Aerosmith frontman (and American Idol judge) Steven Tyler has a memoir out next week, and some are saying its account of rock-star excess is "even wilder and louder" than Keith Richards' Life. Here, seven takeaways from the book, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?:
1. Tyler wanted to name Aerosmith "The Hookers"
Aerosmith was almost called The Hookers, but drummer Joey Kramer had a better idea: Aerosmith. "The name evoked space — aerodynamics, supersonic thrust, Mach II, the sound barrier," writes Tyler.
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2. It was wild on the road, real wild
"To snort or not to snort," Tyler writes. "That wasn't even a question." He goes on to says that he can't recall how many times he was arrested.
3. He cleaned up, but then relapsed
Tyler says he stopped using drugs in the mid-1980s but relapsed in 2009 after the death of his mother. "During Thanksgiving I drank, did some blow again, and then Christmas was coming up so I had a guy bring me an eight ball of coke and a bunch of pills," he says. He later headed to the Betty Ford clinic, one of the eight rehab facilities he has visited over the years.
4. And the band nearly fired him
After a relapsed Tyler fell off a stage at a South Dakota concert in 2009, his bandmates didn't talk with him for 27 weeks, and nearly replaced him with another singer. "I got chastised for falling off the stage high," he says.
5. Some in the band are still using
While Aerosmith has claimed that they all sobered up in the 90s, Tyler says that they're not that squeaky clean. He writes that at least one member of the band was still using drugs when they went on tour last year. "It was a bit ironic and a thorn in my side, but not worth getting angry over after spending three months in rehab, that I came back to a band where someone was still using," he says. "I don't give a f—. I live for this band, but the world needs to know."
6. He didn't tell the band he was going on American Idol
When Tyler decided last summer to be a judge on Idol, he neglected to tell the rest of Aerosmith, even though they were touring together at the time. Guitarist Joe Perry found out in the press, and burst into Tyler's dressing room to confront him. He was pretty pissed, but now it's "all water under the bridge."
7. Tyler is still "creepy"
There's a lot of "groupie-talk" in the book, and given that both Tyler and his co-writer, David Dalton, are over the hill, it's a bit "creepy," says Geoff Edgers in The Boston Globe. "There are times, particularly the top of page 142, when Noise makes you feel as if you've just watched season three of To Catch a Predator."
Sources: AP, Entertainment Weekly, Boston Globe
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