Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?: A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir

by Steven Tyler

Overview

"I've been mythicized, Mick-icized, eulogized and fooligized, I've been Cole-Portered and farmer's-daughtered, I've been Led Zepped and 12-stepped. I'm a rhyming fool and so cool that me, Fritz the Cat, and Mohair Sam are the baddest cats that am. I have so many outrageous stories, too many, and I'm gonna tell 'em all. All the unexpurgated, brain-jangling tales of debauchery, sex & drugs, transcendence & chemical dependence you will ever want to hear."

The son of a classical pianist straight out of the Bronx of old Archie comics, Steven Tyler was born to be a rock star. Weaned on Cole Porter, Nat King Cole, Mick—and his beloved Janis Joplin—Tyler began tearing up the streets and the stage as a teenager before finally meeting his "mutant twin" and legendary partner Joe Perry. In this addictively readable memoir, told in the playful, poetic voice that is uniquely his own, Tyler unabashedly recounts the meteoric rise, fall, and rise of Aerosmith over the last three decades and riffs on the music that gives it all meaning.

Tyler tells what it's like to be a living legend and the frontman of one of the world's most revered and infamous bands—the debauchery, the money, the notoriety, the fights, the motels and hotels, the elevators, limos, buses and jets, the rehab. He reveals the spiritual side that "gets lost behind the stereotype of the Sex Guy, the Drug Guy, the Demon of Screamin', the Terror of the Tropicana." And he talks about his epic romantic life and his relationship with his four children. As dazzling, bold, and out-on-the-edge as the man himself, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? is an all-access backstage pass into this extraordinary showman's life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061959394
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/03/2011
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	42,824
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Born Steven Victor Tallarico on March 26, 1948, in Yonkers, New York, Steven Tyler is the iconic songwriter, composer, and voice of Aerosmith—America's greatest rock 'n' roll band—and is considered one of rock's most recognizable and dynamic frontmen. Rolling Stone magazine has cited him as one of the greatest singers of all time.

After coming together in Sunapee, New Hampshire, in the late sixties, five musicians made the decision to move to Boston, live together, and become the band we know today as Aerosmith: Tyler as frontman, guitarist Joe Perry, bassist Tom Hamilton, guitarist Ray Tabano, later replaced by Brad Whitford, and drummer Joey Kramer. The band has sold more than 100 million records across the globe and won numerous prestigious awards—multiple Grammys, American Music awards, Billboard awards, and MTV awards—and was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Aerosmith has infiltrated rock history with their memorable appearances in Wayne's World and The Simpsons, at the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXV in 2001, and in their own Aerosmith version of Guitar Hero. Their number one single, "Don't Want to Miss a Thing," was nominated for an Academy Award for best song for the movie Armageddon. In December 2010, Tyler performed for President Obama and the First Lady in a special tribute to Sir Paul McCartney at the Kennedy Center Honors. In January 2011, Tyler joined Jennifer Lopez, Randy Jackson, and host Ryan Seacrest as a judge on the Fox TV phenomenon American Idol.

Editorial Reviews

During a recent episode of "American Idol," the popular TV talent show in which the famously foul-mouthed and flamboyant Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has reinvented himself as a family-friendly judge, host Ryan Seacrest good-naturedly stopped by the judging table to rib Tyler about his new book, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?

"This book is not for the faint of heart," Seacrest noted, adding, "You've really exposed yourself here. Is there any area you haven't touched?"

Tyler dodged the question, but the answer may well be "no." In his wildly galloping memoir (not to be confused with Aerosmith's 2003 exercise in group autobiography, Walk This Way), the man who has long fired up the blue-jean-wearing masses with songs including "Dream On," "Sweet Emotion," "Walk This Way" and "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)," singing and strutting his way into rock and roll history, seems to have left no story untold, no score unsettled, no secret unrevealed.

He rips into venal ex-managers and jealous ex-wives. (No fan of lawyers or monogamy he.) He goes into detail about the drugs he's done (he seems to have done them all, fondly describing where and how he did them and with whom and how they affected him) and the women he's done (ditto). He describes longstanding grievances with fellow band members (he and guitarist Joe Perry weren't called the "Toxic Twins" for nothing: "JOE'S A CREEP … I'M AN ASSHOLE," he writes emphatically) and even goes so far as to reveal their relative endowments.

While the book is unapologetically profane, inarguably self-serving and at times ragingly uncontrolled (like a memoir amped up on speed), it's also bracingly honest, frequently funny (as "Idol" watchers and Aerosmith fans know, Tyler has a way with a clever turn of phrase) and admirably human. Tyler's now 63 and a grandpa. He's gotten clean (several times), had children by three different women (two of whom he'd married), broken up and gotten back together with his band (who knows how many times?), and has finally made peace with many of his demons: the drug addictions, the romantic betrayals, the parenting failures, the ego-driven battles with band mates.

"I may be a monster," he writes, in apparent hope that the reader might see "the more spiritual side of me" beneath the bad boy stereotype, "but I'm a sensitive monster."

Ultimately, Tyler seems torn between the urge to preserve his carefully cultivated rock star pose and the desire to drop the mask. "It's hard to tell who I am by the trail left by my musical career," he writes. "I am the Demon of Screamin', the dude that looks like a lady, the rag doll that married Lucy in the Sky. But I'm also something more than the rock 'n' roll junky whore who got his foot inside the door."

Beneath Tyler's sex-and-drugs-and-rock-and-roll tough talk and raging narcissism -- Tyler calls it LSD: Lead Singer Disorder -- there's a surprising self-awareness, a capacity for empathy, an ability to connect. That's a big part of what has attracted all those fans and all those women -- and now, one imagines, all those readers.

--Amy Reiter

Amy Reiter

[Tyler] offers a colorful glimpse into his head as well as his life.... It’s got everything you want from a guilty pleasure: obscenity, revelation, bad behavior and humor. And, oh yeah, a beat you can dance to.

NPR's All Things Considered

Steven Tyler is one of the giants of American music, who’s been influential for a whole generation of Rock-n-Roll fans around the world. Long May He Rock!

Sir Paul McCartney

[Tyler’s] forays into music theory are absorbing snapshots of what goes into making great songs. When Tyler is able to articulate what went into Aerosmith’s music, the book becomes fascinating.

Washington Post

Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll…gets a booster shot of head-spinning authenticity in Steven Tyler’s brash memoir Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?...a frank, full, and colorful accounting of the band’s tumultuous history.

USA Today

Tyler’s memory for detail makes for good reading.

Detroit News

[Tyler] delivers the goods…[his] surprisingly insightful and entertaining voice brings the familiar contours of this story alive.... What on the surface seems clichéd...manages somehow to rise above that and be a fun ride [and] separates a Rock Star from a merely ordinary pop star.

The Hollywood Reporter

Tyler’s turbulently high-spirited cheer holds it all together.

New York Times Book Review

Steven Tyler has a way with words…Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? Is 376 pages of pure, unfiltered Tyler…Noise is compelling stuff…Tyler’s at times gripping, often hilarious voice keeps things moving….

Rolling Stone

Roll ‘em: Tyler’s memoir is a wild ride. Explicit and filled with expletives, it reads like an even wilder and louder version of Richards’ best-selling “Life.” Tyler, 63, settles back and tells story after story about life in the “most decadent, lecherous, sexiest, nastiest band in the land.”

Associated Press Staff

The Aerosmith frontman and American Idol judge delivers a no-holds-barred, ripsnorting (and rail-snorting) memoir that’s a crazy excursion into his entertaining mind.

Entertainment Weekly

Explicit and filled with expletives, the memoir—titled Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?—reads like an even wilder and louder version of Richards’ best-selling Life.

The Oregonian (Portland)

At turns completely hilarious, surprisingly (perhaps, to some) coherent, poignant and sordid — a heart-rending read. Once you’ve started it, putting it down is not an option. It would be easier to ignore Tyler from the front row of an Aerosmith concert.

Buffalo News

One of the book’s charms is Tyler’s lack of guilt or regret for anything in his life…Music fans will enjoy Tyler’s remembrances of the New York scene, dating from clubs like The Scene and Max’s Kansas City.

New York Daily News

Steven Tyler is an unalloyed genius.

New York Times

Strewn thought the book …are dozens of patented “Tylerisms” that can only come from his well-endowed motor-mouth.

Houston Chronicle