The Album That Marked the End of Aerosmith’s Prime

Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith have always been known for their music and their highly rambunctions and sometimes dangerous off-stage activities. The two received the title of the “Toxic Twins” for a reason. Aside from their music, Perry and Tyler are iconic rock stars who lived the lifestyle to the utmost degree. However, that very lifestyle is what led them to reach their (debatable) peak back in 1977.

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By 1977, Aerosmith was one of the biggest bands on the market thanks to the song “Walk This Way” and the album Toys In The Attic. With this success came celebration, and with this celebration came over-indulgence. And, well, over-indulgence led to carelessness, particularly on their 1977 album Draw The Line.

Aerosmith’s Members Were Burnt Out, Doing Drugs, and “Didn’t Care Anymore”

In Walk This Way: The Autobiography Of Aerosmith, Perry openly divulged how and why the album went wrong.

“‘Draw The Line’ was untogether because we weren’t a cohesive unit anymore,” Perry wrote. “We were drug addicts dabbling in music rather than musicians dabbling in drugs. […] A lot of people had input into that record because Steven and I had stopped giving a f*ck.”

“I wasn’t Pattie Smith writing poetry,” Steven Tyler added, regarding their inability to pump out good music. “I write exactly to the music, and when the music ain’t coming, neither were the lyrics.”

Given their drug addiction and lack of musical production, Tyler and Perry simply just stopped showing up to the studio for recording sessions.

“Brad [Whitford] and Steven wrote ‘The Hand That Feeds’, which I didn’t even play on because I’d stayed in bed the day they recorded it,” Perry continued.

“What I specifically remember was not being present in the studio because I was so stoned,” Tyler later told Guitar World. “In the past, I always had to be there and hear every note that was going down – who was playing what and were they out of tune. I just didn’t care anymore.”

Besides this album marking the end of their prime, it also marked the beginning of the end. Two years later in 1979, Joe Perry left the band. Two years after that, Brad Whitford left the band in 1981. However, four years later, Aerosmith had one of the greatest comebacks of all time. Their comeback is all thanks to Rick Rubin, Run-DMC, and Aerosmith’s hit song “Walk This Way”.

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