In 2006, Steven Tyler commissioned director/producer Casey Tebo to follow him around and record his life for a full year. Presumably, the recordings went from, at least, October 2006 to September 2007, covering Route Of All Evil and World Tour 2007 Aerosmith tours from Steven’s point of view.
Steven Tyler’s “ST here” reports from the road posted on the old AF1 site for October 2006 confirmed that Casey had recently begun recording the band during the tour.
I’ve been out here with Casey (he did the Rockin the Joint DVD) doin’ something I’ve wanted to do forever. I’m documenting myself from morning to night and spend hours talking into the lens – and this (the AF1 road reports) is just an extension of that.
“Steven Tyler From the Road” Aerosmith.com report, 04 Oct, 2006
By 2010, the producer had edited a 20-minute sizzle reel of the footage to shop around the entertainment industry looking for investors. By then, the project had the working title “Steven Tyler: Sex, Guns, & Eskimos” attached. There was no definitive “story” with the sequences presented in the sizzle, it was just showcasing the kind of footage available. Nothing was colour corrected or had mixed audio.
The following is a very very rough montage from the footage that we hope will become a feature documentary. Ideally, it will be Cinema Verite style- a “snapshot of the truth” of what it’s like to be Steven for a year. I hope to give the viewer the same intense, funny, and caring inside look at Steven Tyler that I was lucky enough to have.
Steven Tyler: Sex, Guns & Eskimos sizzle reel; Casey, 2010
Production costs for the documentary were to be minimal as all of the footage was already shot. Just the cost of editing and packaging. As an additional bonus, it was considered to include a “commentary” option to watch, with Steven narrating over the footage. A small mock teaser trailer was also edited hoping for a 2010 theatrical release. The footage featured:
- Aerosmith shows backstage footage
- Steven having fun in a hotel, shopping and around the city with ex-girlfriend Erin
- Limericks and stories during a private flight with Steven and Erin
- Steven playing the drums with Russ Irwin on piano during a pre-show warm-up
- Steven getting ready for a show during makeup
- Steven arguing with the in-ear monitor engineer for not fixing his mix during the show
- Steven walking on New York streets
- Steven in Reno learning how to skin a duck
- Steven in Minneapolis leaving a voicemail about guns
- Steven adding his signature to random things in the city
- Steven at a soundcheck
- Steven doing acapella eskimo music with fans on the streets of Alberta
- Steven and Erin posing for the cameras in front of the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles.
Tyler again made reference to the recordings in his 2011 memoir, making reference to a possible posthumous release plan, stating:
I got my big burly friend K. C. Tibo and his wife to take pictures of us that we could project on the screens in the back during the show. K.C. made an Aerosmith film with a voice-over in the style of the old newsreels: “And defending the nation is….” We found the reporter that used to do them, got his voice, and put it on the tape. It shows us at various places on tour. “And we stopped in Berlin!” We could be in Berlin on the European tour, we could be in Prague, we’re going to France. It’s projected behind us on an LED screen. The LED screen is forty by sixty feet. When you hear LED you think a flat screen, but this thing is five inches thick. It’s set up every night, hi-def Aerosmith. We used to have a camera showing us coming out of our dressing room and walking up to the stage. Bor-ing! Been there, done that.
Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir, Steven Tyler, 2011
Not cool. This new montage of scenes K.C. came up with out of his head—he’s brilliant, great cinematographer. He did the whole European tour with us, but because he stayed with me and filmed me, some people in the band got a little jealous and knew that I was doing a movie. If I die, K.C. has explicit orders to make all these clips into a movie and put the thing out, so the world can see what goes on with me.
Steven talked about a similar project during an American Idol red carpet event in March 2011. He pointed to 2003/2004 as the timeframe for the recordings, which would indicate the making of Honking on Bobo and tour. We know the Bobo sessions were videotaped for the You Gotta Move DVD, but those recordings were limited to the band’s time at the Boneyard studio, rather than following Steven around with a camera. We at the BackBurner think that Steven simply confused the years was referring to the 2006/2007 project.
Trust me, in the past 10 years, I’ve wanted a camera by my side. In fact, I did. I had a camera follow me around from 2003 to 2004 because of what goes on in a rock band. I mean, the for real, real. It’s somewhere. It’s more than reality.
Steven Tyler inteview, March 2011
On February 23, 2022, Casey was a guest on the horror podcast “Wicked Horror Show” to discuss his interest in the genre (after the release of his 2016 movie “Happy Birthday” featuring Steven Tyler). Towards the end of the conversation, Casey addressed the unreleased documentary simply stating:
“That’s up to the band and management to decide.”
Casey Tebo, Wicked Horror Show, February, 23, 2022
This editorial thinks it would be very hard to create a consistent narrative and tell a story with the footage alone, and, apparently, there was no industry interest in the project. Additionally, Steven self admittedly spent the whole 2007 tour high on painkillers. If some of that behaviour was evident in the footage recorded, it could have been an extra factor for management not using it, as the documentary would have had no real “happy ending”.
We hope the project is revived with the new UMG deal and that it’s released as a series or feature film documentary during Steven’s lifetime, rather than his posthumous release orders to the director if he were to pass.
The Back-Burner: Aerosmith Outtakes & Demos 