Steven Tyler and Max Volume

Steven Tyler isn't thinking about yesterday. Yesterday got him here. Steven Tyler isn't thinking about Tomorrow. If he keeps his focus on what is happening right now, Tomorrow will be just fine. When I first met Steven Tyler, it was the winter of '85-'86. Aerosmith was reunited. After Joe Perry, and Brad Whitford left to do "The Joe Perry Project", and "Whitford St Holmes", respectively, the band was back to the original members and they had all gotten off the shit. They were on tour with the DiVinyls, a band most remembered for "I touch myself" (note to self: "beware the novelty song"). KOZZ was the presenting station for the double bill at the Lawlor events center in the winter of '86. Aerosmith was touring in support of "Done with Mirrors" an ok album, from the new marrriage to Geffen. The show had only sold maybe 2,000 seats at the 12,000 seat arena. I got a phone call from Daniel Cook, KOZZ's (then) Program Director. I had the night off, and a hot date for the show, but Daniel asked me to come up and be on the air for when Aerosmith came by. Hmmm, Aerosmith, live in the studio? Yeah, I'm down with that. I can do that. This is gonna be so f**king cool. Or will it? I don't know. You never know. As a Dj, you try to champion the new music you believe in, and sometimes the artists reciprocate with a great interview, or they promise to do a meet and greet with a bunch of listeners, and then sometimes they snub radio completely. Here's the scenario that's running through my head as I drove up to the station. These guys are my childhood heroes. What if they're stuck up. What if the interview sucks. What if I turn into a complete dorkwad, (like the deer in the headlights) and I drop the ball. Which guys will be there? Will there be a microphone set up for the band, or will we have to share? What if my relief doesn't show and I'm stuck on air? How late will I be to pick up girlfriend? Even though I'm late, will she be ready then? (all the men know what I'm talking about) My mind was going 120 mph, when I pulled onto the tarmac at KOZZ. Logistics. Algorythms, Logrythms, good God my mind is on fire! I take command in the studio. Sign all the federal documents, take necessary readings. I ask: "Who's coming, do we know"? A lot of times Reno becomes the farm club of other band members. We're the town where Jimmy & Billy get a chance to be in the limelight. We understand that Reno has immense distractions, and can be seen on the map through a string of mild mannered mid west shows as a great spooge happy rompstomp rest and relaxation oasis! Dude, they give you drinks if you're gambling! There's Hot Chicks Everywhere! Ok so we're down with that. We just want to make sure we give our listeners some connection with the band. It's a big day in Reno, when a band hits town, we're all excited. So now they're here. It's Bill Graham himself, with Steven Tyler and Brad Whitford in tow. After proper introductions, Bill Graham stands me and Steven Tyler right next to each other and says, quite firmly, and concisely succint, in the big voice we all knew so well...."You Two, Right Now, You Get On The Air And Sell Some Tickets!" and then, after that impregnated pause with the eye to eye contact was heard "Do You Two Understand?" ..."Now"....he then left the control room to go listen to us down the hall in my bosse's office. There was a small but powerful silence. Steve Tyler looks at me and says "Dad yelled at us". To wit; I replied, "Let's go do our chores". It was like spontaneous combustion. It was like we'd been fiends forever. Steven Tyler makes everyone he meets feel like the most important person in the world. I learned that. We cracked each other up, had a great inspiringly funny interview. Brad Whitford had fun, Steve Tyler was in his element. Steven gave the audience a bit of what to expect in the show by putting several albums on, and "touring the hot riffs" by landing the needle on the selected bits..."we're gonna hear this one, (puts needle down on Sweet Emotion, and what about this one, flips it over for Walk this Way, it was hysterical. It was most fun interview I ever did. Aerosmith went on to kick the shit out of Reno that night live onstage at the Lawlor Events Center. The show ended up doing over 7,000, and BGP was happy. Oh, and by me being late, she was actually ready. Good Times.