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

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

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About this listen

 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 Art Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity Heartfelt Thought-Provoking Inspiring

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
All stars
Most relevant
Enjoyed listening to the author read this book, he laughs at his own funny storys which made me laugh with him. Recommend *****

An honest and interesting book.

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The earliest years are phenomenally honest written. The later years are a scanner darkly on every conceivable death drug taken. Most of all this is not a another rock biography, but a warm and sad book about human life in every vulnerable aspect. really grateful for it being made. Thank you.

True and honest

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Full of love and honesty. Can't wait for the next installment (this book only takes you to Flea aged 20)

Inspiring

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Not even a RHCP fan particularly, I bought this off the back of seeing Flea play some amazing trumpet on a YouTube video. (I’m a trumpet player myself into jazz and funk). Wow, what an insight into a man at whose core is, unexpectedly, jazz. Beautifully self narrated and deep. Loving it. Will be reading this also.

Beautiful listen.

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A warm, funny and thoughtful memoir of his childhood, Flea tells the story of growing up in the sixties and seventies. His drug abuse is not hidden and it is written by a thankful adult who has survived the excesses of his youth and can now look back with the honesty that the distance of time allows.

Wild child

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