Scar Tissue

Well, there are always downers too…  I get the self-help type books, but the “open my soul, I’ve been a bad guy” with drugs, and drugs, and drugs… well, I finished it.  Scar Tissue is the autobiography of Anthony Kiedis, lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who chronicles his life from birth through his final decision to stay “clean,” though not sure if he still is as the book concludes in 2004.  Kiedis’s youth certainly was not a picture-perfect life of stability.  His parents broke up, and both of them had numerous relationships that were unhealthy, for his Mom it was the abusive husband number 2, and for Dad it was the series of young, I mean VERY young, bar dancers, hustlers, and other women looking for a good time.  His father was actually the first person to introduce him into the world of drugs.  If the drugs and the explicit use isn’t enough for your reading pleasure, Kiedis does expose his sex exploits throughout the book, from show to show, to woman to woman.  Everything is out in the open, even the spurned would-be loves, such as Sinead O’Connor.  The book also covers the road to fame for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the various band members who left the band, or should I say, asked to leave or died from an overdose.  Signing their first contact with EMI to almost signing with EPIC records, to then signing with Warner.  The producers, the roadies, the family members, and the jilted lovers all get play in the book.  It does end with Kiedis noting he would be drug free after 5 + years.  Hard to judge this book as I liked his honesty and some lessons learned (he does give significantly to charity – nice), but his story is not what you’d call motivating to our youth, let alone an old guy like me.  I would not hold him up as a hero, not saying he is looking for that, so, I’m saying skip, better stories out there to read.