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

""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."

""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.""

Rain falls outside a Le Parc at Melrose hotel room in Los Angeles as light filters through a window onto a coffee table holding a cup of tea, an unreleased Nelio Biedermann novel and a wood cross necklace. Patti Smith, age 78, wears a gray beanie, damp blazer and light-wash jeans after a walk with her son. Humidity complicates singing ahead of a performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall where she will perform Horses in full for its 50th anniversary. Bread of Angels chronicles Smith's life and acts as a companion to 2010 National Book Award–winning Just Kids, evoking her Chelsea years and relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe.

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