欧宝娱乐

I first read Scar Tissue about 15 years ago and I remembered liking it, so when I wanted to read about the music industry for book research, it was an easy decision to re-read it.

I liked it less this time around (and I'm knocking it down a star), perhaps because I'm older and cynical-er and I don't find tales of rockstar excess quite so glamorous anymore. It's also worth noting that the sheer number of underage girls that Kiedis had sex with gave me MAJOR ICK in this post-#MeToo world.

However, props to Kiedis for his searing honesty, which you don't get in every memoir. In particular, Scar Tissue cuts to the heart of addiction, without self-pity or self-flagellation.

Concurrently, I was also reading a different rockstar memoir, which was so turgid and filled with flavourless lists of events that it became unreadable. The fact that Scar Tissue is engaging is surely a testament to Kiedis's co-author Larry Sloman, who shaped a tumultuous life into an accessible story.

Original review - December 2008

Before picking up this book, my knowledge of Red Hot Chili Peppers was pretty minimal. I remember my sister playing Blood Sugar Sex Magik constantly when I was about 9, but since then, I completely lost track of the band. Regardless, Scar Tissue is a damn good read, if you鈥檙e interested in rock bands of any kind. I鈥檝e found that fiction doesn鈥檛 lend itself too well to tales of rock star excess. That kind of hedonism can easily seem like pantomime 鈥� or simply dumb and contrived.

But, by virtue of being true (or, at least, whatever degree of truth we cynically expect from memoirs these days), Scar Tissue is something a reader can stay engaged with. I found it a particularly moving portrait of drug addiction. It takes Anthony yeeears 鈥� dozens of rehab stays, hundreds of promises to stay clean 鈥� before he finally kicks his drug habit.

The book also contains a fair share of car crash moments. I鈥檓 not particularly squeamish, but I recoiled in horror more than once at the things Anthony manages to do to his body over a 20 year period. Yikes. I鈥檓 also honestly not sure whether it鈥檚 titillating or uncomfortable to read Anthony鈥檚 fairly frank descriptions of his sex life, especially with some barely-legal girls. But鈥� they鈥檙e there. With pictures!

Though his behaviour is frequently abhorrent, Anthony makes a sympathetic narrator. Apart from some New Age talk about spirituality, he's also refreshingly free from bullshit. The book is long, but extremely compelling. Though slightly harrowing in places, it's more often a fun read. Anthony lived in Hollywood through some exciting times and has some strange encounters with celebrities that are likely to delight even reluctant starfuckers.

I finished Scar Tissue a few days ago, but I keep wanting to pick it up and find there are still a few more chapters for me to read. That's the sign of a good book.