Steven Tyler Relapses, Postponing Launch of Aerosmith Tour
Aerosmith have pushed back the start of their Las Vegas residency by three months so Steven Tyler can complete a drug treatment program. According to a statement by the band, he recently relapsed following a foot surgery.
“As many of you know, our beloved brother Steven has worked on his sobriety for many years,” the band wrote in a statement. “After foot surgery to prepare for the stage and the necessity of pain management during the process, he has recently relapsed and voluntarily entered a treatment program to concentrate on his health and recovery.”
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“We are truly sorry to inform our fans and friends that we must cancel our first set of Las Vegas Residency dates this June and July while he focuses on his well-being,” they continue. “We will continue our 2022 dates starting in September, and we’ll let you know any further updates as soon as we can. We are devastated that we have inconvenienced so many of you, especially our most loyal fans who often travel great distances to experience our shows.”
The band was originally slated to resume their Deuces are Wild Vegas residency June 17 following a two-year break from the road. It will now begin September 14. Earlier that month, they are booked at Maine Savings Amphitheater in Bangor, Maine and Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. As of now, those shows are still going forward.
In the Seventies, Tyler and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry were known as the “Toxic Twins” due to their drug habits. “The expensive thing isn’t the drugs,” Perry told Rolling Stone in 1990, “even the phenomenal amounts we were doing. It’s the decisions you make – or don’t make – while you’re fucked up. You can tell exactly what happened to us by listening to the records…You can hear the music get cloudy. Listen to Draw the Line – the focus of Rocks is completely gone.”
Things turned around in the early Eighties when Tyler went to rehab and the original band reformed, but he relapsed a handful of times in subsequent years. In 2009, he fell off the stage at a show in Sturgis, South Dakota and severely injured himself. He went to a treatment facility a few months later.
“When you live a life as rich as mine,” Tyler told Rolling Stone in 2012, “I deserve to get high. It’s just that the difference between you and me is I’m a drug addict. In other words, I use in spite of the adverse consequences – my children leaving me, money gone. I’m an idiot. But I’m not an idiot. I’m not a bad person getting good, I’m a sick person getting better.”
