Steven Tyler: The Biography Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  CHAPTER 1 - Survival Of The Fittest

  CHAPTER 2 - Fake It, Till You Make It

  CHAPTER 3 - The Nature Of The Beast

  CHAPTER 4 - Spliffs, Tiffs And Stiffs

  CHAPTER 5 - When The Fur Starts Flying

  CHAPTER 6 - The Toxic Time Bomb Ticks

  CHAPTER 7 - Crying Over Spilt Milk

  CHAPTER 8 - Brothers By Choice

  CHAPTER 9 - Where Angels Fear To Tread

  CHAPTER 10 - Going Up, Mr Tyler?

  CHAPTER 11 - When Size Really Does Matter

  CHAPTER 12 - A Cat With Nine Lives

  CHAPTER 13 - The Keeper Of The Flame

  CHAPTER 14 - A Road Paved With Passion

  CHAPTER 15 - Shouldering Secrets And Sorrows

  CHAPTER 16 - The Vagabond Prince

  Also by Laura Jackson

  Brian May

  The Definitive Biography

  Kiefer Sutherland

  The Biography

  The Eagles

  Flying High

  Neil Diamond

  The Biography

  Jon Bon Jovi

  The Biography

  Paul Simon

  The Definitive Biography

  Bono

  The Biography

  Sean Bean

  The Biography

  Queen

  The Definitive Biography

  Ewan McGregor

  A Force to be Reckoned With

  Arise Sir Mick

  The True Story of Britain’s

  Naughtiest Knight

  Mercury

  The King of Queen

  Daniel Day-Lewis

  The Biography

  Golden Stone

  The Untold Life and Mysterious Death

  of Brian Jones

  Steven Tyler

  LAURA JACKSON

  Hachette Digital

  www.littlebrown.co.uk

  Published by Hachette Digital 2008

  Copyright © Laura Jackson

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  All rights reserved

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

  transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in

  writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or

  cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition

  including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  A CIP catalogue record for this book

  is available from the British Library

  ISBN 978 0 7481 1027 8

  This ebook produced by JOUVE, FRANCE

  Hachette Digital

  An imprint of

  Little, Brown Book Group

  100 Victoria Embankment

  London EC4Y 0DY

  An Hachette UK Company

  This book is dedicated to

  David, my remarkable husband.

  PICTURE CREDITS

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  Acknowledgements

  The following helped with this book: Michael Lindsay-Hogg; Dr Stephen Perrin; Vicki Wickham; Clive Whichelow; Elgin Library staff; Kerrang; Rock Power; Vox; Classic Rock; NME; Billboard; Q Rock Stars; Details; Rolling Stone; Mojo; Gibson; MTV; Globe & Mail; Times; Washington Post; Boston Globe; Wikipedia; Face; VH1; IMDB; Vintage Guitar; Circus; Newsday; Toronto Star; Daily Mirror; Seventeen; Raw; Musicians; Record Mirror; Melody Maker; USA Weekend; Associated Press; Daily Telegraph; Independent; Sunday Times; Metal Hammer.

  Special thanks to David for his invaluable help and support, and to Denise Dwyer, Alice Davis and everyone at Piatkus Books.

  CHAPTER 1

  Survival Of The Fittest

  STEVEN TYLER is the quintessential sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll superstar. Widely recognised for almost four decades as one of the most charismatic and distinctive figures in popular music, he has lived a rollercoaster life of excess - and survived. Inspired by the cream of British sixties bands, the Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Pretty Things, with a passion for performing, Tyler propelled himself into rock as a lean and hungry teenager, and as the ear-blasting, raucous, high-energy lead singer fronting Aerosmith he quickly acquired the nickname, ‘The Demon of Screamin’.

  His lust for life has led to a tangled and turbulent love life and to a near deadly attraction to narcotics. In a drug-soaked meltdown during the late 1970s and early 1980s, he would, on occasion, snort pure heroin just prior to going on stage then black out mid-performance in front of the shocked audience. Tyler’s heady highs always preceded desperate depths. By his own admission, he recklessly blew over a million dollars on dope. Broke, physically and mentally ravaged and staring bleakly into an unimaginable emotional abyss, he sank so low he may not have come out of it alive. Denial that he had a problem at all delayed him seeking help for his addictions, but entering rehab in the mid-eighties ultimately saved his life.

  With his wiry, snake-hipped build, his trademark thick lips and his suggestive, supple movements on stage, Tyler was dogged early in his career by unfavourable comparisons to Mick Jagger, but unique, irrepressible and with an infectiously roguish twinkle in his eyes, Steven Tyler is no clone. He has proved all his detractors wrong. Aerosmith have long since earned their place in the pantheon of legendary rock bands, racking up album sales of around one hundred and fifty million; today they remain stadium fillers around the globe. In addition to his singer/songwriter abilities, Tyler is also an accomplished musician on eight instruments.

  Once the epitome of the mercurial wasted rocker, he is proud to have remained sober, although his health did take another serious body blow in 2006, when he had to undergo extensive chemotherapy treatment for the potentially fatal disease hepatitis C. They say that the apple does not fall far from the tree, and that is true in Steven Tyler’s case. A natural born survivor, talent and tenacity are in his genes.

  Born Steven Victor Tallarico on 26 March 1948 in Yonkers, New York, to Susan and Victor Tallarico, the dark-haired, bright-eyed boy came from exotic stock - Polish, Russian and Swedish on his mother’s side, Italian and German on his father’s. Steven’s paternal grandfather, Giovanni Tallarico, and three of his brothers were all musicians; forming a chamber music quartet, they played to the well-heeled clientele frequenting the swish hotels dotted along America’s north-east seaboard in the early 1920s. Giovanni’s wife, Constance, was also an accomplished pianist. So it was small wonder that their son Victor proved to be naturally gifted, too. Victor became a classically trained pianist
, helmed the Vic Tallarico Orchestra and for many years taught music at the Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx, where the Tallarico family lived.

  The northernmost of New York City’s five boroughs, the Bronx is separated from the island of Manhattan by the Harlem River and is home to the Yankee baseball stadium. Famous Bronxites include Al Pacino, James Caan, Anne Bancroft and Woody Allen, but the borough is a tough environment, definitely not for the faint-hearted. Along with his parents and an older sister, Lynda, Steven lived in a small sixth-floor tenement apartment, and one of his earliest recollections is of his handsome father diligently practising Beethoven, Bach and Brahms on the gleaming Steinway grand piano squeezed into the cramped quarters. Not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Steven fought his way through life, yet in later years when psychiatrists tried to pin his problems on these early hardships Tyler was quick to mark their card. He revealed: ‘A lot of therapists would like to believe that the reason I joined a rock band was to rebel because my parents were terrible. That simply wasn’t true. I had a wonderful warm childhood and my parents were amazing.’

  Naturally inquisitive, Steven had a vivid imagination from the start. Attending church on Sundays, when he was about six years old he became fascinated during worship by the table laden with burning candles; he was mesmerised by their blaze against the pristine white altar cloth. ‘I thought God lived under that table,’ he later revealed. More significantly, while bawling out the hymns he was stimulated by a sense of the energy inherent in singing and the evocative meaning in songs. Perhaps predictably, music became his ruling passion. ‘I grew up under a piano,’ said Tyler. ‘When you take life’s emotions and you lay them over a Bach or a Brahms sonata, they take on different meanings.’

  Something of a dreamer, the skinny, up-for-anything kid pushed everything to the limit. As soon as he was old enough to be let outdoors alone, he rigged up a rope swing in the yard behind the old apartment building and practically gave himself vertigo by constantly attempting to swing dangerously faster and higher. In this way, he was reaching for the moon. With music the dominant influence at home, Steven proved to be naturally gifted, and quickly became adept on the flute, harmonica, violin, drums, bass guitar, mandolin, recorder and piano. His skilled father’s attempts to teach him the piano had often been an exasperating business, however. Tyler confessed: ‘I yawned so much, it blew his head!’ He added: ‘Ever since I was a small dude, I guess I always had this urge to show off.’

  Outside the secure environ of the family home, Steven encountered a variety of pressures - some of them very personal. From an early age he was made the target of relentless teasing over his unusual looks. Steven Tyler grew up to be a striking man with very distinctive features, which sits fine with the cushion of fame. As a youngster growing up in the Bronx, however, having pointy ears and oversized thick lips brought him ridicule from seemingly every kid around the block. He spiritedly fended this off in public, but it got to Steven and made him even more determined to make something of himself.

  This inner fire strengthened when, already music-oriented, in summer 1957 he turned on his radio and first heard the Everly Brothers sing ‘Bye, Bye Love’. Their close Appalachian harmonies soaring over acoustic guitar work got Steven’s juices going, and by the time the duo’s ‘All I Have To Do Is Dream’ became a million-selling chart topper the following spring, the ten-year-old Tyler was hooked on this new brand of music. He fixed up a makeshift aerial outside his bedroom window so that, despite static interference, he could pick up the AM radio station WOWO Fort Wayne Indiana, which belted out all the latest hits. Immersing himself in these exciting sounds, Steven adored the freedoms expressed by a flourishing flood of new artists, including the hugely provocative Elvis Presley. For a rapidly developing restless spirit, it was intoxicating stuff. Of rock music Tyler recently declared: ‘Before I had sex, it was sex!’

  Come 1960, the twelve-year-old, self-taught drummer was pounding the skins behind his first drum kit and would soon go out with his father playing at dances on the local scene. He loved the chance to perform in front of an audience, and from Victor he embraced the ethic of practising his art every day - a discipline which would stand Steven in good stead later in life. The counterbalance to these happy weekend evenings remained school and street life in the Bronx.

  Steven’s parents tried hard to impress on their son the wisdom of knuckling down at school, to have something to fall back on if a career in music - already clearly his first love - did not pan out but, while bright, Steven had no interest in academic study. At school he enjoyed the chance to sing with a choir and found physical education exhilarating, although when it came to field games he often frustrated his teammates by getting distracted; instead of waiting to catch high balls whizzing his way he would be frantically stomping about the grass, crushing ants underfoot.

  With a distinct lack of imagination, some of his peers continued to disparage his looks, particularly making fun of his wide mouth and big lips. His fightback by now was not always successful, however. Tyler explained: ‘My mother tried to bail me out, saying: “Just tell them, they’re all the better to kiss girls with.” But then I got decked out for being a wise guy!’ Being decked out too often was not an option in the Bronx where, as the years went by, the streets only got meaner. Steven rapidly learned how to stand his ground, and became embroiled in bruising bare-knuckled mass brawls in the neighbourhood. ‘Street fights went on for an hour and a half and I’d come home bloody as hell,’ he later recalled. Confronting at times a cesspool of bigotry, Tyler grew up grasping the putrid nature of prejudice. ‘Jewish white kids were constantly picked on. It was terrible.’ Despite the tribal atmosphere around him, Steven never had an aggressive gang member mentality. Knowing what it felt like to be hassled, indeed, he tended to be very protective of the underdog and of kids with learning difficulties.

  Already a poor area, suffering from a chronic lack of investment and raging crime, the Bronx sank to new depths when a wave of arson attacks began amid the borough’s many overcrowded apartment buildings. Rundown and like dry bracken anyway, homes were going up like touchpaper, which was an added nightmare for the 1.4 million residents. The Tallaricos decided that it was time to move house and so the family relocated to Steven’s birthplace. The largest city in Westchester County, Yonkers borders the Bronx and has an undulating landscape rising dramatically from sea level to hills high enough to be seen as landmarks from as far away as New Jersey. Steven’s family moved into a house just off Central Avenue in the north-east quarter, which had a large Italian-American community.

  One constant source of delight throughout Tyler’s life was the time spent at the summer town of Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire. In the 1920s, the Tallarico family had bought property and a few hundred acres of land there for about $5000, and over the ensuing years they had developed it into Trow-Rico, a small holiday resort. To Tyler it was a magical place. The state has over eighty mountain peaks, of which the White Mountains are its most famous range. With picturesque villages and lakeside resorts it was extremely popular as a holiday destination; Trow-Rico proved to be a good investment.

  From a young age, Steven quit the city every summer and headed with his family to Lake Sunapee to visit his grandparents for the vacation season, where he became very much a barefoot mountain boy. Hunting and trapping all day long, he grew familiar with guns and was particularly deadly with a slingshot. He hunted for raccoons, skunks and possum until he acquired a baby raccoon as a pet, which altered his entire outlook. ‘It got to be my buddy and I could never kill anything after that,’ he recalled. He named the raccoon Bandit, and the pair went fishing together along the riverbanks. ‘Deer were my friends,’ said Steven. ‘I would spend time walking through woods, looking at the most beautiful things.’ He was extremely happy whenever he was at Lake Sunapee - a teenager’s place of dreams.

  Already used to live performance from playing drums with his father’s band at New York dances, he was always up
for it when amateur stage shows were mounted at a makeshift theatre at Lake Sunapee. The small audiences comprised holidaying families, who were indulgent to a fault with the many gaffes, but it still gave Tyler such a frisson of excitement; he knew in his bones that a stage was his natural habitat. He began to live the dream vividly in his head. ‘I’d close my eyes, picture crowds, and shivers would start at the base of my spine,’ he remembered.

  As for many future rock stars, February 1964 was a pivotal point in Steven Tyler’s life when America got its first taste of Beatlemania. With ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ topping the US singles chart, the Beatles arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport amid chaotic scenes, with hundreds of screaming hysterical teenagers forming the welcoming committee. When the Liverpool lads made their live US debut on CBS TV’s Ed Sullivan Show, they drew over seventy-three million viewers. The British invasion had begun.

  For Steven Tyler, British bands were the best, and over the coming years his focus fell not on the lovable mop-top Scousers but rather on grittier bands. He explained: ‘I was listening to The Who, The Pretty Things, The Kinks, and when the Rolling Stones came along I thought Mick Jagger was the baddest boy on the block!’ Steven avidly collected all the British rock publications he could lay his hands on, soon adding the Yardbirds to his roll of heroes. Playing in a band became his main aim in life. ‘I was crazed,’ he confirmed. ‘I wanted to play rock ’n’ roll.’