Patti Smith revisits child self in powerful new memoir

It's a rare gray Saturday in Los Angeles; raindrops collect along a window overlooking a row of trees at Le Parcat Melrose. Light trickles its way into the hotel room, illuminating a brown coffee table. An unreleased novel from Swiss author Nelio Biedermann sits next to a cup of tea, and a wood cross string necklace lies on the floor.

- Julius Miller, Tribune News Service

“The weather is challenging for singing because it’s so humid, but it'll be fine,” Patti Smith says, before reaching for the mug. Her gray hair, with strands of white, hides under a gray beanie. She braved the rain during a walk with her son about an hour earlier, and still sports a mildly damp blazer atop her black T-shirt. In signature Smith style, her light-wash jeans scrunch just above a pair of tan, heeled boots.

She's 78 now—79 in December: “Next year 'll be 80, I guess I'm getting older,” she says with a smile. In seven hours, she'll step out on stage at Walt Disney Concert Hall to perform “Horses” in full, 50 years after it was released. Hence, the humidity debacle. “The rain is good ... but fills your lungs with humidity,” she continues. “Makes it harder to push your notes.”

The anniversary tour coincides with another release, but a book rather than an album. “Bread of Angels” marks Smith's latest literary endeavor, chronicling her life in full. Naturally, the memoir is a companion to the 2010 National Book Award-winning ‘Just Kids.” That book has developed into a modern classic of sorts for its intimate portrayal of Smith's early life as an artist. Particularly, her days spent at the Hotel Chelsea alongside photographer and lifelong friend Robert Mapplethorpe, whom she notes was her “most important early relationship.”