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The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea Is Set to Find His Roots on Popular PBS Show: See What We Already Know<\/a> originally appeared on Parade<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n By listening to the music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers<\/a>, one might assume that the roots of bass player Flea<\/a><\/strong> are a combination of the 1960s and \u201870s funk of Parliament Funkadelic, Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown<\/a><\/strong> and the psychedelic rock of the Jimi Hendrix<\/a><\/strong> Experience and the Los Angeles punk scene.<\/p>\n However, come Jan. 6, 2026, we\u2019ll discover his roots run much deeper when the bassist appears on season 12 of the popular PBS series Finding Your Roots<\/a><\/em>with host Henry Louis Gates Jr.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfac <\/strong>SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a> \ud83c\udfac\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI 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<\/a>. It premieres on Jan 6, 2026 on @PBS<\/a>,\u201d Flea posted on Instagram<\/a> on Tuesday, Aug. 19.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n No spoiler alerts here, but we do know a bit about Flea\u2019s background from his 2019 memoir, Acid for the Children.<\/em><\/p>\n Related: \u201890s Funk-Rock Icon Pays Tribute to Late Legends for \u2018Changing My Life\u2019 in Emotional Video<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n He was born Michael Peter Balzary<\/strong> on Oct. 12, 1962, in Melbourne, Australia and he\u2019s of Hungarian and Irish decent.<\/p>\n When he was four years old, his family relocated to New York. When his parents\u2019 divorce in 1971, his father went back to Australia, but Flea and his sister Karyn<\/strong> stayed with their mother, Patricia<\/strong>, who eventually remarried a jazz musician named Walter Urban.<\/p>\n Flea\u2019s 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<\/a><\/strong> as well as guitarist Hillel Slovak<\/a><\/strong> and drummer Jack Irons<\/a><\/strong>, who he knew from junior high. It was in his teenage years, that he was given the nickname \u201cFlea,\u201d reportedly for his inability to sit still.<\/p>\n Aside from his four decades with the Chili Peppers, Flea has also worked as an actor, appearing in dozens of films, including Suburbia <\/em>(1983), Back to the Future Part II <\/em>and Part III <\/em>(1989, 1990) and as a voice actor in Inside Out 2 <\/em>(2024).<\/p>\n The Red Hot Chili Peppers most recent album, Return to the Dream Canteen<\/em>, was released in October 2022 and peaked at number three on The Billboard 200. The band promoted that album, and its predecessor 2022\u2019s chart-topping Unlimited Love<\/em>, with the Unlimited Love Tour, which ran from June 2022 through July 2024, with dates in Europe, North America, Oceania, Japan and Latin America.<\/p>\n The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea Is Set to Find His Roots on Popular PBS Show: See What We Already Know<\/a> first appeared on Parade on Aug 20, 2025<\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Aug 20, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\nWhat’s Flea’s Real Name?<\/h2>\n
When Did He Meet His Future Bandmates?<\/h2>\n
What Has He Done Apart From the Chili Peppers?<\/h2>\n