Aerosmith Turmoil Reflects Troubled History

The hottest soap opera in rock right now is Aerosmith. The question of whether or not Steven Tyler is still in the band is a melodrama that makes the last days of Velvet Revolver and Scott Weiland look downright banal. First a recap of the week's events: Tuesday night in New York City, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler joined guitarist Joe Perry onstage to announce he was not leaving the band and perform 'Walk This Way.' "I just want New York to know, I am not leaving Aerosmith. Joe Perry, you are a man of many colors. But I, mother---er, am the rainbow," Tyler told the audience, prompting fans to take to Facebook, Twitter and Aerosmith message boards to express their immediate relief.

So, drama solved -- Tyler will stay in Aerosmith keeping the 40-year legacy alive and everybody's happy, right? Wrong. The next day Perry dampened the fans' enthusiasm, telling Rolling Stone things aren't as copasetic as they appeared and admitting the cameo was a surprise to him. After Tyler made his splashy public appearance, the two didn't even talk again that night. In fact, Perry, who previously had said Tyler had hung up on him recently, said there's been a decided lack of communication internally. "Basically, any communication that we've had over the last couple of months has been through managers, so that's been pretty strange," he told Rolling Stone.

As for the issue of whether or not Tyler is still in the band, that's equally unresolved. "He wants to take two years off from the band," Perry said. "The rest of the band wants to keep on working. We have so many different options to fill up that time. Anything is possible at this point."

A lot of these issues emerged during the summer when the legendary band was forced to cancel their tour with ZZ Top, a trek Perry told Spinner in April he was very excited about. "This tour with ZZ Top is gonna be great because I love the way Billy [Gibbons, guitarist] plays. They have great songs, and it's just gonna be a fantastic show," he said at the time.

Unfortunately, shortly after rebounding from a leg injury that caused them to cancel several dates, Tyler fell off the stage at a Sturgis, S.D., show, putting the kibosh on the remainder of the tour and leaving Perry openly frustrated. The struggles go beyond the tour, as the pair have disagreed publicly over the direction of the band with Perry wanting a return to their '70s blues-rock roots and Tyler pushing for more of the pop sound that brought the band a new generation of fans in the '80s and '90s with albums like 'Permanent Vacation' and 'Pump.' In an interview, Perry said discussed 2001's Just Push Play,' saying "Sometimes I listen to that record and I'm not sure it's my band. All I want to do is make a record that sounds like Aerosmith."

This isn't the first time the band has had problems in their four-decade run. After emerging as America's answer to the Rolling Stones in the '70s with smashes like 'Dream On,' 'Back in the Saddle,' 'Walk This Way,' 'Train Kept A-Rollin'' and 'Sweet Emotion,' the group was undone by drug use, with Tyler and Perry "earning" the moniker the Toxic Twins for their heavy partying. Ultimately, Perry left the band in 1979 to start the Joe Perry Project. Next to exit was rhythm guitarist Bradley Whitford, who departed the group in 1981.

The pair reentered the fold in 1984 after the axe-slingers came to a gig and the rest went onto become rock 'n' roll history. Pulling off one of the most successful and startling reinventions in history, the'70s band that emerged as a hard rock act with blues influences turned into superstars of the MTV generation and cemented their legacy as one of America's greatest bands. The evolution started in 1986 when Tyler and Perry joined Run-DMC for the historic remake of 'Walk This Way,' which hit No. 4 on the singles charts and when they released 'Permanent Vacation' a year later, the comeback was complete. For the two decades since, Aerosmith has enjoyed their deserved status as icons, touring constantly, scoring hits with tracks like 'Jaded,' 'Love in an Elevator' and 'Janie's Got A Gun' before riding the success of 'Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.'

So what now? The band had been at work on a new album, reteaming with acclaimed producer Brendan O'Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine). While Perry told Spinner in April "We have a lot of new material," recording was supposed to get hot and heavy after the tour, but Tyler has said he wants to work on his own career while Perry and the rest of Aerosmith want to tour and stay active. How will this be resolved? Given the history of reunions and comebacks, we're betting there will be an Aerosmith tour with Tyler sooner rather than later, just maybe not in 2010. Stay tuned.