Ben Lee: chutzpah mystic, Bondi rock prodigy, Noise Addict

Ben Lee was a teen rock prodigy by the time he was 14. He then began decades of making music, Hollywood fame, and a journey into alternative spirituality, including the world of ayahuasca

Ben Lee grew up in Bondi in the 1980s when it was a place of bikie gangs, Yiddish-speaking grandmas and tribes of kids living next to one of the world's most beautiful beaches. 

He was educated at a local Jewish school where he confounded his Rabbi by asking some surprising questions about Moses.

Ben was always a seeker, and even as a boy, he also possessed a whole lot of chutzpah.

At the age of 14 he saw Nirvana play at the Big Day Out. The next day he started his own band and two years later Ben was flying to America to support Sonic Youth.

This began a wild few decades of making music, Hollywood fame, and a lengthy exploration of alternative spirituality, including a time in an ashram in India, and many ceremonies with ayahuasca, a hallucinogen found in a vine in the Amazon.

After many years, Ben emerged with a crucial realisation about his life story.  He is now living back in Australia with his wife Ione and their teenage daughter.

Further information

Find out where to see Ben on his Australian tour

Ben and Ione Skye Lee have a podcast, Weirder Together

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.