WALK THIS WAY –
July 16, 2025 – After Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry quit the band in 1979, followed by rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford two years later, the group’s commercial success took a hit. When the original lineup reunited in 1984, it marked one of the most successful comeback stories in rock and roll. Getting clean was the only way they could pull off the biggest comeback of the ’80s.
“There’s only a handful of bands that have stuck together as long as we have. Everybody else died or broke up, and that was it. So when we came back in the 80s, not only are we going to get back together, but we’re going to tell everybody we’re sober. We had to. We’d burned a lot of bridges,” Perry continued. “So that part followed us around. And the tension between Steven and I, all through the ‘70s, that followed us too. And it made for good press. ‘How could they be that way? How could they be on stage and make records together and still be at each other’s throats?’”
