Having recently read Slash's autobiography I felt I was lost in one of his drug induced flashbacks. Both rockers are Hollywood hills kids growing up w/dangerously permissive hippie/coked out parents. There teens and 20's become an escalating party of drugs and more drugs, and a little music. Kiedis's mystical prattle starts to fall flat over his 5th rehab, and his very existence seems to speak to the luck of the draw. A young man who cant dance and can't sing(by his own admission) happens to be friends w/some truly talented musicians. He writes some poetry that makes a handful of good songs, and for that finds himself in the lap of luxury - at least Slash could play a mean axe.

Scar tissue is the autobiography of Anthony Kiedis, the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I read the first 100 pages over the summer and had to put it down. I was so shocked about him having his first sexual experience with his dad’s gf at 12 and then doing heroin for the first time at 14, it was all bit much for me and very unrelatable!! I decided to pick it up again last week and it became a very addictive read. His constant cycle of addiction-getting clean-relapse was heartbreaking yet I felt myself rooting for him to treat himself better. At the same time he describes the developments of the band which is also quite interesting. The reviews seemed very mixed where a lot of people hated it and saw Anthony Kiedis as a monster in his recklessness towards drugs and sex and the band. However, I think this book gives incredible insight into the mind of an addict. All his monstrous behaviour is the drugs, not him!! As a reader I became addicted to the book because I needed to see him get sober (and see the band get successful). Other comments said he was a narcissist but this is HIS story, not the story written in 3rd person so I wouldn’t consider his behaviour to be a reason for a negative rating when to me his entire being is so far removed from me and everything that I know, that it was so disturbing to read but in a new and interesting way. Overall, it was a very juicy, Hollywood read and I became completely immersed and maybe a little obsessed. Anthony from the 1990s was one very beautiful and fine-looking man!!

Some out-of-pocket comments (a product of its 2004 publication date) but generally a riveting story about sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. I’ve been a longtime fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers so learning about their origins and rocky rise to fame was fascinating. Kiedis is a great storyteller and Rider Strong’s narration was perfect.

The autobiography, Scar Tissue, gives a detailed personal account of the life of Anthony Kiedis, lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The reader learns of the wild upbringing of the young Anthony in Hollywood’s party scene. Born in Michigan in 1962, he lived there with his mother after his parents divorced. When he moved to Las Angeles to live with his father he began to live his life. His father, a popular drug dealer with the Hollywood celebrities, never seriously took on his role of a father. Instead, he included Anthony in all of his parties and was the first to introduce him to drugs. The book is Kiedis’s honest account of his adolescence lived with a false sense of immortality.
tThe young Anthony ’s childhood was one that is perfectly suited for a rock star such as himself. While exposed to virtually all the vices of society at a young age, Anthony drew his inspiration for his music from this lifestyle. When he was not partying or pulling outrageous stunts like jumping off a five story building and missing a swimming pool, he would be writing poetry. The chemistry he shared with his band was formed at Fairfax High School where all the members attended. The group formed a band of funk rockers with a neo-punk element. However, this bond was severely impacted, as well as all the lives of the band members, when guitarist, Hillel Slovak, overdosed on Heroin. This was the turning point described in the book that led Kiedis to reform his addiction.
tIn the midst of all the chaos in his life, the book also gives the account of Anthony’s career. The success of the Red Hot Chili Peppers is proven through his accounts of his many performances and albums. The relation between his songs and his struggles are also explained in this work. This book is perfect for any rock and roll fanatic, especially a Red Hot Chili Pepper’s fan. It gives an exciting account of someone who basically drowned himself in any substance he could get. It is a perfect example of struggle and recovery in one of the most wild industries in popular culture: Rock and Roll.

Pretentious and narcissistic, Keidis is probably one of the most loathsome people I've read about. It just so happens that he is musically adept, otherwise he would be one of those annoying, droning, pseudo intellectual creeps you come across at house parties.

Memoir = No rating.

I thoroughly enjoyed this Memoir. Keidis has lived an incredibly bizarre life. I'm a huge RHCP fan, but there was SO much that I didn't know about him and the band. I expected sex, drugs, and Rock&Roll, but I got so much more than I expected.

Here are just a few fun facts that I was shocked to learn:
- He lost his virginity at 12, to his dad's girlfriend, with his dad's permission. WTF?
- He broke his back as a teenager by jumping off a building and missing the swimming pool
- His dad’s ex-girlfriend dated Sonny Bono, so he knew and hung out with both Sonny & Cher
- He went to college; UCLA
- He wasn't involved with music until his early 20s!!
- The original guitarist, Hillal Slovak, died of a heroin overdose
- He had a drug relapse after 5 years of sobriety by simply accepting medication during a wisdom tooth extraction
- Dave Navarro was a member of the band for 5 years! How did I not know this?
- I loved that he explained his lyrics to songs throughout the book.

I listened to this one on audiobook and it is narrated by Ryder Strong (Shawn from Boy Meets World). It made it a little weird because all I could picture was Shawn doing the things that Anthony did, and it made for a weird mental picture for me. I recommend reading this one instead of audiobooking for that reason.

One of my favorite Autobiographies by one of my favorite lead singers

this is a good book, i guess. it was a very easy read, in fact i finished it very quickly (a couple reads) despite its size. the subject matter.. has me a little disturbed. it kinda made me wanna go out and score some dope, and shoot up between two cars.. he (anthony kiedis) makes drug abuse seem almost glorified. having never stuck a needle into my arm, i can only imagine the rush of "china white" into my system. i dont imagine that most drug abuser's experience are similar to tony's. he gets caught in a very vicious cycle of women, drugs, music, death, and trips to exotic places. "hey everybody! lets shoot $5,000 worth of dope, and fly to bali to detox, and unwind!!"

if it werent for his seemingly accidental fall in stardom, i'm not sure he'd have led the same amazing lifestyle. dont get me wrong, he is an amazing artist, but i lost a little respect for the man towards the end of his book. id still switch places with him any time..

I have tagged one star as I don't think I can tag zero stars.

DNF @ 8%.

The writing in this is terrible.

I’ve made a decision to read other people’s reviews of biographies and autobiographies in future, even all non-fiction really. It is grating to hear someone get opinionated about something they know nothing about and autobiographies can often be gratuitous attempts to resurrect dying careers.

Yes, yes, I’m still smarting from James “Britney’s Biographer” Blandford's attempts to chronicle a goddess and pretend he even knew what Doc Martens and Chelsea boots were.

Moving on.

The point is, had I actually adopted this credo before picking up Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis, I’d have seen all the warnings. Reading comments such as “un-put-downable”, “found myself at 2am still reading it” and “couldn’t stop reading it” may just have given me an idea that this was a book to avoid. At all costs.

Tongue-in-cheek aside, this book is awesome and hopefully I’ll finish it in a day or so. The suspense in racing to the end, which is obviously the present, is almost killing me. I say almost, because I can’t die until I’ve finished this book.

Keidis is a narcissistic character vacuum with little to say. His autobiography is the story of a narcissistic characterless hustler, written by a narcissistic characterless hustler.

The narcissist is an emotional vacuum. In order to feel interesting, the narcissist will often fill the inner void with image, extreme behaviour, cocaine, heroin - or multiples of these things, because they act as substitutes for identity and substance.

Then the narcissist becomes a pretty, loud, cocaine/heroin/speedball influenced character vacuum. The resulting shamelessness, when accompanied by a modicum of ability and talent, can work wonders on a stage and make "rock-stars" out of the average.

Artistry aside, as much as I appreciate the body of work of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Anthony Keidis is just not an interesting person. I file this book in a long list of narcissistic, fake-ass, non-storyteller, 'autobiographers' which include Gene Simmons, Nikki Sixx, Don Felder, Tommy Lee, Bobby Blotzer and Scott Weiland, all of whose autobiographies suspiciously seem like attempts to dig their respective authors out of various financial holes. Sure, I get that a guy's gotta eat, but don't express your faded rock-star economic embarrassment in the form of bad literature.

Dude, you're supposed to be an artist. It takes serious dedication and effort for an artist to make people think books are shit.