User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Flea refers to this as his origin story. It begins with his parents and ends just before RHCP. Unsurprisingly, he’s a gifted story teller. And this is a must on audio! His narration is fantastic and quirky. Flea is way more than a genital sock donning bass player, he’s a massive reader, devout Vonnegut fan, and a quality human. I wish to be his friend. I sincerely hope he writes a follow up.
Rating: really liked it
I am a Chili Peppers fan, and Flea has always been an intriguing person, so when I learned he was writing an autobiography, I definitely wanted to read it! Flea’s life begins differently than you would expect: calm and typical, until his parents split. It’s then that his mom’s new boyfriend exposes him to music, musicians, and a bohemian lifestyle, which inspires him to get into music, too. Acid for the Children is a wild ride. There’s coming-of-age, insight, and entertainment from beginning to end.
Thank you to the publisher for the free copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
Rating: really liked it
Originally published on The Nerd Daily | Review by Beth Mowbray
Michael Balzary. You probably know him as Flea, bassist and co-founder of the iconic band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Observing him in the public eye, playing intensely energetic rock shows for over three and a half decades, one may think Flea is just your typical “rock star” – an over-the-top persona. However, after reading his memoir, it is clear this would be a monumental misrepresentation and oversimplification of a quite complex human soul.
In Acid for the Children, Flea shares, in great detail, the first 20 years or so of his life, from his childhood all the way up to the inception of the band that would forever change his world (and that of rock music). As readers may expect, this memoir has no shortage of wild and crazy tales. From family and friends to music and drugs, this book covers it all. (Even the influence of literature on Flea’s life from a very young age! Did you know that he is an avid bookworm, influenced by the likes of Vonnegut and Bukowski?!) The short chapters, filled with little vignettes – specific scenes he recalls from his past – keep the book moving forward at a good pace, providing the life highlights of a man who surely has many more tales to tell and adventures left to experience.
Readers are, however, likely to be surprised by the deeply touching nature of the narrative. Flea moves on from simply telling these stories to create a much richer context by embedding them in the surrounding emotions, the impact of the events, and even sharing insights that are only visible now looking back into his past. He examines how his childhood experiences have caused him to struggle with finding a sense of self and loving others, explores how using drugs opened him up to a new spiritual world (at least initially) and helped him feel free to express himself.
Reading this book is akin to having a conversation with the man himself: candid and stripped down, like hearing Flea speak his own story aloud, just as a memoir should be. There is a lyrical lilt to Flea’s prose. His voice is clear and authentic, without a tinge of pretension. His enthusiasm for life, the way that he has always been unapologetically himself, is evident through his writing. Despite being a self-defined “outsider,” his purity of heart shines through, as he is clearly an individual full of kindness and empathy who seeks interconnectedness with those around him and with the universe on a larger scale. Perhaps most importantly, this memoir is utterly thought-provoking. It challenges assumptions. It reflects on the past, shining a light on how decisions have a ripple effect throughout our days. And it meditates on the beauty inherent in both life and those who walk through it with us.
I highly recommend picking it up! You are certain to walk away from the reading experience feeling as if you actually know Flea himself.
Rating: really liked it
This book is yikes city. Flea waxes poetically about all kinds of vibing with the sound, connecting with the Earth etc since he was a kid, but in a very ‘first grader who is enlightened’ vocabulary. Isnt this man sixtyish by now? Some of the book I’ve found to be endearing, but most of it is unfortunately pure gibberish - and I say this as someone who loves him and the RHCP.
He is an inconsistent writer, finishing chapters and stories in weird sudden halts, meanwhile somehow managing to remember every name of every person he has ever met.
Also according to this book and how its written: Flea never met a gay man without explaining it with ‘I met this gay man’. He apparently also never saw/met a person of color who wasnt described as such before even their name was said, or at latest in the next sentence if he was trying to be mysterious (their brown cinnamon eyes/face).
Also the book ends when hes still in his twenties. A miscalculation on my part for sure for thinking Id enjoy this book much more than I did, but also maybe we didnt need every waking second od his life around ages 4-9 explained.
Rating: really liked it
Flea has always been such an interesting character to me. I was super excited to read this memoir. The story itself is hard on the heart at times, his life wasn't always amazing. I sometimes felt like I had to remind myself to focus on reading. The style of writing is different, but and Flea fan will enjoy it for sure!
Rating: really liked it
For the most part I enjoyed Flea's memoir. If you're looking for the story of the RHCP, you won't find it here. This is about his life pre RHCP. It's nice to read about a man who had a tough childhood and then goes on to become extremely successful using his own natural talent, eventually becoming a happy man.
I did feel the book was a bit disjointed at times. I had a bit of trouble following the timeline, or maybe there really wasn't a timeline? At times I felt some of his descriptions were over the top. I don't need several words to describe something, like reading a thesaurus.
One thing I did like is that he didn't try to gloss over his drug use or the crimes he committed as a kid/teen. He tells it like it was and then tells you he knew he was an asshole to commit the crimes. He also explains the drugs were fun at the time but in the long run kids and/teens shouldn't do them.
I listened to the audio which is narrated by Flea, which was nice, listening to him tell me his story.
Rating: really liked it
It felt like he was holding me down and forcing me to listen to something that he thought was profound.
Rating: really liked it
Long after I’m dead, someone will erect a statue of Flea in West Hollywood. He’ll be slapping that bass in mid-flight, wild-eyed, legs spread, his pants half-way down his ass, and with such a look of joy on his face that it will become a place of pilgrimage for young and old alike.
Even those benighted folks who have never even heard of the Red Hot Chili Peppers will visit this shrine to be inspired and blessed by the radiant transcendence that is Flea. Devotees will climb up to touch the Hendrix tattoo; selfies will be snapped abundantly; tokens of love and remembrance will be left at the statue’s base, and some of the more faithful will visit wearing only a single sock.
Think I’m wrong about that? Well, maybe.
But wait and see, because Flea is truly a remarkable human being filled with such energy, joy and compassion, and those three qualities radiate through every page of his childhood memoir,
Acid for the Children. Flea views the world through a lens that makes me ashamed of my own cynical viewpoint. Here, he describes his childhood years in a series of short, fairly chronological reminiscences up to the point where the band that becomes the Chili Peppers is coming together. And each one of these short pieces is informed by a loving goodness that just leaks right through the language, even when he is writing about some pretty bleak topics—his junkie step-father who could fly into bewilderingly violent rages, the drugs and neglect and abuse he was surrounded by as a kid in Hollywood, an encounter with a prostitute on his high school graduation night, his teenage stint with the LA punk band Fear—whatever he is writing about, Flea fills it with a sense of love and wonder that radiates through the entire book.
The last “music” book I read was long ago, the Doors tribute
No One Gets Out of Here Alive, and as much as I am surrounded by music, I’m not really interested in reading about it, especially overblown rock and roll biographies. That’s not what this book is, not at all. This is a book about childhood, the wonder and the fear found there. It’s a book about the pleasures of reading, the loneliness of being different, the terrors that go along with discovering what the world is about. It’s almost Wordsworthian in places, although Flea had no Lake District to inform his young mind. Some readers have said that Flea’s writing style is highly influenced by the jazz music he grew up listening to and playing, and I think they are right. There is something improvisational and flowing about the way he writes, and when you read about how he was influenced by his step-father’s bebop, it will make sense. But I also felt there was something reminiscent of Richard Brautigan in Flea’s writing, too. Underneath it all, something reminded me of the simple joyful writing of Troutfishing in America.
At the end of
Acid for the Children, Flea leaves us with several lists of books, movies, and music that are significant to him, including “Concerts that Changed My Life.” Here’s mine...
Concerts that Changed My LifeRed Hot Chili Peppers—Metro—Chicago 10/26/1985
Rating: really liked it
What Is It: Considering he's been naked on magazine covers and played concerts while wearing nothing but a sock on his junk, exposure is not something Flea fears. However, his new memoir Acid for the Children is less about the Red Hot Chili Pepper's bassist getting physically naked (although he does that a few times in the book) and more about him getting emotionally naked. Michael Peter Balzary was born in Australia to a strict father and a bohemian mother. When he was four, his parents divorced and he moved with his mother and older sister Karyn ("me with a wig") to New York City. There they lived with a jazz artist named Walter who will introduce Michael to the power of music. It will change his life forever. When he sees Walter playing for the first time at a party he proclaims, "If Moses had parted the seas right in front of me, or my dog started speaking the Queen's English, it would not have been this miraculous." It is when the family moves again to LA that Michael "started living the life of a street kid" and serendipitously meets Anthony Kiedis in driver's ed. The book ends before the Chili Peppers become famous, because this book isn't about the life of a rock star. Acid for the Children is about how books, divorce, karate, anger, drugs, love, basketball and most of all music, turned a boy named Michael into a rock star named Flea.
Why Is It Good: I'll admit that when I first heard Flea was releasing a memoir, I doubted his writing abilities. It was difficult to believe that the guy who once wore a dick-sock was capable of genuine self-reflection. I was wrong. Flea's prose has a shaggy, earnest charm to it. It reads the way music sounds, with sentences that shimmer and shimmy to their own unique beat. The book moves chronologically and vividly portrays settings and characters, but is less concerned with what happened in a moment, than how that moment felt. "The facts and figures aren't important to me, the colors and shapes that make up my world are; they are who I am, right or wrong." Flea frequently uses those colors and shapes to reveal fascinating insights into his own life. He feels comfortable pushing boundaries since, "No explicit art ever hurt me." He realizes that watching Walter's dysfunction helped to fuel his own since he, "equated creativity with insanity." He even confesses his own doubt in his writing abilities. "I may well be an eleven-fingered oaf slobbering over a typewriter, pounding out a thorny jumble of trash, an uneducated animal who runs on instinct and feeling. But this is my voice." It turns out that Flea's voice is as brilliant as his bass playing.
How Can It Help: "Bein famous don't mean shit." This may as well be the book's mission statement. Once again, the book doesn't cover any of his fame and fortune years. Flea is wise and experienced enough to know that no amount of either can fix a broken boy. He's wise enough to know that people contain multitudes ("I'm a wimp who cries too, so be it."). He's wise enough to know that, "Pain was something to be grateful for, not to be pursued, but inordinately valuable." He's honest enough to admit that selfishness prevented him from helping Chili Pepper guitarist Hillel Slovak, who died of a heroin overdose ("Long as I live, I will know I failed."). He's wise enough to know that he's "still evolving" and that, "Everything that is not love is cowardice." He's wise enough to be grateful for having published a book ("Thanks for reading my childhood."). Most of all though, he's generous enough to take all the solace he found in music and pay it forward to the next generation. "To all you kids out there hurting like I hurt, I'm gonna be with you there in the magic place." Whether you're hurting or not, the pages of Acid for the Children truly are a magical place.
Rating: really liked it
As open, honest and expressive as his musicianship, Flea evokes the euphoric chaos of discovering music; exploring drugs and growing up fast in LA. Psychedelic, Punk'n'funkadelic. Flea channels Vonnegut and Bukowski, Byron and Eliot in his writing and writes about his youth up to the moment he steps on stage and first plays with Anthony Kiedis.
Rating: really liked it
Picture Flea, the bass player for the Red Hots.
Read the title "Acid for the Children".
What are you expecting?
I dunno, something a little more salacious than his life growing up as a young jazz musician?
I love the band, love the music, know that Flea--in addition to being a mind-blowing bass player--is also an accomplished jazz trumpetist. I was just expecting, hoping, wishing, for more about the Red Hot Chili Peppers and unfortunately this book stops just as the band is forming. A band known for incredible live shows, punk rock irreverence, and, let's be honest, some serious and tragic drug use.
Reading this book was like going to a hockey game between two lifelong rivals and there's no fight. Not only is there no fight, but the players sit down mid-ice and share tea.
It's pleasant, but not what you were expecting.
Rating: really liked it
Simply the best rocker biography I've ever read.
The right way to ingest this is audio form, read by man himself.
Reading in any other form, you're cutting yourself short.
His warm, involved, emotional voice carries as much information as words themselves.
Yes, he jumps a little around, chronologically, just as he does physically on stage, but I
guess it's just the way he is. He seems to be spur of the moment type of guy and it just comes with the territory.
The bio is brutally honest, down to the point and poetic at the same time. The man is almost as skilled with word as he is with rhythm.
And I find it stunning how much I could identify with the guy. We seem to have pretty much similar psychological setup, and I've even done some of the same shit in my youth. Not that it resulted in any kind of stardom or sublime mastery, like in his case.
Anyway, respect to the guy for all the apologies he made to people he wronged, unintentionally or otherwise. The way he lived is something of a template for as perfect life as we, imperfect human beings, are capable of: No matter the shit you've done, sooner or later you should come to your senses and make something out of it.
This is book for keeps and reading multiple times.
Rating: really liked it
[I got an ARC via a goodreads giveaway]
This definitely was not what I was expecting from a rock ’n’ roll hall of famer. It is an unusually self-aware, non-self serving autobiography. Instead of regaling you with romanticized stories of sex, drugs, and alcohol Flea lets you into his mind as he dealt with his very dysfunctional family (severe emotional neglect among other issues) from when he ran the streets as a child to using hard drugs to show what really happens in the head of many musicians. The book is made up of short chapters (3-4 pages each), that are well written but emotionally heavy. The book ends just as the RHCP begins; so don’t expect stories from those days.
Rating: really liked it
I reluctantly, and very sadly put this book down about 2/3 the way through....
PROS: he breaks the mold in a lot of ways of what you would think a bass playing rocker would be like. I loved his writing. He is incredibly smart, sensitive and well read. I loved that he wrote with all his heart and it comes through. I loved his story and his complete honestly and amazing self awareness that few have. He’s never bitter although he could be. His longing for family and connection was so obvious it made me want to cry for the lost little boy on the streets of Hollywood and makes me take my role as a mother and protector of our family’s connections very seriously. It also made me more compassionate of little boys on the playground I may think are a “bad I influence”. Really, I kind of love him.
CONS: ultimately I’m a prude and could not take the F-words. There weren’t a lot in the beginning of the book but by the time you’re at his drugged out antics in high school the f-bombs kept coming. It affects me. And I cringed a lot at the way he explains his developing sexuality - ultimately I just didn’t want to read about it. It made me really sad to put it down because I was loving it but I know the end of the story.... he becomes the famous bass player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers - a band I loved in my youth so I felt like I could say goodbye to the book.
The take away? The way you treat people makes a difference. People need love, they need connection, they need belonging and if it doesn’t come in a family unit they will spend their whole life masking pain and looking for it elsewhere. I find that so heartbreaking.
Rating: really liked it
I whipped right through this. Michael Balzary (Flea) is a former client in my audio business, so I knew he had a love of esoteric jazz, and that he is a deep, thoughtful man.
Here are some of my thoughts about his book:
1) Flea's chapters are short and to the point. It's a format I enjoy. Don't tell me ever freaking boring thing. What mattered? What's compelling?
2) Interesting, we both had major life-changing experiences in the late '60s. He refers to his suburban days as "normal life," as I did in my book "Craving Normal."
3) I also relate to his constant search to find his place, as the new and odd kid among the cliques: skaters/stoners/cholas/jocks.
And about his thoughts on the era we were kids and teens during (hippie movement to punk/pre AIDS to post AIDS), I have similar thoughts.
I relate to so much.
But the more I read about his youthful dynamic with Anthony Kiedis, the more I recall my own Flea/Anthony experience I wrote about in my book, a story called, "Peppers for Breakfast."
When Flea was a client in my audio business, he used to call our house, long before I knew (or connected) any of the above. Damn, the things I would love to ask him now.
He's a man of many interests. Now I understand why. I appreciate, too, his ability to appreciate even his bad experiences for making him who he is.
P.S. His childhood love of jazz and learning music is likely one reason he began his Silverlake Conservatory of Music, where my daughter took guitar lessons. Flea raises funds so children of all incomes can attend.
https://silverlakeconservatory.org/
