Aerosmith interview - ‘Totally destroying hotels...shit would fly...we’d wreck cars’ - 1994

In 1970, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Tom Hamilton moved to Boston, Massachusetts to form what would be become one of the greatest Rock N Roll bands to ever step foot on a stage, or enter a studio. The trio officially began writing music together in the summer of 1971 when guitarist Brad Whitford joined them which led to them landing a $125,000 major label record deal with Columbia Records that would eventually result in Aerosmith releasing their first, self-titled, debut record.


Dream On and Mama Kin would become huge hits for Aerosmith, both of which featured on this debut record, a record that would also set the band on a path of pure drug-induced addiction and destruction. “Sometimes it’s like slogging through a swamp,” says Joe Perry, speaking to a Brazillian journalist in 1994 when asked about fighting in the band and chaos on the road. “Ah..it used to happen like that, just totally destroying hotels and shit would fly, we’d wreck cars ya know, all that stuff,” as if to suggest this type of situation came with the daily territory of being a Rock N Roll star. Which, it did. Tyler and Perry are not shy about their drug use over the years and both have been through rehab to battle their addictions. “We were just drug addicts,” said Steven tyler, speaking in an interview from 2002.

As with many influential artists, some state that their drug use actually helped them write certain songs and records, or at least was a dominating factor in the material coming to fruition.

“There has to be an agitator, so that’s me,” says Steven Tyler, giving a cheeky grin to the camera as Joe Perry chuckles to himself. “I’m the one that get’s in there and see’s things different. We all get under each others skin every now and again, I tend to be a little bit more vocal about things and have certain opinions and speak my mind of the minute. I’m constantly saying I’m sorry for saying it a little too forcefully. I know how much trouble my mouth gets me into.”

“We were all heavily into drugs and it takes its toll, in that, you don’t concentrate or focus on what’s really needed to be done here,” Tyler explains. “I was at the height of my bottom, so to speak, and not really being there and taking too long and I guess the guys got bummed out about that.” Tyler referring to his increasingly out of control drug use during the late 70s and early 80s, shortly before completing rehab in 1986. Despite this internal conflict, Aerosmith powered through the 80s and released one of their most successful albums to date, Pump, in 1989, which went on to sell millions of copies. Aerosmith also enjoyed three Top Ten singles with, Love in an Elevator, Janie's Got a Gun, and What It Takes.

“Everybody had their own pet addiction, ya know,” says Perry. “But it was all that stuff, it was the drugs, and then on top of that it was like the ex-wives, the managers, the money, it was all...it just exploded and the only way to deal with it was to break up, it melted down.”

In 1980, Joe Perry decided to start his own solo project and released his first solo debut, Let the Music Do the Talking. He would also go on to release, I've Got the Rock'n'Rolls Again in 1981, and, Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker in 1983 in the same era. “I had a couple of different bands and I put out three records on my own,” says Perry. “Looking back in retrospect, it was the best thing that could have ever happened,” says Tyler.