The son of a classical pianist straight out of the Bronx of old Archie comics, Steven Tyler was born to be a rock star. Weaned on Cole Porter, Nat King Cole, Mick—and his beloved Janis Joplin—Tyler began tearing up the streets and the stage as a teenager before finally meeting his "mutant twin" and legendary partner Joe Perry. In this addictively readable memoir, told in the playful, poetic voice that is uniquely his own, Tyler unabashedly recounts the meteoric rise, fall, and rise of Aerosmith over the last three decades and riffs on the music that gives it all meaning.
I picked this book up solely because I am a Steven Tyler/Aerosmith fan. In fact, in my own little world Steve and I are on a first name basis.
This story is not an easy read for someone who is not accustomed to reading or being around people with excessively high energy. I attitribute this writing style to that of someone who has ADD.
This biography is wonderfully detailed and is chalked full of stories and anecdotal but often starts off with one point, hops to another point and then jumps back to the first point to finish off the story before moving on to another anecdotal set up in the same fashion.
Steven’s life is considerably parallel to the life of Keith Richards. Often many of the same people show up in Steven’s story as they did in Keith Richards.
Steven recalls life growing up in the idealistic time of the 50′s and 60′s, finding his way onto a stage and working hard to help the family survive before finding out his own destiny was within his grasp to shape and mould it to be what it has become today. He speaks about some of the tensions between himself and Joe, going into rehab, trying to stay sober and realizing that life is a gift that has afforded him some pretty amazing
experiences.
This read is a ball of energy. For the regular reader I would give this book a 3.5 of 5 stars. For a Steven Tyler/Aerosmith fan I would give this book a big 5 star rating.