After the success of Permanent Vacations and Pump, Aerosmith manager of the time, Tim Collins, thought it would be a good idea to record the writing and recording process of their follow up album. A professional film crew from Editel Boston and later The Dig Group followed the band through every stage of production the studio and LA while they worked and rehearsed new tacks, discussed with producer Bruces Fairbrain and manager Tim Collins, as well as co-writers like Desmond Child (discussing the first verse of Crazy), and even some backstage clips of the 1993 tour.
- Filmed the band writing tracks at Steven’s home studio, Desmond Child’s Miami studio, Longview Farms, and various locations in LA.
- Recorded all sessions at A&M studios in Hollywood and additional work at Bruce Fairbairn’s studio in Vancouver.
- Captured behind-the-scenes footage of the live “Dream On” performance at the Wang Center in Boston, October 13, 1991, with Michael Kamen and a full orchestra. Documented creative meetings and rehearsals highlighting the band’s professionalism and experience.
- Witnessed Steven Tyler being lowered from the rafters on a grand piano over the stage.
- Filmed in John Kalodner’s office at Geffen Records during meetings with Collins Management and the band.
- Shot last minute negotiations in Tommy Mottola’s office at Columbia Records, which nearly fell through but ultimately secured the band’s return to Columbia in August 1991.
The idea was to record the band’s entire process from concept, to writing, recording, releasing and touring the new album, and premiere it as a follow-up to 1989’s “Making of Pump” documentary.
Perhaps the difficulties in the making of Get a Grip got in the way of the project, which was eventually abandoned. Recordings took place from around June 1991 to, at least, March 1992, in high quality wide-screen 16:9 beta cam format.
30 years later, GottaHaveRockAndRoll.com, a premier auction house, posted an Aerosmith Collection of 45 Beta Tapes of never before seen footage of the project. This represented 50+ hours of unedited material of the band working and private conversations about the making of the album and touring. The auction did not include ownership rights to make duplicate copies of the material on these tapes for resale. The public bid ended at $5K on 4/30/2022. The alleged videographer of the project, Peter Martinez, shared with the BackBurner that the auctioned tapes only represent a small fraction of the total footage shot.
Most of the footage contained the tape’s timestamp, which suggests this could have originally been a working copy of the editors. The source was likely someone within Collins Management.
It’s unlikely the material could be used with the conditions applied, the timestamp on all footage, and that, being a public online bid, it very well could have attracted the attention of the band’s management, specially since they could now be working on new projects under the UMG deal
Should the band take action and give the footage to a film studio to produce a project similar to Diney+ The Beatles: Get Back?
6/12/1991 – Tapes #20–21 – Raw footage
6/12/1991 – Tapes #25, 27, 28 – Steven Tyler getting hair styled for possible video
1/09/1992 – Tapes #159–162 – Aerosmith in studio rehearsing; Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Bruce Fairbairn
2/28/1992 – Tapes #236–237 – Studio footage; handwritten “Joe’s Bed”
3/03/1992 – Tapes #240–241 – Studio footage
3/03/1992 – Tapes #246–247 – Studio footage
3/03/1992 – Tapes #250–251 – Studio footage
3/03/1992 – Tapes #252–253 – Studio footage
3/03/1992 – Tapes #256–257 – Studio footage
3/04/1992 – Tapes #268–269 – Members rehearsing and discussing songs for 1993 album with Bruce Fairbairn & Tim Collins
3/04/1992 – Tapes #270–271 – Studio footage
3/04/1992 – Tapes #274–275 – Studio footage
3/04/1992 – Tapes #280–281 – Studio footage
3/04/1992 – Tapes #292–293 – Studio footage
3/04–05/1992 – Tapes #311–312 – Studio / rehearsal sessions
3/05/1992 – Tapes #313–314 – Studio / rehearsal sessions
3/06/1992 – Tapes #318–319 – Studio / rehearsal sessions
3/09/1992 – Tapes #324–325 – Studio / rehearsal sessions
3/13/1992 – Tapes #338–339 – Exterior footage (Hollywood)
3/20/1992 – Tapes #340–341 – Exterior footage (Hollywood)
3/23/1992 – Tapes #344–345 – Exterior footage (Hollywood)
3/25/1992 – Tapes #348–349 – Driving around Hollywood; Joe Perry practicing electric guitar in studio
The Back-Burner: Aerosmith Outtakes & Demos 
I’m the guy that followed them around and shot all of that footage. I shot them writing the tracks at Steven’s home studio, Desmond Child’s Miami studio, Longview Farms and a number of locations around LA. I shot all of the recording sessions at the old A&M studios on LaBrea in Hollywood and shot some of the additional work they did at Bruce FairBairn’s studio in Vancouver. I also shot behind the scenes of the at the Wang Center in Boston for their live Dream On performance in 1991 with Michael Kamen and a full orchestra on stage with them. When Steven got lowered down from the rafters playing a grand piano that was floating on a small platform suspended by impossibly thin wires, I was tucked in on the side of the stage with my camera and was more than a little nervous as the the whole rig passed right over me. I shot in legendary A&R man John Kalodner’s office at Geffen Records for meetings with Collins Management and the band and I was shooting in Tommy Mottola’s office as some contentious last minute midnight negotiations threatened to scuttle but then finalized their exit from Geffen and their return to their return to their original home at Columbia Records.
I grew up in the 70’s in Cleveland getting stoned and listening to Get Your Wings, Toys In The Attic and Rocks in my buddy’s garage. I never could have imagined then where life would take me 15 years later. The tapes surfaced at that auction are just a small fraction of the footage I shot.
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Fascinating story Peter, thanks for sharing. I can only imagine growing up as a fan and then following the band around as they write new hits must have been like, amazing experience indeed. Would you know what happened to the project? why it never came to be? the footage must be incredible to watch, the inception of their hit songs, but also the reasoning behind each of the chosen words, etc, plus I’m guessing rehersals and unreleased songs in the works as well. I’ll reach out via email 😉
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Feel free to email me. I’m curious about the source of the auction.
Peter
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Were the rehearsals and outtakes from the Wang Center (MTV 10) recorded?
I would love to see and hear them.
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I shot some creative meetings at the Wang Center with Michael Kamen and the band but they were so road hardened by then that they didn’t need much rehearsal. That being said, once the audience was brought in and the orchestra on the stage and Steven up in the rafters they did somewhere between 5 – 8 passes through the song to make sure they had it covered for the video.
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This is fascinating, Peter! I’m currently working on a project about Aerosmith I’d love to speak with you about the filming of the Get A Grip documentary. My email is andrew@voyager.tv – thank you!
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I think you can reach him at petermartineznyc: traffikfilms@mac.com
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