Flea’s Daughter Used Red Hot Chili Peppers’ First Grammy Award as a Garden Shovel
Last week, Red Hot Chili Peppers were immortalized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, making them the 2,717th recipient of such an honor. When talking to KROQ about the historic moment, bassist Flea recalled another prestigious award — his first-ever Grammy — and how his daughter had used the trophy as a garden shovel, unbeknownst to him.
A Grammy award, for many artists, is a career-defining moment and the opportunity to bring home that coveted golden gramophone is generally one that is not taken lightly... nor taken to the tool shed.
When pressed about the Walk of Fame star recently bestowed upon the legendary alt-rock group, Flea told KROQ, "It’s like a Grammy. Put it this way, I’m grateful to win a Grammy, Grammys are awesome, but after we won our first Grammy, like three years later, my mom said, ‘Michael, where’s your Grammy?’, and I was like, ‘I don’t know, mom, I put it somewhere.'"
Evidently some time had gone by and Flea had yet to locate the trophy.
"Months after that, my gardener came out of the backyard in the garden and you know how the Grammy looks like an old record player with the horn on it? My daughter had unscrewed it and was using it as a shovel for the garden. It had been out there in the dirt for the whole winter. It had been out in the dirt for the whole winter and stuff," the bassist continued.
The whole ordeal is reflective of Flea's his attitude toward such accolades and he further explained, "I’m just not really an awards guy. I don’t sit around or look at them or anything. Just being part of that street. When we were doing that thing [receiving the Walk of Fame honor] yesterday, I talked about panhandling on that street when I was 11 years old…That’s where I grew up, man. When I first looked at the street looking at the stars and all the people, imagining what it was, to be in the show business or to be an entertainer. To be a part of it, there’s just so much history there, it’s really nice."
"That street has been a part of me since I was a little kid," he added, taking note that he hasn't lost touch of where he came from. "Wherever I go in the world, it always comes with me. To be a part of it forever is really beautiful to me…I don’t know if the format and the way we do it is the best way or not, but it’s a weird thing. The competition aspect of it is weird, [not] the celebration of art and culture.”
Fortunately for Flea, Red Hot Chili Peppers have scored six Grammy victories, so there should be a handful more shovels... err... trophies... laying around his new $14 million home.
Catch Red Hot Chili Peppers on tour in Europe and North America later this year as they head out in support of their new album, Unlimited Love, their first with guitarist John Frusciante since 2006's Stadium Arcadium.