Acid For The Children - The autobiography of Flea, the Red Hot Chili Peppers legend

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The strange tale of a boy named Flea starts in Rye, NY. It was all very normal. But soon his parents divorced and his mother Patricia remarried a jazz musician. Flea's stepfather frequently invited musicians to his house for jam sessions which sparked Flea's interest in music. The family moved to Los Angeles, where Flea became fascinated with the trumpet, idolizing musicians like Miles, Dizzy, and Louis.

But the family soon fell apart, "I was raised in a very violent, alcoholic household," Flea later said. "I grew up being terrified of my parents, particularly my father figures. It caused [me] a lot of trouble later in life." He began smoking weed at 13, and became a daily user of harder drugs. He was on the streets by 14 and soon after, met another social outcast and drug user named Anthony Kiedis. They form a band that would become the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

ACID FOR THE CHILDREN is pure, uncut Flea, with nothing left unsaid.

(P)2018 Hachette Audio©2017 Michael Balzary

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Critic reviews

[Flea creates] a rhythm for his prose as curt and distinct as his bass playing. (Jim Farber)

Acid for the Children is not an as-told-to, nor is it written "with" someone. These are Flea's words-excitable, jazzy, regretful, disarming, popping and writhing away in his biological bass zone. Insecurities to the fore: He worries that he may be producing "a thorny jumble of trash." But he's actually a lovely writer, with a particular gift for the free-floating and reverberant. He writes in Beat Generation bursts and epiphanies, lifting toward the kind of virtuosic vulnerability and self-exposure associated with the great jazz players....Flea-elegant nutcase, funk-at-high-pressure bassist, wildly cultured and culturedly wild man-has written a fine memoir. You'll put down Acid for the Children with your human sympathies expanded; you'll feel less alone.

Acid For the Children's closest analog is, somewhat surprisingly, Patti Smith's Just Kids...The prose frequently mimics [Flea's] playing: occasionally beautiful, occasionally outrageous, in conversation with a small group of predecessors but unwilling to follow anyone else's rules. This is what gives Acid for the Children its considerable charm...

[An] electric, surprisingly moving memoir...Flea is an enlightened narrator, and this passionate, smart memoir will resonate with readers whether they're fans of the band or not.

A wild ride through the coming-of-age wilderness of the famed rock bassist...Relentlessly honest, untamed, and often revelatory.

He's the iconic bassist and co-founder of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The one you couldn't take your eyes off, despite Anthony Kiedis' enormous stage presence. Flea finally reveals his fascinating story, complete with everything you'd expect - the "highs" and the gutter lows from an "LA street rat turned world-famous rock star". A must for all music fans everywhere.

Its hard not to warm to his openhearted embrace of jazz, funk and his eventual bromance with bandmates.

A frenzied, beat-ish telling of his pre-RCHP existence

Most relevant

Loved it; such nice chill stories to listen to before you fall asleep at night.