Steven Tyler: forever young
Veteran Aerosmith frontman says he has the ‘best job in the world’
“Music is the strongest drug of all!” declares Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler.
Our interview has officially ended, but the leather-skinned, elfin-featured, colourfully attired rock superstar has pursued me into the corridor to continue our discussion. He holds me there for another 20 minutes, drawling into my face with his gritty voice, enthusing about bands he loves: Led Zeppelin, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones (with Brian Jones).
Aerosmith, often called “America’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band,” formed in 1970, have had the same five-piece lineup since 1971, sold more than 150 million records worldwide, and are currently on a farewell tour of Europe. So is this really the beginning of the end for “the Bad Boys from Boston?”
“Every day is goodbye,” says guitarist Joe Perry, the other half of the band’s creative axis. “Things happen that are out of our control. A year doesn’t go by when the list of the fallen just gets longer and longer, and you think ‘there’s another band that won’t get back together again.’ It is the end of an era. We’re just giving it all we got, while we still got it.”
Tyler and Perry are fascinating together. They sit in a hotel room in Munich before a concert, ignoring an entourage of stylists and assistants fussing around them. They are both lithe and muscular, essaying a Gypsy-hippy look put together with scarves, necklaces, rings and piratical facial hair. They look surprisingly healthy for their ages (Tyler is 69 and Perry 66), especially considering their decades of debauchery
Perry, I am given to understand, still indulges in the odd vice. Tyler struggled with addiction and practises total abstention, but had a spell in rehab in 2010 for addiction to painkillers.
“We survived things other people died doing,” he says. “There’s no shame in that.”
Tyler is animated to the point of agitation, talks fast and talks at you, but is respectful of Perry’s laid-back demeanour, allowing plenty of space for his musical partner’s less vociferous contributions to the conversation.
Although they have written more than 85 songs together, and led the band for five decades, they haven’t always got along. Yet they appear genuinely close.
“Hey, you’re not going to get two type-A personalities who get along all the time,” says Perry. “We’ve butted heads over the years, but when we get into the room with the band, all bull---- goes out the window.”
Tyler is adamant that the duo work together closely. “Usually in his basement, sitting in each other’s faces. We’ll go in a room and lock the door, we are not going to leave until we have a song or we can’t stand each other’s smell any more.” Perry praises Tyler’s perfect pitch and timing, his ear for hooks and melodies, his “double entendre” lyrics. Tyler says of Perry, “His licks inspire me. I don’t think he knows how good he is.”
They both praise other creative duos at the centre of classic bands, Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards, Ray and Dave Davies, Bono and Edge.
Music fandom percolates through the whole conversation. “We talk a lot about how to facilitate the vibe,” says Perry. “You know, listening to Chuck Berry records and Sly and the Family Stone — what is it about those songs that really clicks? How does the bass work with the drums? Why are the horns there? We analyze that stuff, and then you got to let it happen.”
This may explain why it is sometimes hard to take Aerosmith seriously. Their music spans heavy rock, power ballads, funk, folk, blues and pop, and their sets still include cover versions of old favourites such as Fleetwood Mac’s Oh Well and The Beatles’ Come Together, because they are essentially a really great bar band, perhaps the ultimate rock show band. They have never been particularly original. They are all about what works.
“You know, the limousines were never part of the dream,” points out Tyler. “We didn’t know about going on tour, filling baseball stadiums and selling T-shirts — no one did that back then. We wanted the band to be so good that other bands thought we were good. But I think the music we’ve written has stood the test of time. There are songs that will live forever, that we’ll listen to on the way to Mars. And sometimes it’s your own song.”
I have my doubts about whether this is really the end for Aerosmith. Already, they are talking about extending their farewell tour for five years, and then “we’ll see ...” Tyler talks rapturously about looking out from the stage at seething crowds every night.
“There’s beautiful 20-yearold girls, slim and gorgeous and screaming. How weird is that? My girlfriend’s jealous. I’m 69! I feel like I’m 12. Every muscle in my body and my throat is aching, and there’s so much joy onstage. It’s times like that we just go: ‘What would I rather be doing?’ Never mind me — how about everybody else on the planet? If you ask around — would you like to go up and be the lead singer of Aerosmith tonight? Do what I do, get paid what I get paid, then go home. Will you take that? It’s the best job in the world.”