FLEA's Memoir, 'Acid For The Children', To Finally Arrive In November

14 August 2019

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS bassist Flea's memoir, "Acid For The Children", will be released on November 5 via Grand Central Publishing. Featuring a foreword by Patti Smith, the 400-page book, which was originally due last year, "takes readers on a deeply personal and revealing tour of [Flea's] formative years, spanning from Australia to the New York City suburbs to, finally, Los Angeles," according to the memoir's official synopsis. "Through hilarious anecdotes, poetical meditations, and occasional flights of fantasy, Flea deftly chronicles the experiences that forged him as an artist, a musician, and a young man.

The synopsis adds: "His dreamy, jazz-inflected prose makes the Los Angeles of the 1970s and 80s come to gritty, glorious life, including the potential for fun, danger, mayhem, or inspiration that lurked around every corner. It is here that young Flea, looking to escape a turbulent home, found family in a community of musicians, artists, and junkies who also lived on the fringe. He spent most of his time partying and committing petty crimes. But it was in music where he found a higher meaning, a place to channel his frustration, loneliness, and love. This left him open to the life-changing moment when he and his best friends, soul brothers, and partners-in-mischief came up with the idea to start their own band, which became the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS."

For Flea, who described himself as "a literature geek," writing his autobiography proved valuable — promising far more than salacious gossip, band drama, and drug-and-sex-fueled debauchery found in most tell-all rock tomes.

"I love literature deeply," Flea said when his memoir was first announced. "I view books as sacred things, and in writing my story, I'm going to do my best to honor the form that has played such a huge part in shaping who I am."

Flea's bandmate Kiedis released his own autobiography, "Scar Tissue", back in 2004.

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS' latest album, "The Getaway", came out in 2016.