Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis with Larry Sloman

Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis with Larry Sloman

Coz it says with Larry Slowman does that move it from the autobiography section to the biography section? Anyway it’s Red Hot Chili Peppers’ frontman’s story. The first half was sooo exciting, the crazy things in his childhood like being introduced to the drug dealing and drugs by his dad at such an early age. Or him writing a letter to his dad telling him that he wants to lose his virginity on his birthday with dads girlfriend and the dad actually hooks it up. Or him and his friends doing all sorts of chemicals and finding houses with pools to jump into from the roof… the higher the house the more the necessity to do it. While reading this book I was forced to daydream… I’d actually stop after a few paragraphs and either reflect on how the writing style makes me identify even though I wasn’t an addict or a rockstar or whatever. That was one of the reasons, secondly I’d daydream as it brought back a lot of my own childhood, teenage and college memories. Thirdly I’d daydream about how I was gonna structure my writing… not gonna say much about that right now but yeah… the first half of the book was nostalgic and freaky and exciting and rollercoasting.

I shouldn’t say half coz it’s not sectioned but later on the book gets into this pattern and gets kinda boring. Keep in mind its a biography and I can’t really criticize someones life so think of this as a warning. In a nutshell, the pattern is about ups and downs with the bands, fallouts with band members, women and drugs. And when I say drugs I mean dude spent a lot of time in sleazy or extra ghetto places where death is just around the corner. Props to Anthony for sharing such a life and showing us even though the rockstar lifestyle can be wild, you can still be humble and be just as average at the same time. Dude was in touch with his spiritual side too, recognizing the signs and talking about the dark energy of drugs, etc. It made me appreciate my friendships too because he’d talk about how they do all these crazy things, some even disgusting, but just like him I believe the more weird or taboo things you share the closer the relationship. Like when you and your peeps are in sync it doesn’t matter what you do it just clicks and falls in place… kinda thing. He even makes you realize that if you have some issues you have to deal with them 100% and from every angle. Another thing he mentioned was not knowing how some jokes and dissing can damage someone even though they wont show it so there is this fine balance between being comfy and being too comfy kinda thing… it just touched me coz I recently stopped doing the dissing thing and started avoiding it in people around me.

The book has pictures too… yay! Helped me figure out who was who. I gotta say, apart from Californication I didn’t know any of their stuff but have a new found respect for The Chili Peps and will give their music and videos a chance. Big up Viv for hooking it up.

Update: Gave their music and videos a chance… even saw the lil documentary they made when they decided to move in a house and record there… with Kiedis in one room and a mic far away from the rest and it was pretty cool seeing them work… they def had their own chemistry. Kept about 6 songs from their discography… and all of them Californication album onwards… wasn’t feeling the stuff before that album apart from this weird track called Pea.

Contents
– Acknowledgements
– Introduction

– CHAPTER ONE: “Me, I’m from Michigan”
– CHAPTER TWO: Spider and Son
– CHAPTER THREE: Fairfax High
– CHAPTER FOUR: Under the Zero One Sun
– CHAPTER FIVE: Deep Kicking
– CHAPTER SIX: The Red Hots
– CHAPTER SEVEN: Groundhog Year
– CHAPTER EIGHT: The Organic Anti-Beat Box Band
– CHAPTER NINE: Refourming
– CHAPTER TEN: Funky Monks
– CHAPTER ELEVEN: Warped
– CHAPTER TWELVE: Over the Wall
– CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Nothing
– CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Welcome to Californication
– CHAPTER FIFTEEN: A Moment of Clarity