Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist Flea has named his favourite Australian bands. 

He revealed all in response to an old question from Twitter account The Extreme Music Enthusiast that asked, ‘Who’s Australia’s best band of all time???”

Originally asked in March, The Extreme Music Enthusiast conducted a poll at the time to ‘definitively’ decide the greatest Aussie band. And the winner was… “If other, please say who”?

That’s not an esoteric outfit that you’ve never heard of – it was just the placeholder option in the poll. With 34%, Crowded House was the real band with the most votes, closely followed by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (27%).

When Flea finally discovered the question and poll months later, he had other bands in mind.

“The best Australian bands ever are The Birthday Party, The Bee Gees and AC/DC,” he wrote on Twitter over the weekend.

Several Aussie bands commented on Flea’s choices. “100%,” The Avalanches wrote in agreement. “Cmon,” wrote Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, presumably in appreciation.

While disco giants The Bee Gees may come as a bit of a surprise, less surprising is the choice of AC/DC. Flea’s RHCP bandmate, Chad Smith, memorably covered the hard rock legends at Melbourne’s Cherry Bar a few months ago.

With a little free time on his hands between two massive shows at the city’s Marvel Stadium, the drummer made his way to the iconic rock ‘n roll spot for some open mic action. Smith played to around 17 people, enjoying himself with an unexpected jam session.

And Flea’s fondness for Australia as a whole is well-documented. Born in Melbourne in 1962, he moved to the US for his father’s job at the age of four. Flea also once owned a huge holiday home in Congo, NSW, that overlooked the Pacific Ocean. Flea put up the property for sale at the beginning of the year.

Alongside Post Malone, RHCP toured Australia in January and February, performing massive arena shows in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth.

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