Patti Smith tapped into her 'child self' to write new memoir: 'She's still here'

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On the ShelfBread of AngelsBy Patti SmithRandom House: 288 pages, $30If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.It’s a rare gray Saturday in Los Angeles; raindrops collect along a window overlooking a row of trees at Le Parc at 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.“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 I’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.Patti Smith, the celebrated rock poet who won a National Book Award for ‘Just Kids,’ revisits her hardscrabble childhood, success and the loss of her husband, Fred Sonic Smith, in ‘Bread of Angels.’“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 f...