Acid for the Children: A Memoir

I loved this book, each chapter is filled with Flea's great sense of humour and intelligence. Loved the honest simplicity of his words to revive the craziest adventures and recreate the vibe and atmosphere of the 70's and 80's!! Total must read!

SUCH AN EYE-OPENING BOOK. SO EASY TO READ AND YOU FIND YOURSELF FEELING LIKE YOU ARE RIGHT THERE GETTING TO KNOW HIM. IT IS WRITTEN EXACTLY LIKE HIM SPEAKING. HE TELLS HIS TALES OF HIS LIFE BEING VERY OPEN AND FRANK ABOUT ALL THE THINGS HE DID THAT HE "SHOULDN'T" HAVE DONE AND HE IS VERY CLEAR ABOUT ADMONISHING OTHERS TO "NOT" DO WHAT HE DID, WHILE ADMITTING THE DRUGS FELT GOOD THO - AGAIN, THO, VERY FIRM AS TO "WHY" NO ONE SHOULD FOLLOW WHAT "HE" DID. HIS TRUE NATURE COMES THROUGH WHEN HE EXPLAINS HOW HURTING OTHER PEOPLE'S FEELINGS MADE HIM FEEL. IF YOU ARE A FAN OF RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, YOU SHOULD READ THIS. IF YOU AREN'T NECESSARILY A FAN OR THEM OR OF "FLEA" YOU SHOULD STILL READ THIS. BOOK. IT'S A GOOD READ.

Had a hard time with some of the chapters being so short but got used to it. Really great book with a lot of soul and feel. Enjoyed it

Great book, thanks!!!

I studied memoir in college for 2 semesters and have read so many great ones, but I have to insist this for me is the absolute best one of all. Flea tapped into his literary background and with brutal and painful honesty has written a gorgeous book in the most unusual and enchanting style and prose, which has for me been transformative and eye opening. The book organized in chapters reflective of his jazz background that pull you in and spin you around within a beautiful poetic and often ugly and sad musical vortex. Great job Flea. I never expected Flea to be the masterful writer he has shown he is. Wow!

You think you know somebody, then you realize you don't know jack. Who'd have known this guy could spout out so much wisdom in between the myriad little bits about whacking off and getting obliterated on anything he could get his hands on? If you're reading this to get any insight on the life and times of RHCP, don't - there's none to be had here. It's all Flea, all the time. Flawed, searching, spiritual, goofy, pathetic, disappointing and completely human and relatable. Brutally honest. You go, Mike. God bless you brother.

Michael Balzary (aka Flea) brings his authentic, humble, painfully real self to this unusual autobiography. He weaves a wonderfully personal tale of vulnerability, dislocation, and manic energy as he flies through transitions and transformations from Australia to the US East Coast, to LA, and eventually out into the wide world. Despite his onstage persona and the enormity of RHCP on the music scene, Flea seems somewhere between comfortable and wickedly amused at deflating his own ego, and steers away from romanticizing his drug-fueled early days and the birth of his band. He's most beautifully serious and sincere when he talks about the people and music in his life - there's no mistaking his truest loves and where the center of his universe is. Somewhere along the line reading this book, you may realize that you're not reading some formulaic bunch of tell-all "Rock And Roll!" BS that may have been written by a ghostwriter. Instead, what you've got is a memoir that reads a lot like an experienced storyteller who's read the works of a lot of great authors and is reaching out, grasping for a connection to the reader through an offbeat narrative in a unique voice. And so it goes.

I usually don't pay a lot of attention to reviews but this book had so many rave reviews I decided to slip it onto my summer reading list. Flea is a good storyteller and a decent writer and the beginning of the book has every indication of that. I tore through the first half of the book only to discover his tiresome and obsessive preoccupation with drugs and self-aggrandizement. Throughout the book, he seems overly focused on appearing as a 'cool guy' and his constant references to some imagined affiliation to Jazz greats (Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie to name a few) is nothing less than annoying. Sorry, Flea, I thought you were a solid player but not in league with the Jazz masters ... Flea's account makes it obvious that the Bohemian lifestyle of my generation was very different from what came to be during Flea's time spent in the "underground". I think there is a trend these days of overindulgent book editors allowing so much superfluous writing to ruin what might have been a good read. I think this book could have told a more effective story with about 200 pages edited out! How many times must we read about every doobie, every shot of coke, pills and what-not smoked, popped, and shot by Flea and his friends? I kept reading in hopes of catching some of the original momentum at the beginning of the book but instead, I was disappointed by what ended up as a series of boring druggie tales. So much bravado so little time ... I recommend it to people who are interested in that period of time in Los Angeles and some of the music that evolved from there, otherwise, as they say here in old New York "Fuhgeddaboudit!"