Steven Tyler

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Music News

Aerosmith Members Say Steven Tyler 'Needs Help'

Originally posted 11/19/2009 05:30AM

As Steven Tyler's bandmates ponder the future now that he has decided to take a two-year break from Aerosmith, they are also expressing concerns about the singer's well-being.

"I think that he needs help and that attention needs to be put to his health," drummer Joey Kramer tells PEOPLE.

And Kramer says he isn't referring to the broken shoulder Tyler sustained when he fell off the stage during a concert in August.

Asked if he thinks there is something else going on with Tyler, he says, "I do."

Recent reports in the Boston Herald and online suggest Tyler, who battled drug addiction in the '70s and '80s and checked into a rehab center last year to detox from painkillers, may be partying again.

Though Kramer would not say whether he has seen Tyler use drugs recently, he says he is concerned because the singer has "isolated himself."

Says Kramer, "He's got some bad influences in his life right now and he's making poor choices."

Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford tells PEOPLE, "His behavior is spinning out of control."

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Music News

Steven Tyler: Back with Aerosmith

Originally posted 11/11/2009 03:20PM

It looks like Aerosmith may have nine lives after all.

Just days after guitarist Joe Perry Tweeted that frontman Steven Tyler was leaving the band, the longtime duo has apparently patched things up.

Tyler and Perry made a surprise appearance onstage at the Fillmore in New York Tuesday night and announced that Tyler was back in the saddle. "I just want New York to know I'm not leaving Aerosmith," Tyler, 61, told the cheering crowd. The band then gave an rousing performance of "Walk this Way."

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Music News

Steven Tyler to Take a Permanent Vacation?

Originally posted 11/09/2009 08:20AM

Possibly taking cues from the group's album titles, will veteran rock band Aerosmith continue to Rock in a Hard Place? Or will its fans be force to Just Push Play?

According to rumors – and guitarist Joe Perry himself – it looks like people are going to have to get used to listening to songs like "Dude Looks Like a Lady" without the distinctive warbling of frontman Steven Tyler, who may or may not have left the band.

"Steven quit as far as I can tell. I don't know any more than you do about it," Perry told the Las Vegas Sun. "I don’t know for how long, indefinitely or whatever. Other than that, I don't know."

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Credit: David "Bagel" Ungar/FilmMagic

What Happened to Aerosmith's Steven Tyler?

Originally posted 08/12/2009 02:05PM

Nearly a week after Aerosmith's lead singer Steven Tyler fell off the stage at a South Dakota concert, mystery surrounds his current condition.

A concert spokesman said Tyler, 61, was airlifted to a local hospital after suffering minor head, neck and shoulder injuries, according to the Associated Press. The band then postponed three concert dates in Canada and it's unclear when they will resume touring.

In radio interviews this week, lead guitarist Joe Perry said he hasn't spoken with Tyler since the fall, but told Chicago's 97.9 The Loop, "I've seen him fall of a stage more than once ... I've fallen off ... Stuff happens."

According to Perry, the frontman (who suffered a leg injury earlier this summer) broke his shoulder blade in two places. "No concussion. Nothing internal," he told Detroit's WXRX 104.9 FM. "So it's like he [was] in a bad bar fight. [Like] somebody had a baseball bat."

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Health

Steven Tyler Says He Needed to Kick Pain and Sleep Drugs

Originally posted 06/27/2008 09:45PM

Expanding upon an earlier explanation that foot-surgery recuperation forced him into rehab, Aerosmith rocker Steven Tyler now says he required the "safe environment" of a treatment facility in order to address a dependency on pain and sleep medication.

"To have your feet done, to have your leg done, you have to be on narcotics," Tyler, 60, told the Associated Press on Friday. "You have to be on sleep aids at night. I don't know about Joe [Perry, an Aerosmith bandmate], but I was off and running and I didn't like the me that was me."

Tyler – who successfully went through rehab in 1986 after years of admitted drug and alcohol abuse – issued a statement in May, saying he'd gone into rehab that month to recover from foot surgeries to repair problems caused by his highly physical stage moves.

"This was a month ago," he said Friday, "so I just put the brakes on and checked into detox and just pulled the plug on all of it."
– Stephen M. Silverman