Steven Tyler Done With Aerosmith?

The gossip around the Internet is that Steven Tyler is leaving Aerosmith. That move, which would for all intents and purposes break up the legendary band, seemed to be confirmed in an interview Joe Perry gave the Las Vegas Sun newspaper.

“Steven quit as far as I can tell,” Perry told the paper in an interview published Friday. “I don’t know anymore than you do about it. I got off the plane two nights ago. I saw online that Steven said that he was going to leave the band. I don’t know for how long, indefinitely or whatever. Other than that, I don’t know.”

Most of Aerosmith’s recent world tour was canceled in August after Tyler fell from the stage at a Sturgis, S.D., concert and broke his shoulder. The band members were unhappy with Tyler over the incident. However, Aerosmith salvaged the final leg of the tour, including two shows in Hawaii and one at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix before more than 50,000 fans.

Perry told the Sun he hopes to keep Aerosmith together, with or without Tyler, but he was so stunned by recent developments he doesn’t know what’s going to happen.

Meanwhile, talk on the AeroForceOne message boards was mostly about Tyler’s selfishness and the idea that “he's not Rod Stewart that split from the Faces while still in his 30's and had a whole career ahead of him.”

There’s no confirmation or denial from Steven Tyler at this point, other than a statement he made in an interview with Classic Rock magazine regarding his future plans: “It's definitely going to be something Steven Tyler, working on the brand of myself — Brand Tyler.”

In my opinion, Aerosmith is past their prime and would do well to call it a day. They haven’t been able to keep it together like the Stones have and they haven’t been able to consistently turn out rock music on a par with their earlier successes. The slick pop of albums like Just Push Play is an embarrassment to the band and to those of us who used to be fans.

Here are a couple of things from the 1991 Pandora’s Box compilation.

Lord of the Thighs (live-1978).mp3
I Wanna Know Why (live-1978).mp3
Chip Away the Stone (alt version).mp3
Helter Skelter.mp3

Labels: Aerosmith, classic rock, covers, current events, live albums, outtakes

posted by aikin @ 11:27 AM