Steven Tyler has lived a hard life.He is the front man for the band Aerosmith, and has a new job as judge on American Idol.
But dig deep into his past and you will see some of the shocking events that got him to where he is today.
In his new book, “Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?” Tyler talks about his youth and how he was just a normal kid spending most of his days outside,
“I was a mountain boy, barefoot and wild. I’d come back after an afternoon of killing with my slingshot and Red Ryder BB gun with a string of blue jays tied to my belt.”
During his teen years he met fellow band mates Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton and after attending Woodstock decided they should start a band – and the rest is history.
The one constant in the book is Tyler’s outrageous drug use, rehab, drug use, rehab pattern. At age 63 he says drugs are still a struggle and looks back at the years of use and the money spent saying,
“I kept drugs in the drum kits on stage so they would always be near me. I’ve blown $20 million on cocaine, heroin, and prescription drugs. I snorted my plane, I snorted my house. I just couldn’t stop.”
Tyler says he has been in and out of a dozen different rehabs but it always ended the same way – doing more drugs.
He writes that in Aerosmith’s heyday he was buying pounds of coke for $20,000 and snorting massive quantities off the top of bass amps in the studio and on stage. Once the cocaine didn’t satisfy his urges he started buying heroin and injecting it directly into his butt.
After finally getting away from the cocaine and heroin, he says he became addicted to prescription medication which was just as bad, if not worse, then using illegal drugs.
“Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?” is a great read for anybody who likes Aerosmith and the 1970-1980’s rock band lifestyle. But for those American Idol fans new to Steven Tyler you may be a little disappointed since he only talks briefly about the show.
But what a walk down memory lane it is for me. As a teenager I attended an Aerosmith concert at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis on July 4th, 1980. To this day I remember it. I was still in high school and Aerosmith was at their pinnacle of success.
It was classic, unlike anything bands do today. “Walk this way”, “Sweet Emotion”, “Walk the Dog”, “Toys in the Attic”. And that funny smell in the arena was so thick that we all felt the love.
No Steven - the noise in your head does not bother me. In fact as I write this post, a little voice in my head is singing the words to “Sweet Emotion”.
Man, I feel old now…
Watch Aerosmith Perform ‘Sweet Emotion’ Live
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