I Will Destroy You’ and ‘A Million Ways’. The third album is ‘Dark Side Of Your Mind’, and it was again recorded with the boys living the music, rather than recording over a previously recorded tape. I had the joy of hearing ‘Dance In Your Face’ on the radio once. It was a song that was co-written by the other man of the band Jasper Owen and was performed by a guy called Gary Lewis who was probably doing an early impression of the early Elvis Presley. It is now in the top twenty with a song called ‘Dont Forget About Me’ at No.21 which has to be one of my favourite songs of all time. What I mean is it is a wonderful slice of pop music that, although I couldn’t say it in a million years, still gets me really excited as to what these boys can do. It doesn’t matter where it was recorded, all that matters is that they love it and are doing it. I had the huge pleasure of going along with Chris O’Donnell who is the band’s agent to a London screening of ‘Dancing On The Edge’. Chris was in London looking to get the band more attention after their manager had left them to set up his own management company in Germany. We were invited to an after party in a club at the same time as the band where we had a great time getting stuck into some of their music and talking to them. It was only my third time in London and the highlight of the trip was meeting one of my favourite bands in the whole wide world, without a doubt. As if this isn’t enough, the band are set to go to Hollywood, meet David Lee Roth and have an album of their new songs produced by Michael Beinhorn, the producer of all those great songs from the ‘80s. It’s not a one-man band, it’s a three man band, and they are the best rock band I have ever seen. All we can say, to borrow a phrase, is “You Gotta Love These Killer B’s”. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Truth Radio Show: Episode #17 – Chris Haskett (Aerosmith, Shooting Star) It’s that time of year again when we sit down for another Rock ‘n’ Roll Truth Radio Show. When I say Rock ‘n’ Roll Truth I am talking about the fact that although we are talking about the pop music industry, we do this without taking out huge chunks of the budget to promote ourselves and we don’t rely on a large group of interns to do our work for us and make us look good on social media. This is no BS. I have no idea where to go if you wanted a website and it does cost money but if you listen to this show then you’ll see what we are on about. This time the show is all about Chris Haskett from Aerosmith. It’s not a bad thing as he is a hell of a bass player, and he co-wrote the amazing song that is ‘Angel’, although he has had much to be embarrassed about in the last ten years with his alcohol and drug issues. This is his story. We even have an interview with the man who co-wrote that amazing song, the legendary Joe Perry, and we talk about his relationship with Aerosmith and the fact that they are still a band on a daily basis despite not writing songs or going to gigs. We also have an interview with a man who wrote the words to the song that put Aerosmith on the map when they first came to America in the 1970’s, Rick Dufay. I have had the great privilege of talking to all of these people over the last ten years but this time we talk about how things have changed and what the future holds for these wonderful guys. Then, just for fun, we have an interview with the late Gary Valentine, lead guitarist in The Valentine’s. This is an interview I did with him last year in which he has a lot of great memories for his many great fans including his involvement with T’Pau as well as the fact that he is a really nice guy. We have a lot of interesting things in this podcast including the fact that he was a huge fan of Aerosmith, loved the song ‘Come Together’, and as a child was going to buy a T-shirt to commemorate the music of Aerosmith. In fact, he and his cousin spent nearly £100 to do so, but his mum thought it was a waste of money and said no. He gets frustrated when we look at the cover of the album that the band appeared on that had Rick Dufay’s name on it and the words ‘Aerosmith’ in the corner, but it is the band’s logo. This was a major thing for him and he couldn’t understand why there was no mention of him anywhere in the lyrics but maybe things were changing even back then. I have to confess I am also in two minds about this. I don’t see how you can not put your name on the front cover as it is your work that is being sold and if you are asking for money for this, then you must want to be known. Of course we all like our privacy, but I guess when you sign a cheque for thousands of pounds you want to see your name on it. It’s not the same in any other walk of life. We all sign contracts with huge amounts of money, so why shouldn’t the band? It also must come as a surprise to them that the band they worked with in the mid-60’s was called Big Tree, a name they did not know was owned by another band at the time. I personally think that Rick Dufay and Gary Valentine would have sold a lot more T-shirts if they had made it ‘Aerosmith’ and ‘Big Tree’. I can understand why the band didn’t want to change the name at the time and now it is something they would probably like to change, but it has been this way since 1969. One thing that happened, as I mentioned above, was that the famous cover of ‘Toys In The Attic’ sold so well that it even became impossible to find. The band was approached by a toy company for a toy they wanted to put on the cover of their album. They weren’t prepared to have anything to do with it as they felt it was a bit of a step too far for them to ask to have anything to do with a toy. But then to their surprise, for this one they sold over 4 million copies and they were asked to appear on the cover for the movie of the same name starring Kirk Cameron. The fact that they had their album appear on the front cover of the soundtrack of the movie ‘Rocky IV’ in 1985 was a pretty big deal because they were asked to give interviews on video and radio. They even got a free lunch in the food court at the Beverly Center mall. I met up with a young man who worked at the mall and he explained that they were more famous than Britney Spears, who they were asked to join her for lunch. I also went out for a meal with the band in LA at an amazing steak house that was pretty much on the Strip. On this occasion the guys did not have anything to do with the menu but they played to the entire room of over 200 people which was quite something as it was mostly groups of women who worked in the hotel. They were not particularly big girls and yet they were still excited about the guys playing live in front of them. I met up with Paul Hudson who was in the band. He also told me that they thought of their sound as rock, R&B and soul all in one, which I suppose is a bit different from ‘rock’ or ‘pop’. I also spoke to the drummer at the time, Joey Kramer, and he said that Joe Perry has an amazing gift for creating riffs but it’s almost like a magic trick he creates and the rest of the band have to catch up, which is how he was able to write ‘Rag Doll’ as well as ‘Livin’ On The Edge’. In other news, this one was a real rollercoaster. From the beginning I would say there was a lot of fun going on. In fact, it’s really hard to get people to listen to the show because they are so involved in what they are doing. The one thing that stands out is that the band are just a tight knit unit and they have been together for decades. There were a couple of times when I almost fell off my chair in shock when the band just played so well and sounded so amazing, and it’s one of those things that you never want to stop. There is nothing more you can do than sit down and learn to play as good as this. They have been on the road for over 40 years, played with all of the great bands including Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin and still they turn up and enjoy playing. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Truth Radio Show: Episode #16 –