We Must See It Before It’s Too Late - Flea’s Search For Connection

best advice you've ever received be yourself superpower you'd like to have the ability to love without Judgment at all times all I can do is prepare my craft to be diligent and focused enough for when I connect and when a wave of divinity flows through me that I have the muscles the craft to express it and to articulate it into some kind of something Michael peterbol 3 better known as flee from the Red Hot Chili Peppers is regarded as one of the greatest bass players of all time as a founding member of the band flea was instrumental to its formation and success in the 10th grade flee met Anthony Kiedis who he later formed with the Red Hot Chili Peppers with their friendship continues to last now and is decorated with many successes and accomplishments six Grammy Awards 16 nominations and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame but let's take it back to flee's initial encounter with ahitas the bond that sparked it all I met him when I was 15. and we both just started the 10th grade at Fairfax High School in Hollywood and we were like almost immediately like in love and at War you know what I mean it's like this has it stayed that way and it stayed that way ever since and the thing that I tried to express about our relationship you know and I write about my childhood and he's a huge part of my childhood and became my family I mean we were inseparable for many years like especially when we were young it was like every single day we were together from the thing that I try to express about it in my book is that from the very beginning I remember my mom you know rest in peace who told me a few years before she died she said you know I remember when you came home you were 15. that is hard because I get um she said to me she said Michael you came home and you were all lit up and you said you said mom Mom I finally found someone I can talk to and um I really did you know and um you know like any really close brotherly relationship it's you know we go at each other too but I was there I found someone I could communicate with in a in a way in a profound way that I hadn't had before I knew that it was big and I felt forces Beyond me like bringing us together I had no idea about a professional life or anything like that and I still sometimes I often feel that like you know the longevity of our band and everything it's not you know I know our band's been successful and all that but it's not so much the band itself that does it and all the professional obligations and stuff and you know our desire to try to continue to be in a relative evolving artistic and entity but but like our band is a vehicle it's like the universe has decided Well here's this thing that'll keep them together so just do that Anthony Kiedis wasn't flee's only friend that he accomplished amazing things with in 2001 flee founded the Silver Lake Conservatory of Music with Keith treeberry a former touring member [Music] the Silverlight Conservatory of Music is a non-profit music school I started on Silver Lake yeah it's in Silver Lake right on Sunset and Sanborn I started at 13 years ago we have 700 music students in there we teach all the orchestral instruments all the band instruments and you know when I was a kid I was kind of a rough kid I was on the street I was getting in trouble I was doing Petty crimes I was on drugs the one thing that really kind of kept me focused was the music programs in the public schools that I went to it gave me a sense of self it gave me a discipline it gave me something to work on and you know after I graduated high school in 1980 Reaganomics they passed Proposition 13 and it really the cut out the Arts funding in Los Angeles Public Schools terrible and it's never recovered from it and I went back about 15 years ago to Fairfax High School to talk to the music students there about a career in music and I was just shocked when I walked in there they had no instruments they had no Orchestra they had a volunteer teacher Boombox they listen to music and talk about it when I was there I played in a big Orchestra I could play any instrument I wanted it was incredible so I really vowed to myself to do something to try to fill the void in in music education because I know there are a lot of kids like me that would change their lives it's just been an absolutely transcendently incredible experience having a school Larry it's been seeing these kids so many of these kids it means so much to them and seeing especially the ones that are really Earnest and really care about it it's just great to see them blossom and grow other people in the band work at the school um no no we do you know some have like we do performances for the kids and fundraisers and stuff it's just been um just just a little bit about the school the school is not about being famous it's not about being an Entertainer it's about it's a really academic school it's a processed based thing it's about it's not even about music education it's a means to an end it's just about the educational process itself and teaching kids to you know enrich their lives with music well AI whenever they make budget cuts in education Arts go first I don't know it's really it's terrible you know I mean for us we think about it as you know the Three A's instead of the three R's and arts academics and Athletics all being of equal importance and they should all be given equal attention to school and he's continued to hold arts and Athletics near and dear to his heart given his amazing stage presence it's no surprise he uses these tools to connect mind spirit and body allowing him to remain in the present moment [Music] when I'm in a healthy creative space when I'm truly able to get gone in my creativity whether the work that I'm doing is of a high quality or not I become present and when I'm present I'm able to be there for other people I mean music and all forms of art Israel and I you know for me Athletics as well like motion you know anything that makes you completely present in the moment and Alive with with all you know mind skirt and body everything there is for me it's always been a search for that like that's why even when I had no idea what it was even doing drugs you know was the Bliss that I was searching for was to be present and it wasn't until I got older and stopped doing drugs and you know went through traumas that made me confront my childhood trauma that let me know but that's what I was searching for I just didn't have to shoot heroin in order to achieve it there were other ways as mentioned flea's had his battles with drug addiction this resurfaced when after years of hard work the Chili Peppers finally bursted into stardom the Stark change of Lifestyle took an intense toll on flee's Mental Health it took a well-respected friend's words of wisdom to get him through the hardest times of his life I was about 30 years old in 1991 92 29 years old 20 30. and I became incredibly ill and and also like my band had just become this you know we had gone from years of you know sleeping on people's floors touring and vans doing all that and all of a sudden everything we wanted came you know all the money all of validation all that you're so great and I became so sick and it wouldn't go away and for two years I lost my immune system fell apart I everything that I thought made me great like I could rock out all night I could take drugs play basketball all day be the funniest guy be the drunk guy be the high guy be to this guy and I had nothing and everything that I thought was me was gone and it was completely traumatic and it was like the universe forcing me to sit still and to deal with myself everything fell apart I stopped and canceled everything I went home and I I was like in tears all the time I was depressed I was miserable and I was like that for about a year over a year I started like going to doctors and trying this and meditating and you know what I mean like help boost your wizard you know and I knew I can't do drugs anymore I can't I stopped everything but it wasn't until I know someone like a woman I really respected told me she was like how you doing I said I'm just miserable I'm so sad every day and she said well flee until you get on your knees and be grateful for exactly where you are it's not gonna change and that's what I did devastatingly humbling you know but it literally it's like at that moment everything shifted in my life it was a watershed moment since then he's exploded back into the music scene creating numerous musical masterpieces from give it away to Under the Bridge there's something we can all enjoy flea is so talented and well practiced that his playing often seems effortless even so he speaks of creative frustrations that he still struggles with in the present day and every creative Endeavor I do in a state of fear in a state of not being good enough in a state of Yearning and reaching for trying to fulfill the feeling of the of what I want of what I want to connect with you know I mean that I have my moments I have my moments when I'm gone like when I'm playing live and I'm absolutely gone and I know that I I I where was that hour well I was just a channel you know you know you hear like great actors talk about acting they're always looking to get lost get in the moment to be gone to let their true self out even when they're being someone else I have moments of like I I get anxiety a lot when recording because I'm always looking I'm yearning so much to get in this like lost and Beyond thought and gone and just feeling like I'm just light is coming through me you know and when I can't get there and I know I'm sitting here thinking about it thinking about well maybe my wife would dance if I played this so this has got to be good because her and all her girlfriends would dance but even then I'm mad at myself because I'm thinking yeah like even it was a moment of levity and I actually kind of got into a good Rhythm for a minute I'm like I'm thinking and then I started having a panic attack because I'm not supposed to be thinking I'm supposed to be gone so I have that struggle but Rick gave me an analogy once regrouping uh about similar to diction he's like it's like fleeing you're going fishing you know you're not you can't get the Magic Groove every time you cast your thing you're diligent you stay there you're always fishing and sometimes you catch you know the magic beam off you know Beowulf comes rears his head from the depth and you know everything happens and sometimes you sit there and get a sunburn you know and that that was a kind of a similar analogy for me and I think it's safe to say when he is able to clear his mind of thought there truly is something magical expressed but what does flea want his audience to take away from this expression all I want I want the work to be a vehicle for connection to bring people together to create love and create empathy [Music] um and for people to just trip out and get lost and have joy and to identify it well I guess well let me simplify this I want the any art I make to serve the purpose of making people feel less alone [Music] um that's the whole thing [Music]

Channel: T&H - Inspiration & Motivation

Views: 387,959

Keywords: motivation, inspiration, t&H, t&h inspiration, speech, speechless, philosophy, the secret, creativity, creative, enlightenment, creativity and consciousness, talk, Meaning of Life, meaning of life t&h, RHCP, red hot chili peppers, anthony kiedis interview, life, chili peppers, We Must See It Before It’s Too Late - Flea’s Search For Connection, flea, flea speech, flea interview, Michael Peter Balzary, motivational speech, motivational video, motivational, see it, connection, search for meaning

Id: gyIHx8_ep7M

Length: 12min 42sec (762 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 14 2023