Acid for the Children by Flea

Acid for the Children

A Memoir

Flea, Patti Smith

Grand Central Publishing · Print & ebook · September 20, 2022

With "virtuosic vulnerability" (The Atlantic), the iconic bassist and Red Hot Chili peppers co-founder pens a New York Times bestselling love letter to his wild Los Angeles youth in his raw and riveting coming-of-age memoir, now in paperback.

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Who it’s for
Readers interested in musician memoirs and coming-of-age stories
Themes
coming-of-age, music and creativity, family and community
Pacing
Mixed

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About this book

With "virtuosic vulnerability" (The Atlantic), the iconic bassist and Red Hot Chili peppers co-founder pens a New York Times bestselling love letter to his wild Los Angeles youth in his raw and riveting coming-of-age memoir, now in paperback. In Acid for the Children, Flea takes readers on a deeply personal and revealing tour of his formative years, spanning from Australia to the New York City suburbs to, finally, Los Angeles.

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Through hilarious anecdotes, poetical meditations, and occasional flights of fantasy, Flea deftly chronicles the experiences that forged him as an artist, a musician, and a young man. His dreamy, jazz-inflected prose makes the Los Angeles of the 1970s and 80s come to gritty, glorious life, including the potential for fun, danger, mayhem, or inspiration that lurked around every corner. It is here that young Flea, looking to escape a turbulent home, found family in a community of musicians, artists, and junkies who also lived on the fringe. He spent most of his time partying and committing petty crimes. But it was in music where he found a higher meaning, a place to channel his frustration, loneliness, and love. This left him open to the life-changing moment when he and his best friends, soul brothers, and partners-in-mischief came up with the idea to start their own band, which became the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Acid for the Children is the debut of a stunning new literary voice, whose prose is as witty, entertaining, and wildly unpredictable as the author himself. It's a tenderly evocative coming-of-age story and a raucous love letter to the power of music and creativity from one of the most renowned musicians of our time. New York Times Bestseller A #1 LA Times Bestseller A USA Today Bestseller One of NPR's "Favorite Books of 2019"

Who it’s for

  • Readers interested in musician memoirs and coming-of-age stories
  • Fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers or music history

Where it sits

Musicians' Lives95%
Personal Memoirs50%
Rock45%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Musicians' Lives
  • Lives in Entertainment
  • Personal Memoirs
  • Rock
Authors
Flea, Patti Smith
Publisher
Grand Central Publishing
Published
September 20, 2022
Format
Print & ebook
Theme
coming-of-age · music and creativity · family and community
Reading lane
Musicians' Lives