How Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion” Hinted at Band-Threatening Feuds (That Weren’t Even Between Band Members)

Band feuds don’t always start within the confines of the ensemble itself. Sometimes, all it takes is a problematic figure close to the band to set these destructive wheels in motion. Think: The Beatles and Yoko Ono (or Allen Klein). The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson’s divisive psychotherapist, Eugene Landy. And in the mid-1970s, Aerosmith discovered just how much damage an outsider could do to their band. Though, as the wife of guitarist Joe Perry, nothing indicated that Elyssa Perry would have called herself an “outsider.”

Videos by American Songwriter

Steven Tyler did, though. And he wrapped up these sentiments in what would become one of the band’s best-known songs, “Sweet Emotion”.

Steven Tyler Didn’t Hide His Feelings in “Sweet Emotion”

More often than not, the idea that one bandmate wrote a song about another bandmate’s partner is conjecture and debated between the musicians, like when John Lennon assumed Paul McCartney sang “Get Back” about and to Yoko Ono. But Aerosmith vocalist Steven Tyler had no qualms with revealing that his lyrics for “Sweet Emotion” were about guitarist Joe Perry’s wife, Elyssa.

In Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith, Tyler said that “Sweet Emotion” was “all about my negative feelings for her because I couldn’t get next to Joe when she was around, which was all the time. She was doing all his drugs. Before she came along, I was doing all his drugs. It was a big problem.”

On one particularly contentious night, Tyler was withdrawing from h***** and picked up on the fact that the Perrys were likely using. Tyler tried to get drugs from them, but they both refused. “I hated him and his f***in’ wife for that,” Tyler later said, per Walk This Way. “I’d write song lyrics about her.”

“‘You talk about things that nobody cares’—who f***in’ cares what you say, Elyssa! ‘You’re wearing out things that nobody wears. You call my name, but I gotta make clear, I can’t say baby where I’ll be in a year.’ It’ll be at least a thousand miles away from you, baby! That was my angry side talking.”

This Ongoing Feud Nearly Broke the Band Apart for Good

Elyssa Perry and Joe Perry had about as rocky a relationship as Elyssa had with the rest of the band. Most people in Aerosmith’s autobiography described her as a confrontational “bully,” including bassist Tom Hamilton’s wife, Terry. According to numerous accounts, Elyssa and Terry got into a fight backstage at the World Series of Rock at Cleveland Stadium, where Aerosmith was headlining with bands Thin Lizzy and Ted Nugent. Elyssa threw a glass of milk at Terry. “It was loud,” Hamilton remembered. “We could hear it. No one got hurt, but it was also a reflection of the conflicts going on in the band.”

The band later fought about the women’s fight, which led to Joe Perry leaving Aerosmith temporarily. Perry and his wife divorced in 1982. By 1984, Perry had returned to the band, likely with a whole new connection to “Sweet Emotion”.

Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns