UPCOMING EPISODES

At the height of their success they were the biggest rock band in the world infamous for their excess and raucous live performances. With their strutting frontmen, wild hair and penchant for spandex they are often portrayed as the archetypal 80's American rock band. The band went through two 'break ups' covered by our timeline owing to a variety of factors but most prominently conflicts over the Van Halen brother's desire for total control and the destructive impacts of substance/alcohol abuse. By 1984 they were the biggest band in the world but, behind the scenes, all was not well and a battle for control raged between the brothers at the heart of the band and it’s lead singer, David Lee Roth. Years of touring, drugs and personality clashes had left them on the brink. When Roth’s ambitions grew beyond the band, the brothers moved quickly to force him out. Their millions of fans were left devastated, but rising from the ashes the they would regroup with a new front man, Sammy Hagar. Against the odds they reached even greater heights with a string of 4 consecutive No.1 albums. Apparently vindicated by their decision the band appeared harmonious. But as the success grew, new tensions emerged and in 1995 the tale of ten years earlier was repeated when Hagar too was ousted for his apparent disloyalty.

With over 150 million records sold worldwide in a career spanning a staggering 50 years- Aerosmith has truly earned its title as America’s greatest Rock n Roll band. Formed in 1970, the ‘Bad Boys from Boston’ soon became notorious for their raucous live performances and wild off-stage antics. They built their reputation with a blues infused hard-rock take on their 60’s heroes, The Rolling Stones. The early success of Aerosmith was built around the talents of iconic frontman Steven Tyler and guitar god Joe Perry - whose love/hate relationship and notorious drug abuse led to their nickname of the toxic twins. It also lay behind the first era of Aerosmith ending in disaster when in 1979 Joe Perry walked away from the band… Both Perry and the remaining members of Aerosmith spent years in the wilderness, drug addicted and broke and it appeared as though a promising career had been cut short. But in a remarkable and unprecedented turn around- the band reunited in 1984, staging one of the most unlikely comebacks in music history. Indeed, the second iteration of Aerosmith rose to even greater heights in the 1980’s and 1990’s, as the band captured the spirit of the MTV generation and moved beyond America to worldwide superstardom...In this feature length special we explore the inside story- told by those who were there- including, for the first time, the man behind their 1980’s resurrection, Manager Tim Collins, who’s tenure ended in bitter acrimony. This is the remarkable story of how the band survived 50 years of every kind of Rock n Roll excess- the breaking and remaking of Aerosmith…