Acid for the Children: A Memoir

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(as of Jul 20, 2025 10:26:08 UTC – Details)


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. 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”
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Publishing
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 20, 2022
Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1455530549
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1455530540
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 1.2 x 8.1 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #34,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #38 in Rock Band Biographies #41 in Rock Music (Books) #116 in Actor & Entertainer Biographies