moy wrote on Aug 19^th, 2009 at 8:14am:


It's the end of rock & roll as we know it.

moy wrote on Aug 19^th, 2009 at 8:14am:


Nothing new there. He routinely wore Anita's blouses onstage.

AEROSMITH STRIKE OVER TYLER'S DRINKING
rockradio.co.uk

Aerosmith have pulled a strike on singer Steven Tyler after he fell off the wagon and went back to
heavy drinking – resulting in the fall off stage which led to the band’s US tour being cancelled.

Sources close to the Boston band have revealed Tyler was “partying hard” before he lost his footing and wound up with a broken shoulder. Since then, his bandmates haven’t heard directly from him, and are instead receiving daily email updates from his management – a separate entity from Aerosmith’s management.

A band employee tells the Boston Herald: “Truthfully, he’s a liability for the band. He’s uninsurable because of all the accidents and cancelled dates.”

Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford and Joey Kramer are understood to have suspended work on their upcoming album after video and photos of Tyler appeared on the web, showing a gaunt, wasted figure buying alcohol in a liquor store.

The source continues: “All of this didn’t happen overnight. The fall was just the final straw. Everyone is very worried about him.”

Rumours within the extended Aerosmith family suggest that Tyler is surrounded by people who “think they’re going to cash in on the guy”.

He signed a personal management deal with UEG who now control communication between the 61-year-old frontman and the band’s own management, Howard Kaufman and Trudy Green. He’s believed to have been persuaded to sell his publishing company recently for an amount considerably less than its long-term value.

It also seems that Perry – who was once a half of the hard-living ‘Toxic Twins’duo with Tyler before sobering up – isn’t waiting for evidence of his bandmate’s recovery. That’s why he continued working on his solo album while the Aerosmith one was postponed.

Now promoting that solo release, Perry has been asked for details of Tyler’s injuries by several media outlets since the tour cancellation. But he’s only been able to make vague statements including: “We’re being told anything from four weeks to two months” and “We don’t really know what’s happening with Steven.”

Anyone who’s read Walk This Way, the warts-and-all story of the band’s rise, fall and second rise, will find the above details worryingly familiar.

Front page story about the Boston homeboys in yesterday's Globe:

For Aerosmith, a summer of sour notes
Future questioned amid band’s woes

Aerosmith’s summer of bad luck began when guitarist Brad Whitford banged his head getting out of a car, forcing him to miss the opening dates of the band’s tour in June. A few weeks later, lead singer Steven Tyler hurt his leg performing at the Mohegan Sun Arena, causing seven shows to be postponed. Then bassist Tom Hamilton, who was treated for throat cancer in 2006, missed some dates because of unspecified noninvasive surgery. Finally, on Aug. 5, Tyler fell from the stage in Sturgis, S.D., breaking his shoulder and forcing the rest of the summer tour to be canceled.

Not one show on Aerosmith’s truncated tour was performed with the band’s regular lineup.

Now, after a photo and video of a frail Tyler surfaced last week taken by a fan at a Pembroke liquor store, his broken shoulder in a sling and oversized sunglasses covering most of his gaunt face, the band’s followers, and some people close to the band, can’t help but wonder: Is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-enshrined group - whose median age is 58 - nearing its end?

According to lead guitarist Joe Perry - who posted a series of Twitter messages yesterday addressing the speculation - no. “Aero is Not breaking up!’’ he wrote. Perry said the band is simply on hiatus until Tyler recovers. “We just don’t know how long, I’ve heard 3 to 8 wks just for Shoulder. We want to make cd put out [single] then cd then tour. But it’ll be awhile till he’s 100%. We owe it to our fans, the band’s history and to ourselves to do the best record we can. And everyone that was waiting for us this summer we owe them the great show we can deliver With new songs new set the works. Thanks.’’

But only a few weeks earlier Perry’s tweets had a different tone. He and his wife Billie seemed to isolate Tyler, the band’s frontman, referring to “Aerosmith the band’’ and “vocalist Steven Tyler.’’ On Aug. 15 a Twitter message from Joe Perry said, “I am so sorry about vocalist Steven Tyler having to cancel our Aerosmith Shows. I can’t say I’m sorry enough you guys are great fans to have.’’

Additionally, Tyler’s recent decision to hire a separate management company from the rest of his band mates, the group’s oft-delayed new album, and the litany of problems plaguing its latest tour all fueled talk about Aerosmith’s future.

Members of Aerosmith declined to speak with the Globe for this story. But in an interview with the Globe in May, Perry sounded unsure when a new album might be released. The band had made several announcements since 2006 about having something in the works, and Perry said he was tired of talking about potential release dates only to watch them go by. More recently, in an interview posted on Aerosmith’s website, Perry said, “I think that the band has to look at what it takes to do this gracefully. There’s no reason why the band can’t keep playing until we can’t walk. There’s just no reason. You just have to know that you can’t do certain things anymore. You know, you can’t do somersaults on stage, you can’t do, you know, swing from ropes. But there are other things you can do that are just as entertaining like sing, play.’’

Stephen Davis, coauthor of the 2003 Aerosmith biography “Walk This Way,’’ doesn’t expect there will be any singing, or playing, anytime soon. Davis said sources close to the band have told him there is an internal power struggle taking place.
     
Tyler, he said, wants to record a solo album, but first Aerosmith must deliver one more album on its contract with Sony. Davis said he has been told Tyler wants to release a quickie album of tracks the band wrote or recorded over the past few years, but never released. But the rest of the band, Davis said, wants to record an album of new material and keep Aerosmith alive in addition to working on side projects. (Perry has a solo album, “Have Guitar, Will Travel,’’ coming out Oct. 13.)

“I think they’re looking at the end of Aerosmith as a touring band, at least for now,’’ Davis said.

The hard rock quintet, formed in Boston in 1970 and inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001 on the strength of such hits as “Dream On,’’ “Sweet Emotion,’’ and “Crazy,’’ has suffered its share of health issues over its nearly 40-year tenure. Perry’s knee surgeries, Tyler’s throat surgery and hepatitis C diagnosis, and injuries drummer Joey Kramer sustained when his car caught fire at a gas station in Scituate in 1998 all caused setbacks. There has also been the band’s well-documented substance abuse in the early days, but all of them got sober by the late 1980s.

Tim Collins, Aerosmith’s former manager, whom the band fired in 1996 for advancing the contention that some members had relapsed into drug abuse when they insisted they had not, said he ran into Tyler this month in Denver, a few days before the accident in Sturgis. Collins said he and the singer, whom he hadn’t seen in nearly 14 years, “literally kissed and made up.’’ He called the reconciliation “the most healing moment, probably, of my life.’’

“I wouldn’t judge everything just by one picture,’’ Collins said, referring to last week’s photo of Tyler, who is 61.

“These guys have a history of fighting over the years that dates back to the ’70s, so for them to call it quits - I think they’re a little more resilient than that,’’ says Neill Byrnes, a longtime Aerosmith fan and frontman for the Aerosmith tribute band Draw the Line. “The only thing that really concens me is they’re getting a little older and health plays an important role in whether you can perform or not . . . The Stones are a little older than they are and Paul McCartney is still out doing it so they should be able to keep up as long as they’re healthy.’’

If they can, Billboard senior chart manager Keith Caulfield said he believes the band, which has sold over 100 million albums worldwide, is still commercially viable. In 2008 Aerosmith sold 605,000 records, and so far in 2009 it has sold 344,000. (Its last album of all original material, 2001’s “Just Push Play’’ has sold 1.3 million copies). “Granted, that isn’t quite Taylor Swift-like zillion numbers, but for a band that hasn’t released an album in quite a while, that’s still fairly respectable,’’ said Caulfield, who attributes the higher 2008 figure to cross-promotions with the band’s successful video game “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.’’ “I have no idea what their cut [of the game sales] is, but I’m sure it’s lucrative. So even though they aren’t releasing a new studio album, they’re still finding interesting ways to make money, not just being on tour.’’

Their recently canceled tour notwithstanding, Aerosmith excels on the road. “You can count on them to not sell out all their shows but still draw a pretty great crowd,’’ says Caulfield. “They’ve been touring every year, and so it’s not like they’ve turned into recluses. I don’t think it’s the end of the world. They’ll heal up and get back together and get back on the road and hopefully put out a new album.’’

Carter Alan, assistant program director of classic rock station WZLX-FM (100.7), said he saw no evidence of tension between band members backstage at the Aerosmith show at the Comcast Center in June. “As far as getting the album done, I wish they would. But then there’s also the Axl Rose syndrome - you know, the longer you wait, the harder it gets.’’

Moolah might be that skinny now that she's been dead a coupla years...

Steven Tyler Speaks Out About Injury, State of Aerosmith: “We’re One for All, All For One”

8/25/09, 12:05 pm EST

“Do I sound fucked up or stoned?” Steven Tyler asks, calling from his home in New Hampshire on Monday. In his first comments to the press, Tyler wants to set the record straight about what happened when he fell off the stage in South Dakota on August 6th — followed by a cancellation of Aerosmith’s summer tour and subsequent reports of band turmoil. “Truth be known, I jumped off the stage on purpose,” he jokes at first. “Figured we hadn’t gotten any new press in so long.” But then Tyler got serious.

How’s your health?
I’ve been better. I’ve got my arm in a sling [from a broken shoulder]. I’m on all the drugs I’m not supposed to be on. But I’m dealing with the pain pretty good.

What happened that night?
I don’t really know. There was a torrential downpour and the guys [at the campground] said, “Look, it’s still slippery.” I watched myself on YouTube, and it could have been my knee buckling or any ankle. The last thing I remember before I hit the ground was people grabbing for me, but they couldn’t reach me because of the barricade. At any other Aerosmith show I probably would’ve been caught and thrown back onto the stage — naked and without jewelry [laughs]. I stood up and couldn’t raise my arm and knew I’d broken something.

Were you sober?
As sober as you can be.

Care to comment on that clip on TMZ of you in a liquor store?
Oh, Jesus Christ. A good friend of mine and Joe’s — the brother of the guy who works on my house, my housekeeper — passed away. I was at the funeral. And after the funeral, they’re Italian and had a feast at the house, a wake, and I stopped at the liquor store and paid for the booze. I did not buy any for myself. It was never proven that I did. Some kid whipped out a phone and took a picture. Anything to sell papers. It was for the wake. I would do it over and over a million times.

How do you look back at Aerosmith’s cursed summer tour?
Every once in a while we gotta be human [laughs] and get Joe’s knee or Brad’s head or whatever done. I’m Italian and I don’t believe in talking about my bandmates. I’m just so pissed it was such a great tour. I had to ruin it all by falling and I’m sorry. I’ve said that to the fans and my band and everybody else. I fucked up. I get in the zone when I’m onstage. I don’t really have to explain anything. I love what I do. The world knows what I do. And I only hope they forgive me for having to cancel such a fucking awesome tour.

How do you respond to reports of dissent within the band?
Someone is leaking stuff, pretending to know, and you know, I don’t even care. Has the band done things to me where I’ve wanted to quit? Positively. But I’ve stuck in there for the sake of a few sounds we got. I respect the power this band has in and of itself regardless of who says what.

When did you last speak with the other guys?
Two days ago. Shit’s good. I’m not the leader. No one’s the leader, we’re just one for all, all for one. It’s probably why we’ve never quit. No one’s got enough money! We split it evenly.

But you have signed with a different management company than the band, and you’re working on a solo album.
I would imagine … I can’t tell you for sure, but I think there’s a little animosity that I went with another management agency. Which is for me to know and you to find out. I’m certainly not in outs with the guys. But look, I do what I do. The easiest thing in the world is to say he’s drunk or stoned. But what are you gonna do?

real wild child wrote on Aug 24^th, 2009 at 8:21pm: