{"id":26471,"date":"2023-07-10T10:41:25","date_gmt":"2023-07-10T14:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=26471"},"modified":"2023-07-10T10:41:25","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T14:41:25","slug":"red-hot-chili-peppers-bassist-shares-the-moment-god-made-sense-to-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/07\/red-hot-chili-peppers-bassist-shares-the-moment-god-made-sense-to-him.html","title":{"rendered":"Red Hot Chili Peppers Bassist Shares the Moment God Made Sense to Him"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_26480\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26480\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/07\/flea-red-hot-chili-peppers-credit-aija-shutterstock-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26480\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/07\/flea-red-hot-chili-peppers-credit-aija-shutterstock-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"flea\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26480\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aija Lehtonen\/Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, has a daily ritual that may seem strange for a rock star: prayer. The 60-year-old told the <em>Los Angeles Times, <\/em>\u201cI\u2019m a praying guy. I pray in the morning when I get up, when I go to bed and when I eat. And when I do an interview, I\u2019ll just stop for a second, like let me get out of the way and let go of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He continued, \u201cI\u2019m 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.\u201d Born Michael Balzary, Flea has been with the band since their formation in 1983, along with lead singer Anthony Kiedis. Flea felt run down and reflective during the band\u2019s peak popularity and ultimately sought connection.<\/p>\n<p>He explained to the outlet, \u201cFor me, music is the voice of God. I grew up virulently anti-religious, and there came a time in the early \u201990s, right around when I turned 30, I got really sick with chronic fatigue. I\u2019d been a drug-taking madman \u2014 party all night, play basketball all day. I just thought I was Superman. And all of a sudden, it was like all the energy got sucked out of my body. I was like, I can\u2019t go on tour; I feel too s&#8212;. And I was cut off from my friends because I wasn\u2019t partying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He explained he read a self-help book by Jon Kabat-Zinn that helped him look inward, and that was when he had a breakthrough, saying, \u201cI started thinking about that emptiness, and in that moment, God just made perfect sense.\u201d He doesn\u2019t belong to any particular church, but Flea shared he attended a few to see if any fit him.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cThCbAWYkyY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He said, \u201cI thought there might be a sense of community. In the \u201880s, I\u2019d go to churches in South L.A. as an atheist. I had a friend who knew where the best gospel groups were coming through, so I\u2019d go, and it would be incredible.\u201d He also shared his love for those involved in more intense religions, saying, \u201cI thought punk rock was intense. Punk rockers are a bunch of p&#8212;ies compared to a church where people are speaking in tongues and throwing themselves on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Flea still performs with the band and hosts a podcast, \u201cThis Little Light,\u201d where he interviews other artists. One of his biggest passions is the nonprofit Silverlake Conservatory, which he founded in 2001 to provide music education he felt was no longer available in Los Angeles public schools.<\/p>\n<p>He also recently welcomed his third child, a son named Darius, with his wife, streetwear designer Melody Ehsani. Flea has two older daughters from previous relationships. &#8220;The wheels on the bus aren\u2019t going round and round in our house. F&#8212; \u2018Mary Had a Little Lamb,'&#8221; he said with a laugh. &#8220;We\u2019re listening to Sonny Rollins.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, has a daily ritual that may seem strange for a rock star: prayer. The 60-year-old told the Los Angeles Times, \u201cI\u2019m a praying guy. I pray in the morning when I get up, when I go to bed and when I eat. And when I do&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":26480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,8],"tags":[5663,5657,5660],"class_list":["post-26471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","category-entertainment","category-music","tag-faith-in-god","tag-flea","tag-red-hot-chili-peppers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Red Hot Chili Peppers Bassist Shares the Moment God Made Sense to Him<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, doesn&#039;t call himself religious, but he recently shared the moment God made perfect sense to him.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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