Well, I'm going to have to tell you about how the whole band started, and about their history, and all that crap (well, why else have you clicked on the bio link?). In which case, I'll tell you, so buy me a pint, pull up a chair and I'll tell you a tale or two.


So, this whole odyssey began back in the 1960's (doesn't it always?), and in 1964, the band started out, although the line up was very different to today, and wasn't called Aerosmith at the time. It would take until 1970 before the band had finally become the band it is today, and that was only when Tyler and Perry met up by chance in an ice cream parlour, where Perry was working, and playing with the Jam Band at the time with Tom Hamilton. At the time, only Tyler had experienced proper professionalism, as he had released songs with other bands (such as 'When I Needed You' with Chain Reaction), and had managed to get a song on that hallowed place, the jukebox in the local burger bar. After getting together with Joey Kramer, all they lacked was a guitarist, and they managed to get Ray Tabano to join up.
Finally, with the ful line-up, Aerosmith got off to a start in late 1970. Initially, though, things dodn't go that well. During their first gig at Nipmuc Regional High School, Tyler and Perry started a fight over the volume of the guitarists amp. However, this creative chemistry, and constant striving to beat one another, helped the band tick along.
After 2 years of touring the clubs, learning the tricks of the trade and polishing up thier act, they managed to sign up with Columbia Records - now with Brad Whitford, after Ray Tabano left the band - for a reported $125,000 (not that they remember that much of it...).
Now, they were working on their first album Aerosmith, and it was during this time that Tyler presented to them one of the songs that he had been working on - 'Dream On', which he had written in 1966, 4 years before the band formed. To begin with, Perry disliked it, (he prefered the rock'n'roll songs to ballards) but the band realised that if they wanted success, than they would have to make a ballard if they wanted to crack the Top 40.
On its original release, 'Dream On' reached No.59 in the Billboard chart, but when re-released in 1976, it got to No.6, and gave the band their first million-seller.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that the band was rapidly gaining global success, with increasing gigantic sales for 'Get Your Wings', 'Toys In The Attic' and 'Rocks', the bands high alcohol and narcotics lifestyle was escalating equally rapidly. By 1977, Aerosmith was without equals in the drug arena - Perry said afterwards that they were "..drug addicts dabbling in music, rather than musicians dabbling in drugs." And as smashed hotel rooms, blowing up TV's and crashing cars became part of their lifestyle, their whole lives were rapidly going downhill. Not only was their capital decreasing, but so was their performances and cohesion as a group.
The whole situation was fast approaching its peak in 1978, with 'Toys In The Attic'. It was at this point that Perry realised that he needed to clean up his act - or else. The Toxic Twins' were beginning to break up, and it looked set to come to a head, which it nearly did during the recording of 'Draw The Line', but it finally occured during the recording of 'Night In The Ruts'.
During a peculiar backstage incident, the Toxic Twins finally broke up, and Perry resigned, citing 'music and personality conflicts' with Steve Tyler.
The rift was a major dilemma, and the resulting damage was severe. Three months afterwards, Brad Whitford announced that he too was leaving the band. Still Aerosmith tried to keep the show going, and recriuted Danny Johnson and Jimmy Crespo. 'Night In The Ruts' proved to be a disappointment, and the following album, 'Rock In A Hard Place' proved to be lacklustre to be polite. The problem was, the whole band had lost its drive, and by now it was the 1980's, and they were out of place in the music scene, as they were a 1970's band that hadn't changed. However, there was an ironical side effect: the split forced the rest of the band to take a look at themselves, and made them try to clean up their act. Despite this, though, they were mostly a spent force.
In 1983, Steve Tyler was broke, having snorted his fortune away, and was struggling to make a living. The Joe Perry Project had been a disaster for Perry, as the albums were badly recieved and the band eventually split up. As for Whitford, his Whitford-St.Holmes Band had pretty much gone the same way as Perry's. So, in the end, in 1984, Aerosmith finally pulled itself together and set aside their differences, and set out on a tour to try to get themselves back on their feet. The 'Back In The Saddle' tour proved that there could be hope for the band, as there were crowds of fans at their stadiums, and there was the hope of something that they could build on. Still, at the time many had been expecting Aerosmith's next headlines to be in the obituaries, not on the front pages. After all, despite the fact that Tyler had cleaned up, he was still experiencing withdrawal symptoms, and there was the other problem - how were they going to make Aerosmith work in the 1980's?