In Awe of the Scar Tissue

Rating: B+
How many drugs can a rock star do? How many relapses can a person go through before getting it through their head that this is not the way to go? These are the kinds of questions I found myself asking while reading Anthony Keidis’ autobiography, Scar Tissue. The 400+ page book was an excitingly binding ride filled with sex, drugs, and rock and roll. The star of the Red Hot Chili Peppers discusses his personal history and how he and his friends rose to fame as the in-your-face funk punks that they are known as.

It should not be forgotten that this book is solely about this individual’s journey through his own life and not just one of the band members talking about the struggles they had on their way to stardom. In fact, Keidis makes it clear throughout the book that he didn’t really care whether or not the band made it as a force to be reckoned with in the music industry, he just wanted to jam out with his good buddies and share the love with the world hoping to be embraced.

Almost the entire first half of the star’s account discusses his life before his career and how he gets involved with drugs at the tender age of eleven. He talks about being born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and moving to L.A. to be closer to his father who just so happens to be extremely involved in trafficking drugs to celebrities. This is an absolute recipe for disaster for most kids but not for Anthony. He takes what he has grown up around and with the help of his friends creates some of the most cutting edge music of the eighties and ends up dominating the charts throughout the nineties.

This book was recommended to me by a friend and I had my reservations about reading it because I didn’t think that it would be all that interesting. It seemed like a rock star that just wanted to tell the general public about the hundreds of girls that he has conquered. He made me sit down and just read the opening hook and without a second thought; I bought my ticket and took the ride. The writing is very well done and constantly keeps you moving the entire time you are reading. Whether the book was ghost written by the co-writer, Larry Sloman, is another matter that I am not all that sure about. However, just from the poetic skills that Keidis has in his songs, he could have just used Sloman as a consultant. Whatever the case may be, the writing is very solid with the exception that the use of the word “and” after each word in a list can get to be very old very quick. Unfortunately, that happens a lot. Another unfortunate occurrence is that there were a good number of typos and very obvious mistakes that should have been caught before sending the book out into the world.

One of the major themes that the book tries very hard to get across is Keidis’ cautioning of the use of drugs. He even gives tips on how to deal with those problems should the reader be experiencing them. Keidis is very clear about his caring for other people and easily admits his own faults in some of the situations that have been integral in his life. The book also spares no details on certain sexual exploits that happen very often throughout the book.

There is a great amount of detail that the book is written with that makes you feel like you are right there in the audience, sitting on the bed with him in rehab, or in the studio listening to the raw cuts of the songs. What I like especially about the book is that there are a few sections of pictures that act as a sort of photo album for the times that have already happened and the times that are about to occur soon into the reading. Also, the lyrics from some of the songs are planted in occurrence with the time that they were written letting us see what inspired him to write certain things in his songs. This makes you feel like you are actually inside of the music and every time you hear the song afterward you know what was going through Anthony’s mind when he wrote it thus bringing you closer.

Most biographies are written well into the person’s life but not Anthony’s. He writes more than 400 pages worth of his life when he is only in his mid to late 30s. I would love to see a sequel to this book written just to get the other half of his life that is so mesmerizing. If you have not read this fantastic book, I highly recommend that you go out and buy it. Don’t borrow it from a friend or go to the library. Buy it; it is very much worth it even though there are a few errors in terms of editing.