Credit: Steve KerosWhen Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea visited his alma mater at Fairfax Senior High School in 2000, he was shocked at the school’s lack of musical instruments.
“I was so disheartened,” Flea tells Rolling Stone. “I was like, ‘Where’s the orchestra? Where’s the band?’ And I was told they cut out all the funding for that stuff. They didn’t have instruments for the teachers anymore. It really shocked me.”
A year later, Flea co-founded the Silverlake Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles to provide music lessons and instruments for students. Since then, the bassist’s passion for music education has only grown — he says that cutting such programs from public schools is akin to “child abuse.”
“It’s just wrong,” he says.
On September 9, Flea and the rest of the Chili Peppers will play the Silverlake Conservatory’s annual benefit concert, which will be held at the school’s larger, newly opened Los Angeles space.
“We play it almost every year,” Flea says. “This year we’re going to play acoustic and we’re going to be joined by the children’s choir from the school.”
For more information, visit SilverlakeConservatory.org.
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