Aerosmith: A Tumbling Down, Then A 'Magic Moment'

They were there in the 1970s,through the '80s and on into the '90s. Aerosmith has managed to become one of the most enduring bands in American rock history. Now, the group is releasing its first studio album in 11 years. It's called Music from Another Dimension!, and it's out this week.

The album is a labor of love, one that lead singer Steven Tyler says almost didn't happen. Speaking with NPR's Rachel Martin, Tyler points to a particularly rough experience in the time between albums: the day in 2009 when he fell off the stage during a live performance.

"No one in the band called me for a bunch of weeks. I was so unearthed by that," Tyler says. "The pain meds they gave me, I just went off on. I'm a good drug addict and a recovering alcoholic, and I did what we all do well — which was abuse the drugs again."

Tyler entered rehab at the Betty Ford Center. He says that when his stint was finished and he reconnected with the band, everything changed.

"I apologized to the guys. We did two months of laying tracks down. The music started falling out of the sky," Tyler says. "The band was what we were in the beginning — it was such a magic moment again."

Here, Tyler speaks with Martin about growing up around classical music, collaborating with John Lennon's son Julian, what he learned as a judge on American Idol and Aerosmith's pact to be "the last band standing."

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.