in the Penelope Spheeris film Suburbia (1984). Shortly thereafter he starred alongside the Chili Peppers, who played themselves, in the skate drama Thrashin' (1986). He played the ill-fated punker Milo in another Penelope Spheeris film, Dudes (1987). He also made an appearance in the Bruce Weber documentary film about the life and career of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker entitled Let's Get Lost (1988). He portrayed the character Douglas J. Needles in Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Back to the Future Part III (1990), though in an interview he referred to Part II as "a multi-million-dollar piece of trash", saying that he was happy neither with the film nor his performance in it.

Flea played a minor role in the 1991 independent film My Own Private Idaho as the character Budd. He played a number of minor roles in films throughout the 1990s, including Son in Law (1993) as a tattoo artist, The Chase (1994) as a monster truck driver alongside Kiedis, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) as a "Hippie", in The Big Lebowski (1998) as a German nihilist, and the 1998 remake of Psycho. He has also lent his voice to the Nickelodeon animated series The Wild Thornberrys as the character Donnie. In 1992, Flea and the other Red Hot Chili Peppers appeared as themselves in the animated comedy The Simpsons on the episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled".

In 2011, Flea appeared in the documentary, Bob and the Monster. The film details the life of musician and drug counselor Bob Forrest.

Flea appears in the documentary The Other F Word, which aired on Showtime and was released through Oscilloscope Laboratories (a company founded by Adam Yauch). The documentary, which was directed by Andrea Blaugrund Nevins, focused on a generation of punk rockers, how they have handled fatherhood, and how they went from public rebel to domestic authority figure. Mark Hoppus, Jim Lindberg, Art Alexakis, and Mark Mothersbaugh were also featured.

Flea made his return to acting and co-starred in the 2014 film Low Down, which is based on the life of jazz pianist Joe Albany. Flea along with Anthony Kiedis executive-produced the film, which stars John Hawkes, Elle Fanning, Glenn Close, and Peter Dinklage. The film had a successful debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014 and opened in limited release in October 2014. It was released in March 2015 on DVD. This marked his first acting role in 14 years. The film was directed by Jeff Preiss, who previously worked with Flea on the 1988 documentary Let's Get Lost. In 2015, he provided the voice of the "mind cop" Jake in the Pixar film Inside Out.

In 2015, Flea appeared as himself in the Amazon Prime series Highston. It was announced in 2017 that Amazon Prime had cancelled plans for a full series of the show.

Flea plays Eddie No-Nose in Edgar Wright's action feature film Baby Driver (2017). That same year he had a cameo appearance during the fifteenth season of the FOX animated television series Family Guy in an episode titled "Peter's Def Jam". In a scene where Stewie Griffin said to his dog Brian Griffin that thanks to him, there's a recurring flea problem in Stewie's room, Flea enters and plays a bass line. He asks Brian if he wants to hang out, but Stewie kicks Flea out of the room.

Flea co-stars with Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe in the 2018 film Boy Erased.

On February 16, 2018, Flea took part in the 2018 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game on a team led by Canadian musician Justin Bieber.

In August 2020, Flea was featured playing bass on multiple tracks on the new Bright Eyes studio album Down in the Weeds Where the World Once Was.

On June 2, 2021, it was announced that Flea will star alongside Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Samara Weaving in the 2022 film, Babylon, which was directed by Damien Chazelle. This film is set in the late 1920s during the movie industry's transition from silent films to talkies and explores the rise and fall of multiple characters. The movie has been described as "The Great Gatsby on steroids." The movie was released on December 23, 2022.

Flea appears in the Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi series, aired on May 27, 2022. The series is directed by Deborah Chow who directed the 2022 music video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers single, "Black Summer".

Personal life
Flea has been married two times and has three children. From 1988 to 1990, Flea was married to Loesha Zeviar (Loesha's name remains tattooed on Flea's chest). Their daughter, Clara Louise Zeviar Balzary, was born in 1988. Clara was featured in the band's Funky Monks documentary. She also has appeared at many shows and, as a child, 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 Getaway. In 2005, Flea was engaged to model Frankie Rayder, who was once named GQ magazine's sexiest woman in the world. The couple never married, however they had a child together, Sunny Bebop Balzary, who was born on October 26, 2005. 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 and Rayder since split up. In 2019, Flea got married for a second time when he married fashion designer Melody Ehsani. Flea said of Ehsani, "My life has changed forever and I am eternally humble and grateful. The person who sees all of me and knows who I am. My wife @melodyehsani." On July 31, 2022, Ehsani announced on her Instagram page that she was pregnant. On December 12, 2022, Ehsani gave birth to their first child together, a son, Darius Booker Balzary.

On October 30, 1993, Flea was playing at The Viper Room with the band P when his close friend River Phoenix was outside the venue having seizures as the result of an overdose. When this news filtered through the club, Flea rushed outside and accompanied Phoenix in the ambulance that took him to Cedars-Sinai Hospital. In August 2020, Flea appeared on two unreleased songs from Phoenix's band Aleka's Attic to mark what would have been his 50th birthday.

As an adult, Flea became a U.S. citizen. In a 2000 interview, he stated his intention to eventually retire to his native Australia. Flea appeared in the 2011 documentary The Other F Word, where he discussed the joys of being a father. "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."

In a June 23, 2011, interview, Flea discussed the band's return and how he almost quit the Chili Peppers during their hiatus. Flea said that he wanted to take two years away to see if the band was "something we should still be doing. . . . Things had gotten dysfunctional and not fun, even though I thought we were making great records, doing great shows and were a really powerful, mighty thing as a band. I was proud of what we did. . . . For me, the biggest thing during the time off, and what really made me want to continue doing the band, specifically after [he] decided he didn't want to continue in the band anymore, [was] I just realized, Anthony, man, he's my brother, I love him so much, and we started this band when we were kids. I wanted to keep that going, I never want to let that go. Playing with him is something, even though I can do other things that are exciting and beautiful and I always will do those things and I'll always want to grow and do music outside of the band, the thing that we have is special to us and something that is blood."

In February 2015, Flea posted photos to his Instagram page showing that he had broken his arm during a skiing trip. His injury delayed the recording of the Chili Peppers' eleventh studio album for six months with production expected to resume in mid-August according to Flea, who said on August 3 that he was healed enough to play bass again and continue recording.

In February 2018, Flea released an op-ed through Time magazine about the opioid crisis as well as his own personal history of drug addiction about which for most of his career he had been very private. Flea hoped that by exposing his past issues with substance abuse that his stories could possibly help others battling their own addictions and raise more awareness on the need for those in the medical community and the government to help those in need. "I've been around substance abuse since the day I was born. All the adults in my life regularly numbed themselves to ease their troubles, and alcohol or drugs were everywhere, always. I started smoking weed when I was eleven, and then proceeded to snort, shoot, pop, smoke, drop and dragon chase my way through my teens and twenties," Flea said. Flea finally kicked his addictions in 1993; however, he revealed that in 2014 when he broke his arm in a snowboard accident he nearly had setbacks due to oxycontin that his doctor prescribed for him: "My doctor put me back together perfectly, and thanks to him I can still play bass with all my heart. But he also gave me two-month supply of Oxycontin. The bottle said to take four each day. I was high as hell when I took those things. It not only quelled my physical pain, but all my emotions as well. I only took one a day, but I was not present for my kids, my creative spirit went into decline and I became depressed. I stopped taking them after a month, but I could have easily gotten another refill. Addiction is a cruel disease, and the medical community, together with the government, should offer help to all of those who need it."

In a June 2023 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Flea discussed his views on religion saying "Yeah, I'm a praying guy. I pray in the morning when I get up, when I go to bed, when I eat. And when I do an interview, I'll just stop for a second — like, let me get out of the way and let go of everything." When asked who he was praying to Flea replied that he was praying "To God. I'm not religious in any way, but I kind of believe in God. And I try to live a life that honors my idea of what God is — like a divine energy." Flea said when he turned 30 he was living a crazy life and got really sick with chronic fatigue due to non-stop partying and drugs and it was through the discovery of a self-help book by Jon Kabat-Zinn that led him down this path.

Sports
Flea is a devout fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Rams, and most notably the Los Angeles Lakers. Flea has held Lakers season tickets since 1988 and can often be spotted sitting courtside at Lakers games with some of his bandmates. Two songs recorded for the 1989 album Mother's Milk were tribute songs to Hall-of-Fame Lakers players Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Flea performed the national anthem on April 13, 2016 in honor of Kobe Bryant's final game with the team before his retirement. Following the Rams' return to Los Angeles in 2016, Flea and the Chili Peppers performed an impromptu pregame show for fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Upon the team's return to Los Angeles, Flea and Chad Smith have both owned season tickets since 2016.

He is also known to be a fan of English football team Sheffield United.

Sexual assault
In 1990, Flea was arrested in Daytona Beach, Florida and charged with battery, disorderly conduct, and solicitation to commit an unnatural and lascivious act, and Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith was charged with battery, after the two were accused of "attacking a woman" in the audience of one of their performances; as reported by a ranger from Volusia County,Balzary and Smith jumped into the crowd. / Balzary picked up the woman and began to spin her around on his shoulders, while Smith pulled her bathing suit to one side and began to slap her bottom... / [Unnamed officials also] said Balzary got on top of the woman, asked her to perform a sex act, then began to simulate the act.The woman "apparently was picked from the audience at random", and "[a]fter [she] cried for help, the band was escorted away." According to the same ranger, the victim "signed a complaint against the band members" (which resulted in the charges filed).

Activism and philanthropy
Flea and the Chili Peppers appeared in 1992 PSA ads for Rock the Vote, a non-profit organization created to encourage 18- to 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, D.C. concert. The concerts, which were held worldwide, were to support the cause of Tibetan independence.

In 2001, Flea co-founded the Silverlake Conservatory of Music with his childhood friend Tree. The school is dedicated to help youth progress in music. Flea said he wanted to "fill the void" created by the lack of public funding for school music departments: "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."

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 Los Angeles 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 on April 15, 2012, in support of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign.

On 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 took part in the Ice Bucket Challenge.

In May 2015, Flea reached out to fans to help donate to the Special Olympics. Two 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 19, 2015, 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 outspoken towards guns and gun violence, sometimes speaking about it during Chili Peppers shows. He often expresses his anger on Twitter. 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 with approximately 60,000 bees each—over 200,000 bees total—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."

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 organisation 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 Flea's Silverlake Conservatory of Music. Flea and bandmate Anthony Kiedis host an annual benefit for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. In October 2015, the event was limited to 300 tickets at $2,500 each. The Chili Peppers performed an acoustic set, and John Legend headlined.

Flea performed in the Pathway to Paris concert in December 2015. The all-star event aimed to raise awareness about the urgency of climate action and coincided with the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris.

In February 2016, the Chili Peppers performed at a "Feel the Bern" fundraiser in support of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Flea said, "Bernie Sanders is the only remotely reasonable candidate for President of the United States."

In August 2016, Flea paid a visit to see Koko the gorilla and to also raise awareness for The Gorilla Foundation. The foundation said of Flea's visit "One of Koko's favorite musicians, Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers came to visit. Koko was thrilled by the mellow sounds and a jamming session followed with Koko strumming on Flea's bass!"

Flea has been vocal about climate change. He stated in January 2019, "the destructive effects of climate change are ongoing and will be difficult for us human beings to deal with." Days later the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed at a benefit concert for victims of recent deadly Woolsey Fire in California which killed four people and destroyed over 1,500 homes. The fires even halted the recording for the Chili Peppers' twelfth album.

On April 26, 2020, Flea performed during "The Pathway to Paris Earth Day 50: A Virtual Festival", a livestream event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The festival streamed on an Instagram page.

Flea joined Brad Pitt during the COVID-19 pandemic to help contribute to a community food giveaway for the people of Watts, Los Angeles on July 31, 2020. "The community gives back to me. I like being a part of it, I like building bridges, I like making friends. When corona hit and I was sitting around and going to the beach and stuff, I did a lot of thinking about people who really might be struggling because they're not getting enough to eat and not making money during COVID times," Flea said.

Acid for the Children
In April 2014, Flea began writing his memoir. The original scope of the book was to chronicle Flea's unconventional childhood (including his move from a "normal" life in the New York suburbs to a "bohemian" lifestyle in Los Angeles with his jazz-playing stepfather), his adventures in the L.A. streets, his "sometimes complex friendship and collaboration" with Chili Peppers co-founder Anthony Kiedis and the overall "tumultuous creative journey" of the band, which formed in 1983.

In February 2018, it was announced that Flea's long-awaited memoir, Acid for the Children, would be released on September 25, 2018; however, a few months later the release date was pushed back to November 27, 2018. On September 27, 2018, Flea announced on Twitter that his book has been postponed until 2019 saying "Dear everybody, Due to some scheduling conflicts, the release of my memoir has been delayed until next year. Will have a date as soon as possible. Sorry about any inconveniences.sincerely, flea.

Flea also confirmed that unlike previously mentioned four years earlier, the book would focus exclusively on his life before the Red Hot Chili Peppers. "It's my great hope that it could be a book that could live beyond being a celebrity book or a rock star book and just stand on its own as a piece of literature," Flea says of Acid for the Children, which he describes not as a memoir, but as an origin story: "It ends where the Red Hot Chili Peppers begins."

Instruments and sound

Basses

Flea has employed a wide variety of basses over his career with some varying exclusivity, such as Music Man, Modulus, his own brand Fleabass, and Fender Jazz and Precisions.

Currently, his main stage bass is a Custom Shop Fender Jazz Bass, modified with a Modulus Lane Poor pickup and Aguilar OBP-1 preamp, identical to the Modulus basses he previously used. Fender has released this bass for sale as the Flea Signature Active Jazz Bass (no longer in production as of 2020), in addition to a signature instrument modeled after his 1961 Fender Jazz Bass (which has been his primary studio bass since 2006); Flea treasures his 1961 Jazz Bass for its "old wood sound".

According to the Flea Bass Rig (Part 1) video he used the following over the years in order of appearance.
 Music Man Cutlass 1 (No longer in production)
 Fender Precision Bass (In black seen live in 1989)
 Spector NS-2 with 2 jazz pickups (Seen in "Fight Like A Brave")
 Spector NS-2 (Seen in "Taste The Pain")
 Teisco Del Ray NB-4 (Used in the video for "Higher Ground", not used to record)
 Wal Mk 2 (Seen in "Suck My Kiss")
 Music Man Stingray 4 (Seen in "Aeroplane")
 Music Man Stingray 5 string (Seen in "Under The Bridge")
 Alembic Epic 4 (Seen in "My Friends")
 Modulus signature basses (see below)
 1961 Fender Jazz Bass (Pre CBS)
 Fleabass (Flea's own brand of bass from his business that was active from 2009 to 2011)

Signature Modulus Flea Bass

Flea toured the Californication, 2001, By The Way, Roll on the Red, Stadium Arcadium, I'm With You, and 2013–2014 tours with his signature Modulus Flea basses (later renamed Modulus Funk Unlimited after the endorsement). Available in 4- and 5-string versions, Flea was seen with several designs over this time.
 Blue Sparkle (seen in Off the Map)
 Silver Sparkle (seen in Live at Slane Castle)
 Red, White, and Blue (with punk band stickers overlayed on the body; seen in Live at Slane Castle)
 Aboriginal pattern (in Drop D tuning for By the Way)
 Australian Aboriginal Flag (in E♭ tuning for Breaking the Girl)
 Black (originally in Sunburst)

Fleabass (Multi-Coloured Deluxe Spin Basses)

In 2009, Flea founded the Fleabass company with the goal to create quality budget basses for beginners. Whilst Flea did not perform with his own Fleabass production model he did however use a custom model created by UK artist Damien Hirst.
Damien actually made me a bass, a butterfly bass, it's a beautiful thing. It's not just a piece of art to hang on a wall. The whole new album I play on it. This bass is kind of heavy for live—I don't play Fenders that much live—but it's beautiful.
The custom Fleabass was built with Lane Poor active pickups, Graphite neck, and 18-volt Aguliar OBP-1 preamp. It can be seen in the music videos for The Getaway album.

Fifty of these basses were created. They were auctioned for Flea's Silverlake Conservatory of Music, with a list price of £50,000.

Fender Custom Shop

In The Getaway and 2022-2023 Global Stadium tours, Flea uses four Custom Shop Fender Jazz basses.
 Silver (Sticker of the Helmets on the body)
 Road-worn Pink (in E♭ tuning for Black Summer)
 Purple (with Lakers decal on the body; in Drop D tuning for By the Way)
 Brown (with a "SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FREAK" sticker on the body)

These basses have a Jazz Bass style body, Lane Poor Legacy pickup, 18-volt Aguilar OBP-1 preamp, and a 22-fret graphite-reinforced neck created by Fender Custom Shop master builder Jason Smith. The Silver Jazz is Fleas' current main tour bass, replacing his Modulus basses in the process.

Atoms for Peace Basses
According to thekingofgear.com, Flea uses the following basses in the Atoms for Peace concerts aside from his 1961 Jazz.:
Fender Precision (Sunburst)
Hofner 500/1

Effects
Throughout his career, Flea uses these effects units:
BOSS ODB-3 Bass Overdrive
MXR Micro Amp M133
Electro-Harmonix Q-Tron
Dunlop 105Q Cry Baby Bass Wah
Malekko B:assmaster
Moog Moogerfooger  MF-103 12-Stage Phaser
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff π
DOD FX25 Envelope Filter
Boss GEB-7 Bass Equalizer
Wilson Effects Freaker Wah
Radial Engineering SGI-44
Radial Engineering JX44

Amplifiers and cabinets

According to the Flea Bass Rig (Part 2) video he used the following amps and cabs over the years in order of appearance.

1983-1989
Trace Elliot AH500X
Trace Elliot 4x10
Ampeg VB4
Ampeg SVT-810E
Peavey 8x10 (unconfirmed)

1989-1995
Mesa/Boogie Buster Bass 200
Mesa/Boogie D210
Mesa/Boogie D215
Gallien-Krueger 800RB

1995-2011, 2012-2021
Gallien-Krueger 2001RB
Gallien-Krueger 410 RBH
Gallien-Krueger 115 RBH

2011 (I'm with You World Tour)
Acoustic USA 360
Acoustic USA 361

2021-present

In the recording of Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen (both released in 2022), he used the following amps:
Ampeg Portaflex
Roland JC-120

In the 2022-2023 Global Stadium Tour, he used Ampeg SVTs.

Musical style
Flea has displayed a wide variety of techniques throughout the years, ranging from his initial use of slapping and popping to the more traditional methods he has employed since Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Greg Prato of Allmusic wrote that "by combining funk-style bass with psychedelic, punk, and hard rock, Flea created an original playing style that has been copied numerous times". Flea stated in an interview, that he was influenced greatly by Louis Armstrong. Flea has been considered one of the greatest bassists of all time, with Greg Tate of Rolling Stone saying "if there were a Most Valuable Bass Player award given out in rock, Flea could have laid claim to that bitch ten years running". Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan recalls, that when he first saw the Chili Peppers in 1984, "Flea was playing so aggressively that he had worn a hole in his thumb and he was literally screaming in pain in-between songs because it hurt so bad. Someone kept coming out and pouring crazy glue into the hole." Flea's sound is also determined by what type of instrument he plays. Before Californication, he did not believe the actual bass held much significance: "what mattered was how you hit them [basses] and your emotional intent, and I still think that's the bottom line."

Technique

Flea's bass playing has changed considerably throughout the years. When he joined Fear, his technique centered largely on punk rock bass lines; however, he was to change this style when the Red Hot Chili Peppers formed. He began to incorporate a "slap" bass style that drew influence largely from Bootsy Collins. However, this technique caused Flea to receive attention from the music world and was often copied, and he, therefore, felt it necessary to almost completely remove slap-bass styles from his repertoire following Mother's Milk (1989). Consequently, Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) saw a notable shift in style as it featured less of his signature technique and more styles that focused on traditional and melodic roots. His intellectual beliefs on how to play the instrument were also altered: "I was trying to play simply on Blood Sugar Sex Magik because I had been playing too much prior to that, so I thought, 'I've really got to chill out and play half as many notes'. When you play less, it's more exciting—there's more room for everything. If I do play something busy, it stands out, instead of the bass being a constant onslaught of notes. Space is good."

During the writing and recording of One Hot Minute (1995), Flea integrated some use of slap-bass progressions, but continued to apply the philosophy of "less is more" to his technique rather than courting complexity: "I can't even think of anything I played that was complex [on the record]; even the slapping stuff is simple. It's original-sounding, and I'm proud of that—but what I played was more a matter of aesthetic choice." This led Flea to alter the way he wrote music by playing alone, instead of the jam sessions that would dictate how the band conceived songs: "[One Hot Minute] is the least jam-oriented record we've made. I mean, we definitely jammed on the ideas, but there's only one groove on the whole album that came from a jam, 'Deep Kick'. The rest of it came from my sitting down with a guitar or bass."

Flea became interested in electronica during the Californication (1999) era and he attempted to emulate the same atmosphere given off by synthesizers into his bass playing: "I feel the most exciting music happening is electronica, without a doubt." He ultimately decided against this, acknowledging that, aside from Frusciante, the band was not moving in the same direction.

In By the Way (2002), many of the bass-lines were entirely stripped of funk. Flea felt the chords Frusciante had written were not supportive of his typical technique; furthermore, he does not feel the musical direction of the record was specifically melodic, but instead "... a result of each one of us being who we are. The way we [the band] compose music is a very communal thing."

Influences
Flea's stepfather was in a bebop jazz band that frequently jammed in his presence, so he soon became fascinated with the trumpet. Flea credits his continued interest in music to jazz performers like Jaco Pastorius, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, and Dizzy Gillespie. After Kiedis introduced him to punk and rock, Flea became infatuated with artists such as Black Flag, David Bowie, and Defunkt. Flea's early influences before Blood Sugar Sex Magik were mainly funk artists. They would become a notable aspect of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' sound up to Mother's Milk. Originally, Flea was given the impression by punk bands, that one should play as hard and fast as they possibly could, but ultimately rejected this philosophy during Blood Sugar Sex Magik: "I was so into being raw [...] it was all bullshit." On Californication and By the Way, Flea drew influence from electronica, gothic rock bands like the Cure, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees and new wave music rather than funk. Flea has also spoken highly of Neil Young; he wrote an article for Rolling Stone praising Young for the consistent authenticity in his artistry, among other things.

Recognition and legacy
Regarded as one of the best rock bass players of all time, in 2009, Rolling Stones readers ranked Flea the second-best bassist in their top-ten poll, ranked behind only John Entwistle of the Who and ahead of Paul McCartney of the Beatles. In a 2010 poll conducted on the BBC Two series I'm in a Rock 'n' Roll Band!, Flea was named the bassist in the ultimate fantasy band alongside Freddie Mercury on vocals, Jimi Hendrix on guitar and John Bonham on drums.

In April 2011, Flea finished second in an online poll conducted by Contact Music to name the best bass guitarist in rock music. He came second to the late John Entwistle. Rounding out the top five were Paul McCartney, Geddy Lee of Rush and Les Claypool of Primus.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Non-Red Hot Chili Peppers music videos

Discography

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Atoms for Peace
Amok (2013 album)

Solo
 "I've Been Down", released in the soundtrack for the movie The Basketball Diaries
 "Media Blitz", released on the compilation, Germs Tribute
Helen Burns (2012 EP)

Collaborations
 "#1 da Woman" by Tricky
 "Baby Can't Drive" by Slash with Alice Cooper, Nicole Scherzinger and Steven Adler
 "Barcelona" by Jewel
 "Bleed for Something Beautiful" by Mina Caputo
 "Bust a Move" by Young MC
 De-Loused in the Comatorium by the Mars Volta (selected tracks)
 The Empyrean by John Frusciante
 "Note to a Friend" by Aleka's Attic
 Concert Series Volume 1 by Axis of Justice (selected tracks)
 "Freeway" by Porno for Pyros with Dave Navarro
 "Gimme Shelter" by Patti Smith
 "Hardcharger" by Porno for Pyros with Dave Navarro
 "Hard Life Easy" by Satellite Party
 Wednesday: Modern Folk and Blues by Bob Forrest (2006)
 "Heart of Gold" by Johnny Cash with John Frusciante and Chad Smith
 "Hell Broke Luce" by Tom Waits
 "I Come Off" by Young MC
 "I Make My Own Rules" by LL Cool J with Dave Navarro
 "Idiots Rule" by Jane's Addiction with Angelo Moore and Christopher Dowd
 "Ill Wind" by Michael Brook with James Pinker Pinkerelly, Jimmy Scott, and Michael Stipe
 "It's A Rockin World" by Joe Strummer with Tom Morello, Benmont Tench, DJ Bonebrake, and Nick Hexum
 "Leave My Monkey Alone" by Warren Zevon
 "Kettle Whistle" by Jane's Addiction
 "Miranda that Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore" by the Mars Volta
 Momentum by Joshua Redman
 "Narcissus" by Alanis Morissette
 "The Odyssey" by Incubus
 "Raised Right Men" by Tom Waits
 Rocketjuice and the Moon by Rocket Juice & the Moon
 "Sleepin' wit My Fonk" by Sir Mix-A-Lot
 "So What!" by Jane's Addiction
 "Spiritual" by Johnny Cash with Curt Bisquera
 "War" by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony with Henry Rollins and Tom Morello
 "The Widow" by the Mars Volta
 "What'll I Do (Remix)" by Janet Jackson (remixed by Flea, Chad Smith & Dave Navarro)
 "White Rabbit" by Patti Smith with Tom Verlaine
 "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette with Dave Navarro
 "Grease the System" by Banyan with John Frusciante
Antemasque by Antemasque
Was Never There by Pluralone
Nowhere I Am by Pluralone
 "Not Great Men" with John Frusciante
 Bonfire of Teenagers - Morrissey

Producer
The Boldness Of Style EP by Thelonious Monster (produced the song "Walk On Water")

Notes

References

External links

1962 births
Living people
Alternative rock bass guitarists
American alternative rock musicians
American autobiographers
American experimental musicians
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American people of Australian descent
American people of Hungarian descent
American people of Irish descent
Antemasque (band) members
Atoms for Peace (band) members
Australian alternative rock musicians
Australian autobiographers
Australian expatriate male actors in the United States
Australian experimental musicians
Australian male film actors
Australian male television actors
Australian male voice actors
Australian people of Hungarian descent
Australian people of Irish descent
Fairfax High School (Los Angeles) alumni
Fear (band) members
Grammy Award winners
Jane's Addiction members
Los Angeles Lakers
Musicians from Melbourne
People with acquired American citizenship
People with chronic fatigue syndrome
Pigface members
Red Hot Chili Peppers members
The Mars Volta members
What Is This? members
20th-century American bass guitarists
21st-century American bass guitarists
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American musicians
20th-century Australian male actors
21st-century Australian male actors
20th-century Australian musicians
21st-century Australian musicians
21st-century multi-instrumentalists

Flea (musician)


A sport coat (or sports coat) is an article of clothing worn by men as part of business or Informal attire. British usage is to call it a sports jacket.  It is similar to a jacket or suit coat, has long sleeves, and is often made of cotton or wool. Sport coats come in many colors and patterns, but the most common are black, navy blue, brown, grey, and tweed, a special type of grey pattern.

If a sport coat is cut from a different cloth, it may be called a blazer. If a sports jacket is made for a cold climate, it will use heavy cloth. Harris Tweed is a famous Scottish cloth originally made in the island of Harris.

The term sport coat may come from their being originally worn for hunting.

Sport coats can be worn with jeans.

Related pages
Blazer
Blouson
Suit

References

Tops (clothing)

Sport coat


Halgerda graphica is a species of sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, shell-less marine gastropod mollusks in the family Discodorididae.

Distribution
This species was described from Kangaroo Island, South Australia. It has also been reported from nearby Port Moorowie on the Yorke Peninsula and Burrewarra Point, near Batemans Bay, New South Wales.

References

Discodorididae
Gastropods described in 1905

Halgerda graphica


Johann Santner (21 April, 1840 in Sankt Jakob in Defereggen - 21 May, 1912 in Bozen) was a Tyrolean mountaineer and first climber to reach the summit of the Santnerspitze, which was later given his name in his honor, of the Schlern on 2 July, 1880. He also was the first climber on the Gran Cir.

Life
Johann Santner came to Bozen in 1875 as a florist. In 1876 he became a member of the local branch of the Deutscher und Österreichischer Alpenverein.
The Schlern was his favorite mountain, he climbed it over 400 times - the last time in 1911 at the age of 71.

References

 Hans Kiene: Die Entwicklung der Bozner Bergsteigerei in: Der Schlern 1926, pages 407-415
 Eduard Widmoser: Südtirol A-Z, 4th volume (O-Z), Innsbruck 1995, Südtirol-Verlag, page 195
 Bruno Mahlknecht: Santners Traum. Ein Bergsteiger und sein Denkmal, German-language daily Dolomiten, 15 September, 2004, page 19

External links
 website in German
 Austrian Biographical Lexicon of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

1840 births
1912 deaths
Austrian mountain climbers

Johann Santner


"Lady of Mann" redirects here. For the wives of the Lords of Mann, see List of Manx consorts; or for the ship, see MS Lady of Mann.

Lord of Mann (), is used on the Isle of Man as part of Charles III's title.  The Lord of Mann was the island's feudal Lord Proprietor, the Monarch of England was head of state.

Relationship with the Crown
The title is not used on its own. Since 1399, the Kings and Lords of Mann were feudal subjects of the reigning King of England, and then of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, who was the ultimate sovereign of the island. This right of 'Lord Proprietor' was revested into the Crown when the Isle of Man was bought by the Isle of Man Purchase Act 1765 and stopped to exist separately. However, for reasons of culture and tradition, the title Lord of Mann continues to be used. For these reasons, the correct formal usage, as used on the Isle of Man for the Loyal Toast, is The Queen, Lord of Mann.

The title is now Lord of Mann regardless of gender. However, during her reign Queen Victoria was styled as Lady of Mann.

The formal Latin style is .

List of Lords
Prior to 1504, the ruler of the Isle of Man was generally styled King of Mann.

16th century
Thomas III Stanley, 1504-1521
Edward Stanley, 1521-1572
Henry Stanley, 1572-1593
Ferdinando Stanley, 1593-1594

Succession dispute (1594-1607)
In 1598, a succession dispute between the daughters of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby and Stanley's brother, William Stanley was heard. It was decided by the Privy Council that the right to the Isle of Man belonged solely to Queen Elizabeth I, and the letters-patent of 1405 which have conferred the Isle of Man to the Stanley family were declared null and void. This was because Percy had not been subject to legal attainder, despite his treason, and the 1405 and 1406 letters-patent had therefore not taken effect.

The Queen, in consideration of the "many eminent services performed to herself and to her royal predecessors by the honourable and noble House of Stanley," withdrew her right and referred the contending claimants to the decision of the Privy Council as to the best claim of inheritance.

The Law Lords on the Privy Council decided "the grant being by letters patent under the Great Seal of England, such right would descend according to the Common Law of England to the heirs general, and not to the heirs male", and the island was therefore awarded to Ferdinando's daughters; whereupon William agreed to purchase their several shares and interests.

The original letters-patent having been declared void, the Parliament of England in 1609 under James I passed a Private Act of Parliament entitled "An Act for assuring and establishing the Isle of Man in the name and blood of William, Earl of Derby" [(1609) 7 Jac.1 c.4] which established the title in law as Lord of Mann. The lordship was conferred by letters-patent dated 7 July 1609 upon William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Subsequent succession was under the terms of this grant.

Interim Lords (1607-1609)
Following the resolution of the succession dispute, it was ruled that the daughters of Ferdinando Stanley were the rightful heirs. As the oldest of them would not reach the age of majority until 1609, two temporary Lords of Mann were appointed by James I, using letters patent, so that the daughters could benefit from the Island's revenues.
Henry Howard, 1607-1608
Robert Cecil, 1608-1609

Following the coming of age of the heirs to the Lordship of the Isle of Man, the rights over the island were sold to their uncle, William Stanley. He took up the title of Lord of Mann following the passing of an Act of Parliament.

17th century
William I Stanley, 1609-1612
Elizabeth Stanley, 1612-1627
James I Stanley, 1627-1651 (known as 'the Great Stanley')
Thomas Fairfax, 1651-1660 (appointed by Oliver Cromwell during the English Interregnum)
Charles Stanley, 1660-1672 (restored by Charles II)
William II Stanley, 1672-1702
James II Stanley, 1702-1736
James III Murray, 1736-1764
Charlotte and John III Murray,  1764-1765

Revestment
In 1765, Charlotte Murray, 8th Baroness Strange, sold the suzerainty of the island to the British government for £70,000. By the passage of the Isle of Man Purchase Act 1765 the title of Lord of Mann was revested into the British Crown. It has therefore since been used on the Isle of Man to refer to the reigning Monarch of the United Kingdom.

All remaining rights and property of the Dukes of Atholl on the island were sold to the British government in 1828.

Related pages
 Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man

References

Lists of people
Government of the Isle of Man

Lord of Mann


Winston Cordell Hill (October 23, 1941 – April 26, 2016) was an American professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL), primarily with the New York Jets. He played college football for the Texas Southern Tigers.

Early years
Hill grew up in Joaquin, Texas. His father, Garfield Hill, served as principal of Weldon High School in Gladewater, Texas. Winston was a tennis champion in high school. He played both offensive and defensive line in college at Texas Southern University and was an All-American.

Football career
Hill was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in 1963, but signed as a free agent with New York's American Football League franchise in the same year that they became the New York Jets, and went on to record the tenth-longest string of starts in pro football history at 174.  As left offensive tackle for the Jets, he spent his career protecting Joe Namath's blind side and opening holes for the likes of Emerson Boozer, Matt Snell and John Riggins.  He was an American Football League All-Star in 1964, 1967, 1968 and 1969, and a Pro Bowl selection in 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973. He and Joe Namath joined the Los Angeles Rams in 1977; Namath retired after one season and Hill after three games. On January 15, 2020, Hill was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2020, and is in the Class of 2021 for the Black College Football Hall of Fame.

1968 season and Super Bowl III

Hill was an overpowering blocker who was instrumental in opening gaping holes for Jet running backs during the 1968 season, in which they won the Eastern division title with 11 wins and 3 losses and gained as a team 1608 yards rushing and 3574 yards passing. Hill also starred in the Third Professional AFL-NFL World Championship Game (Super Bowl III), as the Jets decimated the right side of the Baltimore Colts' defensive line with Ordell Braase at end against Hill and Fred Miller at tackle against Bob Talamini, so that Matt Snell gained 121 yards rushing in the Jets' 16–7 upset victory.

Special recognition
In 1970 Hill was selected by a panel of members of the AFL's Hall of Fame Board of Selectors to the second-team All-time All-American Football League Team. He was a member of the New York Jets' All-Time Four Decade Team, which was determined by the fans in 2003. Hill was a 1986 inductee into the Texas Southern University Sports Hall of Fame.

The 2009 NFL season was the 50th season for the eight original AFL teams, and that anniversary was commemorated throughout the season with 16 "AFL Legacy Games." One of those games, pitting the NY Jets against the Miami Dolphins, took place in New York on Sunday November 1; designated by the NFL as "Winston Hill Day". Hill's daughter, opera singer Heather Hill, opened the game by singing the national anthem, and fifteen of Hill's former teammates and other ex-Jets joined the festivities. As part of the celebration, Hill's jersey, #75, was retired during the halftime ceremonies.

On Monday August 16, 2010, during halftime of the first game played at the New Meadowlands Stadium (a preseason opener; Jets vs. Giants), Hill was inducted into the Jets Ring of Honor. This selection was made by an internal committee led by Jets Chairman and CEO Woody Johnson.

On January 15, 2020, Hill was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2020.  The following year he was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, GA over the Juneteenth weekend.  The BCHOF  has a permanent residence in Canton, OH.  Hill will be honored posthumously over Labor Day weekend in Canton, OH.

Later life
Hill was a 46-year Colorado resident.  During that time he became known for his generous nature and philanthropic community based activities.  He was an ardent supporter of youth programs and brought campers to the Joe Namath, John Dockery football camp until he was no longer able to travel.  He collaborated with fellow athletes and was often the only non Bronco invited to Bronco parties when he was in town.

Hill worked with the Gilliam Youth Center in Denver and was a major supporter of restorative justice.  He volunteered for years at the Denver Indian Center and got fellow pro athletes, Broncos and Nuggets to donate sporting equipment and to volunteer time at youth camps.  He was a motivational speaker for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and spoke nationally for twenty years.

Concerning the NFL, Hill was an active member of the Alumni Players Association and was an insistent advocate in two areas: Financial education for players and health care equal to the needs of retired football players, many who suffered from injuries sustained during years as a player.  Financially, he had great concern surrounding young players coming in and  receiving massive salaries without the information and wisdom needed to negotiate or handle their income responsibly.  His most pressing passion was advocating for player's health.  Prior to and during the years that concussive brain syndrome was coming into the spotlight, Hill had annually discussed the need for better healthcare provisions for retired players.  Players, especially the older ones, whose careers preceded the super salaries of today, often did not have the funds nor the means to travel to their home team headquarters to request support with their increasing health concerns.  The year after Hill died, 2017 at the annual Jets Alumni meeting held at the Atlantic Health Training Center, leadership discussed the changes that were in place and detailed a list of supports to answer the call for proper medical treatment.  Daughter Heather Hill stated, "Winston went to the mountain top, but was not able to cross over.  Still, his persistence was a voice of change and action that has brought us to this day."

Hill opened his first barbecue restaurant in 1980 after apprenticing under the legendary 5 points community leader, Daddy Bruce Randolf
Over the years he became involved in several restaurant ventures  but his favorite location was a little take out his family still runs to this day.
Hill brought a smoker and his cooking talents to Centennial, Colorado, in the early 1990s and opened Winston Hill's BBQ or Winston Hill's Ribs & Stuff; now called Winston's Smoke BBQ. As of February 2023, the location has since closed permanently.

His daughters, Heather Hill, singer/actress and Hovlyn May, educator,  began the Winston Hill Finish Like a Pro Athletic Endowed Scholarship at Texas Southern University aimed at juniors and seniors needing help to finish "like pros" in the fields of physical education, sports medicine, physical therapy, neurological sciences.

Death
Hill died on April 26, 2016, at the age of 74.  He died of congestive heart failure and concussive brain syndrome.  At his request his brain was donated to science to further the research on brain injuries suffered by athletes.

See also
Other American Football League players

References

1941 births
2016 deaths
People from Gladewater, Texas
People from Joaquin, Texas
Players of American football from Texas
African-American players of American football
American football offensive tackles
Texas Southern Tigers football players
New York Jets players
Los Angeles Rams players
American Football League players
American Football League All-Star players
American Football League All-Time Team
American Conference Pro Bowl players
Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees
20th-century African-American sportspeople
21st-century African-American people

Winston Hill


Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov (;  – 7 April 1928), born Alexander Malinovsky, was a Russian and later Soviet physician, philosopher, science fiction writer and Bolshevik revolutionary. He was a polymath who pioneered blood transfusion and general systems theory and made important contributions to cybernetics.

He was a key figure in the early history of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (later the Communist Party of the Soviet Union), originally established 1898, and of its Bolshevik faction. Bogdanov co-founded the Bolsheviks in 1903, when they split with the Menshevik faction. He was a rival within the Bolsheviks to Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924), until being expelled in 1909 and founding his own faction Vpered. Following the Russian Revolutions of 1917, when the Bolsheviks came to power in the collapsing Russian Republic, during the first decade of the subsequent Soviet Union in the 1920s, he was an influential opponent of the Bolshevik government and Lenin from a Marxist leftist perspective.

Bogdanov received training in medicine and psychiatry. His wide scientific and medical interests ranged from the universal systems theory to the possibility of human rejuvenation through blood transfusion. He invented an original philosophy called "tectology", now regarded as a forerunner of systems theory. He was also an economist, culture theorist, science fiction writer, and political activist. He was one of the Russian Machists.

Early years
Ethnically Belarusian,  Alexander Malinovsky was born in Sokółka, Russian Empire (now Poland), into a rural teacher's family, the second of six children. He attended the Gymnasium at Tula, which he compared to a barracks or prison. He was awarded a gold medal when he graduated.

Upon completion of the gymnasium, Bogdanov was admitted to the Natural Science Department of Imperial Moscow University. In his autobiography, Bogdanov reported that, while studying at Moscow University, he joined the Union Council of Regional Societies and was arrested and exiled to Tula because of it.

The head of the Moscow Okhrana had used an informant to acquire the names of members of the Union Council of Regional Societies, which included Bogdanov's name. On October 30, 1894, students rowdily demonstrated against a lecture by the history Professor Vasily Klyuchevsky who, despite being a well-known liberal, had written a favourable eulogy for the recently deceased Tsar Alexander III of Russia. Punishment of a few of the students was seen as so arbitrary and unfair that the Union Council requested a fair reexamination of the issue. That very night, the Okhrana arrested all the students on the list mentioned above – including Bogdanov – all of whom were expelled from the university and banished to their hometowns.

Expelled from Moscow State University, he enrolled as an external student at the University of Kharkov, from which he graduated as a physician in 1899. Bogdanov remained in Tula from 1894 to 1899, where – since his own family was living in Sokółka – he lodged with Alexander Rudnev, the father of Vladimir Bazarov, who became a close friend and collaborator in future years. Here he met and married Natalya Bogdanovna Korsak, who, as a woman, had been refused entrance to the university. She was eight years older than he was and worked as a nurse for Rudnev. Malinovsky adopted the pen name that he used when he wrote his major theoretical works and his novels from her patronym.

Alongside Bazarov and Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov he became a tutor in a workers' study circle. This was organised in the Tula Armament Factory by Ivan Saveliev, whom Bogdanov credited with founding Social Democracy in Tula. During this period, he wrote his Brief course of economic science, which was published – "subject to many modifications made for the benefit of the censor" – only in 1897. He later said that this experience of student-led education gave him his first lesson in proletarian culture.

In autumn 1895, he resumed his medical studies at the university of Kharkiv (Ukraine) but still spent much time in Tula. He came across the works of Lenin in 1896, particularly the latter's critique of Peter Berngardovich Struve. In 1899, he graduated as a medical doctor and published his next work, "Basic elements of the historical perspective on nature". However, because of his political views, he was also arrested by the Tsar's police, spent six months in prison, and was exiled to Vologda.

Bolshevism

Bogdanov dated his support for Bolshevism from autumn of 1903. Early in 1904, Martyn Liadov was sent by the Bolsheviks in Geneva to seek out supporters in Russia. He found a sympathetic group of revolutionaries, including Bogdanov, in Tver. Bogdanov was then sent by the Tver Committee to Geneva, where he was greatly impressed by Lenin's One Step Forward, Two Steps Back. Back in Russia during the 1905 Revolution, Bogdanov was arrested on 3 December 1905 and held in prison until 27 May 1906. Upon release, he was exiled to Bezhetsk for three years. However, he obtained permission to spend his exile abroad, and joined Lenin in Kokkola, Finland.

For the next six years, Bogdanov was a major figure among the early Bolsheviks, second only to Lenin in influence. In 1904–1906, he published three volumes of the philosophic treatise Empiriomonizm (Empiriomonism), in which he tried to merge Marxism with the philosophy of Ernst Mach, Wilhelm Ostwald, and Richard Avenarius. His work later affected a number of Russian Marxist theoreticians, including Nikolai Bukharin. In 1907, he helped organize the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery with both Lenin and Leonid Krasin.

For four years after the collapse of the Russian Revolution of 1905, Bogdanov led a group within the Bolsheviks ("ultimatists" and "otzovists" or "recallists"), who demanded a recall of Social Democratic deputies from the State Duma, and he vied with Lenin for the leadership of the Bolshevik faction. In 1908 he joined Bazarov, Lunacharsky, Berman, Helfond, Yushkevich and Suvorov in a symposium Studies in the Philosophy of Marxism which espoused the views of the Russian Marxists. By mid-1908, the factionalism within the Bolsheviks had become irreconcilable. A majority of Bolshevik leaders either supported Bogdanov or were undecided between him and Lenin.

Lenin concentrated on undermining Bogdanov's reputation as a philosopher. In 1909 he published a scathing book of criticism entitled Materialism and Empiriocriticism, assaulting Bogdanov's position and accusing him of philosophical idealism. In June 1909, Bogdanov was defeated by Lenin at a Bolshevik mini-conference in Paris organized by the editorial board of the Bolshevik magazine Proletary and was expelled from the Bolsheviks.

He joined his brother-in-law Anatoly Lunacharsky, Maxim Gorky, and other Vperedists on the island of Capri, where they started the Capri Party School for Russian factory workers. In 1910, Bogdanov, Lunacharsky, Mikhail Pokrovsky, and their supporters moved the school to Bologna, where they continued teaching classes through 1911, while Lenin and his allies soon started the Longjumeau Party School just outside of Paris.

Bogdanov broke with the Vpered in 1912 and abandoned revolutionary activities. After six years of his political exile in Europe, Bogdanov returned to Russia in 1914, following the political amnesty declared by Tsar Nicholas II as part of the festivities connected with the tercentenary of the Romanov Dynasty.

During World War I
Bogdanov was drafted soon after the outbreak of World War I and was assigned as a junior regimental doctor with the 221st Smolensk infantry division in the Second Army commanded by General Alexander Samsonov. In the Battle of Tannenberg, August 26–30, the Second Army was surrounded and almost completely destroyed, but Bogdanov survived because he had been sent to accompany a seriously wounded officer to Moscow. However following the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes, he succumbed to a nervous disorder and subsequently became junior house surgeon at an evacuation hospital.

In 1916 he wrote four articles for Vpered which provided an analysis of the World War and the dynamics of war economies. He attributed a central role to the armed forces in the economic restructuring of the belligerent powers. He saw the army as creating a "consumers' communism" with the state taking over ever-increasing parts of the economy.

At the same time military authoritarianism had also spread to civil society. This created the conditions for two consequences: consumption-led war communism and the destruction of the means of production. He thus predicted that even after the war, the new system of state capitalism would replace that of finance capitalism even though the destruction of the forces of production would cease.

During the Russian Revolution
Bogdanov had no party-political involvement in the Russian Revolution of 1917, although he did publish a number of articles and books about the events that unfurled around him. He supported the Zimmerwaldist programme of "peace without annexations or indemnities". He deplored the Provisional Government's continued prosecution of the war. After the July Days, he advocated "revolutionary democracy" as he now considered the socialists capable of forming a government. However, he viewed this as a broad-based socialist provisional government that would convene a Constituent Assembly.

In May 1917, he published Chto my svergli in Novaya Zhizn. Here he argued that between 1904 and 1907, the Bolsheviks had been "decidedly democratic" and that there was no pronounced cult of leadership. However, following the decision of Lenin and the émigré group around him to break with Vpered in order to unify with the Mensheviks, the principle of leadership became more pronounced. After 1912, when Lenin insisted on splitting the Duma group of the RSDLP, the leadership principle became entrenched. However, he saw this problem as not being confined to the Bolsheviks, noting that similar authoritarian ways of thinking were shown in the Menshevik attitude to Plekhanov, or the cult of heroic individuals and leaders amongst the Narodniks.
 Every organisation, on achieving a position of decisive influence in the life and ordering of society, quite inevitably, irrespective of the formal tenets of its programme, attempts to impose on society its own type of structure, the one with which it is most familiar and to which it is most accustomed. Every collective re-creates, as far as it can, the whole social environment after its own image and in its own likeness.

After the October Revolution
At the beginning of February 1918, Bogdanov denied that the Bolsheviks' October seizure to power had constituted a conspiracy. Rather, he explained that an explosive situation had arisen through the prolongation of the war. He pointed to a lack of cultural development in that all strata of society, whether the bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia, or the workers, had shown a failure to resolve conflicts through negotiation. He described the revolution as being a combination of a peasant revolution in the countryside and a soldier-worker revolution in the cities. He regarded it as paradoxical that the peasantry expressed itself through the Bolshevik party rather than through the Socialist Revolutionaries.

He analysed the effect of the First World War as creating 'War Communism', which he defined as a form of 'consumer communism', which created the circumstances for the development of state capitalism. He saw military state capitalism as a temporary phenomenon in the West, lasting only as long as the war. However, thanks to the predominance of the soldiers in the Bolshevik Party, he regarded it as inevitable that their backwardness should predominate in the re-organisation of society. Instead of proceeding in a methodical fashion, the pre-existing state was simply uprooted. The military-consumerist approach of simply requisitioning what was required had predominated and could not cope with the more complex social relations necessitated by the market:
 There is a War Communist party which is mobilising the working class, and there are groups of socialist intelligentsia. The war has made the army the end and the working class the means.

He refused multiple offers to rejoin the party and denounced the new regime as similar to Aleksey Arakcheyev's arbitrary and despotic rule in the early 1820s.

In 1918, Bogdanov became a professor of economics at the University of Moscow and director of the newly established Socialist Academy of Social Sciences.

Proletkult
Between 1918 and 1920, Bogdanov co-founded the proletarian art movement Proletkult and was its leading theoretician. In his lectures and articles, he called for the total destruction of the "old bourgeois culture" in favour of a "pure proletarian culture" of the future. It was also through Proletkult that Bogdanov's educational theories were given form with the establishment of the Moscow Proletarian University.

At first Proletkult, like other radical cultural movements of the era, received financial support from the Bolshevik government, but by 1920, the Bolshevik leadership grew hostile, and on December 1, 1920, Pravda published a decree denouncing Proletkult as a "petit bourgeois" organization operating outside of Soviet institutions and a haven for "socially alien elements". Later in that month, the president of Proletkult was removed, and Bogdanov lost his seat on its Central Committee. He withdrew from the organization completely in 1921–1922.

Arrest
Bogdanov gave a lecture to a club at Moscow University, which, according to Yakov Yakovlev, included an account of the formation of Vpered and reiterated some of the criticisms Bogdanov had made at the time of the individualism of certain leaders. Yakovlev further claimed that Bogdanov discussed the development of the concept of proletarian culture up to the present day and discussed to what extent the Communist Party saw Proletkult as a rival. Bogdanov hinted at the prospect of a new International that might emerge if there were a revival of the socialist movement in the West. He said he envisaged such an International as merging political, trade union, and cultural activities into a single organisation. Yakovlev characterised these ideas as Menshevik, pointing to the refusal of Vpered to acknowledge the authority of the 1912 Prague Conference. He cited Bogdanov's characterization of the October revolution as "soldiers'-peasants' revolt", his criticisms of the New Economic Policy, and his description of the new regime as expressing the interests of a new class of technocratic and bureaucratic intelligentsia, as evidence that Bogdanov was involved in forming a new party.

Meanwhile, Workers' Truth had received publicity in the Berlin-based Menshevik journal Sotsialisticheskii Vestnik, and they also distributed a manifesto at the 12th Bolshevik Congress and were active in the industrial unrest which swept Moscow and Petrograd in July and August 1923. On 8 September 1923, Bogdanov was among a number of people arrested by the GPU (the Soviet secret police) on suspicion of being involved in them. He demanded to be interviewed by Felix Dzerzhinsky, to whom he explained that while he shared a range of views with Workers' Truth, he had no formal association with them. He was released after five weeks on 13 October; however, his file was not closed until a decree passed by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 16 January 1989. He wrote about his experiences under arrest in Five weeks with the GPU.

Later years and death
In 1924, Bogdanov started his blood transfusion experiments, apparently hoping to achieve eternal youth or at least partial rejuvenation. Lenin's sister Maria Ulyanova was among many who volunteered to take part in Bogdanov's experiments. After undergoing 11 blood transfusions, he remarked with satisfaction  the improvement of his eyesight, suspension of balding, and other positive symptoms. His fellow revolutionary Leonid Krasin wrote to his wife that "Bogdanov seems to have become 7, no, 10 years younger after the operation". In 1925–1926, Bogdanov founded the Institute for Haemotology and Blood Transfusions, which was later named after him.

A later transfusion in 1928 cost him his life, when he took the blood of a student suffering from malaria and tuberculosis. The student injected with his blood made a complete recovery. Some scholars (e.g. Loren Graham) have speculated that his death may have been a suicide, because Bogdanov wrote a highly nervous political letter shortly beforehand. However, his death could be attributed to the adverse effects of blood transfusion, which were poorly understood at the time.

Legacy
Both Bogdanov's fiction and his political writings imply that he expected the coming revolution against capitalism to lead to a technocratic society.  This was because the workers lacked the knowledge and initiative to seize control of social affairs for themselves as a result of the hierarchical and authoritarian nature of the capitalist production process. However, Bogdanov also considered that the hierarchical and authoritarian mode of organization of the Bolshevik party was also partly to blame, although Bogdanov considered at least some such organization necessary and inevitable.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Bogdanov's theorizing, being the product of a non-Leninist Bolshevik, became an important, though "underground", influence on certain dissident factions in the Soviet Union who turned against Bolshevik autocracy while accepting the necessity of the Revolution and wishing to preserve its achievements.

In popular culture
Bogdanov served as an inspiration for the character Arkady Bogdanov in Kim Stanley Robinson's science-fiction novels the Mars Trilogy. It is revealed in 'Blue Mars' that Arkady is a descendant of Alexander Bogdanov.

Published works

Russian

Non-fiction
 Poznanie s Istoricheskoi Tochki Zreniya (Knowledge from a Historical Viewpoint) (St. Petersburg, 1901)
 Empiriomonizm:  Stat'i po Filosofii (Empiriomonism: Articles on Philosophy) 3 volumes (Moscow, 1904–1906)
 Kul'turnye zadachi nashego vremeni (The Cultural Tasks of Our Time) (Moscow: Izdanie S. Dorovatoskogo i A. Carushnikova 1911)
 Filosofiya Zhivogo Opyta:  Populiarnye Ocherki (Philosophy of Living Experience: Popular Essays) (St. Petersburg, 1913)
 Tektologiya:  Vseobschaya Organizatsionnaya Nauka 3 volumes (Berlin and Petrograd-Moscow, 1922)
 "Avtobiografia" in Entsiklopedicheskii slovar, XLI, pp. 29–34 (1926)
 God raboty Instituta perelivanya krovi (Annals of the Institute of Blood Transfusion) (Moscow 1926–1927)

Fiction
 Krasnaya zvezda (Red Star) (St. Petersburg, 1908)
 Inzhener Menni (Engineer Menni) (Moscow: Izdanie S. Dorovatoskogo i A. Carushnikova 1912) The title page carries the date 1913

English translation

Non-fiction
 Art and the working class, translated by Taylor R Genovese (Iskra Books, 2022)
 Essays in Organisation Science (1919) Очерки организационной науки (Ocherki organizatsionnoi nauki) Proletarskaya kul'tura, No. 7/8 (April–May)
 'Proletarian Poetry' (1918), Labour Monthly, Vol IV, No. 5–6, May–June 1923
 'The Criticism of Proletarian Art' (from Kritika proletarskogo iskusstva, 1918) Labour Monthly, Vol V, No. 6, December 1923
 'Religion, Art and Marxism',  Labour Monthly, Vol VI, No. 8, August 1924
 Essays in Tektology:  The General Science of Organization, translated by George Gorelik (Seaside, CA:  Intersystems Publications, 1980)
 A Short Course of Economics Science, (London: Communist Party of Great Britain, 1923)
 Bogdanov's Tektology. Book 1, edited by Peter Dudley (Hull, UK: Centre for Systems Studies Press, 1996).
 The Philosophy of Living Experience (1913/2015). Translated, edited and introduced by David G. Rowley, Leiden & Boston: Brill (2015)
 Empiriomonism: Essays in Philosophy, Books 1–3. Edited and translated by David G. Rowley, Leiden & Boston: Brill (2019)

Fiction
 Red Star:  The First Bolshevik Utopia, edited by Loren Graham and Richard Stites; trans. Charles Rougle (Bloomington, IN:  Indiana University Press, 1984):
 Red Star (1908). Novel. In English
 Engineer Menni (1913). Novel.
 "A Martian Stranded on Earth" (1924). Poem.

See also
 Two Events Celebrating the Life and Contribution of Alexander Bogdanov, hosted by the Centre for Systems Studies on 2–3 June 2021
 List of dystopian literature
 1908 in literature
 Arkady Bogdanov, a character in K.S. Robinson's Mars Trilogy, inspired by Aleksandr Bogdanov

Notes

Sources
 Cohen, Stephen F. 1980 [1973]. Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography, 1888–1938. Oxford University Press. . First published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1973. Published 1980 by Oxford University Press with corrections and a new introduction. Google Books preview as of 20101006
 Rosenthal, Bernice Glatzer. 2002. New Myth, New World: From Nietzsche to Stalinism. The Pennsylvania State University Press. Google Books preview as of 20101006
 Sochor, Zenovia. 1988. Revolution and Culture: The Bogdanov-Lenin Controversy. Cornell University Press.
 Socialist Standard. 2007 April. Bogdanov, technocracy and socialism. 106 (1232): 10.
 Souvarine, Boris. 1939. Stalin: A Critical Survey of Bolshevism. New York: Alliance Group Corporation; Longmans, Green, and Co.
 Woods, Alan. 1999. Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution. Wellred Publications.  Part Three: The Period of Reaction

Further reading

 Biggart, John; Georgii Gloveli; Avraham Yassour. 1998. Bogdanov and his Work. A guide to the published and unpublished works of Alexander A. Bogdanov (Malinovsky) 1873–1928, Aldershot: Ashgate.
 Biggart, John; Peter Dudley; Francis King (eds.). 1998. Alexander Bogdanov and the Origins of Systems Thinking in Russia. Aldershot: Ashgate.
 Brown, Stuart. 2002. Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers, London: Routledge.
 Dudley, Peter. 1996. Bogdanov's Tektology (1st Engl transl). Hull, UK: Centre for Systems Studies, University of Hull.
 Dudley, Peter; Simona Pustylnik. 1995. Reading The Tektology: provisional findings, postulates and research directions. Hull, UK: Centre for Systems Studies, University of Hull.
 Gorelick, George. 1983. Bogdanov's Tektology: Nature, Development and Influences. Studies in Soviet Thought, 26:37–57.
 Jensen, Kenneth Martin. 1978. Beyond Marx and Mach: Aleksandr Bogdanov's Philosophy of Living Experience. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
 Pustylnik, Simona. 1995. Biological Ideas of Bogdanov's Tektology. Presented at the international conference, Origins of Organization Theory in Russia and the Soviet Union, University of East Anglia (Norwich), Jan. 8–11, 1995.
 M. E. Soboleva. 2007. A. Bogdanov und der philosophische Diskurs in Russland zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts. Zur Geschichte des russischen Positivismus [The history of Russian positivism.]. Hildesheim, Germany: Georg Olms Verlag. 278 pp.

External links

 Alexander Bogdanov Archive at marxists.org
 А. А. Bogdanov Biographic essay (English)
 International Alexander Bogdanov Institute (Russian)
 Short biography and bibliography in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
 Red Hamlet

 Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Short History Loren R. Graham (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993  – Russian technocratic influence of engineers, subsequent deaths, trials and imprisonments
 About tectology John A. Mikes, prepared for the [International Conference on Complex Systems] New England Complex Systems Institute, September 21–27, 1997, in Nashua, NH

1873 births
1928 deaths
Members of the Central Committee of the 3rd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
Members of the Central Committee of the 4th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
Candidates of the Central Committee of the 5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
People from Sokółka
People from Sokolsky Uyezd
Old Bolsheviks
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members
Soviet inventors
Soviet economists
Soviet hematologists
Soviet art critics
Narodnaya Volya
Art critics from the Russian Empire
Communists from the Russian Empire
Economists from the Russian Empire
Inventors from the Russian Empire
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Writers from the Russian Empire
Soviet people of Polish descent
Soviet philosophers
20th-century Russian philosophers
Systems scientists
Marxist theorists
National University of Kharkiv alumni
Academic staff of Moscow State University
Inventors killed by their own invention
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis deaths in the Soviet Union

Alexander Bogdanov