My Happy Place In A 3 Minute Video Clip From 1989

Ah, the MTV Video Music Awards 1989. The zenith of that awards show and the music we love. Motley Crue presented the award for "Best Metal Music Video."

Note 1989 was the first year for the category. Vince Neil looked so good back then!

The nominees for the first ever Best Metal Music Video: Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Guns n' Roses, Metallica.

Guns n' Roses won for their "Sweet Child O' Mine" video. Duff McKagan and Steven Adler showed up to accept the award. Happiness ensues!

The awards show also featured the final live performance of guitarist Steve Clark with Def Leppard. He died in early 1991. My beloved George Michael won the Video Vanguard Award.

Madonna presents George Michael his big award. The footage is so old, Madonna and her backup dancers are smoking on stage as part of a planned "bit" - I'm sure that wouldn't be allowed these days!

The thing about this particular awards show was that it was so fun... and memorable. Like, everyone was talking about the show at school the next day. We all taped it (for real, on VHS!) and watched it back again and again. I am not exaggerating when I say I still think back to this particular awards show pretty regularly. It was just that good. The next year was hard to beat, too. The 1990 VMAs featured Madonna doing the best live performance of "Vogue" ever - and Motley Crue did "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)" and Aerosmith did "Love In An Elevator." Just freaking great stuff.

Here's Madonna at the 1989 VMAs with an equally awesome performance:

Aerosmith Announce New Las Vegas Residency Dates

This one came from the "holy shit" file for me this morning. I was not expecting this! Aerosmith announced a new tranche of dates for their "Deuces Are Wild" Las Vegas residency. I had tickets for this back in 2019 but it was just not meant to be. Too many tragedies made the trip impossible. I was going with Eric of course and two friends. One of those friends died unexpectedly and the other had a massive accident, requiring surgery and months of rehab. So I sold the tickets and put the residency out of my mind.

This residency is happening at the Park MGM Dolby Theatre - and is part of Aerosmith's 50th anniversary celebrations. Tickets go on sale March 31.

Who knows if I will be able to make this work. I already have a big vacation on the books for October which will eat both time away from work and a lot of money. Then there is football and marathon season, both of which I have committed dates. That isn't to even begin speaking of ticket costs and the outrageous price of flights now. But we will see. More than anything, I am happy to see Aerosmith announcing live shows again. I was beginning to think they were done forever.

The show dates are:

June 2022: 17, 20, 23, 26, 29
July 2022: 2, 5, 8
September 2022: 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29
October 2022: 2, 5
November 2022: 19, 23, 26, 29
December 2022: 2, 5, 8, 11

Aerosmith are BACK IN THE SADDLE and heading to Las Vegas as part of the continued celebrations around our 50th anniversary! Like never before in Dolby Atmos at Dolby Live - @parkmgm

Tickets on sale Thursday March 31st at 10am PT

For more info visit: https://t.co/rsuutHrYmY pic.twitter.com/Tl4Rj12Zs3

— Aerosmith (@Aerosmith) March 23, 2022

I Always Love When Slash Talks Aerosmith

Slash and I have something big in common: we both love the Aerosmith album Rocks and have a special affection for the track "Nobody's Fault." In fact, Rocks is my favorite album and "Nobody's Fault" my fave Aerosmith tune. The song"Nobody's Fault" is nice, gritty and heavy and it had an immense impact on Slash and his guitar playing.

Slash recently gave a new interview with WMSC's Yaz Yilmaz where he discussed his new solo work and tour plus love for Aerosmith. A must-listen for fans of Guns n' Roses, Slash and Aerosmith.

90.3 WMSC FM · Interview with Slash

Happy Valentine's Day, Hair Metal Fans

Are you going out tonight for Valentine's Day? Perhaps you are staying in. Eric and I don't really celebrate these sorts of holidays, so there is nothing special planned in our household.

Perhaps you'd like to have a throwback Valentine's Day, complete with a homemade mixtape (ok, Amazon playlist) of great power ballads for the one you love. Here's some choices for a great power ballads list.

• Metallica, Nothing Else Matters
• Aerosmith, Dream On
• Whitesnake, Is This Love?
• Extreme, More Than Words
• Bon Jovi, Always
• Van Halen, Can't Stop Lovin' You

"Three things shall last forever — faith, hope, and love — and the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13

From our family to yours: Happy Valentine’s Day! 💕 🐾 🐈 pic.twitter.com/h6jBuDy9ro

— Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) February 14, 2022

Aerosmith Cancel European Tour; Blame Pandemic

Aerosmith was supposed to do a rescheduled European tour this summer. Late yesterday, the band cancelled that tour citing pandemic concerns. There's no doubt the pandemic continues. The Omicron spike of COVID-19 has hit just about every major country in the world pretty hard... but summer is months away. Of course a major tour takes a lot of money and planning, so I understand having to make decisions in advance, but this just seems... suspect. Reading comments online, most folks seem to agree this cancellation is more a result of Aerosmith not wanting to tour anymore period, and less about controlling disease spread. At any rate, it sucks. At this point, I don't think Aerosmith will ever do a proper tour again. I'm glad I saw them live a few times while I had the chance.

Sunday's Best: Week 3, 2022

Welcome back to Sunday's Best! I swear, January is like the month of Mondays or something. It just feels never-ending. Cold, dark, boring... at least we've got some good playoff football as a distraction. Did you hear? A little team called the Cincinnati Bengals are going to the AFC championship game next week. That's right - the team won their first road playoff game in franchise history last night. Obviously, I'm pumped!

WE'RE GOING TO THE AFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME! pic.twitter.com/gXde7z27DP

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) January 23, 2022

But back to the music. Way back in the dark ages of 2009, both Jeff Beck and Metallica were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Toward the end of the induction ceremony, there was a big jam session featuring Beck, Metallica, plus Joe Perry (Aerosmith), Ronnie Wood (Rolling Stones), Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin). This group of wealth and talent got together to do "Train Kept A Rollin.'" Most people know the song because of Aerosmith, but the track was originally recorded in the early 50s and covered by The Yardbirds in the sixties. The performance below is magic: simply one of the best gatherings of music legends on a single stage at the same time. Enjoy.

Aerosmith: The Ultimate Live Broadcasts Collection Vol. 1

Last month, a new Aerosmith album came out and it is called The Ultimate Live Broadcasts Collection Vol. 1.

The album is made of greatest hits played live on the radio. It seems Aerosmith never made any social media posts about the album and there is very little chatter about the album anywhere online (or none that I have found really), but I suppose the new release is worth a listen. I wonder who has ownership rights to the recording? Hell, I wonder when and where the songs were recorded! My guess is the songs were recorded during the Get A Grip tour.

The album came out December 16, 2021 and the label is Polyphone Heritage.