Before Steven Tyler checked himself into rehab last week, some of his Aerosmith bandmates were left to wonder publicly what was going on with their troubled frontman. It all started with a canceled summer tour followed by comments that Tyler made to a reporter after a music festival appearance.
In November, Steven Tyler told Classic Rock, "I don't know what I'm doing yet, but it's definitely going to be something Steven Tyler: working on the brand of myself – Brand Tyler." moreBut even before those comments there was trouble in paradise. In September Joe Perry spoke with AP about the canceled tour: "The tour was building up to be a great tour, and I was pretty (upset), you know," Perry said. The guitarist hasn't even spoken to Tyler recently: "I haven't talked to him in over five weeks. I don't know what's going on with him. I hear he's getting better, but I don't know I really don't know what's going on with him. more. A few weeks later he told Billboard: "The thing that bothers me the most is how it affects the fans. The only reason you're there is because of the fans. You owe them a lot, and when you start taking them for granted, it's just wrong. I think that a lot of what happened with Aerosmith over the last two or three years has been a case of that. And I'm not talking about everybody in the band. I think at this point the four band members are willing to not play for a while until the fifth member gets together and decides to come and join us again." more
Then on November 9th Joe Perry dropped the bombshell: He tells the Las Vegas Sun: "Steven quit as far as I can tell. I don't know any more than you do about it. I got off the plane and saw online that Steven said he was leaving. I don't know for how long." more.
The next day Joe Perry said that he and his Aerosmith bandmates were "positively looking for a new singer to work with," following a rift with energetic frontman Steven Tyler.
A couple of days after that Tyler attended the 2009 Glamour Women of the Year awards and when asked if he was leaving the band, he responded, "does it look like I'm leaving Aerosmith?" He then reportedly added, "You know what it is, it's those people who are putting out Joe's [Perry's new solo] album." more.
The next day Perry told AP that he thinks front man Steven Tyler wants to take some time off from the band — even though the two appeared together on a New York stage. "As it stands, Steven wants to take a couple years off and do some of whatever he wants to do and the rest of the band wants to keep working," Perry said in a telephone interview. "The band is a really well-oiled machine and we're going to work one way or another and I don't know what form that's going to take," he added. more
Perry wasn't the only one concerned: "I suspect there's a lot more going on than we know about," Aerosmith's Brad Whitford told Reuters. "He has a well-documented history of drug abuse, and I find myself very suspicious. I haven't seen him do this or ... have any personal knowledge, but the isolation is very typical of addictive behavior, and his -- what I call -- irrational behavior."
Joey Kramer says in a different interview "Steven has made some poor choices as of late, and he's got some bad influences around him, and I think that for the most part he's his own worst enemy ... I just really hope that Steven puts the focus on Steven and gets healthy."
And then right before Thanksgiving: Steven Tyler is taking some time off to write a book while his injured shoulder heals. Guitarist Joe Perry recently claimed Tyler is planning to take a "two-year" hiatus, leaving the band in turmoil. However, a spokesperson for the frontman is adamant Tyler is just taking a quick break while he recovers from a shoulder injury. more
Finally last week, Tyler checked into rehab and expressed his desire to return to Aerosmith: "With the help of my family and team of medical professionals, I am taking responsibility for the management of my pain and am eager to be back on the stage and in the recording studio with my bandmates Joe Perry, Joey Kramer, Tom Hamilton and Brad Whitford." more
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