High On Arrival

Mackenzie Phillips

Sep 2009 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Not long before her fiftieth birthday,Mackenzie Phillips walked into Los Angeles International Airport. She was on her way to a reunion for One Day at a Time, the hugely popular 70s sitcom on which she once starred as the lovable rebel Julie Cooper. Within minutes of entering the security checkpoint, Mackenzie was in handcuffs, arrested for possession of cocaine and heroin.

Born into rock and roll royalty, flying in Learjets to the Virgin Islands at five, making pot brownies with her father's friends at eleven, Mackenzie grew up in an all-access kingdom of hippie freedom and heroin cool. It was a kingdom over which her father, the legendary John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, presided, often in absentia, as a spellbinding, visionary phantom.

When Mackenzie was a teenager, Hollywood and the world took notice of the charming, talented, precocious child actor after her star-making turn in American Graffiti. As a young woman she joinedthe nonstop party in the hedonistic pleasure dome her father created for himself and his fellow revelers, 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. And as an adult, she has paid dearly for a lifetime of excess, working tirelessly to reconcile a wonderful, terrible past in which she succumbed to the power of addiction and the pull of her magnetic father.

As her astounding, outrageous, and often tender life story unfolds, the actor-musician-mother shares her lifelong battle with personal demons and near-fatal addictions. She overcomes seemingly impossible obstacles again and again and journeys toward redemption and peace. By exposing the shadows and secrets of the past to the light of day, the star who turned up High on Arrival has finally come back down to earth -- to stay.

Ratings and reviews

Some parts are so hilarious, like when John Phillips dealt with cocaine bugs. I thought I'd never quit laughing. Others were so sad, thinking about them is rough. Laura has lived a really interesting life, like living in the mansion with the unfilled Tarzan swimming pool. The kind of life that's tough to believe unless you've had an extremely unusual life too, as I have. This is well worth rereading.

A beautiful, and deeply honest memoir that I could not stop reading. I so thank Mackenzie for opening her heart, thoughts, and memories - memories I found both extremely painful and extrordinarily wonderful - to her readers. She is a total inspiration to anyone - especially me - who have had lives that they were close to losing, and those with daily struggles to keep afloat due to the choices they make. Her multitude of strength and self awareness is something others should want to always mirror.

This is an excellent, honest, and touching book. If you are a fan of Mackenzie Phillips, the TV show "One Day At A Time", and the singing group, "Mamas and the Papas", then you will enjoy reading this book. Mackenzie is extremely brave and honest, when she writes about her years of drug addiction, being on a famous TV show, and having a very famous father, who also struggled with drug addiction. I began reading this, and I couldn't stop until I finished the entire book.

About the author

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.