By Brian Ives
On Minimation, we comb through the archives of legendary New York radio station WNEW-FM and animate interviews with legendary rock artists. This installment is taken from a 1985 interview with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, as they were promoting Aerosmith‘s ill-fated reunion album, ‘Done With Mirrors.’ This Minimation was created for Radio.com by Jakob Strunk.
Aerosmith remain a timeless rock headliner. The band can pack amphitheaters and arenas, forty years into their career. But at the dawn of the ’80s, things weren’t looking great for the band. Guitarist Joe Perry quit the group, and guitarist Brad Whitford soon followed suit. A new Aerosmith with a new guitar team (Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay) weren’t able to capture the excitement of the original lineup; Aerosmith without Joe Perry would be like the Rolling Stones without Keith Richards.
In this interview, Tyler and Perry talk about bumping into each other in the streets of New York City, and how that led the reunion. Done with Mirrors was a flop of an album. Miraculously, their followup, Permanent Vacation — which featured “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” “Rag Doll” and the monster ballad “Angel” — which led to them being mutli-platinum arena headliners whose videos were ubiquitous on MTV.
The band has been working, more or less, ever since, and have just kicked off their latest U.S. tour this week.
Watch more Radio.com Minimation videos:
- Minimation: Ozzy Osbourne in ’92: ‘There’s No Chance of Me Rejoining Black Sabbath’
- Radio.com Minimation: Robert Plant Enjoys a Young Fanbase
- Ozzy Osbourne Gets Healthy, Breaks Ankle: Radio.com Minimation
- Radio.com Minimation: Jimmy Page, Book Critic
- Radio.com Minimation: Slash Gets ‘The Call’ From Michael Jackson [Part 1]
