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Talk This Way
Students get a glimpse into the mind and heart of rock royalty, thanks to a visit from Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler.
By Brett Milano
Berklee.edu Correspondent
May 31, 2002
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Photo by Kim Grant |
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What was that crowd doing outside the Berklee Performance Center at 1 p.m. on a Tuesday? There have been plenty of guest lectures here before, but this looked more like a big rock show, with fans in heavy metal T-shirts jostling for position. You'd almost think that Aerosmith were hitting town for a secret gig.
And you wouldn't be that wrong. No, the whole band wasn't in town, but it was still something you don't see every day. Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler, fresh from the taping of MTV's "Icons," decided to visit Berklee for an impromptu clinic.
The afternoon began with Tyler making his entrance down the right aisle, shaking hands along the way, and it ended with him sitting down at the piano to perform a rare solo version of "Dream On." In between came one of the frankest Tyler conversations on record, touching on the band's formative days, his wasted years of drug abuse, and the determination that's kept Aerosmith going through the lean and successful years.
Flanked by Berklee Professor of Voice Livingston Taylor and former Aerosmith comanager Keith Garde, Tyler immediately got comfortable and started reminiscing about the early days of the band, when guitarist Brad Whitford and drummer Joey Kramer were both Berklee students.
"They were in here studying while I was out on the corner smoking pot," he recalled. When some audience members cheered, Tyler noted that "You can't be a dreamer and not smoke pot. But that's not to say it's any good, because it's going to wind up stealing your creativity and your spirit."
But instead of moralizing about his recovery from drugs, Tyler warned that the industry sharks had an easier time ripping him off when he was strung out. "You can't do a lot of business when you're in McLean Hospital, weighing 136 pounds."
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Tyler's rock storytelling kept students laughing. |
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Photo by Kim Grant |
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Students raised several questions about getting a foothold in the industry, and Tyler didn't sugar-coat the truth: It's even harder now than it was when Aerosmith started out.
"I go to radio stations all the time, and I ask what their program is for letting new bands in. They don't have one," Tyler said.
But he noted that when nothing else was going for them, Aerosmith survived on sheer cockiness. He recalled the buzz that came when he and guitarist Joe Perry wrote their first song, "Movin' Out," in the band's old Commonwealth Avenue rehearsal space.
"We wrote a song, man. That was it," Tyler said. "From then on, I pretended I was someone else until that someone else became me."
That kind of faith carried Aerosmith through their early gigs, playing to empty houses at Bunratty's, in Boston, and through the years when they were written off as a Rolling Stones ripoff. "All I could say was, Hold on, don't you hear what's in our songs that isn't in theirs?"
Heading off criticism, he also defended some of Aerosmith's more questionable recent moves, such as the decision to record a commercial Diane Warren ballad "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" and playing a Super Bowl halftime show with Britney Spears and *NSYNC.
"If you think that's called selling out, fine," Tyler said. "But I like the million dollars I have in the bank."
His larger point, though, was that compromise can serve a band better than going up against the industry Eddie Vedder-style, even for an established band like Aerosmith. Tyler and his mates recently did a last-minute, all-night session to get a song on the "Spider-Man" soundtrack when their first contribution was rejected.
"It's a constant fight between what you believe and the corporate stuff," Tyler said. "They always give you 25 cents and keep 75. And every time you see them, they talk about how shiny your quarter is."
In response to a question about his voice, Tyler confessed that on Aerosmith's first two records, he sang in an unnatural style to make his "angelic" voice seem grittier. After demonstrating the signature vocal sound with the screaming high-end that he finally found on the third record, he explained why he stuck with it.
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Tyler talked with students and posed for pictures after his clinic. |
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Photo by Kim Grant |
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"That's attitude," Tyler said. "It's got nothing to do with notes and on-key. Now you're singing from your heart and everyone's going to hear it. It's the blues. It's real. It's from in here."
The clinic also showed a less familiar side of Tyler: the classically trained musician. He noted that his father's Juilliard training had an influence on his songwriting, and when he sat down to play "Dream On," he pointed out the classical flavors in the bridge. He also revealed that the song was partly written on the family's pipe organ, a bit of history that makes sense when one listens to the Mellotron parts on the original hit. Playing the song at Berklee, Tyler took a couple of breaks to narrate, but he left no doubt that he could hit the high notes without any soundman's help.
Like any good rock show. Tyler's clinic ended with the audience rushing the stage, though in more civilized fashion, as the singer stuck around to sign autographs, shake hands and accept business cards. Like the rest of this clinic, it suggested that the gap between Berklee students and local legend wasn't that huge. As Tyler reminded a fan early in the question-and-answer session, "Ten minutes ago, I was you."
Brett Milano also writes about music for the Boston Phoenix and the Boston Herald.
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