Scar Tissue, the bestselling memoir from Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis, has been optioned by Universal, brining it closer toward a screen adaptation. Kiedis will produce the project along with Brian Grazer, representing Imagine Entertainment, and Guy Oseary, who has managed the Chili Peppers since 2021. Released in 2004, Scar Tissue, written by Kiedis with Larry Sloman, went to No. 1 on the New York Times’ bestseller list.
According to an advance press release, the studio says the adaptation of Scar Tissue will be “a shockingly candid portrait of an artist, addict, and ringleader” containing “a deeply unconventional father and son story set against a substance-fueled ’70s and ’80s L.A. punk scene. This story examines, without judgment, how all of his experiences shaped the music that was eventually embraced by millions.”
Kiedis, who was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1962, moved to Los Angeles right before his 12th birthday to live with his father. Kiedis was injected into the LA music scene and eventually formed RHCP in 1983 with bassist Flea, guitarist Hillel Slovak, and drummer Jack Irons.
Kiedis about his memoir in 2016: “I did regret the book for a while as there was some pain caused, but then, I started seeing the long-term positive reverberating. People were reading it in hospitals, in prisons and schools and it was having a positive effect. I realized that the whole point of writing that book wasn’t for me, but to show that somebody can go all the way down and come all the way back and have a productive, successful happy interesting life. And so whatever shame, pain or difficulty or discomfort I went through, then it was worth it because I get so many people coming up to me saying their kids had read it and got their act together because of it.”
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