The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ scene-stealing bassist — and (who knew?) longtime bibliophile — is publishing his first book this fall, and he wants you to know it’s not going to be the typical celebrity offering. “It’s my great hope that it could be a book that could live beyond being a celebrity book or a rock star book and just stand on its own as a piece of literature,” Flea says of Acid for the Children, which he describes not as a memoir, but as an origin story: “It ends where The Red Hot Chili Peppers begins.”

What compelled the Australian-born musician/actor to write it? “I’ve always wanted to write a book — I never necessarily wanted to write a book about myself, but I was approached about doing it and I like engaging my creative spirit, I like using different parts of my brain,” he says. “It’s easy to tell funny stories about the ridiculous, crazy things you did as a kid. But to get underneath the things that happened, to really look at back at my childhood with distance in between, and have that retrospective introspection… I just thought that would be a great spiritual exercise.”

Acid for the Children will be published Nov. 27; read on for an exclusive excerpt, and pre-order the book here.

Image zoom Grand Central Publishing

Excerpt from Acid for the Children, by Flea

There once was a small blonde Australian boy. He loved his dog. Life picked him up and shook him all around. Stumbling and bumbling, blindfolded and searching, he fell in love with the truly beautiful things. Sweet hearts warmed him with their love glow. Other hearts failed him. Feeling disconnected, out into the street he ran, looking for relief. In the process, he did things to dim his own heart light. A cold darkness of fear grew within. But in that scary place, Music, The Voice Of God spoke, telling him to share her voice on this earth.