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I finally picked up Scar Tissue, the autobiography by
Anthony Kiedis with Larry Sloman, which recounts the life of the
charismatic and compelling singer and songwriter of the Red Hot
Chili Peppers. And while it usually takes me a month to finish
a book, this one took me all of one weekend.
As expected, the biography of a
character like Anthony Kiedis would be filled with accounts of sex,
drugs and rock and roll. Anthony began his career of using
drugs when, as an adolescent, he moved to California from Michigan
to live with his father. He used it not because he was
particularly feeling empty or problematic but because they were
accessible and the highs were fun. It got to the point however
where he’d get into all sorts of trouble and crazy teenage
mischief (entering houses, taking money or items which could easily
be sold) just to feed the habit. But as most stories of this
sort go, things eventually get out hand and stumble out of control
and someone is on a gutter somewhere scraping rock bottom.
Kiedis makes his way back home to
his mother, sisters and stepfather in Michigan and gets himself into
rehab. He manages to stay clean and sober for five good years
around the “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” phase. Until one
fateful day when he finds out he has to go see a dentist for a tooth
extraction—he gets a shot of anesthetic and this gets him back on
the road to the perdition. And as with any attempt to shake
addictions, the relapses are a lot worse. And Kiedis has several.
Each time he relapses, he refuses
to bring any of that “dark energy” to his own house—preferring
to score in some seedy, scary part of town and checking into a motel
for days to consume his stash. You’d think a successful rock
star with a lovely house and a good amount of money in the bank
would be involved in less lonely pursuits. But just as
there’s the recurrent theme of falling back down the slippery
slope—and getting out (the book was released on October 6, 2004
and he’s supposedly been clean again since December 24, 2000),
there’s also the family he would always return to in Michigan.
Whatever the highs or lows were
in Kiedis’ life and whichever gorgeous woman he was dating, he
always had a home he would return to for Christmas and vacations.
While it’s not explicitly stated, I’d think his home was an
anchor that somehow helped pull him through all the storms he had to
weather—band members quitting, the drug-related death of Hillel
Slovak, nasty breakups.
Scar Tissue is a fast read as the
stories Anthony tells about the episodes in his life are absorbing,
and there are also vignettes in there for fans of 1980s and 1990s
music—tales involving Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins, Eddie
Vedder, Pearl Jam, Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, Nirvana, Dave Navarro
(who joined the Peppers for “One Hot Minute”). Stories
behind the band’s songs are revealed. Kiedis has gotten away
with a lot in his life but it’s probably because he’s been
blessed with a lot of charm, energy, talent and extra angels
watching over him.
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