Patti Smith has disclosed that her series of autobiographical books originated from a promise she made to photographer Robert Mapplethorpe just hours before his death. The 79-year-old singer shared the revelation during a conversation with British popstar Dua Lipa at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, part of the London Literature Festival, where Lipa is curating the event.
Lipa, 31, asked Smith whether she knew she wanted to write more autobiographical books when she wrote her first, Just Kids, released in 2010. Smith replied: "Well, after I wrote Just Kids, because Robert asked me to write it hours before he died, I promised him I would."
Dream Inspires New Memoir
The New Jersey-born singer explained her initial reluctance: "I didn't know anything about writing a memoir or non-fiction, I liked to write poems and fairy tales, and it was so much responsibility, and took me so long." She added, "I swore I'd never write another memoir, but then… truthfully, I had a dream."
Smith described the dream that led to her latest book, Bread Of Angels: "I had a dream about this book, that a messenger came to my house with a white book, and I opened it up, and it was a book that I had written, and it had all the stages of my life." She detailed how the stages were represented through dresses, including a childhood dress, an "art dress" from Mapplethorpe, a "rock and roll dress" from her brother, and her wedding dress from her late husband, MC5 guitarist Fred 'Sonic' Smith.
Emotional Moments and Song Favorites
Smith became emotional when Lipa suggested she could divide Bread Of Angels into "before Fred and after Fred." Tearing up, Smith responded: "That's so nice, that's all I can say, but thank you, thank you for saying that."
In a lighter exchange, Lipa said she wished she had written Smith's Dancing Barefoot, a single from the 1979 Patti Smith Group album Wave. Lipa remarked: "I feel like it's such a sensual song, and also it's just something about the love of something bigger than us that feels so visceral and fun, and I love that song so much." Smith said she would have written Lipa's 2023 hit Houdini.
Smith is best known for her influential debut album Horses (1975), which mixed poetry with punk rock and included songs such as Gloria: In Excelsis Deo, Redondo Beach, and Free Money. Her song Because The Night, written with Bruce Springsteen, reached number five in the UK singles chart in 1978.
Smith was made a Commander Of The Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2005 and was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2007. She has written four autobiographical books: Just Kids, M Train (2015), Year Of The Monkey (2019), and Bread Of Angels (2025), along with numerous other books including poetry collections and fiction.
