Aerosmith still rocking after 40 years
(CBS News) They are still rocking -- and bickering-- after all these years. And the reason Aerosmith is still around to sell out concert halls is because its front man, Steven Tyler, is a perfectionist who has a sharp tongue. That's what Tyler tells Lara Logan when she sits down with him and goes on tour with his band. The result is an inside look at how, despite their differences, one of America's premier rock bands defied age, substance abuse and changing musical tastes to stay together for 40 years. Logan's story will be broadcast on 60 Minutes, Sunday, March 11 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
In a one-on-one interview, Logan informs Tyler that his band mates, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford and Joey Kramer, complained to her that he was too much a perfectionist and could be cruel at times. Tyler admits he has said things he didn't mean and shouldn't have, but his talent gives him license. "You know what? I'm going to be big-headed right now, okay?" he says to Logan. "I think my perfectionism and my busting everyone's chops is what got this band to where it is today. In the end, I get a really good song and in the end, I get the hits. Yeah, I'm that good."
The band doesn't entirely disagree with him. "When you ask what makes the band great, I think that it's a combination of all of us, Steven making it greater," says Kramer. Whitford goes even further. "[Making the band great] takes somebody so over the top and in our case with our lead singer, Steven Tyler, who's this amazingly gifted musician."
That's how they viewed Tyler in between shows in Bogota, Colombia, where Logan followed them on tour. But they had different words to describe him when they talk about the time he fell off stage a few years ago while high on prescription drugs. "To be honest, I was expecting it...he wasn't in good shape and I was pretty pissed off at that point," remembers Perry. They were so mad, that for weeks they didn't call Tyler, who had suffered a broken shoulder and a head injury. "Everything dramatically changed in an instant because he was...in my mind, irresponsible," adds Whitford.
But just like all the other low periods in the band's history, they overcame the injury and the rift it created. Now, says Tyler, "This band's better than it's ever been. It's not because I'm old now and the band's been around forever and it's our last tour. Bull&*%#! It's because this band is that good."