Joey Kramer of Aeromsith: He hits hard, comes clean and continues to rock 'n roll

July 17, 10:20 AMPittsburgh Stage and Screen ExaminerAlan Petrucelli

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Pittsburgh Stage and Screen Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Growing up in Eastchester, New York, we went to school with a girl named Amy Kramer who used to brag she was Joey Kramer’s sister.

We had no idea what the hell she was talking about.

Kramer? Some band named Aeromsith?

We were too involved with show music and the bombastic Bassey. Who knew?

Now we know. Everything. Amy really was/is the youngest sister of Joey Kramer, the drummer of the most successful band in American history.

And though we haven’t seen Amy in decades, she and various familiar Westchester County locales haunt her brother’s autobiography, Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top (HarperOne, $27.99).

But all those little town blues pale compared to the gritty and garish side of rock and roll fame in which Joey, who has been the drummer in Aerosmith since it was founded in 1970, lives.
 
This is not the same old song and dance, just another rock ‘n roll memoir; it‘s a tale of sweet emotion, of an average kid from an average suburb who became a less-than-average rock star and, who after too many years of being wild ‘n crazy, finally accepted help and finally kicked a serious alcohol and drug addiction, only to find that the real terrors and hard work were still ahead. Kramer’s story details his depression and his nervous breakdown at the height of the band’s comeback success. But ultimately, it’s the tale of recognition and acceptance as Joey understands he has what it takes to discern between love and abuse, wakening up to to the other side, to self-acceptance and compassion that makes healthy relationships possible. Call it coming full circle.

Paging Michael Jackson . . .

It’s all here . . . livin’ on the edge, groupies, drug-riddles party daze, battles within his family and band mates and, of course, all those never-before told Aerosmith war stories.

And the force continues. Aerosmith launched their North American tour on June 10, 2009. They’ve sold more than 150 million albums (wit 21 multi-platinum albums hanging on the walls of the band members‘ lavish homes) and was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. The band has been the subject of several documentaries, including a film dedicated to Joey Kramer and his lasting influence called It’s About Time.

It’s about time you learn more about this whirlwind. You can let the music do the talking, but we suggest reading the words and the music.

Need more tempting?

Here’s a sampling of just what you’ll find in Hit Hard:

"I'd played my drums in front of eighty thousand screaming fans and passed out in my own puke. I'd toured in private jets, rode in limos, and had just about any girl, at any time, for any thing. I also lived in rat-infested, shithole apartments, got caught in a burning car where I sustained third-degree burns all over my body, racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, and watched my father die a slow, agonizing death. But I had never felt anything like this depression that brought me to Steps. . . . This time, there was only me and my pain, and I didn't see any way out." —from the Introduction

Joey’s early musical influences (his first instrument was the accordion, not the drums) included discovering the Beatles at age 13, and studying Ringo’s every move on The Ed Sullivan Show. He learned drumming techniques and styles through his early heroes Dave Clark, Dino Danelli of The Young Rascals and Gene Krupa.

Joey’s tumultuous (often violent) relationship with his father, and how Joey was able to painfully make amends and forgive Dad as he was dying from Parkinson’s. How Joey, early on, became confused between love and abuse, and constantly felt a sense of rejection from those around him.

The long history with Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler and how Steven and Joey threaded in and out of each other’s lives—they first met at a battle of the bands competition in junior high school, followed by Steven introducing Joey and friends to Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland. They found each other again at a chance encounter at Woodstock and finally came together as Aerosmith years later.

Steven Tyler as friend, hero and the mentor that Joey was constantly overeager to please. Joey describes how Steven became one of his personal “demons”—one that would haunt him for years.

How Aerosmith was formed, how the name came about, the band’s rise and fall and rise again, and how the members have endured together for almost four decades.

The early days of the band in Boston, as Joey describes, the “rock ‘n roll boot camp with Steven as the drill instructor.”

Cheating death numerous times—Kramer smashing up his Ferrari at 135 miles an hour, which left him with stitches and a severed main artery; coming home one night and watching his home burn to the ground; getting caught in a burning car and sustaining third-degree burns all over his body.

Joey's struggles with drug abuse and anxiety and depression. Trying to get and stay clean while on tour with a rock n’ roll band. The nervous breakdown that leads him to completely shut down, just as Aerosmith was on top.

Living in what Joey calls “the bubble called rich and famous” and completely losing touch with reality. And how that reality was going to come back “and bite me in the ass.”

Intervention and realizing in treatment that “finally deciding that snorting $5,000 worth of coke every week was a bad idea.”

Making peace with the emotional problems that had built up over a lifetime, and learning how to treat himself with respect and “not show up everywhere as a victim in the world.” How this renewed the joy in working with his band mates.

And finally learning, at age forty-five, to see who Joey Kramer really is without Aerosmith.