STEVEN TYLER: Behind The Scenes Of ROLLING STONE Cover Shoot

May 6, 2011

AEROSMITH frontman Steven Tyler was typically gabby at the photo shoot for the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone. He reminisced about his previous four appearances on the cover, and he shared a story about a shoot in the Seventies in which photographer Annie Leibovitz maneuvered him into a particularly revealing pose by straddling him and promising him drugs.

Tyler's memoir, "Does The Noise In My Head Bother You?", came out on Tuesday (May 3) and the outspoken singer is making the press rounds to talk about the book. Speaking candidly about his past drug addictions with People.com, Tyler said, "I blew 20 million. I snorted my Porsche, I snorted my plane, I snorted my house in that din of drugs and booze and being lost." He added, "I kept my medicine cabinet on stage, in a 14-inch drum head, the bottom of which contained . . . one Dixie cup (paper cup) with a straw and blow (cocaine) in it and the other with Coca-Cola and Jack Daniels in it."

But Tyler told The Pulse Of Radio that he also wanted to show a different side of himself in the book. "Being in a band with AEROSMITH, you're kind of depicted as Peck's bad boy," he said. "They love the bad boys of Boston. Everybody's intrigued by the badness of it all. And I just thought, why not just share it with the world the way it really is, and tell them my feelings about my cat, and how addicted to Christmas time I am, and hearing my kids laugh I don't think they know that side. The press tends to put out the greasy, grimy, gopher guts side of AEROSMITH."

Tyler goes into detail in the tome about the stage injury that led him back to drugs and eventually another stint in rehab in late 2009, during which AEROSMITH flirted with the idea of hiring a new vocalist.

The singer explained to Billboard, "I wanted America to know that I didn't just go off on my own somewhere and buy some street drugs. There really was a story behind it." Saying he got hooked on painkillers after having long-delayed surgery on both feet, Tyler revealed, "I have an addictive personality and I got in trouble again. I did, and shame on me for that."

The video for Steven Tyler's debut solo single, "(It) Feels So Good", will premiere on the May 12th edition of "American Idol", on which Tyler is a judge this season. The track will hit the radio airwaves on May 9. Tyler also hinted to Billboard that AEROSMITH will perform on "Idol"'s season finale.

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