Back in the 1970's, Cleveland hosted an annual music festival called the World Series Of Rock and the 1979 version was insane! First of all, the line up was incredible! Aerosmith and Ted Nugent were co-headliners, followed by Thin Lizzy, Journey, AC/DC and the very first appearance in the states by the Scorpions.
The annual concert was co-produced by Belkin Productions and legendary rock radio station WMMS. The concert was held on July 28, 1979, at Cleveland Municipal Stadium and Aerosmith were ripe for the pickin'. They'd had a few years of drug abuse and turmoil under their collective belts and it wasn't looking good the night before the show when Aerosmith visited WMMS for an interview...John Gorman, who was program director and operations manager of WMMS says, “I saw Steven Tyler do something that I didn’t think was humanly possible,” Gorman recalls. The incident he’s referring to is Tyler on top of a table on all fours, snorting a line of cocaine Gorman says stretched from the end of the table to the other.
“I have to believe, given the amount of cocaine that he ingested, that Tyler never slept that night,” Gorman says. “And given the performance the band gave the following day, it made perfect sense.”
Aerosmith were evidently terrible and Steven Tyler had to start Back In The Saddle three times, all the while shooting death glares at Joe Perry.
Add to that, a giant fight that broke out between band member's wives backstage and Joe Perry had enough. He immediately quit the band and didn't return until 1984.
Man, I miss the good old days!
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