Dave Mail 3: With so many experiences, do you think about writing a book?

During your professional carreer, you worked with numerous artists like John Frusciante and Dave Navarro with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Joe Holmes with Ozzy Osbourne, and now Adam Levine with Maroon 5 (besides King Diamond and Faith No More, and being credited on "Under Rug Swept" by Alanis Morissette as bass tech). Do you think about writing a book about these experiences?

Dave Lee: "Very good question.

One day I was telling an Ozzy story in the RHCP dressing room. Anthony had recently released his book "Scar Tissue" to much success. He said that he thought my stories were better than his, and I should write a book.

So I did.

The next day off was in Milan Italy (boring place for a day off). I sat in my hotel room in front of my computer and started writing. I had never tried it before, and couldn't believe how easy it was. I started writing about how I became interested in music as a child. It flowed through to my time as a bassist in an 80's Hollywood metal band. And then to my eventual role as a bass tech for King Diamond, and on from there. Anthony was right. It was a very liberating experience. In that first day of writing, I found myself laughing out loud, and crying at remembering the loss of my very supportive mother. 

I was very honest in my writing. Maybe too much so. As I got to about 3/4 of the way through, I realized many of the "roadie exploits" were stories I may not want my loved ones to read about (many things I'm not too proud of). Anthony warned me of that, as one of his stories in his book caused some friction between he and Flea.

But Anthony put me in touch with his literary agent, who I sent a couple of chapters to. The agent complimented me on my writing. But felt that many of the stories of well known persons I'd worked with could end in legal action. I would need to get all those stories "ok'd" by the likes of Sharon Osbourne. Which likely wouldn't happen. He also said he wouldn't know how to market a book written by someone "unknown" (Anthony Kiedis already has a name).

So, long story short. I wrote a book but it never got published. And probably never will. I'm glad I did it though.

Questions by:
- Raphael Romanelli Andrade de Oliveira - Ilicínea, MG - Brasil

Check out our interview with Dave Lee: Português | English