Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers will publish ‘Acid for the Children,’ his memoir

Flea, the flamboyant bassist for the Los Angeles band Red Hot Chili Peppers, will release his first memoir in September, Spin reports.

“Acid for the Children” will be published by Grand Central Publishing on Sept. 25. The publisher promises the memoir will be “complete with all the dizzying highs and the gutter lows you’d expect from an LA street rat turned world-famous rock star.”

News of the memoir’s publication date comes four years after the musician’s book deal was announced. In a 2014 news release, Grand Central said the book would chronicle Flea’s “myriad experiences with hard drugs; and, of course, the tumultuous creative journey of the legendary Red Hot Chili Peppers through its various incarnations over the last 30 years.

“I love literature deeply,” Flea said then. “I view books as sacred things, and in writing my story, I’m going to do my best to honor the form that has played such a huge part in shaping who I am.”

Flea, whose real name is Michael Balzary, was born in Australia and raised in Larchmont, N.Y., and Los Angeles. He co-founded the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1983 with his Fairfax High School classmates Anthony Kiedis, Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons.

The band was a mainstay of the Los Angeles punk scene, playing in clubs alongside X, The Dickies, Jane’s Addiction, the Minutemen, Thelonious Monster, Fishbone and the Circle Jerks.

As Kiedis wrote in his memoir, “Scar Tissue,” the band struggled with drugs; founding guitarist Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988. Irons subsequently left the band.

It was after this that they gained a larger national following with the release of 1991’s “Blood Sugar Sex Magik,” which featured guitarist John Frusciante. The record spawned the hit singles “Give It Away” and “Under the Bridge.” Their most recent album, “The Getaway,” was released in 2016.

“Acid for the Children” will be Flea’s first book. He is the founder of the nonprofit Silverlake Conservatory of Music.