Turning into a Chili Pepper

Rock Music: Rock stars usually start out as nice, ordinary middle-class kids, then sink into drug-fuelled decadence after they become famous. Anthony Kiedis, on the other hand, had such a wild and crazy childhood, it's a wonder he didn't run away and join a firm of chartered surveyors.

By the time he became a rock star, Kiedis had already been there, seen that, done that and - most probably - thrown up all over the T-shirt.

He was introduced to pot at the age of 11, and by his early teens was already intimate with alcohol, quaaludes, LSD and cocaine. While the rest of us were sneakily reading comics when we should have been doing our homework, Kiedis was having sex with grown-up girls and hanging out with drug dealers and lowlifes. All this was done with the apparent approval of his father, friend and fixer to the stars, and a guy whose own messed-up life cast a long, spaced-out shadow over Kiedis's youth. Most of us had to hide our juvenile bad behaviour from our parents - Kiedis's dad seemed to actively encourage it.

Scar Tissue has the edge over other rock autobiographies, in that the growing-up half of the book is almost as eventful as the rampant rock star half. Sure, it's got ghost-written all over it, and it often reads like a personal press release, filled with cod- hippie philosophy and syrupy self-help affirmations, but, rather like a Red Hot Chili Peppers album, it rocks along entertainingly.

Anthony Kiedis was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1962, the son of John Michael Kiedis, whose family had migrated to Michigan from Lithuania in the early 1900s, and Peggy Nobel, a petite midwestern gal who married at the tender age of 17. His parents separated soon after young Tony was born, and he grew up alternating between his mom's home in Michigan and his dad's domicile in LA. By his own accounts, the times spent at his dad's pad were far and away the wildest.

Kiedis senior, a struggling actor who called himself Blackie Dammett, was living the high life in LA. In this atmosphere of laissez-faire, Keidis junior felt free to experiment with whatever became available - and there was plenty available, from booze to class A drugs to older, experienced girls. It was like living in a big candy shop with all the jars left open.

While living with his dad in LA, he was introduced to Hollywood's 24-hour party elite. Kiedis père et fils would go to the Rainbow Club and hang out with the likes of Led Zeppelin and Alice Cooper. Then it would be back to Blackie's for an all-night party, at which Kiedis witnessed the kind of goings-on you'd never see in Peter Pan or Winnie the Pooh. Keith Moon, drummer of The Who and one of rock's most notorious party animals, tried to make Kiedis feel at ease among the mayhem, and Cher babysat for him one night - and Kiedis remembers the night vividly, because he peeped at Cher undressing for bed.

In high school, Kiedis's best friends were Hillel Slovak and Michael Balzary, aka Flea. They did their best to cultivate a bad-boy image, shoplifting, running out of restaurants without paying, and doing all the cool drugs. The trio also broke into apartment buildings, where they would climb on to the roof and dive into a swimming pool a few storeys below. One time, Kiedis miscalculated the angle and smashed into the concrete, breaking his back. While he was recovering in hospital, an adult female friend regularly visited his ward to administer sexual relief. Kiedis recovered, and made it through high school with good grades, but by the time he enrolled in UCLA, he was already on the slippery slope to becoming a full-blown junkie.

In college, Kiedis immersed himself in LA's nascent punk scene, sneaking into shows by Black Flag, The Circle Jerks and X. Flea and Slovak had been playing in a local band, Anthem, and Kiedis often introduced the band on stage, coming on like a hip-hop version of a vintage radio announcer. Not being much of a singer, Kiedis felt more comfortable with rapping, and identified with such rap acts as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

It was with this volatile mix of rap and rock that Kiedis, Flea and Slovak formed The Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1983, with their friend, Jack Irons, on drums. The Chili Peppers were LA's ultimate party band, releasing such funk-rock albums as Freaky Styley, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan and Mother's Milk.

They often went on stage naked, with just a sock to cover up their manhood, and, of course, they were always up for a party. Guitarist Slovak died of a drugs overdose in 1988; Kiedis contracted hepatitis, and has been in and out of rehab so many times they had to fit revolving doors. So, it wasn't all glitz and glamour.

Scar Tissue takes us behind the scenes at every high point of the band's development, and every low point of drug addiction and dependency. It's your standard tale of rock-'n'-roll excess, nothing you haven't read before about a hundred other rock gods and punk godfathers.

After more than 400 pages of shooting up, snorting, smoking, shagging and - occasionally - singing, you start to feel like you've overdosing on salacious stories from the other side.

One last word to the band's young fans, who would be around the same age Kiedis was when he smoked his first joint: don't try any of this at home - unless, of course, your dad says it's OK.

Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis, with Larry Sloman Time Warner Books, 465pp. €18.99

Kevin Courtney is an Irish Times journalist