“It was rough. There was no money. I was on the balls of my ass”: Aerosmith were one of the biggest American rock bands of the 1970s. And then it went to hell
This piece from Loudersound recounts how Aerosmith, one of the biggest American rock bands of the 1970s, imploded in the early 1980s under the weight of drug and alcohol addiction and internal conflict. It centres on singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry, both of whom were spiralling into substance abuse even as their professional fortunes collapsed, illustrating how personal dysfunction can unravel even hugely successful creative partnerships.
The article opens with a January 1980 gig in Maine where an intoxicated Tyler fakes a seizure onstage rather than admit he is too drunk to perform, backed by replacement guitarist Jimmy Crespo after Perry's departure. Perry had quit Aerosmith the previous year during recording of the album A Night In The Ruts, citing the band's "dysfunctional depression", and had gone on to lead his own outfit, the Joe Perry Project, which was itself being undermined by an alcoholic singer, Ralph Morman, whom Perry admits to punching. The piece notes the irony that Perry, drawing on his autobiography Rocks, was similarly struggling with heroin addiction and heavy drinking at the time.
- Aerosmith collapsed in early 1980s amid addiction and dysfunction.
- Steven Tyler faked a seizure onstage rather than admit drunkenness.
- Joe Perry had quit the band and battled his own heroin addiction.
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Aerosmith spent the 1970s as one of America's biggest rock bands, built on the partnership between singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry, sometimes nicknamed the "Toxic Twins" for their hard-living reputation. That reputation was not just image: both men were dealing with serious drug and alcohol problems that increasingly affected their ability to work together and to perform.
Perry left Aerosmith in 1979 while the band was making the album A Night In The Ruts, citing tension and unhappiness within the group, and was replaced by guitarist Jimmy Crespo. He went on to form his own band, the Joe Perry Project, though it too ran into difficulties, including problems with his singer's drinking. Tyler, meanwhile, continued fronting Aerosmith despite his own escalating substance use.
The story matters because it explains how one of rock's most successful acts nearly fell apart just a few years after reaching the height of its fame, and it sets up the wider, well-known narrative of Aerosmith's eventual split, decline and later comeback. Understanding this earlier period of addiction and conflict provides the context for how far the band had fallen before it later recovered.