~REVIEW of Steven Tyler's DOES THE NOISE IN MY HEAD BOTHER YOU?~

Opening line: “Life is short. Break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that makes you smile.”

Reading about rock stars and their insane lives of excess is one of my guilty pleasures. I find the rise to success intriguing and then there are always the drugs, the girls, the inevitable rehab, more rehab and the stories behind the story. You know, how a song originated, what the lyrics really mean, why he fell off the stage. Then there’s also the feuds with band mates, personal relationships and dirty little secrets of other stars they party with.

Steven Tyler's bio is no different, all the goods are here, and he doesn’t hold anything back (understatement) the only thing is in order to get to “the goods” you have to wade through utter randomness to find them. Yes Steve the noise is your head does bother me because most of the time I can’t keep up with what you’re talking about.

This is written exactly how Tyler talks (and sings) with a what-will-he-say next, conversationally feel to it. And while its fun it’s also bizarre, crazy and at times difficult to follow. Jumping all over the place without a logical timeline and obscure song lyrics and poems thrown in whenever he feels like it. He wants to sniff J.Lo, he’s doing lines on tour, he’s driving around in a yellow convertible with some hot babe, suddenly he’s back in school, he’s married, he’s in rehab, it’s all Joe Perry’s fault, this is what black tastes like, I like to walk naked in my garden and talk to the fairies.

 Page 90-“I sat down at the drums and wrote the drum line for Walk This Way. You want the story now or when we get to Toys in the Attic? Hey, I never said this was gonna be a completely linear read. How could it be? (Ha!) But we’re on DRUMS so… what the f---”

Anyways maybe if I were a true Aerosmith fan I would have appreciated this more, I don’t know? As it was though once I was able to turn the noise down there was a lot of interesting stuff here because at 63 and with 40 years in the business Steve has seen and done it all with everyone.

As expected theres a ton of drug use here which actually gets kind of boring after a while I will admit though at being surprised when after 12 years of sobriety, a slew of health problems (Hepatitis C, false brain tumour diagnosis, torn ACL, broken blood vessel in throat and all the problems with his twisted feet) sent him spinning out of control with an addiction to post surgery pain meds and back for an 8th stint in rehab in 2009.

He goes into great detail about his wardrobe and scarves which I’m sure will interest some and although his “brother” Joe Perry’s name is mentioned throughout we learn little about their ongoing love/hate relationship. We also hear about his wives (3 and counting), his children (4 and counting) and how Aerosmith always came before his family. I personally found the sections on song writing super interesting; the process, what the lyrics mean or in his case don’t because sometimes he just likes how the words feel on his tongue.

With 32 pages of great photos fans will lick this up however I could only give it 3 stars because it took me ages to finish and at times drove me mad.