American rock band Aerosmith was scheduled to perform in Las Vegas in June and July. However, the plan was forced to cancel because the band’s leader – lead singer Steven Taylor (74 years old) – relapsed after leg surgery and volunteered to enter a rehab center.
Singer Steven Tyler was booed by the audience after he sang the US national anthem with both the wrong words and the wrong music.
Aerosmith said in a statement: “The singer has been working in sobriety for many years. But after undergoing foot surgery to prepare for the tour, Tyler relapsed and voluntarily entered treatment to focus on his recovery. We are disappointed that this has inconvenienced many of you. Thank you for your understanding and support of Steven during this time.”
Refunds for the concerts – which were scheduled to begin on June 17 and continue into July as part of the band’s Deuces Are Wild tour at the Dolby Live Theatre at the Park MGM – will be automatically transferred via Ticketmaster or can be collected at the point of purchase.
Spent up to $6 million on cocaine
The Aerosmith frontman – real name Steven Victor Tallarico – was born in New York in 1948. When Steven was a toddler, his father—a musician—and his mother began taking their son to a vacation camp the family owned near Lake Sunapee, where Steven enjoyed the melodious sounds of his father’s guitar.
Rock icon Steven Tyler
“On Sunday nights, Dad would read the gospel,” Tyler wrote in his 2011 memoir. “People would come from miles around to hear him play. My grandmother, mother, and sister would sing.”
At 16, Tyler formed a rock band called the Strangers. A few years later, he met a young guitarist named Joe Perry. In 1970, the group moved to Boston and called themselves Aerosmith. The first single from their first album was a minor hit called Dream On.
But as the band recorded one platinum album after another, Tyler’s personal life fell into disrepair. Tyler once told Rolling Stone about a roller coaster ride with Jimi Hendrix, in which they both wanted to make the experience more “high” by using poppers, a drug containing amyl nitrite that gives a feeling of euphoria.
Showing some humor amid his drug addiction, Tyler said his need for the drug earned him the nickname Spider-Man: “I was crawling around on the floor looking for nicotine that I thought I had dropped. But I must have. I was always looking for something that wasn’t there.”
Tyler used to think of his heroin use as parties, but the reality was that parties weren’t cheap. Aside from some physical damage – Tyler once passed out during a gig – he also burned through a lot of money to feed his addiction. Tyler estimates he has spent around $6 million on cocaine in his lifetime, and that figure doesn’t include what the singer has spent on other drugs like heroin and marijuana.
In his 2004 autobiography Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?, Tyler wrote about his drug use around the age of 16. He became so addicted that he would set his alarm for 4 a.m., take drugs, fall back asleep, and then start his workday two hours later.
As the years passed, Tyler continued to enjoy a drug-fueled life, leaving his wife, girlfriend, and children behind on tour. One of his four children, actress Liv Tyler, did not learn that Tyler was her father until she was 8.
It wasn’t until he went to rehab in 1988 that Tyler was able to regain his sobriety. “In 1988, the management and the band members thought, ‘Let’s get the lead singer sober and all our conflicts will be over,’” he said in a 2019 interview. “You know, it took me years to get over the anger when they put me in rehab. But today I’m so grateful and thank them for my sobriety.”
Abundant Illness
Since the late 1980s, Tyler has pursued solo projects, including guest appearances with musicians such as Alice Cooper, Mötley Crüe, Santana, Pink, and Keith Anderson. He has also acted in films and television, written books, and released solo records, including the Top 40 single (It) Feels So Good (2011). But while he was with the band, Tyler was not immune to conflict with the other members.
Tyler’s drug addiction in his youth
Tyler has openly admitted that his past substance abuse was a source of tension with his bandmates. In particular, in 2006, shortly after a two-hour performance in Florida, Tyler got into an argument with his Aerosmith bandmates that led to him losing his voice. On March 22, 2006, the Washington Post reported that Tyler would undergo surgery for an “undisclosed medical condition. Although Aerosmith wanted to keep the tour going as long as possible, Tyler’s doctors advised him not to continue performing to give his voice time to recover.” As a result, Aerosmith’s remaining North American dates in 2006 on the Rockin’ the Joint Tour were later canceled.
The loss of his voice was diagnosed as a ruptured blood vessel in Tyler’s throat, but he later recovered with laser therapy. After a few weeks off, Tyler and his Aerosmith bandmates entered the studio on May 20 to begin work on the new album.
In a September 2006 interview, Tyler revealed that he also had hepatitis C. He was diagnosed with the disease in 2003 and underwent treatment from 2003 to 2006. In fact, the disease is often spread through sharing used needles.
Tensions with his Aerosmith bandmates flared again in 2009, after Tyler collapsed on stage at a concert and relapsed. Then, at the urging of his longtime girlfriend, Erin Brady, Tyler completed his eighth stint in rehab. After completing that stint, Tyler embarked on a new gig unlike any he had ever done before: filling in for British music mogul Simon Cowell on American Idol without telling his bandmates. Tyler helped boost the show’s ratings, create hilarious moments for the judges, and gain a whole new generation of fans. All the while, Tyler continued to record and perform with Aerosmith, more than 48 years after joining the band.
In 2009, Tyler told People magazine that he was undergoing treatment to manage pain and an addiction to prescription painkillers due to injuries sustained during his 10 years of performing. Tyler also suffered from Morton’s neuroma, a thickening of the nerves in his feet that can cause pain and swelling when dancing on stage.
In 2016, Tyler released his debut solo album, We’re All Somebody from Somewhere, a country rock album that included the single Love Is Your Name. Tyler supported the album with the Out on a Limb tour. Since then, Tyler has continued to perform solo, with support from Loving Mary and with Aerosmith. Tyler was listed as one of Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. He was ranked number 3 on Hit Parader’s “Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time.”
Aerosmith – the best-selling hard rock band of all time
Aerosmith was formed in Boston in 1970. The band consisted of Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums), and Brad Whitford (guitar). The band has sold over 150 million records worldwide, including over 85 million in the United States. With 25 gold, 18 platinum, and 12 multi-platinum albums, Aerosmith holds the record for the most platinum albums by an American band. The band has had 21 Top 40 hits on the US Hot 100, won four Grammys, six American Music Awards, and 10 MTV Video Music Awards, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, and was ranked 57th and 30th on Rolling Stone and VH1’s lists of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” respectively. In 2013, Tyler and Perry were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 2020 the band received the MusiCares Person of the Year award.
