(Credits: Far Out / daigooliva)
Wed 4 February 2026 20:45, UK
It takes a small army to control any group that has Steven Tyler in it.
While he may be one of the greatest singers to ever walk the Earth, Tyler was always very particular about what he wanted out of his music, and he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind even if it meant hurting a few people’s feelings in the process. He could kiss and make up with all of his bandmates, but there are always going to be a few relationships that need to be cut if you’re going to survive in the music business.
That might sound a bit callous and cold, but that’s usually the name of the game when anyone starts out. A lot of people don’t know what they’re getting into when they first sign that contract, and even if they do have an idea of how sleazy the industry can be, there are new lows that people can stoop to every day to get the results they want. And it’s not like Aerosmith didn’t know about this firsthand.
Before they even had a proper record out, their label was already treating them like a second-class rock and roll band. They were already getting labelled as Rolling Stones rip-offs when they started gaining attention, but when that first album dropped, every single cent that got thrown their way was nothing compared to the praise their higher-ups were giving to Bruce Springsteen at the time.
‘The Boss’ was the label’s definition of a rock star, but even when Aerosmith started to become one of the biggest bands in the world, there was always some internal tension between them and their managers. They had wanted to cut ties with their former managers for years because of how much money they were pocketing for themselves, but they had not yet begun to face the real problems once they reached the late 1980s.
With every band member newly sober, this should have been the era for them to go out and conquer all over again, and while they did to a certain degree, manager Tim Collins ended up sticking his nose into places where it didn’t belong. The manager might have a bit more weight than most people realise, but when the rest of the band started to have disagreements with him, Collins ended up taking on a second job as a professional gaslighter by trying to convince Tyler’s wife that he was cheating on her.
It was one thing to go behind Tyler’s back and pit the rest of the band against him, but the singer was out for blood the minute that he heard about his manager contacting his other half, saying, “You don’t call a guy’s wife up and tell her she’s f***** everybody in Florida because you’re mad that he didn’t do something you asked him to do. It felt like I wanted to get a gun and shoot him. You don’t help a guy get sober and then go to Rolling Stone and Newsweek and tell everyone you think he’s back on drugs.”
And by that point, the rest of the band had had enough as well. They had already dealt with Collins accusing Tyler of relapsing, but after years of battling their own demons, they all knew that it was better to put their money on their friend and bandmate than letting one person rule over every single piece of their lives.
While life without Collins did get a little bit rocky from time to time, none of that mattered so long as Aerosmith was able to keep themselves afloat on their own. It’s a hard journey for any band to try and navigate the ins and outs of the music business, but when you’ve seen how untrustworthy some people can get, it made sense for the ‘Bad Boys From Boston’ to call their own shots.
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