Episode #135 | 6.27.23
Aerosmith: Toxic Twins, M-80s, Cocaine Eyeliner, and Living on the Edge
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In this episode
At their peak, Aerosmith was sex, drugs, and rock and roll in the flesh, wrapped up in spangly scarves and jumpsuits. They crossed target practice with black tar heroin. Trained roadies how to feed them cocaine onstage. Frontman Steven Tyler claims he spent $6,000,000 on coke alone. Their chemical highs launched them to career highs that were equally staggering, until addictions and attitudes splintered the band into solo projects and a shadow of the band they once were. No group ever lived on the edge the way Aerosmith did – even when they were dangerously close to teetering over it.
Sources
Does The Noise in My Head Bother You? A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir by Steven Tyler
Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith by Aerosmith and Stephen Davis
Rocks: My Life in and out of Aerosmith by Joe Perry
Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top by Joey Kramer
Aerosmith's Lead Singer Collapses on Maine Stage (Boston Globe, available via Boston Public Library)
Aerosmith: The Best War Stories (NME)
Aerosmith interview: the truth about the chaos, the coke, and the cleaning up (Louder)
Sept. 29 Aerosmith Concert Creates Outside Disturbances (The Heights)
Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
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