The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea Is Set to Find His Roots on Popular PBS Show: See What We Already Know originally appeared on Parade.
By listening to the music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, one might assume that the roots of bass player Flea are a combination of the 1960s and ‘70s funk of Parliament Funkadelic, Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown and the psychedelic rock of the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Los Angeles punk scene.
However, come Jan. 6, 2026, we’ll discover his roots run much deeper when the bassist appears on season 12 of the popular PBS series Finding Your Rootswith host Henry Louis Gates Jr.
“I was an ignorant monkey swinging upside down in my family tree, but now i know all! It was actually emotionally mind blowing and a deep heart fill to learn it, my lord. I am on season 12 of Finding Your Roots with the great @HenryLouisGates. It premieres on Jan 6, 2026 on @PBS,” Flea posted on Instagram on Tuesday, Aug. 19.
The caption was accompanied by a promotional graphic for the program with a photo of the smiling musician sporting short blue hair, a brown blazer and a yellow T-shirt.
No spoiler alerts here, but we do know a bit about Flea’s background from his 2019 memoir, Acid for the Children.
Related: ‘90s Funk-Rock Icon Pays Tribute to Late Legends for ‘Changing My Life’ in Emotional Video
What’s Flea’s Real Name?
He was born Michael Peter Balzary on Oct. 12, 1962, in Melbourne, Australia and he’s of Hungarian and Irish decent.
When he was four years old, his family relocated to New York. When his parents’ divorce in 1971, his father went back to Australia, but Flea and his sister Karyn stayed with their mother, Patricia, who eventually remarried a jazz musician named Walter Urban.
When Did He Meet His Future Bandmates?
Flea’s family later moved to Los Angeles where he took trumpet lessons and attended Fairfax High School, where he met his future bandmates, singer Anthony Kiedis as well as guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons, who he knew from junior high. It was in his teenage years, that he was given the nickname “Flea,” reportedly for his inability to sit still.
What Has He Done Apart From the Chili Peppers?
Aside from his four decades with the Chili Peppers, Flea has also worked as an actor, appearing in dozens of films, including Suburbia (1983), Back to the Future Part II and Part III (1989, 1990) and as a voice actor in Inside Out 2 (2024).
The Red Hot Chili Peppers most recent album, Return to the Dream Canteen, was released in October 2022 and peaked at number three on The Billboard 200. The band promoted that album, and its predecessor 2022’s chart-topping Unlimited Love, with the Unlimited Love Tour, which ran from June 2022 through July 2024, with dates in Europe, North America, Oceania, Japan and Latin America.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea Is Set to Find His Roots on Popular PBS Show: See What We Already Know first appeared on Parade on Aug 20, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 20, 2025, where it first appeared.
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