Original bassist for the band
Love. During a break between sets at one of their first shows in late 1964, a fist-fight broke out in a parking lot between Fleckenstein and band frontman
Arthur Lee. Although Fleckenstein was a football star at Hollywood High School, Lee put him down in two punches. The band was known then as The American Four, then the Grass Roots, but Lee had to change the name again when the band
The Grass Roots began to have hit records. Lee and Fleckenstein had a tenuous relationship before Fleckenstein left the band and joined The Standells in early 1967. Both men ended up dying from leukemia. According to a 2015 article in the LA Times, Fleckenstein said that he joined the Cinematographer's Guild in 1967, but continued to play with The Standells for a short while, then rejoined them in 2012 for live performances. He noted that he had comprehensive medical insurance through the Guild and received better treatment for his condition than Lee, who, despite a subsidized stem cell transplant shortly before his death, had no medical insurance at the time of his death.
