With worldwide record sales of over 150 million and a multitude of awards, Aerosmith has earned their title of America’s greatest Rock n Roll band. To reach such a height, you'd most likely have to keep a close connection with your bandmates, apart from dropping many catchy songs. Aerosmith has arguably done just that with their career spanning 50 years. Well, sort of...
Insults not intended, and looking back at their history as a group, as their breakings and remakings is a topic that deserves its own thesis. The rock legends have faced their fair share of turbulence — remember the time lead guitarist Joe Perry decided to call it quits? But what was the exact reason for his departure? It curiously had a little something to do with the band members' wives.
Substance abuse
While Joe Perry's departure has been noted as the result of an embarrassing argument, some critics have pointed out that narcotics played a major part in all of it. More specifically, contributed to a lot of the band's emotional weight.
Lead singer Steven Tyler and Joe Perry are famously known as the "Toxic Twins" due to their rampant drug use, both off and on stage (although they've maintained sobriety for three decades now). Both inductees in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the pair have been respected as a songwriting duo, but combine tensions of drug abuse with an overload of work and you have a recipe for disaster that tests even the closest of pals.
The breaking point
Sometimes too much stress can be a problem and it's understandable that even celebrities can lose their minds over it from time to time. During the mid-'70s, Aerosmith was constantly touring with back-to-back concerts for six years.
In 1979, the group began to cook up their sixth studio album 'Night in the Ruts', but decided to head back to touring during a break in the recording schedule. According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Aerosmith took on a headlining slot, alongside major acts such as AC/DC, Journey, Ted Nugent and Thin Lizzy, to perform at the World Series of Rock festival at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. By then, the members were burned out and, "instead of taking a vacation, we let loose on each other," said Perry.
Becoming passive-aggressive, Tyler and Perry would subsequently act out in a hostile back-and-forth. Bassist Tom Hamilton revealed in the Aerosmith biography 'Walk This Way' that "Steven would do something to piss Joe off, then Joe would cold-shoulder Steven onstage." He noted, "it would be very obvious."
Quarreling turned nasty
Tensions then spread over to members' significant others, namely Terry Hamilton (wife of Tom Hamilton), and Perry's wife Elyssa. Eventually turning into an explosive argument, the fall out initially didn't involve the Toxic Twins. What happened was Elyssa and Terry first got into a physical altercation. They were allegedly not fond of each other, to begin with, but happened to be together at the time of the incident when they shared the same dressing room.
According to Elyssa in the biography, she said something sarcastic to Terry, who then responded by throwing ice at her. Elyssa then threw her glass of milk at Terry, and when the band came in to see what was happening, the ladies were yelling and continually throwing stuff at each other.
Tyler said of the moment, "I walked in, panting and dripping, soaking wet, and Elyssa and Terri were screaming at each other. 'Get the fuck out of here,' I yelled. 'Can't you see that we're working in here?' That's when I found out that Elyssa had thrown milk at Terri and Terri just wouldn't have it. Elyssa would take no shit from anybody and got off on being that way. And neither would Terri. Tom was spewing."
Cue in more heat when Tyler dropped a bomb: "Man, can't you come over here and control your woman?" he said to Perry, according to Tyler's book 'Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?'
Tyler also added, "Joe was acting like it was Elyssa's right to do what she did, and he's saying as much while Terri's still in the room. Didn't care."
Joe Perry's departure
However, Elyssa believed that the fight churned out something positive for the band when they performed directly after. "They had to go on stage and it was the best show of the tour. Awesome! Everyone loved it. They were the best rock band in the world when they were on."
While promoting the release of his solo album, Joe Perry, shared that beneath the anger of the incident, he was frustrated that Aerosmith's album at the time was taking "so long". He expressed, "I was so fed up with that because in the meantime all during the summer we played these gigs and couldn’t play any of the new material because it wasn’t ready. Instead, we had to go back and do the same old songs."
"It came down to I called up Tom Hamilton and said, ‘It’s off, I just don’t think I’m going to be able to go on the road with you this time, I’m going to stick with my own solo thing and I can’t put up with it anymore.’ That was the last official word I said to the group."
Fortunately, the group's anger subsided and five years later, Joe Perry returned to Aerosmith when they met backstage while the band was touring for 'Hard Place'.
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