Free Steven Tyler: The Biography by Laura Jackson Page B

found it profoundly irritating to see Aerosmith dubbed an overnight success. In one frank exchange with journalists he talked of his intense dislike for those people who had not believed in Aerosmith at the outset, mourning the fact that there was no way he could get back at them. Not vindictive by nature, it was an interesting indicator as to how deep previous cuts had gone with him.
    Aerosmith started the new year as one of America’s hottest rock properties; by securing the hitherto elusive AM radio airplay their debut album finally peaked at number twenty-one. Also in spring, ‘Dream On’ lodged at number six on Billboard’s singles chart, providing the band with their first Top 10 hit record. Soon the tangible signs of their increasing wealth came in the shape of luxury cars. As the era of merchandising was taking off, Aerosmith acquired a logo featuring wings, the initial A and the band name. The business side of affairs flourished, establishing their identity even more firmly in the public’s consciousness.
    The year before, bassist Tom Hamilton had married his girlfriend, Terry Cohen. Now, in February 1976, rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford wed Lori Phillips. By this time, work had already begun on the band’s fourth album at the Wherehouse, a rented converted warehouse in Pond Street, Waltham, Massachusetts. This hard rock song collection included ‘Lick and a Promise’, which Steven said dealt with setting out to win over an audience, and ‘Rats in the Cellar’, a counterpoint in one sense to ‘Toys in the Attic’. Of ‘Rats in the Cellar’, Tom Hamilton declared that Tyler and Perry were: ‘taking the thing the Yardbirds created and making it balls to the wall’. ‘Rhythm and sex go together,’ maintained Joe Perry, who co-created with Steven the ambiguous ‘Back in the Saddle’. Another hard rock song was ‘Nobody’s Fault’ - a Tyler/Whitford number about the San Andreas geological fault that runs through California. Steven and Tom came up with ‘Sick as a Dog’, and one of Tyler’s favourite songs was ‘Last Child’, on which he and Brad again worked. Said Brad: ‘Steven likes some oddball things, kind of out of the way riffs.’ Steven’s only solo composition was a ballad titled ‘Home Tonight’, while Joe Perry’s first solo song, ‘Combination’, proved to be a cautionary tale about the dangers of giving drugs free rein - advice that was being completely ignored by everyone in the band.
    With substance abuse in Aerosmith plumbing new depths, Steven was sinking further into the mire. Once asked what his favourite drug combination had been, he replied: ‘I guess that would have been Brumpton’s Cocktail. That’s a mixture of cocaine, alcoholic spirits, morphine and syrup - delicious!’ Joe was later brutally honest about the seductive allure of heroin before it turned on him. He confessed to writing the music to songs for this new album while lying on the floor, totally stoned on heroin.
    At the Wherehouse in Waltham, rehearsals got under way. The fan mail in Steven’s office in-tray was mushrooming by the day, and they were surrounded by a circus of people, including drug dealers who came and went. Years later it emerged that Aerosmith’s growing riches were not being handled with the tightest possible rein. One decided downside of being as high as kites or dope-sick was not knowing precisely what was going on around them.
    On the other hand, Tyler credited drugs with helping him to become more creative. He was working mainly in a spontaneous way, responding to a sound and finding inspiration flowing forth. When recording got under way at Record Plant Studios in New York, with producer Jack Douglas, Tyler would again vanish to the cold stairwell and furiously scribble lyrics, sometimes by the ream. Writing while stoned was one thing, but being high also made recording an arduous process; often dozens of takes were required to get a single song down properly. Yet when