Josh Brolin‘ tells all about his relationship with his mother in his new memoir … talks about her drinking – and mentions a scary trick his mother played on him.

The actor sat down for an interview with The times – published Saturday – to talk about his book “From Under the Truck,” a reference to a night of heavy drinking that ended with his mother’s boyfriend literally passing out under a car.

In the article, the interviewer mentions a story Brolin tells in the book… about how his mother Jane – a conservationist – often shouted “Sic ’em” at nearby wild animals such as courgars, coyotes, bobcats and the like, which would usually take off after Josh and his brother Jess.

JB writes, “You knew that if you didn’t get to the other side of that closed door in a few seconds, you would spend the rest of the day cleaning up new bloody spots somewhere on your body.”

Despite the clearly terrifying nature of these encounters, Brolin is “reluctant to say” how horrific they were…instead, he tells The Times that his mother may have been a pain in the ass, but she was never someone you were. I don’t want to be around.

Ultimately, Brolin’s mother died in a car accident in 1995 at the age of just 55… an age that Brolin, in the midst of a heroin addiction, thought was a good, long life.

Looking back, Brolin, now 56, says he realizes how misleading it is to believe that 55 means longevity… even though it took him years to finally kick all his addictions.

Brolin delves deeper into that part of his life in “From Under the Truck”… about dropping acid at age 13, showing up at his grandmother’s deathbed stinking of alcohol, and more.