Aerosmith A&E Biography June 4th, 2009

they were the most popular rock band of the 1970s it was a big deal in 77 when an American band could sell 880,000 tickets led by a pair of fiery and unpredictable performers Joe Perry and Stephen Tyler were just great on stage together it was a marriage made in heaven until a drug fueled midcareer meltdown sent them straight to the bargain bins when we heard he left the band we thought that was the end of Errol Smith it was unbelievable to see how they had fallen from Grace so quickly but a music Miracle gave the band a second chance at success we realized that through one of the B to work we had to get clean and turned Aeros Smith into the greatest rock and roll comeback story of all time very few people get that once no one really gets it twice it's a remarkable Achievement High decb hard drugs and backstage drama AOS Smith people love AOS Smith they love the rock and roll [Music] nothing to lose lead you to where you are today I believe in going to make you a star I'm still trying to figure that out know one another in 1979 Aerosmith was the biggest rock act in the country but their soaring career was about to come Crashing Down to Earth in a single night in Cleveland Aerosmith SU success had been built upon the creative but volatile partnership between frontman Steven Tyler and lead guitarist Joe Perry but now that partnership was breaking down well as the 70s went on tension was escalating in the band drug use was escalating in the band there were you know obviously the toxic twins Joe and Stephen and they were all drinking and getting high stepen Tyler and Joe Perry just could not stand each other I mean things had just gotten bad where they didn't want to be in a room together didn't want to work together certainly didn't want to perform together Steven and Joe sometimes only communicated with each other by screaming into each other's ears on stage you can see that Joe's not happy I don't know that anybody was happy at that point it was on July 28th 1979 at a show in Cleveland where it kind of all came to a head backstage Stephen and Joe had this huge blowout they're at each other's threats we were pretty burned out and and instead of taking the vacation we we uh let loose on each other and Joe said to Steven why don't I just leave the band Steven said right back to Joe go ahead NE and go I don't care and so then he left the band and he swore that he would never step on stage with AOS Smith again it would be remembered as one of the biggest implosions in rock history it's the great Paradox of Aerosmith the foundations of the band are built on the passionate songwriting Partnership of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry but their clashing personalities also made for one of the most turbulent stories in music the roots of Aerosmith begin in Yonkers New York where Steven Tyler was born on March 26th 1948 to parents Victor and Susan from his early years he seemed destined for the stage Victor was a very accomplished piano player who played in big bands and so Steven comes from a very musical millu Steven Tyler's first professional gigs were as the drummer of his father's band Stephen Tyler grew up with British Invasion music bands like the Rolling Stones like the Yard Birds if like the Rolling Stones were in town you know he would find out what clubs they were going to and go sit behind them and watch them he had that kind of passion about the music Steven was always focused on what he wanted to do he wanted to be a rock star he didn't want to be restricted to those drums he wanted to be out in front dancing you know and making the crowd do what he wanted to do cuz he knew he had that power inside him it would take a chance meeting some 400 miles from the big city in sop New Hampshire to set Steven's aspirations of stardom into motion it was there in the summer of 1969 that Steven caught a performance by local act the jam band featuring a 17-year-old Tom Hamilton on base and an 18-year-old guitarist named Joe Perry we just grew up in a small town just outside of Boston not far from Foxboro my father was the town Treasurer and my mother was the gym teacher at the little high school it was a pretty normal childhood when I was around 10 or 12 my parents bought me this Sil tone acoustic and I'd play along with songs on the radio when the Beatles movie came out that was one of The Inspirations that made me want to actually like form a band watching Joe Perry play on stage Steven Tyler had a rock and roll Revelation Joe had the feel and the Charisma and that stage Pres that Steven was looking for a guy gets on stage lets his hair down and lets his music do the talking Steven Tyler and Joe Perry get a chance to jam together and instantly click Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton were playing together and they decided to move their band to Boston and and you know was nearest Big Town and try and make it there and stepen Tyler decided you know if these are the guys I want to play with I got to move there as well I got to move where they're going in summer 1970 22-year-old Steven Tyler joined 19 old Joe Perry in Boston to form Aeros Smith Joe's New Hampshire cohort Tom Hamilton filled in on base another yoner boy Joey Kramer sat at the drums and Ray tobano played rhythm guitar soon to be replaced by Brad witford and they weren't just a band they were housemates the band had a communal house at 1325 Commonwealth Avenue near Boston University it was like Animal House the house was never empty you there was always somebody in people coming in and out all the time you know it was always there was a party going on and the parties would draw girls and the girls in turn would draw other musicians and especially drug dealers and so from pretty much the beginning the Aerosmith scene was a particularly drug soaked one but it wasn't all one big party Aerosmith was working hard to become the best band in Boston and it was there that they honed their signature sound and their flamboyant Stadium ready look they worked very hard to become a professional band they started out rehearsing in a place called The Fenway theater on Massachusetts Avenue in Boston literally played to eat and live you know we were always just trying to make our rent we were playing high schools you know in clubs we used to get paid like $125 okay there was five of us and we had this Ro we had a truck we had all the equipment I mean after everything was paid for we'd wind up with like about 19 cents each we were doing Rolling Stones and Yard Birds and basically we were IM ating the British Invasion they had stage clothes they looked like an English rock band they had long hair that was considered indecently long at the time and they had the moves in the early days you know they'd play till they found some idea Steven would say what was that go work with that Joe would go off and turn an idea into a song put chords and a Melody to it give it some shape and then Steven would write lyrics to that we were constantly under Steven's tutelage about learning the the some of the Dynamics of how you make the song sound a little more professional Steven Tyler tortured their poor drummer Joey Kramer almost to death because Steven was a drummer himself and he wanted the thing to flow in a certain way but it wasn't just Joey Kramer who bristled at Steven's perfectionism already the relationship between Perry and Tyler was growing tense I know from that first gig that they played at nipmuck Regional High School Steven kept telling Joe that he was playing too loud and Joe wouldn't turn down and at the end of the gig Steven screamed at him my ears are bleeding you've got to turn down but Joe never wanted to turn down he wanted to play really loud Hard Rock I refused to go into whatever dressing room we had when the show was over because they were frighteningly explosive arguments Steven and Joe may have fought about the music but together they were forging an incendiary new sound that was Landing the band better gigs and audiences were starting to take notice they just started touring and playing everywhere they could and started building up a regional following in New England by taking to the road in the van and playing everywhere that would have them Aeros Smith was gaining this great reputation for having this really Dynamic energetic live show in Spring of 1972 Aerosmith even attracted the attention of a hot shot New York City management team Steven Leber and David Krebs who'd made a name for themselves handling glamrock band the New York Dolls they were determined to get Aeros Smith a major label deal labor incred knew that they needed to Showcase Aerosmith live in New York City it's not something that's going to come across bringing in a demo tape they had to get them on a stage in front of people and Maxis Kansas City was you know the hottest place really the epicenter of New York rock and roll that was a big deal for us CU were basically a Boston New England band no one knew us outside of that neighborhood but the prospect of playing in front of the most powerful men in the music business was daunting this was their shot they were coming to New York City they were playing the biggest Club in town Clive Davis who was running Columbia Records the top executive in town was there if you don't have it that night you're driving back to Boston the pressure was on but Aerosmith did not disappoint Aerosmith got up on stage they played their set and they delivered and they showed what they were capable [Music] of Clive was impressed enough to take us aside and put his arm around Steven's shoulder and said you're going to be a big star these were the words that Steven Tyler had been aching to hear his entire life Clive Davis probably saw what we saw like an American stones or American zethin but I think really people were just looking for Great American rock band and they found one in Aros by the summer of 1972 the band that had been scraping by on 125 bucks a gig was signed to Columbia Records for a then astonishing sum of [Music] $125,000 but if if Aeros Smith thought that a recording contract would mean instant success they were [Music] wrong Channel [Music] 128 for 3 years Aerosmith had been building a Boston fan base through hard work and Relentless touring in 1972 Columbia Records took notice signing the band to $125,000 recording contract the boys from Boston seem to be on their way to stardom that is until their self-titled debut was released in January 1973 aros's first album came out and did nothing no one played it the single was dream on didn't get played on the radio the record didn't get reviewed in Rolling Stone you would think that a debut album that has Dream On on it would be the instant Entre to rock super stardom it wasn't it was kind of a lukewarm reception initially to make matters worse Aeros Smith faced stiff competition from another debut artist the same week that Aeros Smith's first album came out Columbia Records also released a first album by a rock musician named Springsteen for every dollar that they spent on promoting Aerosmith they spent $100 promoting Bruce Springstein without any support from the label the album didn't really do much at all the few critics who were paying attention compared the band to their Rock idols and they didn't mean it as a compliment Errol Smith was compared to to The Rolling Stones and not favorably Steven looked a little bit like Mick Joe looked a little bit like Keith Richards that's the god-given body and face they have what are they supposed to do about it you know so it was just one of those things that you know the writers could latch on to kick this around for a long time the album was a commercial disaster selling a scam 30,000 copies and Columbia Records was reluctant to release a second Aeros Smith album Clyde Davis who was at Columbia at the time wasn't going to do it he calls him up he says we're not going to put the second record out David Krebs the band's manager called up Colombia and said just give us a little more time we can build an audience on our own Aerosmith's management sent them on a Grassroots tour that crisscrossed the nation it was a last dig effort to sell the band directly to fans they decided we're going to take the slow long route and try to build up an audience they took it to the road and they went face to face with the fans and they earned their respect one show at a time well we played every place and every night that we could and I remembered many times playing two shows a day like playing like at a college outdoor Festival in the afternoon and then playing a club that night the 1973 tour was exhausting but it was paying off Aerosmith's Relentless show schedule was slowly earning them a fan base across the country the chemistry between Steven Tyler and Joe Perry was what was compelling people to come see these guys to go back and tell their friends next time you got to come with me to see these guys they were known for putting on a good show I mean AOS Smith were Road Warriors they were a live band they had Swagger they had sold their loud Lusty Hard Rock especially struck a nerve with a specific group of Rock Fans they had this fan base growing and they really played toward this workingclass teenage crowd it was definitely you know the pot smoking hard drinking sex having teenagers that were out there love and ARs with no question about it Joe Perry called the band's audience the blue Army because they'd show up at these gigs and there'd be thousands of kids in denim jackets jeans they all looked alike it looked like this huge sea of blue high school kids with very long hair after a year of constant touring Aeros Smith was earning the audience their record label could not reach Colombia relented and gave the band their second album but would a new fan base translate into album sales in 1974 the band released its sophomore effort get your wings so what happens is Get Your Wings comes out and it sells there were these fans who were waiting for an Aeros Smith record who'd seen them play and wanted the reason to go buy an Aerosmith record by the spring of 1975 Get Your Wings is a gold record and now Aeros Smith's in the big leagues when we came back to Boston the record had broken here and all of a sudden we had gone from playing two with 300 people we were planted 2,000 people a night and it was like mindblowing from the summer of 74 onward Aerosmith was slowly but surely gaining Nationwide notoriety but the strain of the steady travel and nightly performances was beginning to show especially in the relationship between Joe Perry and Steven Tyler you really have two people who are almost like mirror images of each other Tyler the extremely flamboyant guy who underneath that is actually kind of very musically and you have Joe Perry on the other hand who's kind of quieter much more softspoken but who inside is this kind of like Wild Rock and Roll guy so this doubleness between them is part of what gives their creative relationship a CH but it's also what kind of drives them crazy about each other from the beginning this Clash of personalities was kind of built into Aerosmith these sort of little personality differences get Amplified by this constant touring by the repetition of it the grueling part of it also feeling the tension was Joe Perry's new girlfriend around this time Joe Perry started seeing a woman named Alyssa Jarrett she became very influential in the Aeros Smith story because she had a lot of influence over Joe she was always to be seen at the side of the stage very close to where he stood Joe and Stephen had been together writing and creating this band and then Joe gets married and is very in love with Alyssa and so they became a unit and I could see that pulling Joe away from Steven Steven lost a little bit of Joe to [Music] Alysa as arrol Smith's career took off off infighting began to poison everything they'd achieved but it wouldn't be the only toxic element to threaten Aerosmith never got [Laughter] [Music] you after 5 years together Aeros Smith had survived the failure of their first album by building a massive fan base through constant touring and these fans demonstrated their loyalty where it mattered most the band's second album Get Your Wings went gold in April 1975 they released Toys in the Attic propelled by the now classic single Sweet Emotion the album sold 5 million copies the boys from Boston were getting big and Wealthy they were starting to appear on TV they were starting to move out of clubs and theaters into hockey rinks and basketball Arenas and and it was starting to get really big it was a big deal in 77 when an American band and could sell 880,000 tickets at a place like the silver dome in Michigan there were not a lot of American bands doing it at the time it was mostly British bands so this was a huge deal for an American Artist suddenly you're living in better and conditions you staying in better hotels buy nicer guitars buy your own car Life's good I did a spread for cream magazines called Stars scars and Joe and Joey had Corvettes Steven that wasn't his thing he did have an airplane though we used to have a ritual that we get paid in the smallest bills we could and then we'd throw it all up in the air and just kind of wallow in a little bit and it went from being $300 to $3,000 and that ritual went on for quite a while until it it started to be too much money to to carry around you know it would have needed an armored truck but as fast as it came in it went out too the once middle class boys of Aeros Smith could now afford all the luxuries of the Rockstar lifestyle and its vices as well throughout their rapid Ascent in the in the 70s Aerosmith was just surrounded by drugs and drugs had always been associated with the band everybody knew about it one of Steven Tyler's um classic trademarks is the scarf draped microphone and uh what most people don't know was that the scarves had a function that was beyond merely decorative there were little pockets sewn in the bottom of them and Stephen kept drugs in the pockets of these scarves it got out of hand and this is when somebody in some media dubbed Steven Tyler and Joe Perry the toxic Twins and it stuck this nickname because it was so true they were without a doubt the hardest partyers you know we not talking you know a joint and a couple of beers you know they were using narcotics and narcotics are not a uh social drug in any sense of the word [Music] their drug use reached a new more self-destructive level in 1977 when Aeros Smith retreated to a former seminary in armun New York called the senle to record the album draw the line what I had heard about the recording sessions at the senle was just that the guys were all really out of their minds and all off in different areas in their own rooms the alcoholism and the addiction was so full-blown at that time we just brought all our toys up there and a lot of partying going on and a lot of the focus wasn't on the music the music stopped being their passion and drugs started being their passion which is the death of aosmith success of drug use was threatening to sabotage their fifth album they had writer block they were struggling to come up with the tunes I had some photos of Steven and Joe side by side with a piece of peg they just had their heads down like we can't do it we can't find it and I think that was the lowest I ever saw them Joe and Steven weren't the only ones disappointed when Aeros Smith finally delivered draw the line the label and fans were unimpressed the draw the line album was months over schedule and it didn't really have the same impact commercially or critically that the previous album did they went from being a great group to a a good group that was clearly not in control of themselves meanwhile Joe's marriage to Alyssa was one of the factors continuing to drive a wedge between Aeros Smith's two band leaders there were all sorts of feuds but when the drugs are toxic the behavior becomes toxic we were pretty burned out and and instead of taking the vacation we let loose on each other and I think as the fame increased drugs increased and the issues between Steven and Joe diminished the creativity between the two of them the later '70s became a hard [Music] time infighting and substance abuse were driving Aerosmith apart then at a July 1979 concert the band reached a crisis point it's July 1979 AOL Smith is in Cleveland no one's getting along very well people were grouchy everyone said the gigs sucked back stage after this gig Joe's wife Alysa got into it with Tom Hamilton's wife Terry and some milk was thrown there was a battle that involved spilled milk and Joe Perry walked out and left Erol Smith kind of shows how ludicrous it was that that it was actually over the cliche of the spiled milk Joe really perceived as the breaking point the final straw that now his wife was getting disrespected and that these guys just couldn't operate as a unit anymore and after that show he stormed backstage to Steven's dressing room and they got into a big fight and he said that's it I'm done I'm out of here and Stephen said you should be out of here we're all this is finished I'm never playing with you again and you know everybody thought that was the end of the band on the next mob [Music] over nearly a decade Aeros Smith had risen from a scrappy Boston band to one of the hardest touring and most successful Rock acts in America but uncontrolled drug and alcohol abuse was destroying all day work so hard to achieve then on July 28th 1979 mounting friction with lead singer Steven Tyler LED Joe Perry to quit Aeros Smith leaving fans and bandmates to wonder if the group could survive when we heard Joe Perry Perry left the band we thought that was the end of Aeros Smith it's just not Aeros Smith without Joe Perry people figured that the band would fall apart but it didn't happen that way surprising everyone Aerosmith decided to carry on Joe Perry was replaced with guitarist Jimmy Crespo in October 1979 but the magic was lost and the fans were resistant people down front would be looking up at Steven Tyler and going where's Joe and Steven Tyler got tired of this pretty quickly I didn't know that we could do it without Joe certainly didn't feel like we could do it Joe Perry leaving the band for me that was like wait a minute you gotta have Joe Perry in the band it's like it's not having Steven in the band it's just to me it was an Aerosmith the band that ended the 70s selling out 80,000 seed Arenas seemed lost in the world of 80s rock they had slumped down to just playing the Orum Theater which is 2800 capacity which is a long way from Boston Garden of you know 18,000 and the stadiums that they played it was unbelievable to see how they had fallen from Grace so quickly within a few years Steven was I think always sort of lost without Joe I just saw him as suffering without that relationship even without his toxic twin Steven Tyler continued his heavy drug use they played a gig on a horrible night up in Portland I think about four songs in stepen was down on the stage he fell down right in front of me I wasn't sure if he was alive was gut-wrenching and then Joe Baptista the stage manager came out and lifted Steven up with his arms and carried him off stage things had just gotten bad in 1980 Steven Tyler's on his motorcycle and he's wasted and the bike skids out of control trying to stop it he rips up his heel tears his foot up and he's not able to perform and being off of work for those 6 or eight months just becomes the excuse go deeper into the addiction and the abuse while Aeros Smith was breaking down Joe Perry had struck out on his own in March 1980 his new band The Joe Perry project released their debut album let the music do the talking it was a great rock and roll band because Joe Perry was the league guitarist but it wasn't successful the Joe Perry project still had Joe's Groove but still needed to be him and Steven there's something about those five original guys in Aeros Smith it's got to be the five fans rejected Joe Perry's Aerosmith spin-off and the steady stream of money dried up but Joe continued to indulge himself like a high earning rock star Joe was heavily involved with with drugs and eventually as happens with with drug addicts you start to lose parts of your life Joe Perry was creatively and commercially bankrupt he began taking stock of his own life by 1982 he had left his wife Alysa I had to get out of that relationship I knew it was it was killing me once I walked out the door I just felt so free that was the start of of getting a whole new perspective on things Joe started dating a young fashion model named Billy Montgomery their relationship blossomed surprisingly Billy knew little about Joe's illustrious past she was part of the punk underground scene in Boston but she didn't know anything about Aerosmith and uh we were driving along in the car one day and back in the saddle came on and I said that's my guitar right there and she said no you're kidding me so I turned the radio up and I said that's my band so it was pretty easy for her to say you know why don't you get back with these guys to me it just made sense I mean you played with them before try it if it doesn't work it doesn't work what do you have to lose Billy wasn't the only one pondering an Aerosmith reunion the Joe Perry Project's manager was reaching the same conclusion so we played a G in Boston and after the gig Joe had a friend local disy bar Pento and he invited us back to his house to hang out and Joe is passed out so Mark starts playing all the old aosmith records and I got excited I started to feel the music and Mark looks at me and he said Tim you have brothers right I said yeah and he said you fight with your brothers I said of course he says but you still love your brothers and I said of course do anything for them and he says Joe and Steve even our brothers it was at that moment that I knew it was meant to be in early 1984 Tim arranged a lunch in New York City between Joe and Steven the lunch was a little bit of reminiscing a lot of complaining and then at one point I said guys let's talk about the future and let go of the past step looks at me and says he's right I think it's time Joe and Joe says I do too that was the beginning of at all more discussions followed and gradually the ri between the old rock and roll allies was healed Joe Perry and Steven Tyler are smart enough to know that they were meant to be together the truth is as great as Joe is he's greater when Steven's out there in front of him and Steven is much much better when Joe is behind him once we help stepen and Joe make up getting the other guys it was pretty easy cuz the energy had started and they did not want to miss the train they decided to give it a shot and I think that Steven's ego and just how his passion for rock and roll meant he wanted it back he knew what they had lost and he wanted it back badly enough the first band rehearsal happened in Glen Allen country club we were all kind of nervous Stephen and I were excited to have the band back all of us together Under One Roof and was like studing over it was really a lot of fun I saw Joe that day as he went off to the rehearsal for the first time since I met him he had a smile on his face and for the first time I could see his eyes the magic was there he was back he was Joe Perry from Aerosmith in May of 1984 Aeros Smith regrouped under the guidance of new manager Tim Collins all the original members took the stage together for the first time in 5 years on the aptly named back in the saddle tour the band was on the comeback Trail but it wouldn't be Rock and roll that reignited their career it would be [Music] [Laughter] [Music] hipop after 5 years as one of the world's top selling rock AXS Aeros Smith had suffered a major setback in 1979 as differences with frontman Steven Tyler mounted League guitarist Joe Perry abruptly left the band the band languished for 5 years before Perry returned to the fold they went out and did a reunion tour and they were still messed up but they kept their act together enough to at least get out there on stage and deliver the hits it only sort of reintroduce them but it didn't really help them to make their comeback complete Aeros Smith needed a hit but the 1985 album done with mirrors was a creative and Commercial disaster done with mirrors died a very quick death actually I remember Aris Smith always did something splashy with the Boston media for any album opening and this time they had a night literally the castle on the the North Shore a beautiful Sumptuous kind of evening and then they brought everybody into a side room it was a listening party for the new album and the whole room just went like catatonic cuz that was a terrible record and everybody's looking at each other like is this the aosmith record or is this some bad mle crew outes or I mean what is this so we could quickly surmise that was not going to go anywhere we wrong with them with mirrors is that Aerosmith was out of touch they had been using drugs they had been out of the world they weren't in the mainstream of life when they did that record it only sold 320,000 copies which for for Aros Smith was nothing but AOS Smith's comeback wasn't faltering just because of one failed album when AOS Smith got back together the music world had completely transformed you'd had all of these kind of very colorful pop groups from England making colorful videos it was so important in that era to have a video out there when MTV got behind a video in that period of time 9 out of 10 times that artist would SC Platinum at least that's how powerful music videos were without MTV exposure any new Aerosmith release would be destined for the bargain bins the band didn't just need a hit they needed a music video miracle in 1986 help came from a most unlikely place Run DMC were rat Trio from Hollis Queens Rick ruin the producer was helping them by helping them pull pieces of rock and roll into the hip-hop world nobody done that before Run DMC had been fans of Aeros Smith for years they just didn't know it we was in a studio and we was like yo we need another rock song so I was like yo Jay I always love toys in attic yo let's Loop that we just going to sample it rick Ruben walks in and Rick Ruben sees me in J in the studio and he hears the record and he goes yo guys do you all know what that is and me and Jay turn to Rick and we're like yeah that's toys in a hattic he's like nah man the name of that song is walked this way the group is Aerosmith and he goes to give us the 411 on Aerosmith these guys were Gods rock gods but they're not doing too good and then Rick goes yo y'all should make the record over but at the time covering a classic rock song was Unthinkable for a young hip-hop act we had never heard the lyrics so we go in the basement we put the record on the turntable and we let it play we got on the phone y crying this is Hill Billy jibberish we are not doing this we'll never do this but producer Rick Rubin convinced rund DMC to give it a shot and then he up the ante the rappers would do more than remake Walk This Way they'd record it in collaboration with aosmith to create a revolutionary rap rock hybrid run dmc's people call Aerosmith's people and they say say we're cut and walk this way and we want Steven and Joe on the track it was really a smart move uh by Rick Ruben to have us come and play on it but putting some electric guitars on the rap really made it accessible to more people Steven wanted to roll the dice because the music moved him on March 9th 1986 Erol Smith met the young hipop act at Magic Venture studio in Manhattan for an unusual partnership the two groups were separated by musical style age and race but with when the music started flowing AOS Smith and rund DMC quickly found Common Ground got in there Jo was on a guitar Jay was doing a scratch Joe did our first Steven went in and did his first and it was a WAP it's TR amazing seemed like we worked together forever it just chilled together it was amazing released in May 1986 the single was a Smash Hit eventually going gold but the best was yet to come that summer and TV aired the music video for Walk This Way which featured Steven Tyler and Joe Perry literally breaking down walls to perform with Run DMC I mean the whole video was in M it was like you got these two powerful forces working against each other then they get so frustrated that they have to confront each other and it just turns into a beautiful Unity of you know music Run dmc's cover version of Walk This Way quickly became the most requested and the most play played video of MTV Walk This Way was really the beginning of the second coming all of a sudden it was kind of the second generation of n9th and 10th graders who took one look at this and said wow who are these guys so it was it was really the thing that launched their career into the stratosphere for the second time it was a marriage made in heaven recharged by rap the new version of Walk This Way hit number four on the Billboard top 100 outperforming even the original version of the song and for the first time in 10 years Smith was back in the top 40 but as their careers rebounded the old Spectre of drugs would Loom over the band once again the first time for the first half of the80s rock group Aerosmith was going nowhere but down even after the return of wayward guitarist Joe Perry the band was struggling to recapture its fan base then the rap group Run DMC and listed their help on a hip-hop remake of Aeros Smith's 1977 single walked this way the band was back but the demons that plagued them for a decade were back as well at this point Aerosmith were relevant again in pop culture I mean they were a credible band again but they still had the same problems the drugs that got completely crazy totally out of control in fact I had to hire people to keep the drug dealers and all of the old friends who would be coming around just for bragging rights so we had to just surround them with this Army of security to keep them basically to keep them alive it was pretty wild and Tim committed to writing the Aerosmith ship I called them the snowplow the band is sort of in back of him and he's pushing away all the dope dealers that they have it was an issue because they had a connection in every city Tim's efforts to curb the band still heavy drug use were successful at least to begin with one night in Springfield Illinois a drug dealer slipped through his defenses and at one gig it was Illinois Steven got high before the show and Steven slipped fell off the stage Steven did a little too much of something that made him a little woozy on stage he fell off the stage and there was just pandemonium in the hall and what happened next was I heard the paramedic say I think he's dead and it was at that point that I went I got to get a real expert to straighten this situation out manager Collins knew he had to keep Steven Tyler away from drugs at all costs I did my own research on sobriety and I got connected to this incredible man in New York Dr Lou Cox and his specialty was interventions Lou told me if they're hanging around with drug addicts they're going to go back into the drugs so I look him in the eye and I say you're trying to tell me that everybody's got to get sober and he goes That's what I'm telling you but that meant winning the support of another of Aeros Smith's most conspicuous drug abusers I sat down with Joe and I said Joe if you and I don't get sober there's not a prayer that Steven's going to do it talked about it for a while and you know but I knew that something had to had to change but my wife Billy was pregnant and closing in on the 9 month and I said all right I'll go away after my son is born because I want to be there for for when he's born Joe was ready he got some help so that down I had a partner again you know it was Joe and I and that's where it had all started for me after a decade of drug abuse Joe Perry agreed to get clean with his help Tim Collins went about the arduous task of making the rest of Aerosmith drug-free starting with Steven Tyler I call up Steven and I say Stephen I need you in my office tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. the band told him to show up early one morning to be interviewed by the BBC For an upcoming English tour and Steven gets there 7:00 in the morning and the rest of the band is there and they've all got these legalized pads of paper in front of them on the pads were written all the stuff that they didn't like about Steven and they went around the table and he realized that this was going to be an intervention and he completely freaked out most interventions take about an hour an hour and a half two hours tops this one lasted about 10 hours back and forth it was so intense he was like what me you know you're old this as bad as I am why should I be singled out and it took hours and hours and hours and eventually he came around and he said all right I'll go to rehab I'll go tomorrow and they they'll go no no no Stephen we've got a bag packed for you there's a plane waiting that's taking you off to rehab beleaguered and broken down Steven Tyler flew to a rehabilitation Center in Pennsylvania where he would endure a grueling 45-day detoxification process he emerged drug-free and determined to push his bandmates into rehab as well after Steven went to treatment I knew the other guys would follow suit Tim Collins convinced them at the end of the day that they all had to be sober I knew they didn't have a choice if they were going to be an Aerosmith there's no way that Steven Tyler was going to let them stay in the band if they didn't follow suit it's just the way the Dynamics of the band worked the remaining members Tom Hamilton Brad Whitford and Joey Kramer soon followed Steven's lead and for the first time in their 16-year career the Bad Boys from Boston were drug-free hey this is Joe Perry and stepen Tyler from Maris Smith clean and sober they cranked out the album Permanent Vacation in the summer of 1987 boasting hit singles like Angel and Dude Looks Like A Lady it was a critical and Commercial smash they had it back with Permanent Vacation that was a record where it all was right again and and all of a sudden wow the magic is back my initial reaction to Permanent Vacation was that here is a band revitalized I mean they sounded fresh they sounded like they were enjoying themselves again not only did they make a great new record but they were performing at the top of their game better than they had ever played live Steven was doing backflips on the stage it was incredible to watch Aeros Smith followed the success of Permanent Vacation with 1989 pump which delivered the hits What It Takes and Jamie's got a gun get a grip arrived in 1993 with still more successful singles like crazy crying and amazing together these three albums sold 19 million copies in the us alone AOS Smith's second act was overshadowing even their 70s Heyday there was no one on their level uh as a hard rock band who could really even touch them in 94 they played Woodstock in 2001 they played the Super Bowl halftime show and they had all these really high-profile gigs they became a band that won Grammys that won MTV Awards they became professional Aros Smith was the biggest band in America in the 70s for a long period and lost the throne and then miraculously somewhere in the 80s into the '90s they regained that mantle very few people get that once no one really gets it twice so it's a remarkable achievement the people love Aros Smith I love to rock and roll and Aeros Smith has continued to churn out hits since beating back drug addiction in 1986 the band has released six platinum albums in 2005 Joe Perry released a self-titled solo work that earned critical praise and a Grammy nomination still higher praise came when Aeros Smith joined the ranks of their music heroes in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame I think the Hall of Fame was the most nervous I've been in my entire life playing I'm just looking out there Keith Richards and Jeff Beck and that was a mess the fact that they're in the same place now where the Rolling Stones are where The Yardbirds are in the course of rock history you see them in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame they deserve to be there with a career spanning nearly four decades Aerosmith has weathered defections and drug addiction not only to come back but to become more popular than ever ranking as the bestselling hard rock band of all time AOS Smith's been around for over 30 years years and they're still kicking the fact that they turned their complete career around that was going straight down it was like a train going into a brick wall without any breaks and to become one of the most respected and loved bands in the history of American rock music it's a pretty incredible feat arrol Smith are truly one of the greatest American rock bands of all time somebody's watching out for us it feels like a little bit you know or maybe they just like the music as much as we do a lot of Acts have broken up Smith still comes out like the Rolling Stones they still play like adolescence they connect with some sort of energy ball they play excellent show after excellent show and there's no reason to think it's going to stop now nothing to lose need you to where you are today I believe in