Steven Tyler: The Biography (8 page)

Building a relentless head of steam increasingly resulted in trouble erupting at gigs, bringing with it reports of riots at some venues - just the juicy kind of notoriety that was guaranteed to bolster a band’s reputation. Aerosmith was widely credited as being the hardest-working band on the road in America throughout 1975 - in terms of pulling crowds they stood shoulder to shoulder with Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and Queen. The previous year, rivalry had reared between Aerosmith and Queen when both bands had been booked to back Mott the Hoople at a gig at the Harrisburg Farm Arena in Pennsylvania. A row broke out between the two groups as to which should be first on stage. Joe Perry and Brian May wandered off with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, leaving Steven Tyler and Freddie Mercury to go heatedly head to head over the issue.

In 1975, Tyler had his own take on Aerosmith garnering recognition. He said: ‘This band is like cold butter on hot bread - it sinks in after a while.’ ‘Walk This Way’ and ‘Toys in the Attic’ were released from the new album towards the end of the year and did not initially make much of a splash. Rock critics at the time did not give Aerosmith much of a break. Steven let these attacks get under his skin and although a new kid on the block, in the mid-1970s he was not shy of airing
his
forthright views on reviewers, highlighting examples of what he termed their ignorance. In
Melody Maker
he blasted: ‘I go through a lot to write lyrics to songs like “Walk This Way” - I’m very fond of those lyrics - and the critics never stopped to listen to the words. They don’t give a shit. So why do I have to respect their opinions?’ With the fans, where it counted, Tyler continued to see proof of Aerosmith’s burgeoning status; by December,
Toys in the Attic
went platinum and his band was a bone fide major concert draw in the States. For Steven personally, however, the picture was not quite so rosy.

CHAPTER 5

When The Fur Starts Flying

IN SUMMER
1975 the tense dynamic between Steven, and Joe and Elyssa worsened. Tyler now felt to an intolerable degree that Elyssa was depriving him of Joe’s friendship and companionship. Her presence in Perry’s life seemed to be all-consuming. The lead guitarist disputed this, in the sense that whenever he was needed for Aerosmith he was there, but the singer clearly hankered for his brother-in-arms. It was not only Tyler who felt this way - other Aerosmith members were concerned at the influence Elyssa’s presence had on the band - but, in a display of raw emotion, Steven left himself vulnerable to further rejection when he attempted to explain his feelings to the besotted couple. On reflection, Steven has acknowledged that it was not one of his wisest moves; indeed, at the time he believed that his frank soul-baring had only led to him making a fool of himself. It was a very painful time and maybe Steven’s substance abuse heightened his sensitivity.

Elyssa Jerret became a firmer fixture in Aerosmith’s world when she and Joe married on 5 August, with the reception being held at the Ritz in Boston. It highlighted the stark contrast in the band’s fortunes. Guys who had not so long ago huddled in a hovel of an apartment across town on Commonwealth Avenue, with an eviction notice hanging over their heads, were now being waited upon at the city’s plushest hotel. Family members from both the bride and groom’s side afforded the nuptials traditional values and respectability, while the groom became so stoned his insides were spinning and Steven discreetly disappeared around speech time to inhale heroin.

That month, Aerosmith again hit the road. Said Tyler: ‘I’ve been going to a lot of concerts lately, watching groups who are so fuckin’ outrageous on record that you’d think they’d get out there on stage and shake ass but they just stand there. The songs we write aren’t the kind that you come out and fucking genuflect. We play kick-ass music!’ Following an exhausting schedule as headliners and as a support act, Aerosmith played gigs in over a dozen states coast to coast across America. Racking up the air miles, hotel rooms all started to look the same, and weeks passed by in a drug-induced off-duty haze; fuelled by cocaine and vodka, every night felt like it was New Year’s Eve. For the unattached Steven the on-road debauchery became crazy, elevating Aerosmith’s raunchy reputation to Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin realms. Along the way, Aerosmith played on bills with the likes of ZZ Top, Reo Speedwagon and Rod Stewart.

Aerosmith set out to thrill their audiences to the core, and Tyler’s stage act had become breathtakingly physical. As lithe as an acrobat, he could leap to astonishing heights and perform slick somersaults, and he whirled dizzily back and forth across the full length of the stage. His endless energy was incredibly exciting to watch; he wielded the heavy microphone stand like a weapon, at times coming within an inch of unwittingly braining his guitarists. He shook his bony body as hard as he did the maracas and his deft harmonica playing was very Dylanesque. Tyler was Tyler, not emulating anyone on stage, although
Rolling Stone
recorded around this time that when Steven sang the ballad ‘Dream On’, his voice sounded like Robert Plant’s.

Yet, for all that Tyler was beginning to live the dream, with his latent anger he could erupt like a volcano for a variety of reasons. After a performance, exhausted and loaded with drink and drugs, something as simple as taking against one dish among the generous buffet laid out backstage could make him lose his temper and tip over the whole trestle table, sending food and drink flying. It would be years before he admitted to taking a long hard look at this behaviour, which had felt so good to him at the time. By his own admission, throughout the 1970s he smashed up expensive wristwatches by hurling them against walls whenever something pissed him off. ‘I was so far out on the edge that I felt I
had
to trash something quickly,’ he revealed.

The fact that Steven is not a man to always mind his ps and qs, meant that he nearly had his collar felt in Memphis for flouting local laws by swearing on stage, and in Lincoln, Nebraska, some high jinks with fireworks resulted in the cops calling at the band’s hotel. He could explode with fury about some of the media coverage his band attracted. In particular, he found it profoundly irritating to see Aerosmith dubbed an overnight success. In one frank exchange with journalists he talked of his intense dislike for those people who had not believed in Aerosmith at the outset, mourning the fact that there was no way he could get back at them. Not vindictive by nature, it was an interesting indicator as to how deep previous cuts had gone with him.

Aerosmith started the new year as one of America’s hottest rock properties; by securing the hitherto elusive AM radio airplay their debut album finally peaked at number twenty-one. Also in spring, ‘Dream On’ lodged at number six on Billboard’s singles chart, providing the band with their first Top 10 hit record. Soon the tangible signs of their increasing wealth came in the shape of luxury cars. As the era of merchandising was taking off, Aerosmith acquired a logo featuring wings, the initial A and the band name. The business side of affairs flourished, establishing their identity even more firmly in the public’s consciousness.

The year before, bassist Tom Hamilton had married his girlfriend, Terry Cohen. Now, in February 1976, rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford wed Lori Phillips. By this time, work had already begun on the band’s fourth album at the Wherehouse, a rented converted warehouse in Pond Street, Waltham, Massachusetts. This hard rock song collection included ‘Lick and a Promise’, which Steven said dealt with setting out to win over an audience, and ‘Rats in the Cellar’, a counterpoint in one sense to ‘Toys in the Attic’. Of ‘Rats in the Cellar’, Tom Hamilton declared that Tyler and Perry were: ‘taking the thing the Yardbirds created and making it balls to the wall’. ‘Rhythm and sex go together,’ maintained Joe Perry, who co-created with Steven the ambiguous ‘Back in the Saddle’. Another hard rock song was ‘Nobody’s Fault’ - a Tyler/Whitford number about the San Andreas geological fault that runs through California. Steven and Tom came up with ‘Sick as a Dog’, and one of Tyler’s favourite songs was ‘Last Child’, on which he and Brad again worked. Said Brad: ‘Steven likes some oddball things, kind of out of the way riffs.’ Steven’s only solo composition was a ballad titled ‘Home Tonight’, while Joe Perry’s first solo song, ‘Combination’, proved to be a cautionary tale about the dangers of giving drugs free rein - advice that was being completely ignored by everyone in the band.

With substance abuse in Aerosmith plumbing new depths, Steven was sinking further into the mire. Once asked what his favourite drug combination had been, he replied: ‘I guess that would have been Brumpton’s Cocktail. That’s a mixture of cocaine, alcoholic spirits, morphine and syrup - delicious!’ Joe was later brutally honest about the seductive allure of heroin before it turned on him. He confessed to writing the music to songs for this new album while lying on the floor, totally stoned on heroin.

At the Wherehouse in Waltham, rehearsals got under way. The fan mail in Steven’s office in-tray was mushrooming by the day, and they were surrounded by a circus of people, including drug dealers who came and went. Years later it emerged that Aerosmith’s growing riches were not being handled with the tightest possible rein. One decided downside of being as high as kites or dope-sick was not knowing precisely what was going on around them.

On the other hand, Tyler credited drugs with helping him to become more creative. He was working mainly in a spontaneous way, responding to a sound and finding inspiration flowing forth. When recording got under way at Record Plant Studios in New York, with producer Jack Douglas, Tyler would again vanish to the cold stairwell and furiously scribble lyrics, sometimes by the ream. Writing while stoned was one thing, but being high also made recording an arduous process; often dozens of takes were required to get a single song down properly. Yet when Aerosmith did pull it together, their development, honed by constant touring, shone through. The burden was made even greater because while they recorded this new album, they also gigged, so subjecting themselves to tiring shuttle flights back and forth between cities and the studio. It could be argued that without chemical assistance they would never have managed to sustain such a gruelling schedule. That and the resilience of youth kept them going. Tyler found sufficient reserves to maintain his live wire presence in rehearsals and could not resist leaping behind the drums, picking up the sticks and letting rip. His exuberant energy on the skins jolted Joe and Brad to ginger up their guitar action. Likewise, Steven happily slipped into backing vocals when Perry sang lead when recording his song, ‘Combination’.

With recording completed, Aerosmith had begun preparations for a summer tour when they quit Boston for a special trip to New York. The British hard rock band Black Sabbath, fronted by Ozzy Osbourne, was touring America to promote its new album,
We Sold Our Souls for Rock ‘n’ Roll;
on 10 May 1976 they were to headline at Madison Square Garden, supported by Aerosmith - their first appearance at this hallowed venue. A bundle of excitement and nerves, on the day Steven became alarmed when with early evening approaching Joe Perry had not shown up. He made it at the last moment, but only after he had been roused back home from a drug-induced stupor and rushed to New York to take the stage. For Steven, that night still proved to be special. Apart from performing on this famous stage where so many of his music idols had appeared, his parents, Victor and Susan Tallarico, were sitting in the front row, lapping up this first-hand proof of just how far their go-getter son had come.

That month, Columbia Records released
Rocks
, a classic hard rock album that uncompromisingly defined Aerosmith’s identity. It shipped platinum, meaning that it had a million copies on order before it hit the record shops. Dubbed Aerosmith’s most sophisticated effort yet,
Rocks
was voted the number one favourite album by
Creem
magazine readers, ultimately reaching number three on the US album chart, and remaining on this chart for a year. To back the new album, the band launched a 58-gig tour of the US, kicking off in St Louis in May.

Sheathed in sleek black satin, with his long, dark hair hanging about his face and his tongue lolling out lasciviously, Steven made his most pronounced effect yet on audiences across the country. Experience and confidence combined to elevate his vocal delivery and stage presence to new levels. Tyler’s natural charisma extended well beyond the first few rows, commanding the attention of every kid crammed into the increasingly bigger arenas. Steven had no truck with the by now popular stage effects such as smoke bombs, or with staging spectacular stunts. Apart from believing that such flashy capers detracted from the music, he recognised that with each new tour it would become absurd trying to outdo previous antics.

Of the three singles released from
Rocks
over the coming months, ‘Last Child’ fared best, reaching number twenty-one in America in summer. ‘Home Tonight’ dropped anchor later at number seventy-one, with ‘Back in the Saddle’ ultimately making it into the US Top 40. The band that had initially struggled to get noticed by the media, now had journalists hard on the trail of exclusive interviews. The combination of dope, drink, adrenalin, lust and fatigue could make Tyler wildly indiscreet during such sessions. At the mercy of his own irreverent sense of humour, he would shoot his mouth off, only to cringe when he opened the rock magazine to discover just how unguarded he had been.

Backstage at gigs, Tyler was snorting lines of cocaine from mirrors that must have reflected the visible ravages of what he was doing to himself. Whether Aerosmith was headlining at the LA Forum or the RFK Stadium in Washington, it was becoming patently obvious that Tyler was in trouble, but he took years to confess that he was in a mess. Before stepping on stage his stomach would be churning with nausea, and his heart hammering with adrenalin and drugs. On stage, mid-flight, his head would be so all over the place that there were moments in the middle of the whirlwind when he would grind to an unsteady halt and find himself spooked and bemused. Coming off stage, usually with helping hands ready to drape a towel around his sweat-soaked shoulders, he would be so drained that it was a struggle to walk. Dehydration must have been a major concern, too; all of this was taking a relentless toll on his system. He was exhausted much of the time and felt a great deal older than his twenty-eight years.