Patti Smith says deathbed promise to Robert Mapplethorpe led to memoir series

Rock star Patti Smith has said her series of autobiographical books began when she made a promise to photographer Robert Mapplethorpe just hours before his death.

The 79-year-old Because The Night singer was speaking about her latest book Bread Of Angels with British popstar Dua Lipa at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday as part of an event for the London Literature Festival.

Lipa, 31, who is curating the festival, asked Smith if she knew she wanted to write more autobiographical books when she wrote her first, Just Kids, which was released in 2010.

The New Jersey-born singer replied: “Well, after I wrote Just Kids, because Robert asked me to write it hours before he died, I promised him I would.

Smith was speaking about her latest book Bread Of Angels (Pete Woodhead)

“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.

“I swore I’d never write another memoir, but then… truthfully, I had a dream.

“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.

“And they were broken down through dresses, a childhood dress, a dress that Robert gave me, which I called my art dress, a dress that my brother bought me, which was my rock and roll dress, and then my wedding dress that my husband (MC5 guitarist Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith) gave me.

“And I realised that all the men, including my uncle who had bought me my childhood dress, had died.

“And in writing… if I wrote about these dresses, I would be writing about them, my childhood, my evolution as an artist, and all the things in the world of my public life, and then marriage, and then eventual loss and starting life again, and it seems so daunting.

“But I felt… there was a reason that I dreamed that, and I found it was because it was that all those people were calling, ‘don’t forget us, write our little story too’, and so that’s what I did.”

Smith became emotional during the conversation when Lipa told her she felt she could divide Bread Of Angels into “before Fred and after Fred”, to which Smith replied while tearing up: “That’s so nice, that’s all I can say, but thank you, thank you for saying that.”

A lighter point in the evening saw Lipa asked which of Smith’s songs she wished she had written, and she opted for Dancing Barefoot, a single from the 1979 Patti Smith Group album Wave.

Dua Lipa said she wished she had written Smith’s Dancing Barefoot (Pete Woodhead)

The New Rules singer said: “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 that if she could have written any of Lipa’s songs she would have written her 2023 hit Houdini.

Smith is best known for her highly influential debut album Horses (1975), which mixed poetry with punk rock, and featured 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 in Just Kids, M Train (2015), Year Of The Monkey (2019), and Bread Of Angels (2025), as well as numerous other books, including poetry collections and fiction.