In SCAR TISSUE Anthony Kiedis, the charismatic and highly articulate frontman of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, recounts his remarkable life story, and the history of the band itself. He tells of his childhood living in LA with his unconventional father; an early life spent hobnobbing with celebrities and becoming a child film actor; setting up the band with his school friend Flea in the early 80s; discovering a love of live performance and songwriting; and the years spent struggling with a drug addiction that left him a homeless multi-millionaire living on speedball mixtures of heroin and cocaine. SCAR TISSUE far transcends the typical rock biography, because Anthony Kiedis is anything but a typical rock star. The result is a surprisingly honest and moving account of a man who almost destroyed himself, and the band that helped him rebuild his life.

About the Author

Anthony Kiedis is the lead singer with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He lives in LA. Visit www.redhotchilipeppers.com for further information on the band and its history.

Reviews

For a musician who has spent the better half of his life either intoxicated or on a drug high, Kiedis, the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, has produced a surprisingly detailed account of his life. Raised in the 1960s and '70s by a drug dealer father who first introduced his preteen son to drugs by mashing them into bananas, the high school delinquent and UCLA dropout seemed destined for a life of rabble-rousing until his high school band-cofounded by close friends Michael "Flea" Balzary and Hillel Slovak-took off and became one of the most popular groups of the 1990s. Though he peppers his book with little known facts (for instance, the author narrowly missed being named Clark Gable Kiedis), the punk-funk rocker dedicates too few pages to his introspective music-writing process and too many to his incessant drug use and revolving door of girlfriends (which included actress Ione Skye, singer Sin?ad O'Connor and director Sofia Coppola). But while Kiedis fails to scratch beneath the surface of his fast-lane life, his frankness is moving, especially toward the end of the book, when his mea culpa turns into a full-blown account of recovery and redemption. (Kiedis has been sober for almost four years.) Though not generally as articulate as Marilyn Manson's similar autobiography, Kiedis's story of childhood drug use, adolescent fame and hard-won maturity will strike a chord with fans of Drew Barrymore's Little Girl Lost. Agent, David Vigliano. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

'Kiedis recounts his pharmacological odyssey with wide-eyed relish and a refreshing lack of rehab remorse' Sunday Times 'Everyone who reads this genuinely outrageous book will have their own favourite scene' Independent on Sunday 'An entertaining account of being the most priapic, junkie member of California's most priapic, junkie rock band' Guardian 'The year's most astonishing rock autobiography' Observer