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(When asked if he is ever embarrassed or annoyed by Steven) "Constantly! Constantly.
All of the above! But you know, that's what's great about it. There's a brother thing
going on there. We've been through so much together. He forgives me for my stoicism
and my hard-headedness, and I likewise do the same with his flamboyance. I mean, he
only hits me with the microphone like once or twice a tour. And he regrets it when he
does! But it's fun watching him, and it's just not in my nature to do that. I suppose if it
was up to me, we'd wear black suits and sunglasses and just stand there and play. Oh
man, he definitely gets dressed in the closet with the light off." -- Joe Perry
"You know, I definitely enjoy it, to be this close to that kind of insanity every day."
-- Joe Perry
(Joe on writer's block):"I think there was a time when I used to feel that way, but...it's
like I'm past caring anymore. I know that it's gonna come out as good as it's gonna
come out, and I know from history that people just don't lose it, y'know what I mean?"
-- Joe Perry
"I know that some of the great painters and some of the great artists didn't even start
to 'peak', as you say, till they were in their fifties and sixties. And God knows, history is
full of artistic people that weren't even recognized till they were dead and gone."
-- Joe Perry
"I know that the gift that God gave me isn't gonna just wither up and die unless I let it
die, so it's a matter of me having the faith that it's gonna come out. Whether or not the
public's gonna like it is another story. But I think as long as I keep changing and
sticking to what I really love - and the same goes for Steven and the other guys in
the band - then people are gonna like it." -- Joe Perry
"Music is music you don't have to put a label on it" -- Joe Perry
"The '70's came and went already" -- Joe Perry
"We have sex 2,3 times a day. In fact, we are late right now" -- Joe Perry
"This is our tour - don't fuck with our music" -- Joe Perry
"We like each other just enough" -- Joe Perry
"Is that a drug reference, I thought we gave up on the drugs" -- Joe Perry
"I think I had my drink for next years Christmas about seven years ago!" -- Joe Perry
"We were so fucked up, we couldn't even get into a studio & stay awake!" -- Joe Perry
"You've got to keep your body in good working order. Otherwise, how else are you
gonna be able to fuck all night?" -- Joe Perry
"When those bass bins are cranking, it does something to you physically. We have
these special sub-woofers. You don't really hear them, but it shakes you in the right
places. You can call it the devil, you can call it God's gift." -- Joe Perry
"We're just entertainers. We're here to make people happy, to make them SMILE.
That's what Steve does with his lyrics. God it'd be boring if it was all just boy meets
girl...C'mon, we're here to have a good time!" -- Joe Perry
"What I like about Aerosmith, and what we always try to do, is to keep the balance of
fun. There's enough shit going on--you don't need to come to our shows and have
your face rubbed in it too." -- Joe Perry
(about Lightning Strikes..) "It's one of my favourite Aerosmith songs. I was pissed off
that I didn't get to play on it, so I make up for it every night when we play it live!"
-- Joe Perry
(more about Lightning Strikes..) "It's one of my favourite songs to play live--but just to
show where I was at, I wouldn't listen to it at the time, 'cause in my mind it was shit."
-- Joe Perry
"Rhythm and sex go together and that's where I come from as far as the music goes.
Rag Doll and Love In An Elevator are such sexual songs that you put them on & the
strippers go NUTS!" -- Joe Perry
"If you take your last album & try to copy it, then that's sure to hell the way to
stagnation. And that makes me bored...and if I'm bored then the music is boring and
so are the band!" -- Joe Perry
"Steven and I stood on the stage at the Boston Garden after the Stones had just
played there and the stage was still up. We had been playing cards, maybe a
high-school dance, to 400 or 500, maybe a thousand. We just stood on the stage
and thought, 'Well, man, maybe someday.' In 4 years that was OUR stage." -- Joe Perry
"I think we're just a garage band that got lucky. It's the enthusiasm from the audience
that keeps it going." -- Joe Perry
"The kids in the audience still get together and do whatever the fuck they want. From
the crowds we've played for, from the very beginning until now, they all get off when
we're singing 'Come Together'--'One thing I can tell you is you got to be free.' The kids
go nuts when you say that. It's a tribal thing. Rock-n-Roll is about freedom. Even if the
kids aren't there just to hear the band, it's a meeting place. The lights go down, they
get anonymous, some of them go a little nuts, but it's okay." -- Joe Perry
"I don't need to speak...I play the guitar!" -- Joe Perry
"I never envisioned what I was doing as part of a career." -- Joe Perry
(Before playing Stop Messin' at a concert), "For all the ladies and gentlemen and ships
at sea out there in radio land ..." -- Joe Perry
"Good night, God bless you, and don't forget to wear a rubber." -- Steven Tyler
After firing Megadeth as their opening act, Steven Tyler was quoted as saying: "We
would like to help you out. Which way did you come in?"
"Don't tell me what to do! I'm having fun!" -- Joe Perry
"Whether it's fine artists, musical artists, or ultra right wing bull shit artists, we all need
the right to freedom of expression" -- Steven Tyler
"Steven's got a lot more time to be obsessed with sex now that he's not fucked up"
-- Tom Hamilton
"Younger bands are into jerking off and we're into fucking. That's all there is to it!"
-- Steven Tyler
What Steven Tyler wants on his Tombstone:
"Here lies Tyler, the Demon of Screamin', Who never woke up from the Dream he
was Dreamin' Until one day he drank some magic potion--Now all that's left is
Sweet Emotion."
"I heard that your brain stops growing when you start doing drugs. Let's see, I guess
that makes me 19." -- Steven Tyler
"Shit fire and save matches, fuck an duck and see what hatches" -- Steven Tyler
"Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll. Get rid of the drugs, and you have more room for
the other two." -- Steven Tyler
"F-c-k; all that's missing is 'u'!" -- Steven Tyler
"Of all the things I've ever lost, I miss my mind the most." -- Steven Tyler
"People thought we were all washed up. But we came back to KICK SOME ASS."
-- Steven Tyler
"Keep your nose to the grindstone. It sharpens your boogers." -- Steven Tyler
"It's not the COUGH that carries you OFF. . . . It's the COFFIN they carry you OFF IN."
-- Steven Tyler
"The things that come to those who wait may be the things left behind by those who
got there first." -- Steven Tyler
"Good night, everyone- and remember- in this world, if you wanna get ahead, you gotta
learn to give a little!" -- Steven Tyler
"I'm fuckin' flyin' baby!" -- Steven Tyler
"Moist. That's a good word. I like that word!" -- Steven Tyler
"It's R&B. It's those 2s and 4s. It's like fucking...you know? You can really fuck to a
good Aerosmith song!" -- Steven Tyler
"I love women. I love every bone in their body. Especially mine!" -- Steven Tyler
"It's as clear as the balls on a tall dog." -- Steven Tyler
"Just saying no to drugs is like just saying cheer up to a manic depressant"
-- Steven Tyler
"Now that I'm sober, I deserve to get laid." -- Steven Tyler
"Was I the Lord of the Thighs? Fuck yeah." -- Steven Tyler
"Herd Sheep"...What Steven Tyler replied when asked what he would do if he was the
last person on earth.
"You have no idea how much it costs to look this cheap" -- Steven Tyler
"We haven't quite been able to put together the deal for the shuttle -- we want to be
the lounge act. Be the first band to play weightless!" -- Steven Tyler
"I just want Aerosmith to always give me a hard-on, that's all I ever ask for, for it to be
the most special thing in my life. As long as I look at it through those eyes, it will always
be that way." -- Steven Tyler
"Rock 'n' Roll is about a backbeat you can fuck to, but it's also about saying 'fuck you'
to people who don't get off on freedom. We're protecting our right to rock."
-- Steven Tyler
"You have to grab hold. Sometimes it's your crotch, sometimes its reality. I'm still
screaming about what's inside me but now a lot of that relates to what's happening in
the world outside. Everybody likes to blame shit on everybody else so they don't have
to own up to it themselves." -- Steven Tyler
"I remember the first guy who offered me a joint in the bathroom. I said 'No, man, I've
got enough problems.'" -- Steven Tyler
"When I let the kid out, he stays out. That's why I'm in rock n' roll." -- Steven Tyler
"Rock 'n' roll is sexuality personified. It is attitude. It is all the things that your parents
told you not to do. It's the freedom to express yourself. It's being alive. It expresses
the times. It's a magazine, a newspaper that tells the truth. If you listen to rap today, it's
all about the truth. And that's what we all want. Just give me a little truth." -- Steven Tyler
"Confuscious says that crowded elevators smell differently to midgets!!" -- Steven Tyler
(On the Jagger comparisons, when asked what he had to say to people who said he
looked like Jagger) "I say jeans. Well what can I say? People who think I look like
Jagger never met him. These little innuendos about me by people sitting thirty rows
back, and all they see is that blond cat next to me as Brian Jones. And Joe as Keith
Richards. And I'm supposed to be Jagger, running around. Shit. Jagger makes up for
his whole group. He never stops prancing and dancing while the rest of them just
stand there." -- Steven Tyler
(On Amazing) "The more I look back at my life and the things that we did, the more I
think there's got to have been a plan for this band, either by a higher power or an angel
of mercy. I mean, that's how I like to look at it now, because for all the shit I did,
someone threw me a rope. I look back on the times I OD-ed, didn't have any money
left in the bank, was let go off CBS because the band sucked, couldn't even get my
shit together to change my clothes, but look at us now. When you actually look back,
it's pretty damn amazing, hence the song." -- Steven Tyler
"Even in the old days, we'd make an effort. When I'd go out to score on Eighth
Avenue, I'd get my junk and a chocolate doughnut. But I'd always also pick up one of
those pita-pocket health food sandwiches. You know, something really good for me."
-- Steven Tyler
(On girls) "We can look, but we'd better not touch." -- Steven Tyler
"I'd met Mick Jagger years ago when he invited me to his house in Malibu, but back
then I was too gagged to my fucking ear lobes in coke and Tuinals. I was barely in
shape to knock on the door. But this time it was very beautiful. The limo pulled into his
tent in the tent city, and he had a crib there for his daughter. We hugged, and I told
Mick, 'You don't know what it means to be standing here with you after all these years.
It's amazing, because I woke up this morning and I got my weekly report from the
office, and right next to Aerosmith at Number Two in airplay R&R is the Stones album at
Number One.' Of course, deep inside I'm thinking to myself, 'And watch out, because
we're going to knock you right off the charts, motherfucker.' " -- Steven Tyler
"Its cool when I meet young guys from other bands who say how much an impact
Aerosmith has had on them and how much they like me.I'll give 'em that 'C'mon you
don't mean that' routine, but in my heart I know where they're coming from. If I had
grown up in the '70's and was into rock n' roll, I know the kind of impact Aerosmith
would have had on me. I know the kind of impact that Elvis and Jagger had on me,
and while I'm not comparing myself to those guys, I can relate." -- Steven Tyler
"A lot of bands have managed to borrow parts of our style for their music. That's fine
with me, because we've borrowed from people like the Stones. But we don't want to
sound like we're copying anyone, including ourselves, so we're moving on."
-- Steven Tyler
"What makes me feel good is that after all these years, the ideas that Joe Perry came
up with worked and all the kids loved it." -- Steven Tyler
"We were the guys you could actually see. It wasn't like Zeppelin was out there on the
road in America all the time, the Stones weren't always coming to your town. We were
America's band-the garage band that made it real big, the ultimate party band."
-- Steven Tyler
"Hey, man, if anyone ever tried to smack any of the 5 of us, they'd be shot."
-- Steven Tyler
"We were one of the biggest bands in the world. No one tried to tell us ANYTHING.
And if they did- they were history." -- Steven Tyler
"When people think of Aerosmith, I want them to think of the music we've made and
nothing else. I don't want the responsibility of some young kid trying to live his life like I
did back in the '70's." -- Steven Tyler
"I wait till the last minute to do lyrics. I seem to work best that way - bummed out and
under pressure. I often don't do my homework. But I'll always walk that extra mile."
-- Steven Tyler
(what Steven Tyler would like to be reincarnated as) "An osprey or an eagle, they're
so endangered."
(explaining the secret of the universe) "Sex:It certainly makes you one with each other
for that brief fleeting moment...those X and Y chromosomes. And also I think it's
learning how to get out of your own way. Learn to get out of your own way and shit
flows through you." -- Steven Tyler
"Kurt Cobain, when he did his videos, you look into his eyes and he couldn't even face
the camera; he was in pain and I'm angry about Kurt. This guy didn't have to die."
-- Steven Tyler
(describing himself in 3 words) "Late, great, debate." -- Steven Tyler
"Its hard for me when they call me things like the Godfather of Hard Rock. Its almost
like I'm really shy and don't wanna hear it. I'm honoured, but I get kinda embarrassed.
I can't act like I'm a Godfather because I don't think I am one mentally. When they say
that to me, I say 'Where's the hubbub? I'm just a fuckin asshole like you are.' "
-- Steven Tyler |  |
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"It's like, have you got the balls? If you were waiting for an elevator and the door
opened up and there was 2 people in there fucking-would you get on?" -- Steven Tyler
"Nothing feels better than somebody telling you the truth. Because what have you got
to lose? 'You're an asshole.' No I'm not, that's how I feel." -- Steven Tyler
"We're in this on a day-to-day basis. There's not a certain point in the future where we
say, 'Well here we are, there's $X million in the bank. We've done it, lets pack it in
now.' It's a case of the old thing- its not the destination, its the journey." -- Steven Tyler
"Aerosmith-one of the 10 best bands today? Yeah definitely." -- Steven Tyler
"If it shakes you in the right places, it's Gods gift." -- Steven Tyler
"My get up and go has not got up and went." -- Steven Tyler
(about the days of drugs and excess). "I used to think that I spent so much time getting
high on stage in the 70's and 80's that I didn't take advantage of the ladies...I was in
some corner somewhere. That's a regret, it's not much." -- Steven Tyler
"All you're doing is chasing the first buzz. It's like you're chasing that head, that high,
and you can never quite get to the same place as you did the first time. And the more
you give it, the more it strangles you." -- Steven Tyler
"But, you know, if Joe Perry can get straight, then, REALLY, anybody can."
-- Steven Tyler
"Ratt and Motley Crue copied all my clothes and everything and it's like me saying
'Well I'm gonna go out in my dungarees, what I have on now, and play.' Fuck that!
I started something great, I'm proud of it, I love it and if they copy me that's all right, but
I'm still gonna wear it, because I wear it better." -- Steven Tyler
"If you cross a river enough and get soaking wet enough times, pretty soon you learn
how to step on the rocks. And sometimes there's someone followin' ya and ya gotta
loosin' the stones." -- Steven Tyler
On the basis of songs- "It's like a cage of ribs, it don't look like much, but it holds all the
stuff in." -- Steven Tyler
"If you don't got what Joplin had, then the only roots ya got are in your hair"
-- Steven Tyler
"I remember disco and hating it so much" -- Steven Tyler
"I was so blown away when he [Alice Copper] hung himself; and he had some
good songs too!" Steven Tyler
On people who complain- "It's like a baby who kicks his feet till they bleed. He finds out
people don't give a damn and all you get out of it is a busted foot. It is almost like the
world was asphalt and we were these fucking weeds. No matter what they put over
us, asphalt or metal sealant, we grew right through it." -- Steven Tyler
"There's nothing like an Aerosmith Groove." -- Steven Tyler
"If you have a candle, the light won't glow any dimmer if I light yours off of mine."
-- Steven Tyler
(On Lady Tipper Gore opposing to her daughter listening to songs like Young Lust)
"Well she's coming at her daughter's like from the wrong direction. How can you fight
young lust? a) she's young, and b) she has lust. That's why people masturbate. I mean,
what do you want to be telling your child? That lust is bad? Get outta here. That's the
Holy Wars." -- Steven Tyler
"Men are too busy talking about how big their dicks are. If men bled, tampons would
be free." -- Steven Tyler
"The secret to enlightenment is to lighten up. Whether you are talking rock or women, all there." -- Steven Tyler
"If our fans are out there driving down that information superhighway, then we want to
be playing at the truck stop. This is the future-so lets get it going." -- Steven Tyler
"I don't buy into this idea that you're not supposed to rock 'n' roll after a certain date.
I'm looking to be the lounge act on the space shuttle so I can sing "Walk This Way"
on the ceiling." -- Steven Tyler
"But most of all, the train that kept rollin all night long of rock n' roll you cannot kill. It
will live forever." -- Steven Tyler
"Everything I've every loved was immoral, illegal, or grew hair on your palms."
-- Steven Tyler
"To be creative you gotta be a child. You gotta be true to the crib." -- Steven Tyler
"I'm gonna give'em what they came for." -- Steven Tyler
"If "to climax" is what the term means, to CLIMAX, why don't we do it all the time? We
should be doing it 3-4 times a day. It's not about stupid and nasty, it's what we should
all be doing." -- Steven Tyler
"The experience of being a teenager is like taking a test before you've been given
the lessons. And being middle-aged is cool because you've already seen the answers.
And being old is like watchin' reruns on TV - it's frustrating because you can't change
the channel anymore." -- Steven Tyler
"I live for CAN-ing other people's can'ts." -- Steven Tyler
"Slash looks like Joe, Joe looks like Keith, I look like Mick, Mick looks like a black
man, black man invented the blues, blues had a baby and names it rock n' roll, and
dude looks like a lady an all that other stuff." -- Steven Tyler
"We paved the road, so to speak. So why not fucking get in our car and drive down
it again?" -- Steven Tyler
"We weren't too ambitious when we started out. We just wanted to be the biggest
thing that ever walked the planet, the greatest rock band that ever was. We just
wanted everything. We just wanted it ALL!" -- Steven Tyler
"Good evening . . . thanks for inviting us to your party . . .I hope you don't mind if we
KICK YOUR ASS with some rock 'n' roll!!" -- Steven Tyler (at the beginning of shows)
"Do you want the old shit, or the new shit?" -- Steven Tyler (taking requests, about
halfway through shows)
When asked what's the best revenge he has ever gotten, Steven responded, "Our
comeback."
(When asked what the band feels they have left to prove)
"I don't know if it's anything to put in words. I guess we just feel like we have a
potential that we haven't reached yet musically. Because you keep doing it, and you
keep learning new things, and you go, 'Wow, I want to do that on the next record!'
That's all I can really thing of. I think when you see some of these bands get into their
second decade, and they get fat and pudgy and bored, and they keep playing the
same songs, it's not because they ever ran out of ideas, it's because they're doing
other things in their lives that are killing their creativity. If the creative thing was there
for your first couple of albums, it's always there - always there. You can always go
play around in that playground." -- Tom Hamilton
"I think I deserve to ask MTV a question. Do I have any roast Beef in my teeth I just
ate." -- Tom Hamilton
(Talking about cover of GAG)... "Anyone who is clearly thinking knows we didn't go out
and torture some cow. We used a general anaesthetic followed by a few hours in the
recovery room. IT'S FAKE!!! The cow doesn't have anything stuck through it's udder!"
-- Tom Hamilton
(on opening for the Mahvishnu Orchestra) "John McLaughlin and the band would
meditate before they started playing, and as you might imagine, we weren't into
meditating. We'd already found our own way to meditate, chemically." -- Tom Hamilton
"I remember when Joe left, he gave an interview that really hurt me. He said,
'Aerosmith is not ready for the Eighties.' That hurt. It hurt because he was right.
I thought about that on New Year's Eve, when we were playing this great gig at
home in Boston. It was my birthday, and I was thinking that Aerosmith is a band
ready for the Nineties. We have a future now. For a while we didn't have one. It's
one hell of a nice thing to have." -- Tom Hamilton
"We never wanted to be a bar band. We were always a concert band." -- Joey Kramer
"If we've handled everything up until now, we can do anything." -- Joey Kramer
"Steve's really funny. Like, he's got three or four grand tied up in a stereo system with
four-track recorders in his living room and he sleeps on the floor on a pillow. He doesn't
have a bed!" -- Joey Kramer (He later bought Steven a bed as a gift)
(on the writing of Krawhitham) "Steven and Joe just weren't around, they were locked
away in their rooms consuming whatever they were consuming. We were still
functioning. We still got up in the morning. So Tom, Joey, and I had a lot of time
together." -- Brad Whitford
(On record companies) "When a band has been successful for their first few albums,
then (the record company says) let's not let the band get in the way of making the next
one good!" -- Tom Hamilton
"People used to ask me, 'What do you reckon you'll be doing when you're 40?', and I
told 'em 'rocking out and kicking ass!' Now it's 'What do you reckon you'll be doing
at 60?' and the answer's exactly the same. I'm always going to love Jimi Hendrix -
'Purple Haze' will still give me a hard-on when I'm hooked up to a life-support machine.
Hey, even when I'm dead, they're going to have a hell of a job nailing the coffin lid
down." -- Steven Tyler
(On the beginning's of Aerosmith) "I'd been playing in bands for something like seven
years at this point. And we were always trying to get ahead, trying to rehearse and
sound professional. But then I go to see the Jam Band (Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton's
band before Aerosmith), and it blew me away. I wasn't expecting too much. Then they
got up there and did 'Rattlesnake Shake' by Fleetwood Mac. And I said to myself,
'That's it. These guys suck - they can't even tune their instruments. But they have a
great groove going that's better than any fuck I've ever had.' I just knew that if I could
show them a little of what I knew, with the looseness and balls that they showed up
there, then we'd really have something." -- Steven Tyler
"These days it's almost like a lot of kids get into bands because they want to get rich
and famous, but when we started this band that wasn't really part of it. I never
envisioned what I was doing as part of a career. We weren't even aware of all the stuff
that came with it. We just looked at the bands that we idolized - like the Yardbirds - and
we were blown away by how they could play. All we wanted to do was play like that, to
be a great band like that." -- Joe Perry
"I think what we wanted to do, without ever really saying it, was to be the American
equivalent of all the great British bands like Cream, the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin.
They were all so classy and powerful sounding. We couldn't think of an American band
like that. We wanted to be the first one." -- Tom Hamilton
"Right from the beginning there was magic in this goddamn band." -- Steven Tyler
(about Aerosmith's first gig) "Steven and Joe had an argument the first night about Joe
playing too loud, and so began an Aerosmith tradition." -- Tom Hamilton
"When you start a rock n' roll band, you've gotta fake it till you make it. You begin by
doin' what you love - and what you love is usually what some other people have
already done. It just depends on how much of a fool you make of yourself along the
way to finding your own sound, assuming you find it." -- Steven Tyler
"We were never the hip band. And that was fine with us. But all the bad press did get
to be a burr in our saddles. But the truth is that 15,000 kids screaming for you at the
Boston Garden goes a long way to making a bad review look like the piece of shit that
it is." -- Joe Perry
"I started getting so screwed up that getting fucked-up seemed more important than
getting fucked. Part of me is still bummed out that I didn't have all of the sex I could
have had in the Seventies. The irony is that I probably got more than I remember
because I was having blackouts. We were more interested in examining the finer
blend of cocaine from a shipment of dates that came in on the back of some camel
with the stamp of a half-moon on it and the star of Lebanon - which, by the way, was
laced with opium. That was much more important to me than some girl with big tits."
-- Steven Tyler
"From the inside I didn't think anything was wrong. But from the outside you could see
everything. The focus is completely gone. If I kept a journal, I couldn't do a better job of
showing exactly when we started to go south. Especially because I was too fucked up
to actually keep a diary. The Beatles made their White Album; we made our black-out
album." -- Joe Perry
"We'd stopped leading our band, we'd stopped giving a shit. We'd go out to play and
we'd struggle to get through 'Back In The Saddle' as opposed to getting out there and
moving things ahead. And all of a sudden there were all these new bands like Van
Halen taking up the slack. We were just laying down sleeping and other people came
in. We just blew it." -- Joe Perry
"Our story was basically that we had it all, and we pissed it all away." -- Joe Perry
"The thing that really stands out in my mind about Aerosmith is that we're still fucking
together. Whatever we've done together and whatever we've become, is second to
the fact that we're still doing this. I'm still in love with these guys. I'm not saying it didn't
take a lot of work because drugs will take you and pull you apart. But it wasn't anything
we shot up or put up our noses that gave us the edge - it was Joe Perry's fuck-all,
being as abrasive as that motherfucker is, and Brad Whitford's ear, Tom Hamilton's
well-aimed simplicity and Joey Kramer's solid bed of backbeat. Keeping this band
together has been the hardest and the happiest thing we've done in our lives. It's been
a long time coming. So for all the other stuff that comes from Aerosmith, the most
amazing thing is that we're still playing and still having some fucking fun." -- Steven Tyler
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