MuchMore.ca

When I was 10 years old I was given Aerosmith’s Permanent Vacation on cassette; Hangman Jury is still a song that sticks with me and I can remember sitting in my bedroom in Mt. Pearl listening to it over and over. Little did I know what would be in store for me one day, but it went a little something like this:

From 5:00 to 7:00pm our crew waited in a tiny room along with the crew from eTalk and The Hour for our 10 minutes of allotted time (each) with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, which was supposed to begin at 5:30. The first sign of trouble was an update from their publicist that Steven Tyler was still on a private jet coming from Boston and once he A. landed B. got to the ACC and C. went through hair and make-up, he would THEN decide to either chat with us or do the fan meet and greet first…..so we waited, and we waited. Then around 7:30 something happened. Steven Tyler opened up the side door of our room thinking it might be a private spot to make a phone call, but it was not. He exits just as fast as he entered and we all burst into laughter. So, he makes his phone call in the hall just outside the door while our laughing and chatter about what just happened has turned into eavesdropping silence as we triy to hear what Steven was so pissed about on the phone. I guess our quick silence was too obvious because Steven pops back in and jokingly inquires, “Are you guys listening to me? You got pretty quiet!”, and with a smirk he was gone again. A truly surreal and epic moment. Now, who his argument was with is unclear but, I can tell you it was about him being late and not feeling like there was time before the show to do press. So we wait a little bit longer and learn that the meet and greet is indeed going to happen first AND that now we have 10 minutes to split between all 3 TV shows…..MAYBE…which is not really gonna work even if it happens.

Around 8:00 George Stroumboulopoulos gracefully bows out and The Hour begins to tear down their gear as I begin shoveling a Twix bar into my mouth, assuming that this interview is not happening. *At this point I should explain to anyone who doesn’t know the history of Aerosmith that the relationship between Joe Perry and Steven Tyler is a classic rock and roll saga that at its best has brought us some epic songs and at its worse (addictions aside) has seen the two rock and roll legends literally trying to take each other out with their instruments mid-song. The past six months in particular have been a constant string of interviews by Joe Perry saying the band was looking for a new singer since Steven was not communicating with the band…yada yada yada. Steven’s lawyers got involved and the band is back on tour.*

So, I’m chomping on a Twix bar and then in walks Steven and Joe. Steven takes control of the room, exclaiming “Let’s do this! Five minutes and everyone can use the same interview!” The entire room is caught off guard (even their publicist) as the guys sit in the eTalk set-up, grab a mic and I get the look that says “JUMP THE EFF IN THERE WELLS!”

Still with a mouthful of chocolate, cookie and caramel I jump in and the eTalk and MuchMore cameras fly as I try to take control of the interview, but I still don’t even have a mic! Finally, I feel something brushing my ankle mid-sentence. I reach down to grab the mic, which has been passed on to me Olympic-relay-team style and I try to settle in, but at this point it’s a fuckin’ gong show! Joe is staring straight ahead with his arms folded. Steven is like the Tasmanian devil on his ninth cup of coffee and I am just hoping I don’t have any goddamn chocolate in my teeth. I keep waiting for the five minute wrap up, which never seems to come, and the conversation continues with Joe just sitting there refusing to take part in the Olympic-style mic relay as our producer now tries to slip him the talking baton. He obviously is not in a good mood. Little by little, however, he begins to speak and perk up and before I know it I have been chatting for 20 minutes with the dudes who gave me so many hours of pleasure back in Mt. Pearl listening to Hangman Jury. The fact that they really didn’t want to be sitting next to each other is just part of the classic relationship they have forged over the past 40 years - I was just lucky enough to witness it five feet from my face. Then they storm out of the room just as insanely as they stormed in and I still don’t know what the hell we talked about. All I can remember is that god damn Twix bar.

Check out the interview on Wednesday August 25 at 7PM on the Daily Fix and let me know what we talked about.

=mw