Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea says cutting music education from schools is like "child abuse".
The 54-year-old bassist set up Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a non-profit educational organisation, in California in 2001 with the help of bandmate Anthony Kiedis.
The ‘By The Way’ hitmaker says that without music he wouldn’t have been able to survive as he was addicted to drugs and stealing.
Speaking about the potential cuts in funding for music studies in the US, which President Donald Trump is proposing, Flea said: "It’s child abuse, it’s just wrong.
"When I was a kid, I was heading for trouble. I was running around in the street, I was robbing, I was breaking into houses, I was doing drugs.
"I was cutting class and smoking weed, just headed into trouble.
"And the one thing that kept me together, and kept me straight, was music. The only reason I even went to school was because I liked playing in the band."
Trump is proposing that funds to the National Endowment for the Arts, an agency which funds music studies and anything else art-related in schools, be slashed to a minimum.
The rock star says he’s concerned about what move the president will make next and has called on people to do what they can in their local communities.
He told Rolling Stone magazine: "I worry about a lot of things that guy (Trump) says.
"It’s not just the music, but the arts in general.
"I encourage everyone to reach out into the communities that live in, and do what they can to help.
"Getting to change things on a fundamental, institutional level is awesome, but we can personally reach out in our communities to do stuff that is profoundly helpful."
Flea: Cutting music education is child abuse
