Aerosmith Frontman Steven Tyler Clashed With Record Label Over ‘X-Rated’ Lyrics, New Book Reveals

Livin’ on the edge!

A new book about the band Aerosmith reveals that the band’s frontman, Steven Tyler, often clashed with his music label over his raunchy lyrics.

According to Raised on Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine & Payola — the AOR Glory Years 1976-1986, by music journalist Paul Rees, the label brought in one of its executives, John Kalodner, to help guide the band back to their former glory after some early-’80s stumbles, per a story published by People on Tuesday, February 24.

One of Kalodner’s major initiatives? Getting the band members to collaborate with other songwriters and making their songs less explicit.

“Tyler used to say in interviews that the songs were his babies, and I’d killed his kids,” Kalodner said in the book, per People.

“He really didn’t like me telling him to make his lyrics more radio accessible. They could be way too X-rated,” Kalodner added. “A lot of the commercial things that they were capable of, and that [producer] Bruce Fairbairn was capable of, I had to keep pushing them toward all the time. And they kept wanting [Aerosmith’s manager] Tim Collins to fire me. I got no thanks, but that wasn’t unusual. That’s just how it is.”

Although Tyler, 77, would relent and appreciate Kalodner’s contributions to the band’s multi-platinum comeback in the 1980s and 1990s, he reveals in Raised on Radio that the lyric discussions were often creatively draining on him, per People.

“I’d be devastated when there’s something I’d sweated over, and John Kalodner comes in and goes, ‘That sucks,’” Tyler said.