A collection of the best quotes from the Aerosmith band members:

Steven Tyler Quotes

  • "Mary had a little sheep,
    With the sheep she went to sleep.
    The sheep turned out to be a ram,
    And Mary had a little lamb."

  • "It's like sitting on the back of an elephant with an iron trying to get out the wrinkles."

  • "Whether it's fine artists, musical artists, or ultra right wing bull shit artists, we all need the right to freedom of expression"

  • "Younger bands are into jerking off and we're into fucking. That's all there is to it!"

  • "Good night, everyone- and remember- in this world, if you wanna get ahead, you gotta learn to give a little!"

  • After firing Megadeath as their opening act, Steven Tyler was quoted as saying: "We would like to help you out. Which way did you come in?"

  • But "The History of Rock 'n' Roll" still stands as an important document of one of the world's most exciting and important musical idioms. "Rock 'n' roll is sexuality personified," says Aerosmith's Steven Tyler at the end of the series' final episode. "It is attitude. It is all the things that your parents told you not to do. It's the freedom to express yourself. It's being alive. It expresses the times. It's a magazine, a newspaper that tells the truth. If you listen to rap today, it's all about the truth. And that's what we all want. Just give me a little truth."

  • "Confuscious says that crowded elevators smell differently to midgets!!"

  • "People used to ask me, 'What do you reckon you'll be doing when you're 40?', and I told 'em 'rocking out and kicking ass!' Now it's 'What do you reckon you'll be doing at 60?' and the answer's exactly the same. I'm always going to love Jimi Hendrix - 'Purple Haze' will still give me a hard-on when I'm hooked up to a life-support machine. Hey, even when I'm dead, they're going to have a hell of a job nailing the coffin lid down."

  • (On the beginning's of Aerosmith) "I'd been playing in bands for something like seven years at this point. And we were always trying to get ahead, trying to rehearse and sound professional. But then I go to see the Jam Band (Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton's band before Aerosmith), and it blew me away. I wasn't expecting too much. Then they got up there and did 'Rattlesnake Shake' by Fleetwood Mac. And I said to myself, 'That's it. These guys suck - they can't even tune their instruments. But they have a great groove going that's better than any fuck I've ever had.' I just knew that if I could show them a little of what I knew, with the looseness and balls that they showed up there, then we'd really have something."

  • "The thing that really stands out in my mind about Aerosmith is that we're still fucking together. Whatever we've done together and whatever we've become, is second to the fact that we're still doing this. I'm still in love with these guys. I'm not saying it didn't take a lot of work because drugs will take you and pull you apart. But it wasn't anything we shot up or put up our noses that gave us the edge - it was Joe Perry's fuck-all, being as abrasive as that motherfucker is, and Brad Whitford's ear, Tom Hamilton's well-aimed simplicity and Joey Kramer's solid bed of backbeat. Keeping this band together has been the hardest and the happiest thing we've done in our lives. It's been a long time coming. So for all the other stuff that comes from Aerosmith, the most amazing thing is that we're still playing and still having some fucking fun."

  • "You have no idea how much it costs to look this cheap."

  • "We haven't quite been able to put together the deal for the shuttle -- we want to be the lounge act. Be the first band to play weightless!"

  • "I just want Aerosmith to always give me a hard-on, that's all I ever ask for, for it to be the most special thing in my life. As long as I look at it through those eyes, it will always be that way."

  • "You know...sometimes I'll be looking out at the audience and I'll be in the middle of a song, and I'll just stop dead. I'll look out at them, and think what is this... There's one thing that keeps me doing it though, I really love it, I believe in it."

  • (On the Jagger comparisons, when asked what he had to say to people who said he looked like Jagger) "I say jeans. Well what can I say? People who think I look like Jagger never met him. These little innuendos about me by people sitting thirty rows back, and all they see is that blond cat next to me as Brian Jones. And Joe as Keith Richards. And I'm supposed to be Jagger, running around. Shit. Jagger makes up for his whole group. He never stops prancing and dancing while the rest of them just stand there." Creem 9/75

  • (On Amazing) "The more I look back at my life and the things that we did, the more I think there's got to have been a plan for this band, either by a higher power or an angel of mercy. I mean, that's how I like to look at it now, because for all the shit I did, someone threw me a rope. I look back on the times I OD-ed, didn't have any money left in the bank, was let go off CBS because the band sucked, couldn't even get my shit together to change my clothes, but look at us now. When you actually look back, it's pretty damn amazing, hence the song." VOX 4/93

  • "Hey dude - this tricolor fusilli is fucking outrageous!"

  • "Even in the old days, we'd make an effort. When I'd go out to score on Eighth Avenue, I'd get my junk and a chocalate doughnut. But I'd always also pick up one of those pita-pocket health food sandwiches. You know, something really good for me."

  • (On girls) "We can look, but we'd better not touch."

  • "I'd met Mick Jagger years ago when he invited me to his house in Malibu, but back then I was too gagged to my fucking ear lobes in coke and Tuinals. I was barely in shape to knock on the door. But this time it was very beautiful. The limo pulled into his tent in the tent city, and he had a crib there for his daughter. We hugged, and I told Mick, 'You don't know what it means to be standing here with you after all these years. It's amazing, because I woke up this morning and I got my weekly report from the office, and right next to Aerosmith at Number Two in airplay R&R is the Stones album at Number One.' Of course, deep inside I'm thinking to myself, 'And watch out, because we're going to knock you right off the charts, motherfucker.' "

  • "When I let the kid out, he stays out. That's why I'm in rock n' roll."

  • "Getting to meet people is always alot of fun. There are times when you're a little tired or just not in the mood to hang out. But what I've found is that people understand your feelings. They're cool."

  • "Its cool when I meet young guys from other bands who say how much an impact Aerosmith has had on them and how much they like me.I'll give 'em that 'C'mon you dont mean that' routine, but in my heart I know where they're coming from. If I had grown up in the '70's and was into rock n' roll, I know the kind of impact Aerosmith would have had on me. I know the kind of impact that Elvis and Jagger had on me, and while I'm not comparing myself to those guys, I can relate."

  • "A lot of bands have managed to borrow parts of our style for their music. Thats fine with me,because we've borrowed from people like the Stones. But we dont want to sound like we're copying anyone, including ourselves, so we're moving on."

  • "What makes me feel good is that after all these years, the ideas that Joe Perry came up with worked and all the kids loved it."

  • "We were the guys you could actually see. It wasn't like Zeppelin was out there on the road in America all the time, the Stones weren't always coming to your town. We were America's band-the garage band that made it real big, the ultimate party band."

  • "Hey, man, if anyone ever tried to smack any of the 5 of us,they'd be shot."

  • "We were one of the biggest bands in the world.No one tried to tell us ANYTHING. And if they did- they were history."

  • "When people think of Aerosmith, I want them to think of the music we've made and nothing else. I don't want the resposibility of some young kid trying to live his life like I did back in the '70's."

  • "I wait till the last minute to do lyrics. I seem to work best that way- bummed out and under pressure. I often don't do my homework. But I'll always walk that extra mile."

  • (Steven's advice for parents) "Teach your children well and hope they have good sense."

  • (what he'd like to be reincarnated as) "An osprey or an eagle, they're so endangered."

  • (explaining the secret of the universe) "Sex:It certainly makes you one with each other for that brief fleeting moment...those X and Y chromey- somes. And also I think it's learning how to get out of your own way. Learn to get out of your own way and shit flows through you."

  • "Kurt Cobain, when he did his videos, you look into his eyes and he couldn't even face the camera; he was in pain and I'm angry about Kurt. This guy didnt have to die."

  • (describing himself in 3 words) "Late, great, debate."

  • "Its hard for me when they call me things like the Godfather of Hard Rock. Its almost like Im really shy and don't wanna hear it. I'm honored, but I get kinda embarrased. I can't act like I'm a Godfather because I dont think I am one mentally. When they say that to me, I say'Wheres the hubbub? I'm just a f#?kin asshole like you are.' "

  • "It's like, have you got the balls? If you were waiting for an elevator and the door opened up and there was 2 people in there f#?king-would you get on?"

  • "Nothing feels better than somebody telling you the truth. Because what have you got to lose? 'Youre an asshole.' No I'm not, that's how I feel."

  • "We're in this on a day-to-day basis. There's not a certain point in the future where we say, 'Well here we are, there's $X million in the bank. We've done it,lets pack it in now.' It's a case of the old thing- its not the destination, its the journey."

  • "Aerosmith-one of the 10 best bands today? Yeah definitely."

  • "If it shakes you in the right places, it's Gods gift."

  • "My get up and go has not got up and went."

  • (about the days of drugs and excess). "I used to think that I spent so much time getting high on stage in the 70's and 80's that I didn't take advantage of the ladies...I was in some corner somewhere. That's a regret, it's not much."

  • "All you're doing is chasing the first buzz. It's like youre chasing that head, that high, and you can never quite get to the same place as you did the first time. And the more you give it, the more it strangles you."

  • "What goes on in your head? How can you go home and write records? You're full of shit."

  • "But, you know, if Joe Perry can get straight, then, REALLY, anybody can."

  • "I remember the first guy who offered me a joint in the bathroom. I said 'No, man, I've got enough problems.'"

  • "Ratt and Motley Crue copied all my clothes and everything and it's like me saying 'Well I'm gonna go out in my dungarees, what I have on now, and play. ' F#?k that! I started something great, I'm proud of it,I love it and if they copy me that's all right, but I'm still gonna wear it, because I wear it better."

  • "If you cross a river enough and get soaking wet enough times, pretty soon you learn how to step on the rocks. And somtimes there's someone folowin' ya and ya gotta loosin' the stones."

  • On the basis of songs- "It's like a cage of ribs, it don't look like much, but it holds all the stuff in."

  • "If you don't got what Joplin had, then the only roots ya got are in your hair"

  • On people who complain- "It's like a baby who kicks his feet till they bleed. He finds out people don't give a damn and all you get out of it is a busted foot" It is almost like the world was asphalt and we were these fucking weeds. No matter what they put over us, asphalt or metal sealant, we grew right through it."

  • There's nothing like an Aerosmith Groove.

  • If you have a candle, the light won't glow any dimmer if I light yours off of mine.

  • Well she's coming at her daughter's like from the wrong direction. How can you fight young lust? a) she's young, and b) she has lust. That's why people masturbate. I mean, what do you want to be telling your child? That lust is bad? Get outta here. That's the Holy Wars. (about Lady Tipper Gore opposing to her daughter listening to songs like Young Lust)

  • Men are too busy talking about how big there dicks are. If men bled, tampons would be free.

  • Rock 'n' Roll is about a backbeat you can fuck to, but it's also about saying 'fuck you' to people who don't get off on freedom. We're protecting our right to rock.

  • The secret to enlightenment is to lighten up. Weather you are talking rock or women, the fever's what its about. The band has the fever. We're all here because we're not all there.

  • Now that I am sober, I deserve to get laid

  • If our fans are out there driving down that information superhighway, then we want to be playing at the truck stop. This is the future-so lets get it going.

  • You have to grab hold. Sometimes it's your crotch, sometimes its reality. I'm still screaming about what's inside me but now a lot of that relates to what' happening in the world outside. Everybody likes to blame shit on everybody else so they don't have to own up to it themselves.

  • Keep your nose to the grindstone, it sharpens your booger.

  • I don't buy into this idea that you're not supposed to rock 'n' roll after a certain date. I'm looking to be the lounge act on the space shuttle so I can sing "Walk This Way" on the ceiling.

  • The things that come to those that wait may be the things left by those that got there first.

  • But most of all, the train that kept rollin all night long of rock n' roll you cannot kill. It will live forever.

  • Just saying no to drugs is like just saying cheer up to a manic depressant.

  • I love every bone in a woman's body, especially mine.

  • Everything I've every loved was immoral, illegal, or grew hair on your palms.

  • You got the right key baby, but the wrong keyhole.

  • BAAAAACK in the saddle again.

  • F.I.N.E. - Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic, Emotional

  • The buzz that you be gettin from the crack don't last/I'd rather be O.D.'in on the crack of her ass.

  • Love's 4 letters aint' in my dictionary.

  • I'm looking to be the lounge act on the space shuttle so I can sing "Walk this Way" on the ceiling.

  • To be creative you gotta be a child. You gotta be true to the crib.

  • I'm gonna give'em what they came for.

  • If "to climax" is what the term means, to CLIMAX, why don't we do it all the time? We should be doing it 3-4 times a day. It's not about stupid and nasty, it's what we should all be doing.

  • It's as clear as the balls on a tall dog.

  • The experience of being a teenager is like taking a test before you've been given the lessons. And being middle-aged is cool because you've already seen the answers. And being old is like watchin' reruns on TV - it's frustrating because you can't change the channel anymore.

  • I live for CAN-ing other people's can'ts.

  • Talk to yourself and you'll hear what you want to know.

  • Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most!

  • Here lies Tyler, the Demon of Screamin', Who never woke up from the Dream he was Dreamin' Until oneday he drank some magic potion--Now all that's left is Sweet Emotion. (what ST wants on his Tombstone)

  • Remember in this world, if you wanna get ahead, you gotta learn to give a little.

  • Sex, drugs, and rock n' roll! Take out the drugs and there's a lot more room for the other two.

  • Remember the light at the end of the tunnel, may be you!

  • Slash looks like Joe, Joe looks like Keith, I look like Mick, Mick looks like a black man, black man invented the blues, blues had a baby and names it rock n' roll, and dude looks like a lady an all that other stuff.

  • We paved the road, so to speak. So why not fucking get in our car and drive down it again?

  • "Herd Sheep"...What ST replied when asked what he would do if he was the last person on earth.

  • I heard that your brain stops growing when you start doing drugs. Let's see, I guess that makes me 19.

  • Shit fire and save matches, fuck an duck and see what hatches

  • Good nite god bless and dont forget to wear a rubber

  • Something tells me we ain't in Kansas anymore Yodo Yah ah ah ah ah !!!

  • "People thought we were all washed up. But we came back to KICK SOME ASS."

  • "It's not the COUGH that carries you OFF. . . . It's the COFFIN they carry you OFF IN."

  • "Well, I took a perfect pill this morning, Bruce. Along with a suck pill"

  • "I'm fuckin' flyin' baby!"

  • "Moist. That's a *good* word. I like that word!"

  • "It's R&B. It's those 2s and 4s. It's like fucking...you know? You can really *fuck* to a good Aerosmith song!"

  • F-C-K. The only thing its missing is U

  • We weren't too ambitious when we started out. We just wanted to be the biggest thing that ever walked the planet, the greatest rock band that ever was. We just wanted everything. We just wanted it ALL!

  • (During the song Stop Messin' at a concert) "On the guitar, musical alchemist, playing and singin his ass off, Mr. Joe Fucking Perry!"

  • The light at the end of the tunnel . . . IS YOU!!!" (at Woodstock, '94)

  • Good evening . . . thanks for inviting us to your party . . .I hope you don't mind if we KICK YOUR ASS with some rock 'n' roll!! (at the beginning of shows)

  • Do you want the old shit, or the new shit? (taking requests, about halfway through shows)

  • (When asked what's the best revenge he has ever gotten, Steven responded,) "Our comeback."

  • (on the secret to a successful partnership)Having a direct, positive response to our music is a big perk- it keeps it exciting for us. And we've come to realize that we're musicians first and foremost, and we still love playing together night after night-Steven Tyler, Seventeen-April, 1994

  • I guess I am a feminist of sorts, I love woman so much, and I celebrate the female side in me because I appreciate it so much - Steven Tyler, Seventeen-April 1994

  • I put so sex in my lyrics because I'm always thinking about it, it's always on my mind - Steven Tyler, Globe and Mail, Febuary 1997

  • If we hang ourselves, it's going to be on the tree of creativity - Steven Tyler, Globe and Mail, Febuary 1997

  • I really don't feel and age gap with our fans, but then again, we don't create one. You have to be in touch with what younger fans are going through in their lives, and I think we are. Anyone can write mature songs. It's harder to write songs about what you really are, and we're all kids at heart - Steven Tyler, Toronto Star, 1997

  • We would like to help you out, which way did you come in..?-Steven Tyler

  • You have no idea how much it costs to look this cheap-Steven Tyler

  • If you have a candle, the light won't grow any dimmer if I light yours off mine-Steven Tyler

  • Now that I'm sober, I deserve to get laid-Steven Tyler

  • Keep your nose to the grindstone - It sharpens yer boogers-Steven Tyler

  • The things that come to those who wait may be the things left by those that got there first-Steven Tyler

  • I love every bone in a womans body, especially mine-Steven Tyler

  • Everything I've ever loved was immoral, illegal, or grew hair on your palms-Steven Tyler

  • And remember, the light of the tunnel may be you, and it's not the light of an incoming train-Steven Tyler

Joe Perry Quotes

  • "I don't want fans to think we're clean, upstanding American boys, but we are Americans, and we do stand up."
  • When asked if the band plays tighter now that they are sober and he said, "I guess we all have a bad night now and then and really screw up. I listened to our earlier stuff and we screwed up a lot. But at least now that we are sober, when we screw up it's for real."

  • (On videos) "It's weird but it's part of the game now, part of the industry. Unfortunately there's a lot of other things going on that will make it a hit besides if it's a great song...I've gotten so I like to do videos. I get a charge out of it.We put the same sense of humor and "fuck you"-ness that we put into the music. They've taken on a life of their own."

  • On Gems) "That was a non-hits album, which we thought was pretty cool. That is one of the Aerosmith records that I listen to."

  • "From the inside I didn't think anything was wrong. But from the outside everything. The focus is completely gone. If I kept a journal, I couldn't do a better job of showing exactly when we started to go south. Especially because I was too fucked up to actually keep a diary. The Beatles made their White Album; we made our black-out album."

  • "We'd stopped leading our band, we'd stopped giving a shit. We'd go out to play and we'd struggle to get through 'Back In The Saddle' as opposed to getting out there and moving things ahead. And all of a sudden there were all these new bands like Van Halen taking up the slack. We were just laying down sleeping and other people came in. We just blew it."

  • "Our story was basically that we had it all, and we pissed it all away."

  • "These days it's almost like a lot of kids get into bands because they want to get rich and famous, but when we started this band that wasn't really part of it. I never envisioned what I was doing as part of a career. We weren't even aware of all the stuff that came with it. We just looked at the bands that we idolized - like the Yardbirds - and we were blown away by how they could play. All we wanted to do was play like that, to be a great band like that."

  • (When asked if he is ever embarrassed or annoyed by Steven) "Constantly! Constantly. All of the above! But you know, that's what's great about it. There's a brother thing going on there. We've been through so much together. He forgives me for my stoicism and my hard-headedness, and I likewise do the same with his flamboyance. I mean, he only hits me with the microphone like once or twice a tour. And he regrets it when he does! But it's fun watching him, and it's just not in my nature to do that. I suppose if it was up to me, we'd wear black suits and sunglasses and just stand there and play. Oh man, he definitely gets dressed in the closet with the light off."

  • "You know, I definitely enjoy it, to be this close to that kind of insanity every day."

  • (Joe on writer's block):"I think there was a time when I used to feel that way, but...it's like I'm past caring anymore. I know that it's gonna come out as good as it's gonna come out, and I know from history that people just don't lose it, y'know what I mean?"

  • "I know that some of the great painters and some of the great artists didn't even start to 'peak', as you say, till they were in their fifties and sixties. And God knows, history is full of artistic people that weren't even recognized till they were dead and gone."

  • "I know that the gift that God gave me isn't gonna just wither up and die unless I let it die, so it's a matter of me having the faith that it's gonna come out. Whether or not the public's gonna like it is another story. But I think as long as I keep changing and sticking to what I really love - and the same goes for Steven and the other guys in the band - then people are gonna like it."

  • "Fuck you Steven"

  • "Tell 'em about the tie, Billie, the tie. You know the tie"

  • "Music is music you don't have to put a label on it"

  • "The '70's came and went already"

  • "What the Fuck is this?"

  • "[Steven and his band] were loud and obnoxious, behaving like rock stars are supposed to behave - especially when they're in a little town and nobody knows how not-so-big they are. They'd come into the Anchorage (the ice cream parlor that he worked at as a teen) and throw food and shit and I'd have to clean up after them."

  • "Wear the same thing you wore last tour, the blue striped thing"

  • "You guys are mericiless"

  • "Don't tell me what to do, I am having fun!"

  • "We have sex 2,3 times a day. In fact, we are late right now"

  • "This is our tour - don't fuck with our music"

  • "We like each other just enough"

  • "Is that a drug reference, I thought we gave up on the drugs"

  • "That's it we are leaving"

  • "I think I had my drink for next years Christmas about seven years ago!"('89)

  • "We were so f#?ked up,we couldnt even get into a studio & stay awake!"

  • "You've got to keep your body in good working order--otherwise,how else are you gonna be able to f#?k all night?"

  • "When those bass bins are cranking, it does something to you physically. We have these special sub-woofers. You dont really hear them, but it shakes you in the right places. You can call it the devil, you can call it God's gift."

  • "We're just entertainers. We're here to make people happy, to make them SMILE. That's what Steve does with his lyrics. God it'd be boring if it was all just boy meets girl...C'mon, we're here to have a good time!"

  • "What I like about Aerosmith, and what we always try to do, is to keep the balance of fun. There's enough shit going on--you don't need to come to our shows and have your face rubbed in it too."

  • (about Lightning Strikes..) "It's one of my favorite Aerosmith songs. I was pissed off that I didn't get to play on it, so I make up for it every night when we play it live!"

  • (more about Lightning Strikes..) "It's one of my favorite songs to play live--but just to show where I was at, I wouldn't listen to it at the time, 'cause in my mind it was shit."

  • "Rhythm and sex go together and that's where I come from as far as the music goes. Rag Doll and Love In An Elevator are such sexual songs that you put them on & the strippers go NUTS!"

  • "If you take your last album & try to copy it, then thats sure to hell the way to stagnation. And that makes me bored...and if I'm bored then the music is boring and so are the band!"

  • "Steven and I stood on the stage at the Boston Garden after the Stones had just played there and the stage was still up. We had been playing cards, maybe a high-school dance, to 400 or 500, maybe a thousand. We just stood on the stage and thought, 'Well,man,maybe someday.' In 4 years that was OUR stage."

  • "I think we're just a garage band that got lucky. It's the enthusiasm from the audience that keeps it going."

  • "The kids in the audience still get together and do whatever the f#?k they want. From the crowds we've played for, from the very beginning until now, they all get off when we're singing 'Come Together'--'One thing I can tell you is you got to be free.' The kids go nuts when you say that. It's a tribal thing. Rock-n-Roll is about freedom. Even if the kids arent there just to hear the band, it's a meeting place. The lights go down, they get anonymous, some of them go a little nuts, but it's okay."

  • "I don't need to speak...I play the guitar!"

  • "I never envisioned what I was doing as part of a career."

  • "My sense of humor gets out of hand sometimes, which really bugs the hell out of Steven. He'd like me yo play straight-ahead rhythms, but I like to make a lot of noise and shit."

  • (Before playing Stop Messin' at a concert), "For all the ladies and gentlemen and ships at sea out there in radio land ..."

  • (on whether they get dumped on for having so many sexy woman in their videos) Sure we do ... but hey, if we were girls, we'd have good looking guys in our videos, we try to be sexy without being sexist - Joe Perry, Seventen-April 1994

  • I like the way this record sounds, it sounds loud - Joe Perry, on Nine Lives, Globe and Mail-Febuary 1997

Tom Hamilton Quotes

  • (When asked what the band feels they have left to prove) "I don't know if it's anything to put in words. I guess we just feel like we have a potential that we haven't reached yet musically. Because you keep doing it, and you keep learning new things, and you go, 'Wow, I want to do that on the next record!' That's all I can really thing of. I think when you see some of these bands get into their second decade, and they get fat and pudgy and bored, and they keep playing the same songs, it's not because they ever ran out of ideas, it's because they're doing other things in their lives that are killing their creativity. If the creative thing was there for your first couple of albums, it's always there - always there. You can always go play around in that playground."

  • (On record companies) "When a band has been successful for their first few albums, then (the record company says) let's not let the band get in the way of making the next one good!"

  • "I think what we wanted to do, without ever really saying it, was to be the American equivalent of all the great British bands like Cream, the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin. They were all so classy and powerful sounding. We couldn't think of an American band like that. We wanted to be the first one."

  • "Steven's got a lot more time to be obsessed with sex now that he's not fucked up"

  • "I think I deserve to ask MTV a question. Do I have any roast Beef in my teeth?, I just ate."

  • "(Talking about cover of GAG)... Ayone who is clearly thinking knows we didn't go out and tourture some cow. We used a general anesthetic followed by a few hours in the recovery room. IT'S FAKE!!! The cow doesn't have anything stuck through it's udder!"

  • "Steven and Joe had an argument the first night about Joe playing too loud, and so began an Aerosmith tradition."

  • (on opening for the Mahvishnu Orchestra) "John McLaughlin and the band would meditate before they started playing, and as you might imagine, we weren't into meditating. We'd already found our own way to meditate, chemiacally."

  • "I remember when Joe left, he gave an interview that really hurt me. He said, 'Aerosmith is not ready for the Eighties.' That hurt. It hurt because he was right. I though about that on New Year's Eve, when we were playing this great gig at home in Boston. It was my birthday, and I was thinking that Aerosmith is a band ready for the Nineties. We have a future now. For a while we didn't have one. It's one hell of a nice thing to have."

Joey Kramer Quotes

  • "We never wanted to be a bar band. We were always a concert band."

  • "If we've handled everything up until now, we can do anything."

  • "Steve's really funny. Like, he's got three or four grand tied up in a stereo system with four-track recorders in his living room and he sleeps on the floor on a pillow. He doesn't have a bed!" --Joey Kramer (He later bought Steven a bed as a gift)

Brad Whitford Quotes

  • (on the writing of Krawhitham) "Steven and Joe just weren't around, they were locked away in their rooms consuming whatever they were consuming. We were still functioning. We still got up in the morning. So Tom, Joey, and I had a lot of time together."

  • "Things were getting more like Sid and Nancy than Spinal Tap. It wasn't funny anymore." --Brad Whitford

  • It's to easy to do something different, the challenge is to stay in your own space, and keep it good. That's the hard part - Brad Whitford, Toronto Star, 1997

The band talking about their songs

When I Needed You (Tyler)
"I can't ever forget how excited I was about being in an actual recording band. It was a total dream come true. The other side of it is that's it's a pretty lame song. I never got a cent. So that was my first taste of 'shysterism."
--Tyler

Make It (Tyler)
"Our first song from our first album, and for a long time it was our show opener. Just a great way to get things going."
--Hamilton

Movin' Out (Tyler. Perry)
"We wrote that sitting on Mark Lehman's waterbed at 1325 (Commonwealth Avenue)."
--Perry
"It's the first song we ever wrote together."
--Tyler

One Way Street (Tyler)
"I can remember Tom and me drillin' on the 'one way street shuffle' until we drove the old lady downstairs crazy. Tom on his bass and me on a kitchen chair and a pedal on a cardboard box."
--Kramer

On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)
"This was one of the first songs we ever learned. We played it at the clubs and high school dances, and other than that, I have no recollection of recording it. Needless to say where I was at the time."
--Kramer

Mama Kin (Tyler)
"This was one that Steven brought with him from before Aerosmith. Steven obviously loved that one--I mean, he did have it tattooed on his arm. But when I first heard it I was afraid that the chords were too simple. But inevitably the best ones are easy ones."
--Perry

Same Old Song and Dance (Tyler, Perry)
"I remember we were all living together again for a summer, and that was one of the songs that we came up with. I remember sitting on an amp in the living room of our place, and coming up with the riff for that one, and then Steven came up with the bridge."
--Perry

"Great horns! Just a great groove song. I'm always on the lookout for a song that grooves out. A real classic Joe Perry riff--I just filled in the blanks. I hate to spell things out too much, but that was about one girl who was pulling on my guitar player's balls. But that's not important."
--Tyler

Train Kept a Rollin' (T. Bradshaw, L. Mann, H. Kay)
"This one was a standard. All of us loved the Yardbirds' version. This song was part of a common ground. We all knew it and had played it before we got together. Our version was pretty sterile on the album, but it was a great song for us to play, more our kind of thing than something like 'Roll Over Beethoven.'"
--Perry

Seasons of Wither (Tyler)
"Of all the ballads, this is the one I really like. Steven does them really well, but I never liked us doing ballads at all. I didn't want anything wussy on our records. I always figured the only thing worth playing slow was a slow blues."
--Perry

"You know what Tuinals and Seconal are? Well, I was eating those at the time, big time. I was living with Joey Kramer near a chicken farm. It was Halloween and I was really down. So I went down to the basement, burned some incense, and picked up this guitar that Joey had found in a dumpster somewhere. It was fretted pretty fucked, and it had a special tone to it. And that tuning forced that song right out. I love that song. The other day I was coming out of Mann's Theater in Los Angeles after a movie and on the curb there's a guy playing 'Seasons of Wither' note for note. What a trip."
--Tyler

Write Me a Letter (Tyler)
"We arranged that one in the old Celtics locker room in the Boston Garden."
--Whitford

Dream On (Tyler)
"For me this song sums up the shit you put up with when you're in a new band. Only one out of fifty people who write about you pick up on the music. Most of the critics panned our first album, and they said we were ripping off the Stones. And I think 'Dream On' is a great song, but it was two or three years before people really got a chance to hear it. That's a good barometer of my anger at the press, which I still have. 'Dream On' came of me playing piano when I was about seventeen or eighteen, and I didn't know anything about writing a song. It was just this little . . . sonnet that I started playing one day. I never thought then it would end up being a real song or anything."
--Tyler

"When we were all living together mine was the only room with a piano in it. I remember waking up and hearing Steven playing this song over and over again. It probably pissed me off then, but now I'm sure glad he kept playing."
--Hamilton

Pandora's Box (Tyler, Kramer)
"We were rehearsing up in New Hampshire, and I was living in Vermont. I had this old piece of shit acoustic guitar that I'd found in the trash years before, and I came up with the riff on that. I played it for Steven, and he went to work. This one was a thrill for me because it was the first one I've ever written."
--Kramer

Rattlesnake Shake (Griffith, Gilmore)
"This is just one of the defining songs in Aerosmith history. That song, and our version of it, sort of put together the sound that all of us love to play."
--Hamilton

"If there was one song that got me to play with Joe Perry -this is the song. And the story goes... I had it up to my earlobes playing with these various bar bands from New York City. It just didn't make it and I couldn't take it, so I jumped up from behind the drums, strangled the guitar player and hitchhiked to New Hampshire where I saw Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton playing in a club I had played so many times before with bands that just didn't have the groove that the Jam Band had that night. The club was a b.y.o.b. called the Barn. They were there--the Jam Band so out of tune, not really very good players, but the groove was so good that therein laid the magic. You didn't have to be the greatest player--you just needed to have the groove and the attitude--they said it all in that one song--the attitude and the humor."
--Tyler

Walkin' the Dog (Rufus Thomas)
"One of the early tunes we played in clubs. It was on a lot of early set lists, and it still finds its was to one of our set lists now sometimes."
--Perry

Lord of the Thighs (Tyler)
"This song was ahead of its time. It sounds as good to me now as it did then, if not better."
--Perry

"I remember we needed one more song for GET YOUR WINGS and we needed it fast. We locked ourselves into Studio C at the Record Plant for the night. And this is what we came up with. I remember Steven was really psyched and I think it shows."
--Hamilton

"Was I the Lord of the Thighs? Fuck yeah."
--Tyler

Toys in the Attic (Tyler, Perry)
"A benchmark rock n' roll song for Aerosmith--that kind of fast tune that was always a favorite of mine. This was sort of the first one. There were so many more to follow."
--Perry

Round and Round (Tyler, Whitford)
"I don't remember a whole lot about this one. I just remember being in the Record Plant, and I had the main riff of that song. It was one of those riffs that everybody said, 'We've got to do something with that.' It turned into quite a production."
--Whitford

You See Me Cryin' (Tyler, Solomon)
"The majority of the song was constructed at the Record Plant in New York City. Many long hours."
--Whitford

Sweet Emotion (Tyler, Hamilton)
"A lot of stuff I wrote in the old days just came out of anger. 'Sweet Emotion' was about how pissed off I was at Joe's ex-wife, and all the other frusterations of the time. I could never get through to him. To this day, he wears a lot of armor, but the music was always the saving grace. And if that's the way he chooses to let me in, that's fine. I just need to keep coming up with my own passwords to get in there."
--Tyler

"This one came at the very end of the TOYS IN THE ATTIC sessions. I had my part, but I was too shy to say, hey, let's work on it. But somehow we had an extra day at the end, and Jack said, 'Anyone have anything we can jam on?' And so this one made it at the last minute. I remember showing Steven this riff a couple of times during the GYW sessions and he just didn't like it. My immediate reaction was just to forget it. But one day we started the riff at a different point, and it shed a whole new light on it. But nothing happened with it till the next album. The rest is history. It's still a song I'm very proud of."
--Hamilton

No More No More (Tyler, Perry)
"This is one of the songs that I really liked where Steven does his little storytelling bit about life within the band. It's him talking honestly about an interesting little slice of the Aerosmith story."
--Whitford

"I still love this song because of Steven's lyrics. It's not one of those stupid, generic, 'I love rock n' roll songs' that some bands do. It's a real song about the rock n' roll lifestyle, or our rock n' roll lifestyle. I don't know if it's the definitive song about life on the road, and I don't even care. It's like a page from our diary."
--Perry

Walk This Way (Tyler, Perry)
"We were rehearsing that riff, and I don't think Steven was even around that day as we practiced it and arranged it. And that night we went with Jack Douglas to the movies and saw Young Frankenstein. There's that part in the movie where Igor says, 'walk this way,' and the other guy walks the same way with the hump and everything. We thought it was the funniest thing we'd ever seen in our lives. So we told Steven, the name of the song has got to be 'Walk This Way,' and he took it from there."
--Hamilton

"I remember reading in a newspaper, like in 1976, and there's this article in there about how disgusting lyrics are, and they used 'Walk This Way' as an example of how lyrics should be nice and wholesome. I couldn't believe it. Obviously, they didn't get the meaning of 'you ain't seen nothing 'till your down on the muffin'."
--Tyler

I Wanna Know Why (Tyler, Perry)
"We were going down to Draw The Line and a lot of stuff was coming down on Steven. I always thought this song was a reaction to all the shit he was getting into at the time."
--Hamilton

Big Ten-Inch Record (F. Weismantel)
"I was listening to a tape of Dr. Demento given to me by an old friend of ours called Zonk, and I heard this song, which is originally from like 1936. The big rumor is that I say, 'Suck on my big 10 inch' on the record. I don't. I'm saying 'cept --as in except--not 'suck.' But no one in the whole world believes me."
--Tyler

Rats in the Cellar (Tyler, Perry)
"We needed an answer to Toys in the Attic. We were getting lower and more down and dirty. So the cellar seemed like a good place to go."
--Perry

Last Child (Tyler, Whitford)
"I remember putting it together at the Wherehouse. It was a big room with a high ceiling. We hung up all these drapes. We were basically like a bunch of kids building forts."
--Hamilton

"This is an example of Aerosmith at out most funky. I remember we were listening to stuff like the Meters."
--Perry

"I always loved this one. Just a little ditty that Brad brought in that became a hit."
--Tyler

Soul Saver (Tyler, Whitford)
"The beginnings of 'Nobody's Fault.' When you really listen to each other, and have perseverance, even a really shitty riff can become a great song."
--Tyler

Nobody's Fault (Tyler, Whitford)
"One long string of Brad Whitford songs in the key of F-sharp"
--Hamilton

Lick and a Promise (Tyler, Perry)
"This one is about going out and winning an audience. It's tough thing to do. It's one of our songs that's just a real moment in time."
--Tyler

Adam's Apple (Tyler)
"One of the greatest put together songs that Aerosmith ever did. Those were my thoughts on UFOs, the theory of evolution, the monkey, and Adam and Eve. How incredibly naive to think that there were just those two people just buzzing around the woods naked, having a blast."
--Tyler

Draw the Line (Tyler, Perry)
"One of my favorite riffs that I ever wrote. It's a simple thing, but so are most of the ones that stick to you."
--Perry

Critical Mass (Tyler, Hamilton, Douglas)
"I remember writing it on the bass like 'Sweet Emotion,' then writing a guitar part around it. In those days, we'd always record the basic track without any idea what the song was about. And I thought the song was bizarre at first, but I really came to like it. It's like a chant with a great production."
--Hamilton

Kings and Queens (Hamilton, Kramer, Tyler, Whitford, Douglas)
"I've always had a fancy to do songs about anarchy and the church and the government. This is not only the one--there's also something like 'St. John.' The band comes up with the licks, and then the music talks to me and tells me what it's all about. This one was just about how many people died from holy wars because of their beliefs, or non-beliefs. With that one, my brain was back with the knights of the round table and that shit--I do a lot of fantasizing."
--Tyler

Milk Cow Blues (Arnold)
"This one goes back to when Joe and I were in the Jam Band."
--Hamilton

Three Mile Smile (Tyler, Perry)
"Both Jimmy [Crespo] and I recorded solos for this song. Steven liked Jimmy's solo better and his is the one that you hear on the record and I'm still pissed about it."
--Whitford

Let it Slide (Tyler, Perry)
"This shows what a song is like in the beginning (in this case 'Cheese Cake'), and what it can become. And that's a big part is being a band--building something up from a riff."
--Tyler

Cheese Cake (Tyler, Perry)
"The song was done in one take with no overdubs. When I played that track I went from a regular 6-string to a lapsteel and back, live in the studio. Even though the band was falling apart in every other way, it was a testament to how we were playing."
--Perry

Bone to Bone (Coney Island White Fish Boy) (Tyler, Perry)
"A Coney Island White Fish is a scumbag. When you lived by the Hudson River like I did, you always saw these things floating by on their way to sea. They were rubbers--guys would tie 'em up and they'd just keep floating. And that, boys and girls, is a Coney Island White Fish."
--Tyler

No Surprize (Tyler, Perry)
"It's ironic that most of the songs that we did that tell the true story of the band end up on some back burner album so people don't really hear 'em. This one is where I just spell it all out--and it's also a pretty damn good song."
--Tyler

"This was one of the real good ones from Night in the Ruts. If we'd been more together that might have been the album where we took what we'd done on Rocks, but were too fucked up to really put it all together, and support it. That's one of the reasons I left around then."
--Perry

Come Together (Lennon, McCartney)
"It was really cool the be in the studio with George Martin. You always wondered what it would be like to be in the studio with one of the Beatles, and he was sort of the fifth Beatle. It was kind of intimidating, but we weren't too easily intimidated in those days."
--Perry

Jailbait (Tyler, Crespo)
"This is a Jimmy Crespo riff. This song really made us feel like we had one in the pocket. It seems impossible to hear it without getting blown away."
-- Hamilton

"Even though I wasn't around for that song, I think it's pretty hot. I would have done it a little differently, but if anything I'm a little jealous that I didn't get to play on it."
--Perry

Major Barbara (Tyler)
"I always thought this one was velvety smooth."
--Kramer

Chip Away the Stone (Supa)
"It's a Richie Supa song that we always thought was going to be a single. It's sort of a pet song, but the public never seemed to like it quite as much as we did."
--Hamilton

Back in the Saddle (Tyler, Perry)
"To me this is the kind of riff and instrumentation that falls outside the normal formula of a rock song. I wrote it on a six string bass. It was one of those songs that really opened things up for us."
--Perry