Author Guide · Memoir & Music
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Anthony Kiedis has spent more than four decades as the voice and primary lyricist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, one of the most commercially successful rock bands to come out of Los Angeles. On 6 October 2004 he stepped away from lyrics long enough to publish Scar Tissue, a 480-page memoir tracing his chaotic childhood, the band’s formation and rise, and a drug addiction that nearly killed him more than once. It reached No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List and is regularly cited as one of the better rock memoirs precisely because it doesn’t sand down the ugly parts. It remains his only published book.
By Lisanne Swart · One book · Memoirs & biographies · 2004 · Updated September 2026
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Quick answer
Anthony Kiedis has written one book: Scar Tissue, published 6 October 2004 by Hyperion and co-written with the journalist Larry Sloman. It reached No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List. He has published nothing since, and no second book has been announced. Universal optioned the memoir for a feature film in January 2024, with Kiedis, Brian Grazer and the band’s manager Guy Oseary attached as producers; no cast, director or release date has been announced. His other published writing is song lyrics for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the band he co-founded in Los Angeles in 1982.
Quick facts about Anthony Kiedis
- Born
- 1 November 1962, Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Books published
- One — Scar Tissue (2004)
- Written with
- Larry Sloman
- Publisher
- Hyperion — 480 pages, ISBN 978-1-4013-0101-9
- On the bestseller list
- No. 1, New York Times Best Seller List
- Band
- Red Hot Chili Peppers, co-founded in Los Angeles in 1982
- Hall of Fame
- Inducted with the band in 2012
- Film rights
- Optioned by Universal in January 2024
The only book by Anthony Kiedis
Scar Tissue
Kiedis’s memoir, written with journalist Larry Sloman, opens mid-relapse and works both forward and backward from there — through a childhood split between a straitlaced mother in Michigan and a father immersed in 1970s Hollywood drug culture, the formation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1982, the band’s chaotic early years and eventual mainstream success, and repeated cycles of addiction, overdose, and recovery that ran alongside the band’s biggest commercial triumphs. It reached No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List.
What separates this from most rock memoirs is the refusal to frame addiction as a colorful backstory to a success story. Kiedis is unflinching about the damage, including to people close to him, in a way that makes the book read less like a victory lap and more like an honest accounting. If you want one rock memoir that treats recovery as an ongoing, unresolved process rather than a tidy third act, this is it.
— LisanneWhat Is Not on This Page
Anthony Kiedis has published one book. Two things that often get counted as a second are not books, and it is worth being clear about which is which.
- The lyrics are not a book — Four decades of Red Hot Chili Peppers songs are his largest body of published writing, and several collections of rock lyrics have been printed by other artists. Kiedis has never published one. This page covers his books.
- The film is not a second book — Universal optioned Scar Tissue in January 2024 for a feature film, with Kiedis producing alongside Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment and the band’s manager Guy Oseary. An option is a right to develop, not a finished film: no director, cast or release date has been announced since.
- There is no announced follow-up — No publisher lists a forthcoming Kiedis title, and he has not said he is writing one. Twenty-two years after Scar Tissue, one book is the whole shelf.
What Reading Scar Tissue Is Actually Like
It is structured like a relapse, not like a career. The book opens mid-addiction and moves in both directions from there, so the chronology of the band — the albums, the tours, the commercial breakthroughs — arrives as background to something else. Readers who come for a Red Hot Chili Peppers history find a recovery memoir with a band in it.
Larry Sloman’s hand is visible, and that is not a criticism. Sloman had already written with Howard Stern and Mike Tyson. The prose is plain and fast, closer to spoken testimony than to literary memoir, and that plainness is what keeps 480 pages moving.
It is explicit about drugs and about the damage to other people. Overdoses, the death of guitarist Hillel Slovak in 1988, and Kiedis’s own conduct are described without softening. Know that before you hand it to someone who is looking for a music book.
Why There Is Only One Book
He is a lyricist by trade, not a prose writer. Scar Tissue was written with a collaborator over a defined period and published in 2004. Nothing in the two decades since suggests he set out to become an author; his output has stayed with the band.
The story it tells has an ending he has kept. Kiedis has reportedly been clean since 24 December 2000, four years before the book appeared, which is the point the memoir builds toward. A second volume would need a second arc.
The follow-up is a film, not a book. Universal took the option in January 2024 and described the project as a portrait of an artist and an addict. That is the same story being retold in another medium rather than a new one being written.
What to Read After Scar Tissue
If it was the band you came for
→ Acid for the Children by Flea (2019), the bassist’s own memoir. It covers the same Los Angeles and the same friendships from the other side, and stops before the band gets famous.
If it was the addiction and recovery
→ A Million Little Pieces is the one people reach for and the one to avoid — it was exposed as substantially fabricated in 2006. Dry by Augusten Burroughs (2003) is the honest version of the same book.
If it was the Los Angeles of it
→ Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain (1996). Oral history rather than memoir, and the clearest account of the scene the Chili Peppers grew out of.
If you want the best-written rock memoir
→ Just Kids by Patti Smith (2010). A different register entirely, and the book that shows how high the form can reach.
Frequently asked questions about Anthony Kiedis's books
How many books has Anthony Kiedis written?
One. Scar Tissue, a memoir co-written with the journalist Larry Sloman and published on 6 October 2004 by Hyperion. It runs to 480 pages and reached No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List. As of September 2026 there is no second book and none has been announced.
Who is Anthony Kiedis?
Anthony Kiedis is the lead singer and lyricist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a role he has held since co-founding the band in Los Angeles in 1982 with Flea, Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons. In 2004 he published Scar Tissue, a memoir written with journalist Larry Sloman covering his childhood, his career with the band, and his struggles with drug addiction.
How old is Anthony Kiedis?
Anthony Kiedis was born on 1 November 1962 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He turned 63 in November 2025 and turns 64 in November 2026.
Where is Anthony Kiedis from?
Anthony Kiedis was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He moved to Hollywood, California, as a child to live with his father, and later co-founded the Red Hot Chili Peppers there with three classmates from Fairfax High School.
Is there a film of Scar Tissue?
Not yet. Universal optioned the memoir in January 2024 for a feature film, with Kiedis producing alongside Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment and the band’s manager Guy Oseary, and Jay Polidoro overseeing for the studio. No director, cast or release date has been announced since.
Is Anthony Kiedis married?
No. Kiedis has not married. He has a son, born in October 2007, from his relationship with Heather Christie.
Is Anthony Kiedis sober? How long has he been sober?
Kiedis has written and spoken openly about a long history of drug addiction with repeated periods of sobriety and relapse. He has reported being clean since 24 December 2000, which is where Scar Tissue leaves the story four years before it was published.
Is Anthony Kiedis Native American?
He has said he has Mohican ancestry through his paternal grandmother, Molly VanderVeen, and has described it as the source of his interest in Native American culture. He is not an enrolled member of a tribe.
Does Anthony Kiedis play any instruments?
Not in the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He is the band’s vocalist and lyricist; guitar, bass and drums are handled by the other members.
What was Anthony Kiedis convicted of in 1990?
Indecent exposure and sexual battery. The incident took place on 21 April 1989 at George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia, after a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, and he was fined on both counts. He writes about it in Scar Tissue.
What is Scar Tissue about?
A childhood divided between a conventional mother in Michigan and a father immersed in 1970s Hollywood, the founding of the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1982, the death of guitarist Hillel Slovak in 1988, and roughly two decades of heroin and cocaine addiction running alongside the band’s biggest commercial success. It ends with the sobriety he has kept since December 2000.
Sources
- Anthony Kiedis — Wikipedia
- Scar Tissue (autobiography) — Wikipedia
- Red Hot Chili Peppers — Wikipedia
- Red Hot Chili Peppers — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Anthony Kiedis’ Scar Tissue optioned for screen adaptation — uDiscover Music, January 2024
Bibliography last verified 7 September 2026.
“I stopped hating and started just being.”
— Anthony Kiedis, Scar Tissue (2004).
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