At 15, my best two-on-two partner on the basketball court had to have been Flea.
He was good, very good, and even though we were both short, we kicked some butt on the court.
It seemed like I saw Flea almost everyday shootin' around with his basketball at Poinsettia Park in West Hollywood, California.
They called it the "Park of the Stars" and my dad and I lived right on the corner next to the park.
We also rented a small office for our television and film production company that was also located adjacent to the park.
I additionally recall Flea always tellin' me where he had just finished "giggin"and how his band, The Chili Peppers, were startin' to take off.
To be honest, I really didn't think nothin' of it 'cause there were tons of bands in West Hollywood tryin' to "make it" and I just wanted to win basketball games.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I finally got my first drum set and my dad used to let me practice alone in the office.
I'd play some beats, practice my rudiments and beat on my roto toms as loudly as I could...
then, guess what happened one day?"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!!"Hard knockin' on the office door.
"Dude, you play drums?", gleamed my b-ball partner.
I let him in, he got on the drums...
he was better than me!!"Oh, so you play the drums in your group?", I asked.
"Nah, man, hold up a sec...
".
Flea ran out of the office to his car and moments later came back with an electric bass guitar and a super small red amplifier in the shape of a gasoline can, lol.
"Let's see what you got!", blurted Flea.
He started playin' somethin' funky but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep up.
I put up my best effort.