Steven Tyler: The Biography

Table of Contents

 

Also by Laura Jackson

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Kiefer Sutherland
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The Eagles
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Neil Diamond
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Jon Bon Jovi
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Paul Simon
The Definitive Biography
Bono
The Biography
Sean Bean
The Biography
Queen
The Definitive Biography
Ewan McGregor
A Force to be Reckoned With
Arise Sir Mick
The True Story of Britain’s
Naughtiest Knight
Mercury
The King of Queen
Daniel Day-Lewis
The Biography
Golden Stone
The Untold Life and Mysterious Death
of Brian Jones

 
 
 

 
Steven Tyler

 

 
LAURA JACKSON

 
 
Hachette Digital

 
Published by Hachette Digital 2008

 
Copyright © Laura Jackson

 

 
The moral right of the author has been asserted

 

 
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in
writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or
cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition
including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

 

 
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library

 

 
ISBN 978 0 7481 1027 8

 

 
This ebook produced by JOUVE, FRANCE

 

 
Hachette Digital
An imprint of
Little, Brown Book Group
100 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DY

 

 

 
An Hachette UK Company

This book is dedicated to
David, my remarkable husband.

PICTURE CREDITS

p.1 (top left) ©
www.aeroworld.com
; p.1 (top right) © Chris Walter/Getty Images; p.1 (bottom) © Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy; p.2 (top left) © Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy; p.2 (top right) Ian Dickson/Rex Features; p.2 (bottom left) © Chris Carroll/ Corbis; p.2 (bottom right) © Steve Double/Retna UK; p.3 (top left) © Pictorial Press Ltd; p.3 (top right) © Ron Galella/WireImage/ Getty Images; p.3 (bottom) © WireImage; p.4 (top) © Steve Granitz/WireImage/Getty Images; p.4 (bottom left) © Chris Taylor/Retna UK; p.4 (bottom right) © AAD/EMPICS Entertainment /PA Photos; p.5 (top) © Kelly A. Swift/Retna Ltd. p.5 (bottom) © Tim Mosenfelder/Corbis; p.6 (top left) © Ron Galella/ WireImage/Getty Images; p.6 (top right) © Jeff Kravitz/Film Magic/Getty Images; p.6 (bottom left) ©
Rolling Stone
; p.6 (bottom right) © Frederick M. Brown/Stringer/Getty Images; p.7 (top left) © Douglas McFadd/Stringer/Getty Images; p.7 (top right) © CJ Gunther/epa/Corbis; p.7 (bottom) © Buzz Foto/Retna Pictures; p.8 (top) Kevin Winter/Getty Images; p.8 (bottom left) © JPI Studios/Retna Pictures; p.8 (bottom right) © Katy Winn/Corbis

Acknowledgements

The following helped with this book: Michael Lindsay-Hogg; Dr Stephen Perrin; Vicki Wickham; Clive Whichelow; Elgin Library staff;
Kerrang
;
Rock Power
;
Vox; Classic Rock
;
NME; Billboard
;
Q Rock Stars
;
Details
;
Rolling Stone
;
Mojo
;
Gibson
;
MTV
;
Globe & Mail
;
Times
;
Washington Post
;
Boston Globe
;
Wikipedia
;
Face
;
VH1
;
IMDB
;
Vintage Guitar
;
Circus
;
Newsday
;
Toronto Star
;
Daily Mirror
;
Seventeen
;
Raw
;
Musicians
;
Record Mirror
;
Melody Maker
;
USA Weekend
;
Associated Press
;
Daily Telegraph
;
Independent
;
Sunday Times
;
Metal Hammer
.

 

Special thanks to David for his invaluable help and support, and to Denise Dwyer, Alice Davis and everyone at Piatkus Books.

CHAPTER 1

Survival Of The Fittest

STEVEN TYLER
is the quintessential sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll superstar. Widely recognised for almost four decades as one of the most charismatic and distinctive figures in popular music, he has lived a rollercoaster life of excess - and survived. Inspired by the cream of British sixties bands, the Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Pretty Things, with a passion for performing, Tyler propelled himself into rock as a lean and hungry teenager, and as the ear-blasting, raucous, high-energy lead singer fronting Aerosmith he quickly acquired the nickname, ‘The Demon of Screamin’.

His lust for life has led to a tangled and turbulent love life and to a near deadly attraction to narcotics. In a drug-soaked meltdown during the late 1970s and early 1980s, he would, on occasion, snort pure heroin just prior to going on stage then black out mid-performance in front of the shocked audience. Tyler’s heady highs always preceded desperate depths. By his own admission, he recklessly blew over a million dollars on dope. Broke, physically and mentally ravaged and staring bleakly into an unimaginable emotional abyss, he sank so low he may not have come out of it alive. Denial that he had a problem at all delayed him seeking help for his addictions, but entering rehab in the mid-eighties ultimately saved his life.

With his wiry, snake-hipped build, his trademark thick lips and his suggestive, supple movements on stage, Tyler was dogged early in his career by unfavourable comparisons to Mick Jagger, but unique, irrepressible and with an infectiously roguish twinkle in his eyes, Steven Tyler is no clone. He has proved all his detractors wrong. Aerosmith have long since earned their place in the pantheon of legendary rock bands, racking up album sales of around one hundred and fifty million; today they remain stadium fillers around the globe. In addition to his singer/songwriter abilities, Tyler is also an accomplished musician on eight instruments.

Once the epitome of the mercurial wasted rocker, he is proud to have remained sober, although his health did take another serious body blow in 2006, when he had to undergo extensive chemotherapy treatment for the potentially fatal disease hepatitis C. They say that the apple does not fall far from the tree, and that is true in Steven Tyler’s case. A natural born survivor, talent and tenacity are in his genes.

Born Steven Victor Tallarico on 26 March 1948 in Yonkers, New York, to Susan and Victor Tallarico, the dark-haired, bright-eyed boy came from exotic stock - Polish, Russian and Swedish on his mother’s side, Italian and German on his father’s. Steven’s paternal grandfather, Giovanni Tallarico, and three of his brothers were all musicians; forming a chamber music quartet, they played to the well-heeled clientele frequenting the swish hotels dotted along America’s north-east seaboard in the early 1920s. Giovanni’s wife, Constance, was also an accomplished pianist. So it was small wonder that their son Victor proved to be naturally gifted, too. Victor became a classically trained pianist, helmed the Vic Tallarico Orchestra and for many years taught music at the Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx, where the Tallarico family lived.

The northernmost of New York City’s five boroughs, the Bronx is separated from the island of Manhattan by the Harlem River and is home to the Yankee baseball stadium. Famous Bronxites include Al Pacino, James Caan, Anne Bancroft and Woody Allen, but the borough is a tough environment, definitely not for the faint-hearted. Along with his parents and an older sister, Lynda, Steven lived in a small sixth-floor tenement apartment, and one of his earliest recollections is of his handsome father diligently practising Beethoven, Bach and Brahms on the gleaming Steinway grand piano squeezed into the cramped quarters. Not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Steven fought his way through life, yet in later years when psychiatrists tried to pin his problems on these early hardships Tyler was quick to mark their card. He revealed: ‘A lot of therapists would like to believe that the reason I joined a rock band was to rebel because my parents were terrible. That simply wasn’t true. I had a wonderful warm childhood and my parents were amazing.’

Naturally inquisitive, Steven had a vivid imagination from the start. Attending church on Sundays, when he was about six years old he became fascinated during worship by the table laden with burning candles; he was mesmerised by their blaze against the pristine white altar cloth. ‘I thought God lived under that table,’ he later revealed. More significantly, while bawling out the hymns he was stimulated by a sense of the energy inherent in singing and the evocative meaning in songs. Perhaps predictably, music became his ruling passion. ‘I grew up under a piano,’ said Tyler. ‘When you take life’s emotions and you lay them over a Bach or a Brahms sonata, they take on different meanings.’

Something of a dreamer, the skinny, up-for-anything kid pushed everything to the limit. As soon as he was old enough to be let outdoors alone, he rigged up a rope swing in the yard behind the old apartment building and practically gave himself vertigo by constantly attempting to swing dangerously faster and higher. In this way, he was reaching for the moon. With music the dominant influence at home, Steven proved to be naturally gifted, and quickly became adept on the flute, harmonica, violin, drums, bass guitar, mandolin, recorder and piano. His skilled father’s attempts to teach him the piano had often been an exasperating business, however. Tyler confessed: ‘I yawned so much, it blew his head!’ He added: ‘Ever since I was a small dude, I guess I always had this urge to show off.’

Outside the secure environ of the family home, Steven encountered a variety of pressures - some of them very personal. From an early age he was made the target of relentless teasing over his unusual looks. Steven Tyler grew up to be a striking man with very distinctive features, which sits fine with the cushion of fame. As a youngster growing up in the Bronx, however, having pointy ears and oversized thick lips brought him ridicule from seemingly every kid around the block. He spiritedly fended this off in public, but it got to Steven and made him even more determined to make something of himself.

This inner fire strengthened when, already music-oriented, in summer 1957 he turned on his radio and first heard the Everly Brothers sing ‘Bye, Bye Love’. Their close Appalachian harmonies soaring over acoustic guitar work got Steven’s juices going, and by the time the duo’s ‘All I Have To Do Is Dream’ became a million-selling chart topper the following spring, the ten-year-old Tyler was hooked on this new brand of music. He fixed up a makeshift aerial outside his bedroom window so that, despite static interference, he could pick up the AM radio station WOWO Fort Wayne Indiana, which belted out all the latest hits. Immersing himself in these exciting sounds, Steven adored the freedoms expressed by a flourishing flood of new artists, including the hugely provocative Elvis Presley. For a rapidly developing restless spirit, it was intoxicating stuff. Of rock music Tyler recently declared: ‘Before I had sex, it
was
sex!’

Come 1960, the twelve-year-old, self-taught drummer was pounding the skins behind his first drum kit and would soon go out with his father playing at dances on the local scene. He loved the chance to perform in front of an audience, and from Victor he embraced the ethic of practising his art every day - a discipline which would stand Steven in good stead later in life. The counterbalance to these happy weekend evenings remained school and street life in the Bronx.

Steven’s parents tried hard to impress on their son the wisdom of knuckling down at school, to have something to fall back on if a career in music - already clearly his first love - did not pan out but, while bright, Steven had no interest in academic study. At school he enjoyed the chance to sing with a choir and found physical education exhilarating, although when it came to field games he often frustrated his teammates by getting distracted; instead of waiting to catch high balls whizzing his way he would be frantically stomping about the grass, crushing ants underfoot.