Anthony Kiedis‘ life is about to hit the big screen with a new biopic based on the Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP) frontman’s life and career. Produced by Kiedis, along with Brian Grazer through Imagine Entertainment, Kiedis, and Guy Oseary, who has managed RHCP since 2021, the film is based on Kiedis’ 2004 memoir Scar Tissue.
The film is currently in development by Universal Pictures, which produced the Oscar-nominated 2015 N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton, promises a “shockingly candid portrait of an artist, addict, and ringleader.”
Scar Tissue documents Kiedis’ life, from childhood through his teens and earlier years in music, addiction, and on through the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Co-written with Larry Sloman, the book went to No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list and also delves into Kiedis’ unconventional relationship with his father the late actor Blackie Dammett and his drug-fueled splurge through the 1970s and ’80s punk scene in Los Angeles.
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[RELATED: The Drug-Inflicted Struggles Behind “Scar Tissue” by Red Hot Chili Peppers]
Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on November 1, 1962, Kiedis moved to Los Angeles right before his 12th birthday to live with his father. Growing up in Hollywood, Kiedis was instantly injected into the LA music scene and eventually formed RHCP in 1983 with bassist Flea, guitarist Hillel Slovak, and drummer Jack Irons.
“I did regret the book for a while as there was some pain caused, but then, I started seeing the long-term positive reverberating,” said Kiedis about his memoir in 2016. “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.”
Kiedis continued, “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.”
Red Hot Chili Peppers are scheduled to tour in 2024, from February through July, including a headlining slot at the Tennessee festival Bonnaroo in June. (Check out StubHub for additional RHCP tickets in 2024.) The tour kicks off on February 17 in Lincoln, California, and will conclude on July 30 in Maryland Height, Missouri.
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