RHCP's Flea Gives Kids A Hand As Music Funding Dwindles
These days, philanthropy and celebrity go hand in hand, at least for some. This seems especially true for those who grew up facing challenges — there seems to be an inherent need to give back.
Fortunately for one Los Angeles community, a slender, slightly grizzled rockstar and former band geek, goes back to school in the hopes of saving others through the magic of music.
Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea and his boyhood friend, Keith Barry, who goes by the enigmatic name Tree, teamed up to form the Silverlake Conservatory of Music located in the gentrified neighborhood of Sunset Junction.
Flea and Barry, both self-professed band nerds, were able to escape a life of drugs and crime by turning their focus to music. Flea admits his life was not heading in the right direction:
"In high school and after high school, I was heading for disaster. I was on drugs; I was robbing people's houses; I was wild on the street.But lucky enough, through the public school system, I had been able to have some music education, and that gave me something to focus on, and discipline — like a family to feel part of. There was a healthy family."
Flea isn't the only famous name to lend a hand to the conservatory, which was founded in 2001, he's brought in some friends to help raise the necessary funds to keep the school running.
Police guitarist Andy Summers donated his own money as well as $40,000 from funds raised through an auction of a vintage Mercedes. Flea's had help from his Peppers bandmates, as well as, Eddie Vedder, Patti Smith and Ben Harper. Even metal band Metallica pitched in by headlining the school's annual benefit concert, "Hullabaloo." Rock on!
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