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    High On Arrival
    High On Arrival
    High On Arrival
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    High On Arrival

    Written by Mackenzie Phillips

    Narrated by Mackenzie Phillips

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Mackenzie Phillips shares “a raw glimpse” (Entertainment Weekly) into her lifelong battle with personal demons and near-fatal addictions—and reveals the shattering truth behind her complex, secretive, and damaging history with her father, the legendary John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas.

    Not long before her fiftieth birthday, Mackenzie Phillips made headlines with her arrest for drug possession at Los Angeles International Airport; the actor-musician-mother had been on her way to a reunion of One Day at a Time, the hugely popular ’70s sitcom on which she once starred as the lovable rebel Julie Cooper.

    Born into rock-and-roll royalty, flying in Learjets to the Virgin Islands at five, making pot brownies with Donovan at eleven, Mackenzie grew up in an all-access kingdom of hippie freedom and heroin cool. As a rising Hollywood star herself, she joined the nonstop party in the hedonistic pleasure dome of her father’s making, and a rapt TV audience watched as Julie Cooper wasted away before their eyes. By the time Mackenzie discovered how deep and dark her father’s trip was going, it was too late.

    As an adult, she has paid dearly for a lifetime of excess, working tirelessly to reconcile her wonderful, terrible past and the pull of her magnetic father. By sharing her journey toward redemption and peace, the star who turned up High on Arrival has finally come back down to earth—to stay.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateSep 23, 2009
    ISBN9781442303676
    Author

    Mackenzie Phillips

    Mackenzie Phillips is the daughter of John Phillips and stepdaughter of Michelle Phillips, both lead singers of the 60s band The Mamas and The Papas. She starred as Julie Cooper Horvath on the sitcom One Day at a Time alongside Valerie Bertinelli. Today, Phillips works at Breathe Life Healing enter in West Hollywood as a substance abuse councilor.

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    Reviews for High On Arrival

    4/5

    227 ratings26 reviews

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    • 4/5
      What a wild ride, what a life. I know this memoir is older now, so I hope Mackenzie is still doing well. Coming from a family of addicts, it's almost nonexistent for my experience with them to see someone come clean and remain that way, so it's refreshing and hopeful to see someone who can come out on the other end and tell their story.
    • 5/5
      WOW. What a life!!! She is unflinchingly honest and raw. I couldn’t stop listening!
    • 5/5
      So inspiring ? I now have the courage to write my own story, thank you❤️
    • 5/5
      Wow! With all due respect- your father is trash!! Disgusting, consoling narcissist! I’m so sorry you have to endure such a dysfunctional life! Unbelievable you lived to tell this story! You’re a survivor and a warrior and your story can/will be an inspiration to many! Even the lifestyles of the rich and famous have deep dark secrets… xoxo
    • 5/5
      I believe her father ruined her life, and did so out of pure selfishness. How sad to know her dad supplied her drugs at such a young age or at all. I guarantee he had the plan to do exactly what took place and poisoned his own daughter. I believe that she is beautiful and strong to tell her story and to continue life as she recovers. Stay strong! Thanks for your brave soul to share your story.
    • 5/5
      The five stars indicate that I loved this book. The word 'love' isn't appropriate but Damn! What a sad story. I applaud her courage and forthrightness.
    • 5/5
      It was a great read. Maybe will help people with addiction
    • 5/5
      Amazing
      I loved it so candid And honest great book
    • 3/5
      Not really with the time! Everyone has someone like this in their family (maybe not to her excess) and it was not fun reliving it! God bless her and hope she stays on the right path.
    • 2/5
      I really enjoyed this audio book. I read it before when I was getting high alot.but a lot stuff I missed. Now I'm clean. I been clean bout two yrs. I went through the death of my father like you. I went down hill fast. By Grace of God I'm still clean. I take it day by day. Your an amazing person to overcome everything you went through.And write a book about your life.
    • 5/5
      Reason for Reading: I enjoy reading celebrity memoirs and was a big fan of One Day at a Time when the show was on. I had read Valerie Bertinelli's recent memoir and knowing Mackenzie Philips' checkered past figured she would have a very interesting memoir.Comments: Mackenzie Phillips is the daughter of John Phillips (the mastermind of the famous singing group The Mamas & The Papas) and is best known for her role as Julie Cooper on One Day at a Time. In this book Mack tells her own story from birth to the present. She was born into the psychedelic world of the sixties, partially raised by a man addicted to a plethora of drugs who let her and her older brother do as they pleased. Their exposure to drugs lead them both to become users as children, happily supplied by their father. Mackenzie's life was to continue to be run by drugs for many, many years until she finally became clean for 15 years only to end up addicted to pain killers which led her straight back to the monster until she was arrested for possession in 2008. Once again clean, and pain free, Mackenzie tells all in this well-written biography.Mackenzie's voice is very down to earth and makes for an easy read. She tells her whole life story without leaving out the ugly parts. She has secrets to reveal and does name names most of the time. One can tell right from the start though that she has not set out to trash anyone. This is her story and she accepts all responsibility for all the wrongs she's done in her life but also tells the wrongs done to her without attempting to blame anyone. I'm sure everyone knows the secret she reveals about her father (though I won't mention it, in case you haven't heard) and it is one of the creepiest, saddest, disgusting things one can read about and Mack's journey from violated victim to drug induced willing participant is an uncomfortable story to read.The book is written with respect to all; she doesn't leave out parts, as in other memoirs I've read recently, about her siblings in so far as they concerned her life story. She stops at some point with each of them saying that it is that individual's story to tell, not hers, but at least the family dynamics are fully explored. Much time was spent on the One Day at a Time years which I fully appreciated as I was sorely disappointed in that aspect of Valerie Bertinelli's book.Mackenzie has lived a hard life and excepts responsibility for it. Her son is the driving force behind her sobriety and staying clean. She shows how her life started on this route with the upbringing she had but as an adult she excepts making her own bad choices. It's a miracle she has pulled through this life and come out the other side. A very interesting read about the sixties/seventies drug culture, the eighties coke obsession, filled with famous names but centering on the life of a little girl who had to grow up in the middle of it all. Recommended.
    • 5/5
      Mackenzie Philips lays bare some ugly, uncomfortable truths. It is very difficult to extract the truth from other people, often, others lie to protect themselves, and sometimes, because they have only a passing acquaintance with what the truth is, either they have been presented with a warped reality, and therefore, have no association with it, or they are master manipulators. My opinion of the latter is that situations and circumstances create these types of people. Genetics plays a significant role in who we are, but it is only a small portion of us, environmental factors contribute as well, but, there is a third component. I believe emphatically, that we choose to be who we will be, this is often overlooked. The concept of personal responsibility eludes a lot of people, it's hard to point the finger at ourselves and realize that we can decide to go on a different path. I believe that the world has been entrenched in the "pass the blame" mentality for so long, it is almost expected that a person do it. Ab solving ourselves of our on share of guilt, makes us feel more righteous and victimized all at once. This is a diseased way of thinking and only serves to perpetuate the problems of the world. We must accept that we can not all be blameless and that sometimes we are the barbarians, wreaking havoc. Creating and participating in our chaos and destruction. This story could belong to any one of us, it's an unvarnished examination of a life out of control, and about how each of us processes the power to destroy and redeem ourselves. This is not a glamorous tale, but an honest, inspiring, and above all, a human one.
    • 5/5
      This was not easy to listen to, I almost stopped a few times but it is a fascinating glimpse into the very dark landscape of hard-core drug users. I have to hand it to her for putting her story out there - it may help some. It was well done, well narrated, and soul bearing. She deserves plenty of credit for surviving the nightmare of her upbringing and articulating her journey so well. She has a real life now.
    • 5/5
      Apparently many can't stomach the harrowing content in this story but I don't understand all the low ratings. McKenzie's brutal honesty in recollecting her addiction and her wild upbringing with a fading famous narcissistic father is endearing and I believe she is being true to herself and to the world by sharing these things. That's how you can tell that someone is doing the real work in recovery, they have no fear of what people may think of them but share their story regardless, in hopes that it may help others. And I think that is her reason for writing this book, to let others in similar situations know that they're not alone and should not be ashamed. I commend her brave honesty. She certainly didn't have to tell this story and doing so only isolated her further from her family. It was also very interesting learning about her rarified childhood amongst the stars. It may need a trigger warning but I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in celebs and addiction.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      The only reason i am giving it 4 stars is it is abridged. Very heartful scary life. Had to take alot of courage to write it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This book could also be titled “Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll”. Mackenzie Phillips, star of “One Day at a Time” and daughter of John Phillips of the Mamas and Papas writes a candid memoir of her life. In polite terms, her dad was a jerk. He did not protect her, she was unsupervised and literally left to fend for herself. Her life was very sad. Mackenzie was high during most of the filming of “One Day at a Time” She functioned until she could not. After 13 years of drug addiction and being blacklisted in Hollywood, she cleaned up her act and became a functioning adult and a mother to her son. She fell back into drugs again after being put on pain killers after surgery. She became sober a second time, with the help of family and friends.
    • 2/5
      Well....this is the daughter of "Papa" John Phillips founder of the Mamas & Papas.......and this book backs up my beliefs that it is up to the parents how their children turn out. At 10 years old he had Laura rolling his joints....and from there it was one step to her stealing his drugs and becoming an addict.

      Her mother had little or no say so, especially after she married for a second time Lenny (who would beat the hell out of her)...thus prompting Laura to move in with John & his current wife.....

      What a wasted (no pun intended) life.
    • 3/5
      Wow. I am really hoping Mackenzie Phillips wrote this as part of her addiction recovery process, because if she is just putting this out there for no reason she has no idea how wrong so much of this confession is. She was horribly addicted to the point she had no control over her life and ended up doing truly disgusting and horrifying things over and over. The fact that she seems to be a genuinely nice person is probably the only thing that ever got her through her life. Good luck to her with her new sober life; she has been through more than any person should.
    • 2/5
      needed some mindless reading, this sure covers it. Holy crap what a disaster. Like watching a train wreck. She spared nothing and seemed to have miraculously come out the other side a whole person. Her fortitude is nothing short of staggering.
    • 3/5
      Although her story was interesting, it got boring in parts. Same old thing, over and over again. She didn't speak much about her recovery treatments, other than the fact that she was desperate. Some chapters left me sleepy, some left me simply bored. She did talk about the issues on "One Day at a Time" and the tormented relationships that she created while under the influence. This was only somewhat of a good book.
    • 2/5
      Mackenzie shares her name-dropping, drug-reminiscent, sexually exploited memories in this tell all memoir. Purely drivel but fun to hear stories of those such as Paul McCartney and wonder what it was like to grow up with them in your life.
    • 3/5
      As far as most people go, I'm a fairly new Mackenzie Phillips fan. In my twenties now, I was a child who grew up watching her on the Disney Channel show So Weird and I fell in love with her cool, quirky vibe and talent. So, of course, her more recent struggles were a shock to me as I knew little of her past as I wasn't born then. When I heard that she had a memoir coming out, I rushed to get it so I could learn more about the life of someone I had grown up admiring.Her life was filled with sex, drugs, dangerous behavior, and rock and roll. The memoir is chock full of her escapades as a child around the time of American Graffiti, her teenage years during One Day at a Time with the always bubbly Valerie Bertinelli, and her adult years where she toured with the New Mamas and the Papas. You watch her go from drug addict to sober and back again all within the 300 pages of her autobiography and watch her do it with as much kindness, acceptance and grace as is possible for someone who was so publicly humiliated time and time again. The memoir, while written with a co-author, is written in her telltale voice. Anyone who has heard her speak outside of her acting roles can easily hear Mack's own voice while reading through the pages. That lends an authenticity to High on Arrival that not all memoirs have, and it makes the book truly feel like you are just having a talk with a good, old friend.I imagine that a lot of people will have read the book to hear about the sordid details of her relationship with her father, John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas. However, there is so much more to her and the memoir than her trials and tribulations with her dad. For those who love juicy gossip from what Mackenzie calls "the City of Glitter", this memoir is full of some of the juiciest with a high profile cast of characters. I'd definitely recommend this autobiography to fans of Phillips herself and to those who love Hollywood drama, especially from the 60s and 70s. At times, High on Arrival can be hard to slog through as a lot of the memories blur together due to their similarity and some realizations tend to be rehashed over and over again. Still, this is a solid memoir and an easy read. Three stars.
    • 4/5
      Very good book, but not for young readers. If you are interested in recovery from addiction and/or the music scene of the 1960's, you will probably enjoy it. She's very candid about everything that happened, though it must have been difficult. I admire her a lot for having the courage to speak up.
    • 2/5
      Very moving book, but disgusting. This should be mandatory reading in Jr. High. Should waking up with your underwear around your ankles and your dirty father next to you with his wank hanging out be an indication that you have a problem? Or should the 3rd time do the trick? I am at a loss for words.........
    • 3/5
      This book got a lot of publicity because in it Phillips claims that she had an incestuous relationship as an adult with her father, rock musician John Phillips. Some don’t believe she’s telling the truth, but having read the book, I see no reason not to believe her. She and her father were both 1. completely whacked-out drug addicts and 2. completely lacking in any sense of right and wrong or boundaries. What she says happened between them seems totally plausible to me.
    • 2/5
      Jesus, what a mess. Poor thing never had a shot. Reading this is tantamount to reading the memoir of someone raised by wolves. At least wolves don't share their drug stashes with their cubs. Freak show.