The unique atmosphere at home meant that Flea was fully immersed in jazz music, and he had so much respect for the genre that he cared much less about all the others. His disdain for punk music was so great, in fact, that he hated the first punk performance he ever saw. As an aspiring jazz musician, Flea’s favorite instrument was the trumpet, which he began to play when he was 9 years old.
However, Flea’s perspective on music changed dramatically after he met the future guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Hillel Slovak. When they were 18, Flea, Slovak, and lead singer Anthony Kiedis all lived together in Hollywood, where Slovak would open his best friends’ eyes to music they were unaware of or had previously dismissed.
In “Behind the Sun,” a book by Slovak’s brother James, Flea talked about the impact Slovak had made and said, “Hillel was a huge influence on my life. I never would have begun to play the bass [without his influence]. I looked up to him, I loved the way his hair fell on his shoulders and the way he slung his red Messenger guitar around like a rock stud.” According to Fornication, Flea went on to admit, “I [had] heard rock music, but it sounded stupid to me. When I met Hillel, he started playing lots of rock music for me, and I got into Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix.”
