Review of Toys, Rolling Stone. July 1st, 1975Circus. March 4th, 1980Guitar World. December 1987 Joe Perry interview July,1994 Liv Tyler interview Oct, 1994 Tyler interview in Hit Parader, sept 1995 TH interview in AF1, oct 1995 JP/BW interview in Guitar World from 1990Review of Toys, Rolling Stone. July 1st, 1975
Aerosmith, a five-piece Boston hard-rock band with almost
unlimited potential, can't seem to hurdle the last boulder separating
it from complete success. Like "Toys in the Attic", their two
previous LPs have had several stellar moments which were weakened by
other instances of directionless meandering and downright weak
material. That these albums stood the test of time is testimony to
the band's raw abilities and some outstanding production on the part
of Jack Douglas- Toys in the Attic, I'm afraid can't claim the latter.
What's really important to bands of this sort is inital impact -
the production must explode, enveloping the listener with a rampaging
barrage of sound. The ideal mix is hot and spacious with each
instrument well defined amd immediately intimate. A mix, in fact, not
at all unlike that of the band's previous LP, "Get Your Wings". On
Toys, Aerosmith is given a more compact, jumbled mix that gives more
of a "group" feel but robs them of that explosive ambiance. Hence
it's much harder to get involved with the music at first exposure to
it.
The material here follows the familiar patterns- some good
moments, some nondescript ones. With their aggressive, ambisexual
stance, reliance on bristling open chording and admitted mid-sixties
English rock roots, Aerosmith can be very good when they're on, and
material like "Walk This Way," "Sweet Emotion," and the title cut
adequately proves this once you're past the generally oppressive
production. "Big Ten Inch Record," "uncle Salty" and "You see Me
Crying" though, are poor choices, changes of pace which deny the band
the use of their strongest asset - hard nosed aggressive raunch.
If Aerosmith can aviod the slopponess that's plagued their recent
performances, if they return to the production that made parts of
"Get Your Wings" so memorable, and most importantly, if they avoid
tepid, trite material, then their potential is extreamely high.
Guitar World, 1987
Bad boy. Joe Perry has always looked like a guitar hero.
Aerosmith's new lp affirms once and for all, that he is one.
Joe Perry is sitting in a small playback room in Vancouver
listening to a rough mix of the new Aerosmith album, Permanent
Vacation, when Steve Tyler poles his head in the door and
compliments Perry for a particularly wee-turned guitar lick. Joe
turns around, smiles, and says "Thanks." In and of itself the
moment holds no real importance. But according to Joe, it's a
drastic change from the days of the seventies when playback
sessions were conducted at max volumes.
"We used to listen to our mixes so loud in the studio that
everything sounded big," recalls Joe. "It was like, 'Let's turn up
the monitors and see if we can scare the record guys out of here.
If they're not cringing, let's kick in the Westlakes.' You'd listen
to the tracks on the threshold of pain and, after three days on
blow, it sounded huge."
Joe now drinks darjeeling instead of Jack Daniels, and the closest
he comes to a controlled substance is aspirin. A new maturity is
reflected in every aspect of the Bostonian's character. No longer
the angry young man, Perry now comes across as disciplined and
still-intense musician whose first desire lies in putting down the
perfect rhythm track, as opposed to running off to the local bar.
Judging from the sound of the ass-kicking new album, the guitarist
has realized a fuller tonal and technical range than has been
demonstrated on any previous Aerosmith outing.
For Perry, the former good-time guy, this new discipline and change
of lifestyle has paid musical dividends. Joe is no longer at war
with himself, and on Permanent Vacation, he releases these pent-up
emotions into the grooves of a record coursing with energy and
drive. It's as if the gate has been lifted and Joe, chomping at the
bit, has come screaming off the starting line with a vengeance.
From the album's opener, "Heart's Done Time," there's a focus to
his style that's missing from the previous record (Done With
Mirrors). In many ways, Permanent Vacation is the sort of "missing
link" Perry has been searching for a few years now.
"I'm so much more aware now, so much freer," expresses Joe, taking
another swig of tea. "Drinking blocked so many areas, and though I
could occasionally 'throw a few back' and get to that place, the
more you drink the harder it gets. There were things I felt when I
was younger that I couldn't tap into. But I can now."
Some of those things Joe feels have surfaced on Vacation. On
"Hangman Jury," a blues based on an old railroad ditty, Perry picks
a gentle and breezy delta blues line that is basically simple in
composition but has a depth of feel and emotion about it. Not the
type of phrase he was capable of writing during his alcohol-glazed
days. "I kept running around the studio asking everybody 'What kind
of music is this?'"
"St. John" evokes a dark and smoky feel, while on "Simoriah," Perry
pounds out a Lennonesque rhythm figure which is absolutely
captivating. The attempt, the, was to try and explore areas they'd
only briefly touched on, rather than trying to fit into a space
where they thought they belonged.
"We were going for feel on this album, and I was trying to
capitalize on everything I like about my playing. I've listened
back to the new album and I laugh because it sounds so good. It
felt like the last record was pushed and forced, and this one feels
really good. It really feels like an Aerosmith album to me."
Joe's last comment is especially telling. Unlike Mirrors and Rock
In a Hard Place (which saw Perry being replaced by ex-Flame
guitarist Jimmy Crespo), which were almost parodies of Aerosmith
album, Permanent Vacation calls to mind the great rhythmic and
melodic moments of the Boston band's past. "Rag Doll" is a pure but
modern extension of "Walk This Way" ("'Rag Doll' comes right from
my soul"), while "Angel" and "St. John" call to mind the haunting
melody of "Sweet Emotion." Vacation is no retread, no reunion of
already washed-out musicians looking for a final buck. It is the
re-emergence of one of rock's most stylish bands, drawing on its
own English blues and pop roots to produce an album as forceful in
its way as any of the metal heavy records of the eighties.
Though Perry has been a virtual cipher for the past half-dozen or
so years, this new album will do much in re-establishing him. Joe
is one of those rare players (Billy Gibbons is another) who was
never seduced by the lure of speed or flash if it meant sacrificing
soul and feel. And on this album he goes rolling over the tracks in
that chugging blues style of his and leaves the glitzier and more
modern methods up to co-guitarist Brad Whitford. A damned good
guitarist in his own right, Perry teases us with his roots-Jimmy
Page, Jeff Beck, The Ventures, MC5- without slapping us in the face
with them. His solos are simple and uncluttered and apparently
follow no scale forms what-soever. "Inevitably, I find myself going
back to the same old positions." He will noodle around at the 12th
fret, for example, picking out basic four- and five-note licks, and
then race down the neck to grab a low E string and vibrato the hell
out of it.
Part of his unorthodox style stems from his being a left-hander.
When he was eight years old, Joe was given a Sears acoustic guitar.
An instructional record said to put the guitar neck in his left
hand and knowing no better-he did. So Perry developed into a right-
handed player and when he admits, "It feels backwards to me
sometimes," you can hear that blessed dyslexic quality emerge in
his playing.
But it is his rhythm around which he has built a style; and the
group has, in turn, built its style around that style. Aerosmith
without Joe would be like a cheeseburger without the cheese (listen
to Rock In a Hard Place if you don't believe it). He has the same
sort of frantic strumming that characterized Page's early work with
Zeppelin, and yet he's capable of displaying grace and emotion a la
Pete Townshend and John Lennon. No doubt, he will cement his place
as one of rock's true vintage guitar legends once the world has an
ample taste of Permanent Vacation. And once they measure him by the
true yardstick of the guitar hero: originality, passion and
conviction.
"You have guys like Stevie Winwood doing what he's doing. And
Genesis. And the kids hearing The Doors for the first time. And
Jimi Hendrix is always coming up on the radio and influencing
everyone. The Beatles. My 14-year old kid listens to Zeppelin and
goes, 'Wow.' Look what Whitesnake has done? So is there a place for
Aerosmith?
"I listen to what Van Halen does and all that modern stuff and I
don't know where we fit. But I'd like to think we do more songs,
more grooves. You see, I don't have a very clear picture of myself-
what I look like or what I do. I go through the same thing with
Steven [Tyler]. I'll tell him, 'Hey, that guy is ripping you off.'
And Steven will go, 'What's he doing?' I guess I'm just happy I
play the way I do." Fads and styles in rock may come and go, but
Perry's quest for his own identity has, fortunately for him, been
one of perfecting his music and not looking sideways to see who is
catching up with him. Now, Perry is at the top of his form and the
head of his class.
New guitar heroes have sprung up, but now they can make room for
the master. It has taken Joe several years and as many records to
clearly perceive where he- and the band-fit in the overall music
picture. When Aerosmith released Done With Mirrors in 1985, they
knew there was a contemporary market (spearheaded by the likes of
Ratt, Dokken and Van Halen_ they had to fit into. Consequently,
they forced the music to take on this modern edge, and the result
was an album which fared poorly in the charts and had a synthetic
quality to it.
"That album didn't feel like it gelled to me," Perry reflects. "It
felt good at the time, but somehow it missed the stride. We had to
go through that to find our spaces again. I felt that we were
competing with the modern rockers, so we missed it. We're
definitely not that kind of band."
The band had not recorded together for four years and in hindsight,
assessed that producer Ted Templeman didn't understand what made a
good Aerosmith album. But with Mirrors behind them, they came to
understand that they couldn't manufacture some entity that was not
really them, and more importantly, that they didn't have to compete
with the speed-rockers of the day. They enlisted producer Bruce
Fairbairn (Bon Jovi, Journey), went into Vancouver, Canada's Little
Mountain Recording Studios for a change of scenery and came up with
perhaps their strongest record since Toys in the Attic.
"All we could do is write the stuff that makes us feel good. When
you've been out of the wind for as long as we have, you listen to
what's going on on the radio and you're aware of everything. There
have been bands coming out who look a little bit like us and took
bits and pieces. And I guess they picked up on some of the pieces
that we never even knew we had. We just flailed around in the
seventies-we didn't know what was going on. We just knew we excited
a lot of people. But I don't know if we ever put our finger on why
we did.
"People have this image of Aerosmith as a heavy metal band, but
we're really not. It's rock 'n' roll. I play loud, but I don't
think I'm a heavy metal guitar player."
Joe Perry is NOT a heavy metal player. What gives him the
appearance of a metal guitarist is not so much what he plays, but
how he looks and acts in performance. More than one modern-day
guitarist has been influenced by the Perry posture-black hair
falling over his eyes; back slightly arched; a mild sneer creasing
his mouth; and cigarette dangling dangerously from his lips. Ratt's
Warren DeMartini, one of the leading architects of this new school
of guitar pyrotechnics, is Perry's close friend and admits to being
influenced heavily by Joe. While Joe admires Warren's style, he
considers the notion that his influence on DeMartini comes through
more in a cosmetic sense that in playing.
"Warren is really hot," admits Perry, who also admits to a player's
respect for Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Johnson. "I've never had
the time to sit down and play with Warren, but I know I will. I
want to sit down and ask him some stuff. I think I've influenced
Warren in his attitude, but not in his playing. He's out there,
he's great.
"If I don't play that west coast style of guitar, I don't care,
because that's not what I'm about. I'm really fascinated by that
style and I love to hear it, but for me, it lacks something. Eddie
plays with as much soul as any of them. Half of my style is my
attitude. What I lack in technique, I make up for in attitude.
Hell, I've been working on the way I stand for years."
Perry does have one of the more intense rock 'n' roll poses to
emerge since the classic stances of Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. And
the posture stems not so much from his desire to look cool, but
rather as a revisionist defense against the early days when
Aerosmith had to fight tooth and nail for every inch of new ground.
Surprisingly, Aerosmith's native Boston never embraced the band,
although other outfits, most notably the J. Geils and James
Montgomery Bands, were routinely trumpeted by the press. Rather
than play local clubs, the quintet went out of town during the week
to play at local colleges (and perform original music), much to the
disdain of Boston club owners and local press. As protection, Perry
developed this tough exterior, replete with sneer, dangling
cigarette, and "rough-guy" pose. "The press didn't like us," Perry
allows, "but we didn't like them very much either."
A track called "Ragtime" comes through the small playback monitors.
Out-of-time rhythmic punches call to mind vintage Aerosmith. The
rhythm track seems to tumble out of the speakers like boulders
rolling downhill. It is typical Perry fare, chords played in an
almost haphazard fashion, yet always working to create a
mesmerizing rhythmic phrase. "I love the feel of that," smiles
Perry, his toe tapping gently to the beat.
After playing in various pre-Aerosmith bands with bassist Tom
Hamilton, covering songs by Deep Purple, The Yardbirds and Spencer
Davis, Joe finally met up with Steve Tyler. In 1973, Aerosmith
signed with CBS Records and released its first eponymously-titled
album, containing the material they had been perfecting locally.
They envisioned themselves as neo-Yardbirds, drawing on that
English band's melodic sense of pop and blues. Save for "Dream On",
the first album holds little of the fire and magic produced on the
follow-up, Get Your Wings. It really wasn't until the third
Aerosmith album, Toys In the Attic, that they managed to elude the
"red-light fright" (a term referring to a musician's fear of the
red recording light), producing a collection of songs which finally
had power and direction.
"I think we were just getting into our stride and we could do some
of the stuff we wanted. The first album was stuff we had been
playing in the clubs. We just left out the Yardbirds' songs. And on
Get Your Wings, when we wrote "Same Old Song and Dance,' Steven and
I realized we could write together. I started to realize I could
write stuff and it could go over. It fooled 'em.
"It blows my mind when I listen to Toys, when I think of how
unschooled we were in music. We were just barely getting our studio
legs."
Toys included what many consider to be the representative Aerosmith
track. "Walk This Way" is a pure example of the Perry school of
rhythmizing. The band was in Hawaii and Joe had just spent a day on
the beach, "feeling great." The line was written in the five
minutes prior to a soundcheck. The entire song was developed around
the rhythm figure, and is typical of the way in which many
Aerosmith songs come to life-Joe revelling in a positive mood, and
dashing off a rhythmic phrase to capture the moment. The song has
endured, inspiring Run-DMC, the leading proponents of rap rock, to
cover it, thereby exposing the composition (and both bands) to an
even larger, mainstream and MTV audience. Run-DMC invited the
Boston quintet into the studio to participate in the recording, an
opportunity Perry jumped at.
"I was amazed--I had a lot of fun. I loved doing it because rap is
so fresh and funky. I wouldn't have done it if it didn't sound like
a great idea."
Joe played all the rhythm, lead and bass parts. Since the song was
the last track recorded for the album, he admits that the band "had
no idea it would turn into what it did." A highlight of the song's
video is he appearance of Perry and Tyler as the disgruntled
rockers next door. Perry's head sticking through the hole in the
wall is quintessential MTV filimmaking. When reminded of the video,
Perry just laughs. "I was glad to be part of it."
A big part of the success of the Run-DMC version was due to the
production genius of Rick "DJ Double R" Rubin. Melding scratch with
shred, he is responsible for producing LL Cool J's gold Radio album
and the Beastie Boys' nasty and furious License to Ill (which
reached--unbelievably--number one). Perry and the band were so
taken with Rubin that they cut demos with him in Boston. But no
songs were written and the meeting was perhaps a bit premature. But
there was admiration on both sides.
"He was young and had a fresh attitude," says Perry. "We were going
to pursue it but it just wasn't the right time."
As if his ears had been burning, producer Bruce Fairbairn appears
mysteriously in the doorway. A version of the Beatles' "I'm Down"
comes up on the monitors. Joe recognizes something, swivels to face
Bruce, smiles and says, "My Gretsch, of course." The track is full
of raw energy, and Perry's rhythm chops capture the original Lennon
intent. Fairbairn has isolated the essence of Aerosmith--
unadulterated sound created by unschooled musicians--and defined
it. Permanent Vacation enlists a variety of guitar sounds--from
acoustic slide to Hip-Shot bends--and Fairbairn was careful not to
muddy up the tones with post recording gear.
"If a guitar player gets in trouble, he'll use outboard gear,"
explains the Canadian born producer. "But Joe Perry rarely gets in
trouble. I think Joe has a good technique. He plays in a relaxed
manner and is very fluid. You might get your best take the first
shot, so you have to stay on your toes."
Save for one minimal pitch-transposing with octave spread and the
by-now obligatory stereo guitar set-up, Perry's guitar sound was
uncluttered. He wanted a clean, dry sound with no distortion, and
when a song called for a heavier Marshall-like tone, he used it for
effect rather than for the main thrust.
"I didn't want it to sound like a full-blown humbucker with the
Marshalls turned to 10," admits Joe, a man previously known for
playing everything on 10. "I wanted to use a Tele and have a thin,
more clanky sound. A little cleaner."
His is an anti-modern approach (which normally equates distortion
with expression), and in attempting to produce a less muddy sound,
what he now plays is more easily heard. Perry uses a lot of open
strings in his playing, and structures chords around three and four
strings; this new tone highlights Joe's unique rhythm phrasings and
voicing.
"There aren't too many rhythm players out there. All the
pyrotechnics and the flash get all the press. But Angus [Young of
AC/DC] wouldn't play the way he played unless he had his brother
there banging on that thing."
Perry has turned into one of rock's more capable rhythm players. He
has learned to focus on the drums and to listen to what the hi-hat
and snare is doing. Joe follow the snare's 2- and 4-count, usually
picking up on the "pushes" (accents).
"Playing solos is just another way to disguise rhythm," explains
the guitarist. "Solos are another flavor. Some soloists use the
rhythm as the vehicle and let the solo take you away. But for me
it's the rhythm that does it, and then you put the other stuff on
as icing on the cake.
"I used to love the Beatles' melodies, but I always tapped my foot
to their music. The audience reacts to the rhythm. You have to have
them dancing, because that's what I used to get off on."
For Perry, the technique has been developed without the benefit of
a tutor, music school or instructional tape, save for a couple of
lessons he took from a local Boston guitarist (which ended when the
teacher insisted on showing Perry wedding marches instead of Chuck
Berry riffs). On the other hand, Joe is in support of the guitar
academies and videos available to young, new players. In fact, when
Perry was leaving his own band called The Project (which recorded
three albums) and resolving personal conflicts with Steve Tyler, he
was overwhelmed by the abundance of materials available to
guitarists; the sheer new guitarmania out there.
"When I was getting back into Aerosmith, I couldn't believe how
these guys played. I feel more confident now, but you have to
understand when I started playing, there were no rock 'n' roll
video tapes. The only way to learn rock 'n' roll was if somebody
else in town had already sat down and learned something from a
record."
"You're My Angel," the record's big, tear-jerking ballad flows out
of the speakers, and Joe flashes a satisfied grin after the solo
passage. It's dripping with Perry's sense of melody and emotion.
"Getting on it," is Perry's self-assessment. he guitarist pulls a
pack of tobacco and some Zigzags from his pocket, carefully placing
the tobacco in paper and inserting the cigarette between his lips.
Smoking is Perry's only vice these days. That, and his music.
Perry is a player borne of three decades: he derives his roots from
the sixties; found success in the seventies; and is still a
contender here in the eighties. Wife Billie and baby son Tony
stroll into the room. And while Perry may deny being a hero to the
masses, he's a hero to these two.
"I suppose if I wanted to be a guitar hero, I would have practiced
more. I would have practiced scales and stuff. I like some amount
of flash, but I find it's not as important to me as some other
things. I appreciate all those people out there, but a lot of it
just washes over me. Only a few rise to the top, just like in any
era.
"We sounded different to what was going on in the seventies and
people picked up on that. It rocked. I think our sense of humor and
our attitude is going to crack a big space for us, but I've got a
career with Aerosmith whether this record sells or not."
Circus. March 4th, 1980
AEROSMITH LOSES JOE PERRY, BUT STAYS OUT OF THE ROCK & ROLL RUTS
Steve Tyler bounds onto the stage wearing a bumblebee-colored
jumpsuit with a matching headband and trademark strands of fabric looking
like a berserk Indian chief.
The scene and the gut-thumping sound bursts from the stage are
familiar on this, the opening night of their nationwide tour in Binghamton,
New York. The major difference is that ace guitarist Joe Perry is missing
and in his place is ex-Flame Jimmy Crespo, the new kid in town.
Offstage, Tyler is not nearly as flamboyant as his performance
costumes. Backstage in Binghamton, he wears ordinary jeans and a white
shirt, talks with almost everyone but in clipped, reserved phrases;
friendly but business-like. Almost hushed.
Before the band took the stage, Tyler told the girl fitting his
costume, "I don't even have butterflies." His disavowal of stagefright,
however, did not erase the underlying tension because of the unanswered
question that hangs in the air: How will Aerosmith fare without songsmith/
founder/guitarist Perry, who left the band shortly before the release of
their recent album Night In The Ruts (Columbia)?
Tyler calls his former partner "a guitar lunatic, one of the best"
perhaps to cover what some say is the pain of losing a valuable asset to
the still-struggling band. That strain apparently took its toll the next
night, in Portland, Maine, when Tyler seemed to collapse onstage. Dyke
Hendrikson of the Portland Press-Herald reported that Tyler was slithering
around on the floor during one of his numbers halfway through the evening
when he appeared unable to arise. "But he made a phone call later backstage
abd received no medication from the paramedics on duty," Hendrikson
observed. After a few days in a Boston hospital for tests and a week's
worth of cancelled tour, Aerosmith was on the road again. The diagnosis:
exhaustion.
Pery explained his departure. "I had the Aerosmith itinerary in one
hand and my demo tapes in the other and it was a question of playing the
same songs again and again in the same big arenas. What they're doing is
great but it's just different from what I wanted to do.
"I know Steven has mixed feelings and we may have some trouble dealing
with each other for a while but it was always a love-hate relationship.
That's what gave it the power and energy it had; it's just that we
diverged."
Though Perry is now recording with the new group he heads - the Joe
Perry Project - he is prominent on Aerosmith's newest album, Night in the
Ruts (Columbia). His solos on songs like "Reefer Head Woman" and "Mia" are
powerful and he is listed as co-writer on five of the nine tunes. The solo
chores in Aerosmith are now solidly on the shoulder of Crespo, who is
offhand about the burden: "I know I'm coming in after a major figure has
left; it's not as if I were the co-founder of the group. But there's a
chance to do something new."
Crespo, Brooklyn-born and a guitarist for so many of his 23 years "it
seems like a history book now," resents that his session work isn't better
known. He was the lead guitarist on Ian Lloyd's recent solo Atlantic album,
and on a Robert Fleishmann album that, he admits, was something less than a
hit.
Whoever the guitar player is, says Tyler, Aerosmith will continue
"because I'm here." Son of European immigrants with an Italian, German,
Polish, Russian and Swedish background (his real name is Taloarico) he grew
up in New York, Yonkers and Sunapee, New Hampshire, where his parents had
purchased a 212-acre resort.
After working through a series of bands - the Stranglers, Chain
Reaction, William Proud, The Left Banke - and a short stint as a roadie for
the Jeff Beck-Jimmy Page Yardbirds, he became a Bostoner, and linked up
with the rest of Aerosmith - Perry, guitarist Brad Whitford, bassist Tom
Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer.
In Binghamton, the subject of Cincinnqti's fatal Who concert just days
before brought no visible reaction from any member of the band, though it
would have to have been on their minds since crowd violence has haunted the
band off and on from the beginning. It was also very much on the minds of
the security force, which had been beefed up with 60 uniformed officers. "I
wouldn't want to be down on the floor for love or money," said one of the
guards, happy to be on duty backstage. "We have to take them out three and
four at a time. They tear the arms off the seats and throw them down on the
audience."
"None of my groups will ever play Cincinnati again," says Aerosmith's
tough-minded manager David Krebs, who is spearheading a drive to ban
festival seating in arenas, and provide procedures to safeguard both
audience and performer. "The last time Aerosmith played Cincinnati somebody
was shot," he said supported by Tyler who told tales of wild fans piling up
seats and burning them in a bonfire.
John Tafro, public relations director of Cincinnati's Riverfront
Coliseum, denies those claims. "The last time Aerosmith played here
[October 5, 1978] we had no problems or incidents," says Tafro.
On stage in Binghamton, Crespo used lyric cue cards for "No Surprise"
hidden behind the monitors at the front of the stage. ("A few surprises in
'No Surprise'," he said ruefully later on the way back to the hotel.)
He and his new pals seem satisfied with his solos this far which have
been intense enough to bring screams of approval from the crowd.
The band is obviously sensitive to the pressure of showing they can
still sizzle on stage without Perry. He was, after all, to Steve Tyler what
Jimmy Page is to Robert Plant. But some rock bands show remarkqble
tenacity. The Who has, if anything, grown stronger as a unit if not
musically in the wake of the loss of Keith Moon. The Eagles have flourished
in spite of several major personnal changes as have the Stone.
Aerosmith, in their characteristic brash way, dismiss the naysayers.
"That psychic Jeanne Dixon predicted the roof would cave in on us when we
played Portland last year," scoffs Whitford. "But it didn't happen, did
it?"
Steve Tyler Talks
CIRCUS: What do you do when you're not rocking & rolling?
TYLER: I spend as much time as possible with my family, my daughter Mia and
my wife Cyrinda. We have a house by a lake in New Hampshire which I use as
a decompression chamber.
CIRCUS: Why do fans throw things at you?
TYLER: It's a manifestation of their excitement; they just get carried
away. I wouldn't say it's a good manifestation, but it's hard to control.
CIRCUS: What do you think about the new wave and the future of heavy metal?
TYLER: Heavy metal has never been stronger. There are three bands, three of
the oldest bands - the Who, the Stones and Led Zeppelin - which are really
going strong. And there are newer bands like Van Halen and AC/DC that are
doing very well. New wave is a healthy thing, it's opened the pores of what
was becoming a stodgy and unimaginative music business. But I wouldn't step
away from heavy metal or do a whole album of the ballady stuff.
CIRCUS: You seem to do the ballady stuff very well, as in "Mia" from the
new album.
TYLER: Some people think "Mia" means "Missing in Action" and that's great -
the more they can go in different directions with a song I write, the
better. That one is about my daughter, and it isn't. Kids might even take
off and walk out before that song is over, but I'm not ashamed of it,
because we just enough guts into a song - usually in the instrumental solo
- so it isn't wimpy.
CIRCUS: What's your greatest frustration?
TYLER: Dealing with too many people on a business level who don't
understand what my music is about.
CIRCUS: What changes will take place in the band now that Joe Perry is
gone?
TYLER: It'll stay pretty much the same, because I'm here. Crespo is fast,
though. He'll be fiddling around on the guitar and I'll say, 'what are you
doing?' and he'll say 'nothing' and there'll be a song there.
CIRCUS: Which of your albums fulfills your concept of what rock & roll
should be?
TYLER: The next one.
Joe Perry interview Fall 1994
S.R.: Let's talk about your first experience on the
"Saturday Night Live" show on the "Wayne's World"
segment that obviously led to your participation in
"Wayne World II" movie.
JP: It was fun. We were there and they said 'we're going
to write this part in for 'you' and we just thought it
would be funny so we did it. It wasn't any big stretch.
It's a lot less of a stretch to do the movie. All we have
to do is be ourselves. We don't even have to play future
villians.
S.R. What's your part in the new "Wayne's World II"
movie?
JP: We perform "Dude Looks Like A Lady" and "Shut Up
And Dance." You never know for sure until you see the
movie. Steven and I each have one line. It's really
minimal and that's fine with me. We just take the piss
out of the backstage thing and do this over the top
segment as far as what goes on backstage but it was fun.
It's the movies.
S.R.: Most of the footage was shot while you were on the
"Get a Grip" tour wasn't it?
JP: The studio came down and filmed our show in San
Diego but we also had our video director, Marty Callner,
come down as an advisor. They're more movie people and
didn't have a lot of experience in filming a rock and
roll band. They were nice enough to let Marty come in
and give us some suggestions.
S.R.: Has there ever been a conscious effort to do more
media all the time just to keep an edge?
JP: We get a lot of calls to do a lot of different
stuff. It's more of an effort on our part just to be
selective about what we do. So it's both a conscious
effort and being selective. I think in some cases we
search it out.
SR: How about your being on "The Simpsons"?
JP: That was a lot of fun. It was a great experience.
You know it's just one of the things about all the
different kinds of media that surrounds music now. In
the '70s you played live and you put out records and
that was it. You might do the odd radio interview or a
promo video. I remember a couple of videos would show up
at conventions or once in a while there was those rock
and roll shows like Don Kirchner's Rock Concert but it
certainly wasn't what it's like now. There's more and
more especially in rock and roll. There are different
avenues. Then something like the Simpson's comes along
and it's still us doing us and being Aerosmith. It's
just a new experience and we had a chance to go in
there and do voices like that and have it come back and
you see ourselfs as a cartoon. It was cool.
SR: What was the first video for MTV as Aerosmith?
JP: It was one called "Let the Music Do the Talking." I
did some video while I was in the Joe Perry Project that
I think were designed for MTV. I remember getting on a
plane. I was coming back from a gig in New York with
Project and I remember flying back with J. J. Jackson and
he talked about the idea of putting together a 24-hour
video show. I thought it was a really cool idea. What a
concept. You saw where it went from there. I can
remember doing some Project videos but I don't think
they ever got to show Aerosmith was still trying to get
comfortable with the idea of doing videos that would
tell a story because we thought - and we still do -
that there's a danger of losing some of the magic that
happens when you just hear something and you don't see .
If you start defining what the story is visually that is
what your mind sees everytime you hear the song.
Sometimes I don't think that's a great thing. A lot of
people like the song "Dream On" because it had a
relationship to whatever they were doing at the time and
it tells a different story for everybody. I think that's
what happens with a total visual/audio plate set in
front of you - it's just there. There is no imagination.
We're still grappling with that but at least we've
accepted the fact that if we're going to make
videos that we make them as good as we can make them.
SR: Your latest video is "Amazing" off "Get a
Grip."
JP: We did it with Marty Callner. He knows what we like
and we know what his strengths are. He's pretty amazing.
We have a system down and it works really well. On the
"Amazing" video we didn't want to do a literal
translation of the song. We wanted to do some eye candy so
your mind could wander a little bit and get a couple of
different images. It's a pretty flipped-out video. I saw
it last night and there's just some really cool stuff in
it. Robert Grassmere worked on it with us. He's a friend
of ours from the New Hampshire days when we were
teenagers. He ended up going out to Hollywood and
started working in the special effects houses. He's on
the cutting edge of special effects and so he was a big
help in getting some of the images we thought of to come
to life. It was released November 30. We were going to do
a video of "Lineup" and probably "Crazy" but we'll see.
SR: Do you think you have to keep doing more off each
album?
JP: I don't know if you can say from that point of
view how many you'll do. It's just taking each one at a
time and seeing how each one lives and how well they're
accepted. This album happens to have a few songs that are
going to be singles and they'll be videos with them.
SR: While you're out on the road does the video keep
rolling for a possible new long-play?
JP: We have one of the guys who travels with us using a
Super 8 camera and in Europe there are so many different
TV shows and things we've done we're collecting a whole
bunch of footage on this trip. We're playing live on most
of this too. We did a French TV show and we did Top of the
Pops for the first time this year and I don't know how
cool that is to do because it's so pop-y. We'll probably
do another longform at some point. I don't know what
we'll call it but we're definitely collecting it all. MTV
just finished a new "Rockumentary" on Aerosmith that's
coming out soon. There's a lot of stuff filmed around the
opening of this tour and in Topeka and Omaha there's a
lot of footage. That seems like ages ago. I've been so
many places since then.
SR: Are you on the WWII soundtrack?
SP: I'm not even sure. I think so because we have a
couple of songs in the movie. I'm still waiting to hear
the Beavis and Butt-Head CD. It's pop music and Beavis
and Butt-Head are funny with that locker room/fart humor.
It's like a natural extention to the music. We do "Dueces
Are Wild." I'm anxious to hear it. We did an interview
with Beavis and Butt-Head for Rockline with Red Beard. It
was really funny because you meet Mike Judge and he's
like any kid. He just puts his experiences as a kid out
there. I was really cool to do it. It reminded me of the
Simpson's thing. It was really neat to do it. I don't
even mind when they take a shot at us. Beavis and Butt-
Head aren't doing anything that most teenage boys aren't
doing. It's just that Judge is able to address it and put
it out there.
SR: Kim Bassinger. Did you get to meet Honey Hornay' on
the set?
JP: No we didn't. Last night we did a show in
Germany that they're showing on New Year's Eve and Phil
Collins was on the show. He did his filming only 20
minutes before us and we never saw him. He was out of
there, off the stage and into the car. That's the way it
is a lot of times with things like that and movie things.
Everybody's off in their own space doing what they do.
The only time you get to run into other musicians at
least in my experience is when you do those big shows and
there are four or five big acts on the bill. Then you get
to run into other bands and you get to see them. Other
than that it's like everyone is off in their own world.
SR: Is Aerosmith rolling on the information highway yet?
JP: I've just started reading about it. You know the band
the Mighty Bosstones from Boston? I know them from Boston
and I got their CD. I know they're hot and they just
toured Europe again. I was just browsing around through
online services and I wanted to get some information on
them. I found a review on them and their bio and so I
printed that out and it's great. We have a couple or
three things we're doing. One is really music oriented
and another is really biography oriented and then there
are a couple that are strictly games. We're just about
ready to start on all this. I was blown away with some
of the things you can do today. Some of the interactive
stuff - how into it you can get. I don't think I can
talk about the specifics but we are working on different
things and we are in touch on a pretty frequent basis
with the people we're working with. It's really
exciting. I love all this stuff. I first started using a
Mac down in my soundroom but since I'm not in the demo
making process I've moved everything upstairs and I'm
into the information highway stuff. When I get home I'll
look for you online.
Liv Tyler interview Oct 1994
BOSTON GLOBE
Copyright Globe Newspaper Company 1994
DATE: THURSDAY, October 13, 1994
PAGE: 61 EDITION: THIRD
SECTION: LIVING LENGTH: LONG
ILLUST: PHOTO
SOURCE: By Alisa Valdes, Globe Staff
LIV ON THE EDGE
SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF A MODEL BORN INTO ROCK AND RISING FAST
The Cast
Liv Tyler-- Model and actress. Daughter of Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven
Tyler, and '70s cover girl Bebe Buell.
Bebe Buell -- Liv's mother.
Daniel Howell -- Hairstylist and makeup artist.
Lara Rossignol -- Fashion photographer.
Laura Jean Shannon -- Stylist and costume designer.
Cabbie -- New Yorkish. Obnoxious. Use your imagination.
Reporter -- Heard mostly in voice-over.
Prologue
REPORTER (voice-over): Liv Tyler's world is one of constant illusion. On
magazine covers -- Seventeen, Anna, Hamptons, Company, Rolling Stone, Bikini
and Inside Edge -- she has been pouty, sexy, ecstatic, pensive and mature,
even though she began modeling when she was only 14.
She got her start when family friend and megamodel Paulina Porizkova
took snapshots of the full-lipped girl and slipped them to agents. Inside
magazines like Mirabella, Mademoiselle and Italian and German Vogue, Liv
appeared fun and fashionable and impossibly thin. And starring in her
father's ''Crazy'' music video, she became an instant sex symbol, attracting
an unhealthy following of what her mother calls ''psychos.''
She's 17 now. In her first movie, ''Silent Fall'' -- to be released this
month -- she costars with Richard Dreyfuss; she was 16 when the film was
made. Liv's character in the movie is Sylvie, the older sister of an autistic
boy. She nurtures and cries convincingly, but laughing seems like more work.
This mirrors her life. Liv Tyler is used to illusion -- and disillusion.
For 10 years growing up in Portland, Maine, the illusion was that her
real father was musician Todd Rundgren. Then, one day at an Aerosmith concert
at Great Woods, she discovered her dad was actually Steven Tyler, the lippy,
hippy singer for that band.
It was the middle of ''Dream On.'' Liv, who knew her mother had dated
the singer, looked at him, then looked at his other daughter, Mia -- who
looked just like her. Then she looked at Buell.
''Mommy, that's my father, isn't it?'' she asked.
''Yes,'' Buell said, finally. ''He is.''
Looking back on it now, Buell says, ''We went and sat on the grass and
talked and cried. Later when I told Steven backstage she knew, he shouted,
'Hallelujah!' You really couldn't have scripted it any better than that.''
SCENE 1
An apartment in New York's East Village, mid-morning. Bebe Buell is
boiling water in a kettle, on the phone with a reporter.
BEBE: There's a lot of people in show business who have show business
parents. We love Steven, but the guy was a mess. What was I supposed to do?
Bring her around so she'd see him fall flat on his face? He knew about her.
I'd show him pictures, but all he could do was cry.
REPORTER (voice-over): Steven Tyler started paying child support in 1991.
BEBE: I was in an unhappy relationship with Todd Rundgren. He cheated on
me and I was like, if you can go out with her, then I'll go out with Mick
Jagger! I was in love with Steven, and I didn't know about his drug problem.
I was on the road with him in Europe when the pregnancy happened, throwing up
on the roadies.
The first time I saw him have a seizure, I called Todd. He took me back,
pregnant with another man's baby. We made a deal that he'd be Liv's dad.
She was born on July 1, 1978, at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
Todd cut the umbilical cord. The first visitor to the hospital was Ron Wood.
The second was Mick Jagger. Then Ric [Ocasek] and Keith Richards and Anita
[Pallenberg]. They made Keith wear a flowered cap so no one would recognize
him.
After a while, when Liv was 3 or 4, we were in denial about who her real
dad was. We wanted it to be true that Todd was her dad. If you want something
to be true that badly you just sort of make it true.
I went to Maine when she was 3 until she was 12 so there'd be no scandal.
I lived in Maine for 10 years. It's not easy. I had an incredibly driving
career. In the summer of 1989 I finally took her to New York and it's been
uphill ever since.
We're good people. We keep our karma straight. I feel like a blessing
fell upon us. Forget how beautiful she is. Liv's an old soul who's mixed with
purity. She's an anchor. I get my reality check from her.
LIV (in background): Get off the phone, man!
BEBE: I know, I know. You have a busy day.
LIV: Come on!
BEBE: Can I call you back?
SCENE 2
An East Village street. Liv and Bebe and a reporter are trying to hail
a cab. Liv wears a denim mini skirt, a faded white T-shirt and ratty black
sneakers. Wet ponytail, no makeup, big oval sunglasses. Her legs are skinny
and long, dappled with tiny bruises she will apologize about later when
Rossignol takes her picture in nothing but underwear and a cigarette. Her
face is narrow and petite, with the lips that every writer for the last four
years has compared to her father's. She is smaller in person than she seems
in magazines and movies, tall, but dainty, like a gazelle. Her voice is deep.
Bebe has a hot pink dye in her hair, and is wearing a long, sheer black dress
with tight Lycra workout gear underneath.
CABBIE: Good to see such very beautiful women in New York City!
LIV (laughing politely): Can you take us to [undisclosed address]?
CABBIE: Yes, of course.
He drives like a maniac.
BEBE: Hey, we'd like to get there alive.
CABBIE: Oh, alive? Yes. Very well. Yes. OK. Alive! Ha ha!
BEBE: Jeez.
LIV: For a week I was working every day, and getting five hours of sleep
a night. On a normal basis going to sleep before 1 in the morning is very
hard for me. This is so far the busiest I've been.
REPORTER: Where are we meeting them, at an apartment?
LIV: We're meeting the location van. We're shooting outside.
REPORTER: Oh.
BEBE: Yeah, they want the lights of Times Square and the whole bit.
LIV: Oh, we're doing that?
BEBE: Mmm hmm. That's why you're working till real late, that's why we
started so late in the afternoon.
LIV: Ah ha.
The cab passes Radio City Music Hall.
LIV: God, here we are!
BEBE: Home of the MTV Music Video Awards.
REPORTER: Your dad cleaned up.
LIV: Yeah.
REPORTER: What all have you done this week?
LIV: Well, it's like, I mean ...
BEBE: Here, I'll help you with that.
LIV: Well, do we need to like ...
BEBE: She did Rolling Stone magazine ...
LIV: The cover with my father, and then I shot the inside ...
BEBE: Fashion.
LIV: ... the other day.
BEBE: With Albert Watson. And she did, uhmm, the cover of Bikini magazine
with Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth, which is like, her favorite band.
Thurston was ...
LIV: I did, uh ...
BEBE: ... interviewing her. She did a cover for Inside Edge, which is a
new Times Warner men's magazine.
LIV: I shot it ...
BEBE: You're looking at it right here. She shot a German Vogue cover with
Albert Watson. And today she is shooting the major part of her Bikini piece.
So that's it. And today's Thursday. And tomorrow she is taping the Jon
Stewart show.
LIV: But yesterday I had to do the German Vogue cover in the morning, I
had to leave there at 12:30, go to do the thing with Thurston Moore for
Bikini, and at the same time as we did that, ''Entertainment Tonight'' came
to interview me and film me while I did the Bikini, and then I had to leave
there and go back to Albert and shoot 10 pages for the inside.
BEBE: But you know, this is a very abnormal week.
LIV: Right.
BEBE: I mean, I would never allow for Liv, and neither would she allow
for herself, for her to have a workload like this. It's just that she's
leaving on Monday to start her new movie and we had to get it all in before
she goes.
SCENE 3
REPORTER (voice-over): The time it takes for Liv Tyler to transform
from a kid enrolled in a Manhattan prep school -- who likes to go out to eat
with her friends -- into a star will take exactly three Marlboro Light
cigarettes. Liv has smoked since she was 15, but doesn't want it in print
because she thinks her dad doesn't know. If he did know, she says, he'd throw
her in a 12- step program. But in reality, Steven Tyler knows about his
daughter's habit, according to Buell. It's just that Buell hasn't told Liv
that Steven knows. That's why Liv hasn't talked to Steven about it. But Buell
has. When Liv is asked why she smokes a pack of cigarettes a day, even though
she knows it will kill her, she says quite simply, ''It's the only thing I
have that's my own.''
SCENE 4
In the van en route to a shoot in Times Square, Liv shares the front seat
with a reporter. She's dressed in the underwear she was wearing in the last
shoot. She faces forward, hugging her knees. It's drizzling out.
REPORTER: I read somewhere that you said you can only rely on yourself in
this life. I thought, this is such a young person to be saying something like
that.
LIV: You always have the people you love. In life it's important that you
don't rely on anyone. Because when you rely on people and when you expect
things from people, you always get let down.
REPORTER: You think so?
LIV: I definitely think so. In a relationship, in anything.
REPORTER. When I read that quote I also thought this is a really lonely
person. Are you lonely?
LIV (softly): Yeah.
REPORTER: You are?
LIV: Yeah. (Very sadly) I've always felt like that for some reason. Even
when I'm surrounded by a lot of love I have a lot of loneliness inside of
myself, and I don't know where it comes from. It's really good for my work. I
learn how to deal with it. I write a lot. I have journals. And I listen to
music and I deal with it.
REPORTER (voice-over): Liv likes ''angry girl bands'' and old rock like
Led Zeppelin, which she says is in her genes.
LIV: But, yeah, I'm always kind of searching for things.
REPORTER: Would you like that to be gone?
LIV: Yeah, but I don't think it ever really will. I think that if I have
it already then it's not really going to go away. And I think that the more
famous you get and the more that you get involved with this business, the
lonelier you get.
REPORTER: Do you feel prepared for that?
LIV: I am, but I'm scared. Very scared. People don't seem to realize that
when you get to a certain point when you're young and people think you're
attractive and whatever they think of you, everybody wants a part of you and
everybody wants to be around you.
REPORTER: Describe your mother to me.
LIV: My mom's great. She's got the biggest heart in the world. She's
really genuine and really loving and really caring and she protects me so
much, sometimes too much. She gave up everything she ever had when she was a
little older than me, to take care of me, and that's why I think she enjoys
being such a big part of my career, because she's getting to kind of do it
all over again.
REPORTER: Do you feel she's living through you in that way?
LIV. Yeah.
Liv covers tape player with her hand.
REPORTER: Does that make you uncomfortable?
LIV: Well, sometimes, yeah, but you know. I just love her and I want to
take care of her and I feel like I owe so much to her.
REPORTER: You seem very composed, almost too adult.
LIV (laughing, embarrassed): Well, thank you.
REPORTER: I just say that as someone who had to do the same thing.
LIV: Wow. Do you relate to me? Do you understand?
REPORTER: In a way.
Liv leans her head on reporter's shoulder.
LIV: I don't know what this lonely thing is with me. I'm always lonely
and searching for a certain love. Maybe it's a love for myself.
REPORTER: It seems like you had to be an adult very early.
LIV: Well, I've had to be. It's really weird because I'm the one that's
like really grounded and I'm the one that's really sensible and I'm the one
that's really normal and ...
DANIEL (from back of the van): Are you comparing yourself to me again,
Liv?
Liv laughs, then turns to reporter.
LIV: I just learned a lot from the insanity. I had this childhood -- my
mother was this rock 'n' roll chick, she had a band and all her boyfriends.
It was just this crazy lifestyle. And then my Aunt Annie, I wouldn't be the
person I am if it weren't for her. I love her so much. She's definitely the
one person I like really look up to.
REPORTER: Tell me about her.
LIV: Well, she's just this amazing woman who lives in Maine in this
beautiful white house and is so happy with her husband and her kids. She's
the most amazing human being in the world. Both of my parents are really
high- strung and kind of hyperactive. I've become this really mellow person.
I've gotten that from Annie. Whenever I'm sad all I can think about is an
Annie hug.
REPORTER: What's that like?
LIV (dreamy and childlike): She's sort of big and round and she has the
most amazing hugs! And her voice! The sound of her voice!
DANIEL: Don't take your lipstick off.
Liv points to a billboard in Times Square as the van pulls in.
LIV: Look at the smoke coming out of the giant coffee cup! Isn't that
great? Yep. (In a raspy rock voice something like her dad's) We're in the
thick of it now.
SCENE 5
Liv wears a large black overcoat, like James Dean in a similar famous
picture. A cigarette hangs off her bottom lip. Her makeup is minimal. Her
long hair is twisted up to look short. She's walking against the traffic on
Broadway, beneath the newly illuminated lights of Times Square. The air
smells like sausages from a nearby cart. She stares into the camera as she
walks, tough and confident and gritty.
REPORTER (voice-over): The photographer calls out yes, that this is good,
that's the way, very good. Liv grins a little with one side of her mouth, in
the thick of it. Mom's not here. Dad's not here. No rock 'n' roll backstage,
nothing. Just her. And the legacy of another star, young like her, with his
whole career ahead of him. Tonight this is what is written in the lights of
Times Square.
Cars. Cabs. Buses. They all whiz by, a merry-go-round. The photographer
stands on safe ground, on the median, but Liv is in the street. A yellow cab
comes very close and clips the edge of her coat. She screams and jumps onto
the curb of the median where she grips the iron fence. My God, she says.
The photographer, the stylist, the hairdresser, none of them notice. They
see only that the beautiful young star is not in focus anymore, and her hair
is coming down. They fix it, and tell her to get in the street and try it
again. With feeling.
GILLIS;10/12 CAWLEY;10/13,18:59 TYLERO13
CAPTION: 1. Right: Liv Tyler in the upcoming movie ''Silent Fall.''
.PHOTO/GENE KIRKLAND 2. Her father is Aerosmith's Steven Tyler (top); she was
raised by her mother, former model Bebe Buell (below, left). / PHOTO/DAVID
CROLAND 3. Liv Tyler with Richard Dreyfuss (right) in the upcoming ''Silent
Fall.'' 4. Tyler at 16: ''an old soul who's mixed with purity.'' 5. Liv Tyler
has followed in her mother Bebe Buell's footsteps as a model: ''That's why I
think she enjoys being such a big part of my career, because she's getting to
kind of do it all over again.'' 6. Cover girl Liv Tyler, whose career began
at age 14.
KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW-TYLER
END OF DOCUMENT.
Tyler article in Hit Parader, sept 95
AEROSMITH
NEW HILLS TO CLIMB
by Bernard Ryan
When you're Aerosmith, life frequently resembles an amusement park. But,
if truth be known, no ride ever envisioned by the folks at Disney has
ever come close to capturing the roller coaster thrills enjoyed on a
daily basis by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Joey Kramer and
Tom Hamilton. For more than 20 years these legendary Boston Bad Boys
have rode the highs and endured the lows that life has presented them,
and by doing so they've emerged as America's premier hard rock attraction.
With sales of their last four albums totalling over 20 million copies,
and the world-wide tours reaching an additional two million fans during
the 90's alone, Aerosmith are more than one of the planet's most popular
acts - they're one of the richest as well. But instead of taking time to
enjoy their recent accomplishments, Aerosmith is pushing ahead with all
the fervor of Sherman storming Atlanta. With their much-discussed new
contract with Sony Music about to commence, Tyler and company sincerely
feel that despite all the platinum credits now listed by their hallowed
name, it is the future - not the past - that holds the true key to
Aerosmith's musical legacy.
"I don't thing I'd ever feel comfortable being in a band that basically
was only playing 'oldies'", Tyler said. "I guess there's nothing wrong
with that, if that's your thing, but it's not for me. I don't mean that
I don't still get hard playin' _our_ older songs, because I do. But if
all we did on stage every night was play things that were hits ten,
twenty years ago, I think I'd go nuts! To me the rush of being a
musician is writing the new songs, then getting on stage and playin' em
for the people. The first time you do that, and you wait for the
reaction, is really kinda strange. If they don't like it, you feel like
a dog, but if they get on their chairs and cheer, man you feel like
you're standing on top of the world."
Thankfully for Tyler and his bandmates, there's been a lot more time
sittin' atop the world than languishing in the dog pound in recent years.
In many ways Aerosmith have become the poster boys for "mainstream" hard
rock, a band simultaneously presenting both an outrageous rock and roll
image and a safely sanitized sound. Let's face it, Aerosmith are the
hard rock band even your parents like; hell, your folks may even have met
at an Aero show back in 1973! In a musical environment filled with the
likes of Nine Inch Nails, Type O Negative and Corrosion of Conformity,
Aerosmith occasionally come across as something like a hard rock puppy
dog - plenty of snarl but not much bite. Tyler is extremely aware of his
band's present role in the rock world, and despite the rare critical barb
hurled their way by some snot-nosed punk too young to pay proper homage
to the band's lengthy string of accomplishments, the rubber-lipped
vocalist couldn't be happier with his band's role on the mid-90's rock scene.
"We're not trying to compete with anyone," Tyler said. "If anything,
they're the ones trying to compete with us. We had our time back in the
70's when people were comparing us to everyone from the Stones to Kiss.
Sometimes that was fun, sometimes it wasn't. But today, we're the top
dogs. It's great when a bunch of young musicians come up to us and say
what an influence we've been on their lives. We love it. But the best
part is that we still know we can blow 'em off the stage if we have the
chance - and I think they know it too."
Maybe the reason Tyler is so confident about his band's stage abilities
is the simple fact that perhaps no band in rock history (or the history
of _anything_ for that matter) has spent more time on the tour trail than
Aerosmith. Conservative estimates figure that this unit has performed
over 3,000 shows during their lengthy career, spending a cumulative total
of more than ten years non-stop living out of suitcases and sniffing bus
and jet fumes. While such an unforgiving regimen would probably do in
lesser bands - and in fact, played a role in the band's temporary early
80's "breakup" - Tyler now insists that he only feels truly alive when
he's hittin' the highways and byways of Planet Earth, seeking out the
next venue for Aerosmith to conquer.
"There's still something so magical about the road," he said. "It's a
place you just can never figure out. There are times when it can really
get to you out there - if you let it. And, believe me, when I was
snorting up the Peruvian economy 15 years ago, there were nights on the
road when I almost died. But once you learn to understand the rhythm of
the road, and how to just let things come to you rather than always
going out lookin' for 'em, it's a great place to be. After all, how cool
is it to be able to travel all around the world first class with your
best friends?"
As Tyler indicated the road - and rock and roll in general - has been
both very good and very bad to to him over the years. But today, at the
age of 46, the singer is probably healthier, happier and more energetic
than at any other point in the group's storied history. With their
impending return to their original rock and roll home at Sony Music, and
millions of fans around the world waiting to devour Aerosmith's next
musical utterances as if they were manna from heaven, Tyler knows full
well that life doesn't get much better than it is right now. Still, he
insists, that those who feel that Aerosmith have hit their stride - that
this veteran unit will now be content to merely crank out overly
predictable albums devoid of surprises and shock - will be in for quite a
surprise themselves when the band's next album is finally released.
"I don't know if there really is an 'Aerosmith Sound'", he said. "I hope
by now there are elements in what we do that let people know it's us.
But was Janie's Got A Gun similar to Dude Looks Like A Lady? Was Livin'
On The Edge anything like Cryin'? That's what I mean. There are certain
things that are familiar, as they have to be with any band. But we're
still pushin' ourselves as hard as we can. We really enjoy that
challenge. It's what gets us off. If I had just kept writing Dream On
over and over again two decades ago, do you think we'd be where we are
today?"
End.
Interview with Tom in AF1 [0ct95]
The last AF1 newsletter had a pretty cool interview with my favorite bass
player (TH of course!).
Q: Hey Tom. How's the time off going?
TH: It's great.
Q: What's been keeping you busy these days?
TH: I've just finished building a small home studio with a couple of tape
machines and a great little Mackie board--which is perfect for demo'ing up
ideas for the next record. It's like a whole different world up here, where
I can just pick up my guitar and work on songs without any distractions.
Q: Any vacations since you've been home?
TH: No. The last thing I want to do right now is pack a bag and go anywhere.
I'm enjoying being at home, getting in my car and knowing where I'm driving.
Q: You guys are getting ready to go back into the studio. Can you give us an
idea of what the new stuff sounds like?
TH: It's really important for us to make a statement with the next album. On
Get A Grip, to some extent, we bought into the commercial pressure that was
put on us and I think that this next album...Well, 'interesting' is probably
the best way to put it. Interesting for both Aerosmith and our fans.
Q: Is there a lot of new material?
TH: Yeah, there is. We started concentrating on writing the new album back
in March--just a few weeks after the end of the tour--and now we're almost
at the point of reviewing the new material to see how many more songs we
want to start on before we get together as a band to rehearse.
Q: Do you prefer the road or the studio?
TH: My ego prefers the road, when I'm standing up on the stage hearing the
crowd go crazy, but the creative side of me really prefers what happens in
the studio.
Q: What are some of your favorites from the older Aerosmith stuff?
TH: I like the whole Rocks album, and Toys in the Attic is really good. We
always get very close to putting 'Sick As a Dog' in our set list, which is a
song I wrote with Steven. It never seems to make it though, so if you want
to hear it on the next tour, inundate us with mail!
Q:Aerosmith, as a band, seems to take a lot of political stands. What are
the most important to you personally?
TH: Well, one of the things that I've beeen increasingly concerned about of
late is domestic violence and abuse--whether it's the abuse of children or
the terrible crimes that are perpetrated against women in the home. It seems
that the number of cases being reported are growing by the day and that
little is being done to educate our society against this ever increasing
problem. It gives a whole new meaning to the expression, "Charity begins at
home," doesn't it?
Q: During the GAG tour you guys played in a few really small venues--for
instance at the opening of Mama Kin and at the Hard Rock Cafe in London,
when you performed via satellite for the Billboard Awards in Los Angeles.
What was it like to be right there with the fans in your face?
TH: It was great being that close to the fans. But at times, it's more
difficult to play in those smaller venues, because in the bigger ones you
can remain somewhat anonymous--which is easier for me because I still get
stage fright sometimes!
Q:What's the best part of being on the road?
TH: Well, on this tour, the best thing was seeing all of the new places
we've never been before, like South America, Israel and Eastern Europe. I
especially loved Eastern Europe because I'm really into 20th century
history. Prague, Warsaw and East Berlin were all incredible stope for
me--particularly as only a few years ago they were so inaccessible to those
of us from the U.S. Each and every one of those places is packed with
culture and architectural beauty--not to mention the fact that this is where
we found some of the best fans in the world.
Q:Okay, some questions from members of the fan club...
TH: Okay.
Q:Where were you born?
TH: Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Q:What do your mom and dad think about your fame?
TH:They are not as impressed as you might think. For the first 10 years of
the band, my mom would always ask me when I was going to go to college. She
always thought that success was good, but knowledge was better.
Q:Why did you start playing bass?
TH:For the same reason most people do--there were 10 guitar players and
nobody wanted to play bass! When I was in the 7th or 8th grade, I was
playing with my brother and I laid down a guitar track adn then went back to
put a bass part on. I was amazed to hear how the bass drove the guitar and
I've been playing it ever since.
Q: Who is your favorite Beatle?
TH:Right now I'm in a George phase. I seem to be relating to him a
lot...Just how he wrote all that great music by himself.
Q:What fictional character do you relate to?
TH:James Bond.
Q:What other bands do you listen to?
TH:I just went out and bought the new Elastica album and I really liked the
last Live album. I love the 'fuck you' type attitude of music that's out
there right now. I think it's a throwback to some of the earlier days of
rock n' roll.
Q:At the beginning of a show, when the lights come up and you hit the first
notes, what goes through your mind?
TH:Breathe! For some reason I forget to breathe when I'm on stage. But, on a
more mundane point...I look down to make sure I'm hitting the right notes.
Q:What was it like playing Woodstock?
TH:It was amazing. Just the fact that after all day and all night there were
still people there rocking out, listening to the music and having fun--in
the mud.
Q:What advice would you give to someone who wants to take up music?
TH:Make sure you love the music. Because when all's said and done that's
what it always comes back to: playing the music.
Q:Tom, thanks for your time.
TH:Sure thing.
JP/BW interview in Guitar World from 1990
No girlie-men here. Aerosmith's Joe Perry and Brad Whitford
are clean, sober and harder than ever. This guitar
team wants to Pump you up!
PUMPED UP and PROUD
by Richard J. Grula
"Last night I looked at some pictures of us in the old days
and I looked dead. I looked really dead. And I felt dead. I
remember that." --Joe Perry
Call it luck, fate or happenstance, but Aerosmith has survived.
They side-stepped disaster and came back with a vengeance to
reclaim their old turf and more. The group's latest album, Pump, is
a deranged plunge into sex and the big beat that flips a bird at
the slick, generic rantings of their youthful competition.
Unabashedly raw, rude and cocksure, Pump is more than "Aerosmith's
best album since..." It's Aerosmith's best album ever. Better than
Rocks. Better than Toys in the Attic. And better than any
Aerosmith's Greatest Hits anyone could buy or sequence.
But the Aerosmith that created Pump is an altogether different
animal than the classic version of the mid-Seventies. Back then,
the group was a non-stop rock 'n'roll party machine, living on the
edge 24 hours a day and roaring into town in search of your
sisters. They were Van Halen before there was Van Halen.
That Aerosmith is a memory, preserved only in the lust-heavy
lyrics of singer Steven Tyler (the first songwriter to make a
sexual metaphor of the FAX machine). The new, just-say-no Aerosmith
kicks ass way, way harder than the old incarnation ever did.
Bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer have developed a
sledgehammer attack that could anchor a battleship in a hurricane.
But the heart of this band is where it's always been--in the bump-
and grind guitar rush of Joe Perry and Brad Whitford.
The old Aerosmith went down the toilet when Perry and
Whitford--both of whom were integral to the band's sound and
chemistry--split from the group (Perry departed in 1979, as Night
in the Ruts was being finished; Whitford left in 1981, during
preproduction for Rock In A Hard Place). Their reasons for
departing were typical: drugs and alcohol, burn-out, slave-driving
management and creative, personal and financial tensions, the last
despite a decade of sellout tours and hit albums.
"We were being told we owed money," says Whitford. "You're in
arrears of $80,000 or $100,000."
"They were even saying my room service bill was really high,"
adds Perry, who claims his solo deal came about when management
said he was broke and needed the bucks it would bring in. "Now, I
used to have a lot of room service, but certainly not *that* much.
I started counting the money we made in past years on my fingers
and said 'Something's wrong here.'"
Perry and Whitford rejoined Aerosmith in 1984 on the condition
of a complete housecleaning. "No old management, no old road
managers, no old coke buddies. None of the old shit," says Perry.
"From getting ourselves clean to sweeping the whole business clean
took years."
The decidedly mediocre Done With Mirrors reintroduced the
group with a yawn, proving little more than that the band was alive
and could actually produce a record. Rhythmically and lyrically
leaden, its best feature was the reversal of all copy type on the
sleeve--a visual pun on the title. The infinitely better follow-up,
Permanent Vacation, yielded three Top 20 hits. Still, half the
album sounded as if it could have been recorded by any pro rock
band--good product, but nothing extraordinary. Then came Pump--
stripped down, rock'n'blues jambalaya. Definitive Aerosmith.
Guitar World met with Perry and Whitford at Aerosmith's
cramped Boston rehearsal space. Signs of the band's new health
consciousness were everywhere. Instead of empty beer cans, Crystal
Sparkling Mineral Water bottles littered the studio. Tow 100-wafer
bottles of chewable vitamin C tablets sat atop Joe' amp.
Still, some old habits die hard. At the foot of Steven Tyler's
scarf-draped mic stand sat a crate full of raunchy, low-grade porn
mags--the kind with few words and titles such as Young Chicks and
Motorcycle Sluts (to be fair, such reading material was scattered
throughout the studio. But *this* placement appeared a little
suspect).
Perry and Whitford looked fit, alert. Apart from their
rock'n'roll attire and faint New England accents, they appear to be
exact opposites. Bond and recently bearded, Whitford speaks slowly
and thoughtfully. Perry is the sharp fast-talker. Dark and lean, he
radiates the benefits of his recent workout obsession. Both come
off as extremely regular guys, lacking any rock star pretensions.
We retired to a quiet room and spoke among a crew of roaming cats.
Guitar World (GW): Did things change a lot when you got back
together?
Brad Whitford (BW): We did a lot of house cleaning during Done With
Mirrors, but we hadn't swept our brains out yet. We were trying to
use the same songwriting process we used in the mid-Seventies. We'd
start with four or five songs and try to write the rest in the
studio.
Joe Perry (JP): There were only eight or nine cuts on our records
because that's all we would have. That worked for Rocks and Toys in
the Attic because we were playing live a lot. We tried the same
approach on Mirrors, but the ideas were not there. We realized by
the end we were not happy with the record's quality.
BW: By the time Permanent Vacation came, we were in such a
different head space. Suddenly we were much healthier and the music
was flowing like it did in the early Seventies. Pump was written in
the same way the first album was. We did tons and tons of playing
and woodshedding--just letting ideas flow.
GW: What about changes in terms of guitar competition?
BW: We thought a lot about that, but Aerosmith's beauty is that it
is an incredible band. I don't have to be concerned about being a
virtuoso.
JP: I definitely felt some heat when the West Coast surge started.
We were originally influenced by the English. They had a
stranglehold--if you had an English accent, chances are you were
fucking happening. By the end of the Seventies it came around to
having kneepads and striped guitars. We could feel that shift when
Eddie came out with his classically based style. He put his guitar
through an Echoplex and it was killer. I felt some heat, but it's
a matter of focusing on what you got.
GW: When Permanent Vacation hit, I was surprised how you guys were
seen as very current--not at all musty or old.
JP: The only negative thing I remember hearing was that some of the
real hardcore head-hitters accused us of "selling out." They were
saying things like, "I don't know why you're doing a song like
Angel." I would counter with, "What about 'Dream On'?"
The difference between us and a band like the Stones is we
keep changing. Every album has a different texture. We're always
re-upping. It doesn't seem too stagnant. I think we'd all be
fucking bored if we put out an Eliminator and then came out with an
Afterburner. That isn't how we do things.
GW: Yeah, a lot of bands who have a successful record say they're
not going to repeat it, but they do. Pump sounds like you guys
said, "Hey, we just had a big hit. We can do anything we want."
Then actually did it.
BW: We never sit around and say, "It's gotta be more like that," or
"We gotta be careful we don't do that." What's done is done.
GW: Does it get harder to put out rock records as you get older?
Does it affect you that your peers might not listen to rock
anymore?
BW: Not really. It's got to clear with me first, and then I don't
give a shit about anyone else. It's the same for everyone in this
band.
JP: We're going to start getting some shots about our age. I'm
sure. But who gives a shit? People like the music, and that's all
that matters. I don't see anyone avoiding the Stones because DJ's
make jokes about them being a part of the Geritol set. All it does
is make the DJ's look stupid.
GW: But do you ever reach a point where you say, "Hey, I'm playing
to kids half my age"?
BW: It's wonderful it translates to so many people. I was reading
this thing yesterday about Dr. Porsche. Back in the Forties he
built this car because nobody else was building a car he liked. His
theory was, "If I build a car I like, maybe some other people will
appreciate it." That's what we've always done--played the music we
like. It so happens that a lot of other people appreciate it.
So I never had a problem. I really like what we do and I
really like rock music. I like it so much I just produced a record
for a Boston band called the Neighborhoods. I just love sitting in
a control room working with guys playing guitar rock. That's still
really where it's at for me.
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