Feature: Aerosmiths Steven Tyler: Ive been known to have lunch with the Dalai Lama

Do you know how many babies have been born to Dont Wanna Miss A Thing? Five days out from jetting off to Australia, DARREN LEVIN finds Aerosmith lead singer and certified rock legend Steven Tyler in inimitable form.

Whether hes on stage or on Skype, Steven Tyler is always putting on a show. Seconds after being connected to FL from Los Angeles, he introduces himself with a vigorous, Waddup? The Rock and Roll Hall Of Famer is crass, candid, charming, and sometimes confrontational. When I mishear an answer, he fires back with a wry, Oh, were you doing something else?, and hes certainly not afraid to put you in your place. Its not called that, he corrects after I ask him about a celebrity privacy bill hes spearheaded in Hawaii, which the press have erroneously dubbed the Steven Tyler Act. Other times, hes like a new age Svengali, name-dropping motivational speakers and preaching the kind of self-help aphorisms youd read in The Secret.

Some people are just born to be rockstars and Steven Tyler, with those elastic lips and high cheekbones, is one of them. So when the 65-year-old singer makes a quip about groupies in Adelaide and tits in the crowd, hes not really taking the piss. After all, this is a guy who wrote an autobiographical song called Love In An Elevator and who famously thought This Is Spinal Tap was a documentary. That movie bummed me out, he said in a recently unearthed interview from 1986. I thought, How dare they? Thats all real, and theyre mocking it.

After his eighth stint in rehab and a brief detour judging American Idol a gig that ruffled a few feathers with his bandmates Tyler is back in the saddle with Aerosmith doing what he loves best, namely high kicks and twirling scarf-adorned mic stands. The bands long protracted album Music From Another Dimension! finally came out last year, and theyre hitting Australia for the first time in 24 years for Stone Festival and sideshows in Melbourne and Brisbane. The band mayve entered its fourth decade with all original members intact, but Tyler insists theyre in career best form.

The age thing doesnt cut it with Aerosmith, he says, just days before he jets out to Australia. Its [Oscar Wildes] The Picture of Dorian Gray. We dont seem to age all that much. Its just the passion of you checking our shit out. Thats how we play. Were an old-fashioned band with a crazy want for you to hear us.

What do you recall from your last visit here in 89?
I recall a bunch of things. I recall hugging a koala bear, running after my son when I put him in the pouch of a kangaroo. No, thats not true. I made that up. [Laughs] I did hug a koala bar. We flew all the way over under the heading of New single Dude Looks Like A Lady, I think it was. And Geffen neglected to send the record. This was so long ago they couldnt just email it. It wasnt there.

So no one knew the songs?
We had to play without any new album backing so to speak.

Was it a good tour though?
It was a great tour. We wound up at the Great Barrier Reef. ! It was th! e pice de rsistance, baby.

[Bassist] Tom Hamilton told me he went bungee jumping. Was there any adventure sports involved with you?
Just a couple of girls backstage in Adelaide. Thats bungee-ing to me.

Its a million dollars a week for Aerosmith to tour in the United States.

Ive asked Tom this question but what took you so long to come back?
The way the game goes is trying to maintain a territory. The United States, Japan, South America, Europe its not so easy to pick up and go to places like Australia. In the music business you hit when youre hot, and promoters call and create a necessity with the volume of money that you can bring your tour over with. Its a million dollars a week for Aerosmith to tour in the United States. Its big money and thats when we travel lean. Its not easy. Id love to say, Fuck them, I want to play because I love Australia. I do, but the promoters didnt send out an SOS.

Do you want to hear Toms answer to that question?
I can only fucking imagine.

He said the band was famous for being complicated and hard to organise.
Tom kinda comes from there. Truth is the promoters didnt make a need The band goes to where theyre big. Were big in Japan, were huge in the States, but Im not sure about over there [Australia]. On the last tour we got close, but management, lawyers its just crazy man, you know. I just got the same question from a dear friend of mine that lives in China. The closest were getting is Singapore now. Weve just never gotten there. Ever! I was full of all kind of apologies. I do apologise. I wish we wouldve come back sooner. Im looking forward to playing mostly, but then maybe going out with a couple of Aborigines and followin! g some ki! nd of music lines on the land, diving the Great Barrier and hugging a koala bear again.

American Idol is getting down to the business end of the season. Do you still watch the show? Do you miss it?
I miss it. I miss J-Lo and Randy. It was a hoot. It gave me something to do for six months. During the second year I was doing American Idol and we were doing an album, and then we started touring with Aerosmith and I had to call it quits. Two years was beautiful, J-Lo loved it, I loved it, Randy was great, especially sitting next to J-Lo every night, being close to that fire. Shes beautiful. I do miss it. I wish it was Randy, me and Nicki Minaj. It wouldve been a hoot.

No Mariah or Keith?
I like Mariah too and Im a big fan of Keith, but if you really think about it, you want some drama. Put me in a room with Nicki. Put me in a room with Nicki!

I think we have our headline there.
Hey, maybe.

Whats the feeling like in the band now? There was a bit of tension a couple years ago.
Some people were drinking. I was definitely drinking again. Just bad vibes. Id fallen off stage. I come from an Italian family. If my sister or my aunt, or my uncle or someone wouldnt call me, Id call them and say, Whats up? Nobody called me for the longest time and I got really angry and said, Get me a day job! So I picked up on Idol and the rest is history. It didnt do us any harm. I was a little afraid going in, but it took up the sales of our past albums 260 percent, so it was a good thing. Now I cant fucking go anywhere, but thats alright. It makes it difficult. Once youre on television, theres 30 or 40 million people a night watching you.

Has that exposed Aerosmith to a younger audience?
Of course. Now I have eight year olds coming up to me. But I think Aerosmiths music spans age. Do kids like Satisfaction by The Stones? Hell yeah! Do they like Dream On by Aerosmit! h, or Sea! sons of Wither, or Sweet Emotion? Fortunately [guitarist] Joe Perry came up with licks that span the test of time, so Im a happy camper. But Idol definitely brought toddlers into the picture. [Laughs]

Late last year you performed in front of your old apartment in Commonwealth Avenue. Im just wondering what it was like back then in that space?
When we were in the trailer before we went on I had a few minutes to think about it alone. I went upstairs into the apartment and I went into my bedroom and sat there alone. I just thought about what it was like to me back then, and what its like to me now. The whole fucking thing is a pipedream, man. Its a dream come true and the band manifested its own destiny. We just had a dream to become rock stars and we wrote the songs to fuel that. It was an incredible thought to think, Holy shit. The dream came true. It was a moment, and then watching them shut down the street. Commonwealth Ave is a main artery. You dont shut that down. It caused a whole lot of ruckus for about an hour, but the police had it under the control. There was 100,000 people there. It was something Ill never forget.

Is that what Legendary Child [from Music From Another Dimension] is about? Sort of reflecting on what an incredible journey its been so far?
Yeah, it is. I wrote four different lyrics to that song. The body of that song was written years ago. The only other song that comes close to that one was No Surprise [from 1979s Night In The Ruts. That talks about what the bands career was and was going to be: Nineteen seventy one/We all heard the starters gun/New York is such a pity/But at Maxs Kansas City we won And then old Clive Davis said/Hes surely gonna make us a star. And he did. I wrote those lyrics a week after I met the guy. If you believe something hard enough, keep thinking about it, do it and itll happen. A lot of humans dont really get that. Its a magic moment for everybody when they do. I mean,! look at ! you in your job. Didnt you once dream about doing what youre doing now?

Absolutely, especially now.
Well, thank you. And good for you in being the guy Im talking to. Nobody gets to do what we do. I was talking to [Idol host] Ryan Seacrest the other day about this. He was just a little kid that pretended with his radio in the basement. He pretended to be a disc jockey. Fake it till you make it. Those of us that tell the truth will just admit it: I pretended. Fuck yeah! I mimicked Janis Joplin and Mick Jagger and all the greats. What a dream come true to finally get a guitar player like Joe Perry in the band to make me get up there and scream and holler like I do.

Do you know how many babies have been born to Dont Wanna Miss A Thing?

Theres so much serendipity in that too. Just the fact you were in the same town at the same time.
Yeah. And you know what? When you look at the serendipity of it, and you realise it, and once your brain locks onto the serendipity of it, it all comes true. You can fucking make anything happen in your life. I think when they tell you that humans only use 20 percent of your brain. Well, how the fuck do we start accessing the other? I think if they taught kids in school that you can manifest anything, that youre the dreamer and the creator of anything you want, and its inside you, theyll start using a whole lot more of their brain to heal, to make things happen. Then well become the humans god put us on the planet to be, because right now, everybody comes from hate and anger and fear. Everybodys a reactionary to the news, their mother yelling at them. Were just a bunch of reactionaries. Humans doing and not human beings.

Is that what spurs you on? To keep putting that message out there?
I dont know if Im on a soapbox with that message, but Ive been known to have lunch with the Dalai Lama, [spiritual teacher, author and lecturer] Marianne Williamson and [self-help author! ] Wayne D! yer, and just hear another side of life thats a truth. Theres a big fat truth out there that a lot of people are missing. But, fuck me, I like to get up on stage and scream and yell. But, you know what, musicians are definitely healers in their own way. Do you know how many babies have been born to Dont Wanna Miss A Thing?

Are you comfortable with I Dont Wanna Miss A Thing being your most recognised song?
Fuck yeah! Wouldnt you like to have a #1 single? I dont care who fucking wrote it [Grammy Award-winning songwriter Diane Warren]. I was talking to Joe about it. When it came out we said to each other, We had to have had other #1 hits? And our manager said, No. Youve had #2s, #5s, no #3s youve never had #1. I didnt know, and Joe didnt know either, but who cares? It is a #1, and we can put that feather in our cap. I know millions of people have heard Dream On. Sweet Emotion has 80-million hits [on YouTube]. Dont Wanna Miss A Thing has 90-million hits. Its crazy. Of course Im proud of it.

Not many people know that theres a Steven Tyler act in Hawaii. Can you tell me a bit about that.
Its not called that. The press just likes to blow it up. I got really angry one day when the paparazzi was shooting [daughter] Liv [Tyler] while she was changing clothes in a room in my house. They have these long lenses and they look in on your wife and your mother. I said, Its gotta stop now. In LA, theres a law against it. In New York, theres a law against it. But in Maui there isnt. So I just said, Enough of this shit, and I went for it. Thats all. It was to try and get the paparazzi to not take pictures on your lawn, in your house, from outside with these long lenses. Thats all.

Hopefully youll get better treatment here.
Its not right that people can shoot through the doors of your house and get a photo of your wife naked, or breastfeeding a baby. It should be illegal. Weve got to have some privacy on this planet. Every time you go t! hrough a ! red light, the back of your car is shot, and every time you go to a mall youre getting gawked. Its a weird fucking world, man.

What can we expect from an Aerosmith show when you get here?
A lot of babies born in the back row, a lot of tits in the front and a lot of wet seats Youre going to see the band sounding and looking better than they ever have before. Thats just not an old guy in an old band talking I cant believe how good Joe Perry looks and how great the band sounds now. Were just a bunch of kids with a passion.

And youre sharing a bill with Van Halen.
Well, how fucking great is that. I called up Eddie the other day and said, What a great bill. Lets tour like that. Im from the old school where bands like us played together. It was a great bill thered be three or four bands. INXS and Van Halen and AC/DC.

Do you have any INXS stories?
Yes, of course I do. We played on the same bill and I went back and met the man himself [Michael Hutchence]. I walked in the trailer and his hair was all cut off. I was like, What the fuck did you do? You are your hair. Youre such a beautiful boy, why the fuck did you cut your hair off? And he kinda shrugged his head to the back of the trailer and there was this gorgeous eight-foot blonde who cut his hair off. What was I going to say? Its his life. But I loved him better with long hair, and I loved the band.

Saturday, April 20 Stone Fest @ ANZ Stadium, Sydney
Sunday, April 28 ANZ Stadium, Sydney
Sunday, April 28 Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne
Wednesday, May 1 Entertainment Centre, Brisbane
Saturday, May 4 Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne