Steven Tyler: The Biography

by Laura Jackson

  In late August the focus, health-wise, switched from Steven to bass player Tom Hamilton, when it was announced that he would be unable to take part in most of the upcoming Route of All Evil tour because of having to undergo treatment for throat cancer. Anxious for their bandmate to make a full recovery, Aerosmith enlisted David Hull, a bassist who had played with the Joe Perry Project, to fill Tom’s shoes. News then emerged that their plans to release a new studio album in 2007 had had to be pushed back. Perry stated: ‘We just could not do it. There wasn’t enough time.’ Instead, it was decided to release a compilation album. Comprising hits from throughout the band’s career, this work also featured two new songs - a hard rock number, ‘Devil’s Got a New Disguise’, and by contrast a mellow country rock song called ‘Sedona Sunrise’. As work on this tide-over release began, the tour loomed large, and although Steven had been on song performing live in Boston and in the recording studio, there was concern that the strain of singing night after night in concert for over three months could take its toll.

  The Aerosmith and Motley Crue Route of All Evil tour of north America and Canada kicked off on 5 September 2006 with a performance at the Germain Amphitheatre in Columbus, Ohio, and quickly into this trek such fears evaporated. The hard rock spectacle went down a storm with fans and critics alike. Kerrang magazine enthusiastically weighed in with its opinion of one of the early shows: ‘Aerosmith proved why many deem them America’s greatest rock band whether it was born in the 1970s, ’80s or ’90s. Aerosmith seamlessly create a scrapbook of everything good rock was and, God willing, will always be.’

  Less than three weeks later, with everyone on a high, having just played in Camden, New Jersey, Aerosmith had their sights set on a gig at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts, when Steven dropped the bombshell news that he had been keeping under wraps for so long. Interviewed by Nancy O’Dell on the US television show Access Hollywood, he revealed that he had been diagnosed three years earlier with hepatitis C. When the show was aired on 25 September, this news went global.

  Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral infection most commonly spread through unprotected sex or sharing needles. It can damage the liver, potentially leading to chronic conditions such as cirrhosis or liver cancer. Being hard to detect, it is labelled the silent killer, because people can have it and not know. Steven had specifically got himself tested for hepatitis C, and although he was diagnosed with the infection in 2003, he discovered that he had had it for a long time, asymptomatic. Steven revealed: ‘The band took a break about three years ago and my doctor said it’s eleven months of chemotherapy. So I went on that and it about killed me.’ He underwent a year-long ordeal of prescription medication and injections of the powerful anti-viral drug interferon to treat the condition and to strengthen his immune system. The result was that hepatitis C was non-detectable in his bloodstream.

  With this tough battle fought in such secrecy now out in the open, Steven could tell television audiences and newspaper readers how extremely difficult it had been for him. He spoke movingly of times at home when he had suffered blackouts because of the treatment and had woken up disoriented, with nosebleeds. He also revealed: ‘Your hair falls out, your nails turn yellow, you throw up, you sweat all night.’ As he told the New York Daily News: ‘It really hurt. It was a bad, bad period. I’m in Alcoholics Anonymous and I tried to go three, four, five months with nothing and it, too, about killed me!’ What made his ordeal even more poignantly sad is that he had been struggling with this devastating diagnosis and arduous treatment at the same time as his marriage to Teresa had gone on the rocks. He later said of this testing experience: ‘It was pretty catastrophic. I got through, one day at a time. Anybody who has been through chemotherapy knows, it sucks.’

  When news of Steven’s ordeal became public, it was often pointed out that other celebrity sufferers of hepatitis C include Dallas star Larry Hagman and Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson but, according to the World Health Organisation, there are around six hundred million people around the globe suffering from hepatitis B and C. Now that hepatitis C was non-existent in him, Steven had chosen to reveal his own private battle in order to help raise awareness about this pernicious condition. He wanted to stress that ignorance was not an option - that people potentially at risk would do well to get tested, because hepatitis C is treatable.

  Following this revelation, all eyes were fixed on Steven when Aerosmith took to the stage on 26 September in Mansfield, Massachusetts, for the first of two dates there. Perhaps going all out to prove that he had come through the trauma and was back to fighting form, Steven turned on the magic in stunning form. The tour trundled on.

  Around this time, Aerosmith released the compilation album titled Devil’s Got a New Disguise - The Very Best of Aerosmith, which charted on Billboard at number thirty-three. The title track was released as a single, but did not make that US survey. At the end of October, the album was released in Britain and Europe.

  After gigging through Kansas, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina, and playing to crowds on the west coast of America, Aerosmith headed east through Texas to Florida where on 24 November they played in West Palm Beach at the Sound Advice Amphitheatre. Earlier that day, Tyler was back in helpful mode as, once again, he dished up Thanksgiving dinners, this time to the needy at a restaurant in town. When the band took to the stage in the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan, at the beginning of December, Steven was thrilled to officially welcome a recovering Tom Hamilton back to the band. The bassist often jests that he, Brad Whitford and Joey Kramer are somehow viewed as less important Aerosmith members than Joe and Steven but there was no disguising the Blue Army’s pleasure at seeing Hamilton back in place.

  With a further four gigs around Canada and three US pit stops, the Route of All Evil tour culminated in mid-December 2006 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California. The critical acclaim that greeted the launch of this tour had been sustained throughout, and to Steven’s great relief his voice had held out well. He still had to concentrate on building his health and strength, however, after the battering his system had taken during his treatment for hepatitis C, but there was every reason to feel optimistic. Good news also came on 20 December, when Tom Hamilton officially announced to fans that, following a recent scan, he was now pronounced to be cancer free.

  For Steven, stepping off tour meant disappearing back into the recording studio to pick up where Aerosmith had left off on work for their next album - but not for long. By late January it was all change again when it was announced that the band planned to embark on a 2007 world tour that would embrace new challenges by pushing into new territories. It sometimes seemed physically impossible for Aerosmith to stand still.

  This itch to keep on the move did not prevent Steven from once again taking stock of his personal life. A year on from his second divorce, he was prepared to cite the hectic touring side of his career as having played a significant part in the disintegration of his marriage to Teresa. While it cannot be considered a great life following a husband around from concert to concert saying wow every night and living on the road, in and out of hotel rooms, travelling across America and the world, Steven’s stance was that that was what he was - a rock star who loves to be out on stage, entertaining. He has made no secret that he adores what he does - giving live performances particularly - and that it is not a shallow existence to him. Sharing that demanding life, right then, was a new long-legged blonde girlfriend, tour promoter Erin Brady. She and Steven had met and become an item during his recovery from throat surgery the previous year.

  Steven considered himself very fortunate that his elderly parents were still alive, and was patently excited that his daughter Chelsea, now eighteen years old, was showing signs of being drawn to his craft. He was thrilled when one day he walked in and found her trying to compose a song. He enjoyed keeping tabs on the development of all four of his offspring and his grandson, Milo.

  As a father and grandfather, Steven found himself focusing e
ven more on issues outside music. America’s military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and the tension with Iran exercised the minds of most Americans, and an organisation called the Peace Alliance supported a campaign in the United States to have a department of peace set up within the government. Over the weekend of 3-5 February 2007, the Peace Alliance held a conference in Washington DC that was attended by nearly one thousand people, including a number of prominent individuals from several walks of life - Steven was one of them. The conference climaxed with a rally held at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium, at which Steven gave a crowd-stirring performance that punctuated proceedings and left the peace activists optimistic that they had made a mark on America’s seat of power, Capitol Hill.

  Tyler was on a more familiar platform soon after when Aerosmith flew to London to play a ‘secret gig’ at the capital’s Hard Rock Café on 19 February. It had been eight years since they had last played in London, at Wembley Stadium. This somewhat more intimate 150-strong invite-only crowd was served up a set that blended blues, rock and ballads. Band and audience enjoyed indulging in this celebration of Aerosmith’s past glories, but queries regarding the band’s future persisted; these were only strengthened when it transpired that their already long-awaited fifteenth studio album would not see the light of day until 2008.

  All their energies had to be channelled into preparing for the world tour, which commenced with a sold-out gig on 12 April at the Morumbi Stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Moving on to an appearance at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, Aerosmith headed from Argentina to Mexico where, three gigs later, they concluded the Latin American leg at the Foro Sol in Mexico City. A single north American concert in late April at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas then signalled a month’s rest before the band took off again.

  Steven was more keyed up than usual. Over the span of the six-week second leg, in addition to playing on familiar turf, Aerosmith would be performing live to fans in five countries for the first time; the first of these was the United Arab Emirates. Arriving in the Gulf in late May, however, Tyler had a special appointment to keep. Along with Tom, Brad and Joey, he visited American sailors and marines aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz which, commanded by Captain Mike Manazir, was on its first Middle East port visit. For most of the US servicemen and women, this came as a complete surprise and their excitement was palpable. Storekeeper First Class Jacob Rico, an ardent Aerosmith fan anyway, could not believe his eyes when he spotted the frontman in the flesh. Rico later enthused: ‘It was cool! Steven Tyler just looked up at me and said: “This is a big ship!” I said: “Yeah! Come on up!”’ The four rock stars were cheered and applauded as they were given a guided tour of the ship. Over the vessel’s address system, Steven yelled: ‘Hi everybody. This is Aerosmith. Hope you guys are playing safe.’ Then he spent time on the ceremonial quarterdeck, talking with fans, signing autographs and posing for pictures.

  The next evening, 31 May 2007, Steven led Aerosmith out on stage before sixteen thousand fans corralled into the Dubai Autodrome, to be greeted with a rapturous reception. During the two-hour show, Tyler’s voice got a rest when in particular songs, after the opening line, the fans took over and sang the hit back to the band. The audience especially appreciated it when for the encore Steven - famous for his dance moves in performance - took time to learn how to throw new shapes from the traditional Arab dancer who accompanied the band on stage.

  From the Gulf, Aerosmith travelled to India, touching down just as monsoon conditions were forecast to sweep in. Their single gig in this country took place in early June in Bangalore’s impressive Palace Grounds, situated in the heart of the bustling city. Bangalore was no stranger to rock shows, having played host to British hard rock acts including the Rolling Stones, but this again was virgin territory for the American stars. With another nod to an unfamiliar culture, Steven had learned some Hindi words, which he tried out on their massive audience, who managed to stay dry as the predicted downpour never materialised. It did not matter whether the star’s attempt at this language was entirely accurate - the fans who had come in their droves from around the subcontinent appreciated the courtesy.

  At fifty-nine years old, Steven defied the odds in so many ways; to the excitable crowds he was akin to a disreputable Peter Pan. From the back of packed arenas he appeared to have remained unchanged for the past three decades. Time could almost stand still in this respect for the duration of an Aerosmith gig. Tyler admitted that he had no idea what the secret of the band’s longevity was. In the past thirty-seven years he had seen other acts blow themselves out, crash and burn or never get off the starting blocks, and while all the turmoil he and the band had endured would have finished many others off, in a weird way these travails formed part of the glue that essentially bound the band together. Although there was still an element of volatility in the band, each man had become more adept at keeping things in perspective.

  One aspect of his busy life Steven would never get used to was missing milestones in his family’s lives. While Aerosmith was in the Middle East, Chelsea had graduated from high school. Steven would have preferred to be there and felt bad at having to explain to her that in order to be present at her graduation it would have meant unravelling a multi-million-dollar-earning world tour. When asked about his home life, Steven declared emotionally: ‘I am one proud papa and grandpa. It’s strange how life works out. One day, you’re in a haze, the next you are a family man.’

  Steven’s ambitions for where his band could yet go remained undiminished. On this tour he maintained: ‘Every day brings us something new and we do it, we try it.’ But Joe Perry used a broader brush stroke. ‘Steven lives and breathes Aerosmith,’ he told the UK’s Daily Telegraph. ‘For me, sometimes, it’s just a way to make a living. I’m not part of that celebrity thing. I don’t need that.’

  Tyler had long ago shrugged off comparisons to Mick Jagger, but at times he happily aligned certain aspects of their respective public personas. Citing Jagger, Iggy Pop and himself as singers with not the greatest voices in the world, he pointed out that the vital factor common to all three of them was that they each had attitude!

  After India, Aerosmith targeted Scandinavia, commencing in Randers, Denmark, where Tyler’s manic on-stage energy gingered up proceedings before the massed crowd in Essex Park. A few rock festival appearances had been sewn into this leg, including appearances in Solvesborg, Sweden, and at the Hessentag Fair in Frankfurt. Quitting Germany in mid-June, after a single gig at the Bercy Arena in Paris, France, the band joined other acts performing at Belgium’s Graspop Festival in Dessel. Aerosmith’s strong appeal to European fans had been brought home to Steven and, already exhilarated by the tour’s runaway success, he was wildly anticipating the next pit stop, for when he and the band boarded the plane from Belgium, the destination was London where they were to headline at the two-day Hyde Park Calling Festival.

  On the weekend of 23-24 June 2007, Britain was battered by torrential rain, but nothing could dampen Steven’s enthusiasm. Even the normally laconic and laid-back Joe Perry was visibly wired. He declared: ‘It is really exciting to think that Hyde Park is going to be filled with eighty thousand maniacs and we get to play for them!’

  The two-day Hyde Park Calling festival had been launched the year before, when headliners included Primal Scream and the Who. For this year’s event it was expanded to include three stages. On 23 June, Peter Gabriel and Crowded House held court on stage number one. The next night, Aerosmith were to cap the festival. Revved up during the day, Tyler told journalists that he could not wait to get up behind the microphone and ‘kick some ass’. He stressed: ‘At the end of the day, it’s really about having a good time and letting loose. My dad used to tell me: “Musicians and cooks - they are the ones, because everyone has to eat and at the end of the day they want to get up and dance.”’

  On Sunday evening, as the heavens again opened and drenched the 45,000-strong horde jostling in front of stage number one, act
s Jet, the Answer and Chris Cornell played their sets before Aerosmith erupted on stage to power their way through a scintillating one-hour show, belting out one blistering hit after another. One reviewer recalled: ‘Strutting around the stage like only he can, Tyler had the audience in the palm of his hand from the opener, “Love in an Elevator”.’ The climax of the show saw Aerosmith joined on stage during the encore by rapper Darryl McDaniels of Run D.M.C. for a riotous rap-rock rendition of ‘Walk This Way’, which sent the already delirious audience into orbit. Darryl McDaniels spoke soon after to the media about the experience: ‘The thirty years I have been in this business just ran past my eyes. It was awesome because you feed off the crowd.’ With immaculate timing, the show ended on the dot of the 10.30 p.m. curfew imposed on the event by London authorities. Tyler told the crowd: ‘The cops are turning off the power.’