Scar Tissue – Anthony Kiedis (with Larry Sloman) (2004)

It took me a couple days after finishing this book to realise what it was actually about.  On the surface, Scar Tissue is the autobiography of the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers – one the of the most successful rock bands of the past twenty years and one of only a very few acts who made their name in the 90’s that have managed to maintain their relevancy this far into the new millennium. So it would be an interesting enough story on its own, considering that the Chili Peppers have gone through several reinventions, or rather, resurrections - but this is not the main thrust of the book.

Rather, Scar Tissue is primarily about Anthony Kiedis’s life long battle with addiction that started around the time his father handed him his first joint, aged 11. The fact that he eventually became a superstar and multi-millionaire gives the tale a backdrop that it might not have had were Kiedis simply another junkie on the street. It is this fact that makes the book such a strange read but perhaps it is also the key to understanding the whole point, which the role that the addiction plays in the life of the addict. Here you have one of the most successful artists in recent time, yet all his achievements, relationships, falls and recoveries can only be seen through the lens of a deadly craving that is either running full blown or in a temporary remission.

That is not to say that there are no genuine insights into his career and that of the Chili Peppers’ – the band’s first shows, the coming and going of members, the albums and era defining songs such as Give It Away, Under The Bridge and Scar Tissue – but everything finds its place in the shadow of Kiedis’s personal battle. For better or worse, as it must be for such sufferer’s and for those around them, the tale ultimately becomes a never ending roundabout of recovery and relapse. By the time it ends on a high, you are tuned in enough to expect that the next low is just around the corner. It also leaves you with a strange discomfort (as in Bukowski’s Ham On Rye), that this is book is written by one of the few that managed, or in this case was privaledged enough, to tell his story. What about all the others that didn’t?