Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith
 | |
| Author | Stephen Davis, Aerosmith |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Autobiography |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
Publication date | October 1, 1997 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 513 pp (hardback edition) |
| ISBN | 0-380-97594-7 (hardback edition) |
| OCLC | 37107233 |
| 782.42166/092 B 21 | |
| LC Class | ML421.A32 A3 1997 |
Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith (ISBN 0-380-97594-7) is a book written by Stephen Davis, published by HarperCollins and released in October 1997. The book was co-written with the members of Aerosmith themselves. This biography contains the story of the band's life, legends, women, drugs and partying that nearly killed the Toxic Twins and split the band. The book ends with the release of the Nine Lives album.
Background
Walk This Way is divided into two "books", or sections of the book, with five chapters apiece. Book One chronicles the band from the primary members' early lives until 1975, when their album Toys in the Attic was released and the band was reaching their peak in the 1970s. Book Two chronicles the band from 1976 into their downfall in the early 1980s, and then their remarkable comeback of the late 1980s until 1997, when the book was released.
The book is written in a very distinctive fashion, with alternating paragraphs of recollections by the individual band members, band personnel, family members, friends, and music industry professionals. This results in a very descriptive reading, as it presents the detailed recollection of individual events in the band's history from several perspectives. Some of the stories recalled are notable, but some are not. Stephen Davis will often fill in the blanks between these individual events, by clarifying things, filling in dates, and making note of notable items in the band's history that may have not been mentioned in the interviews. There are also several press clippings and reviews embedded throughout the book, along with 16 front-to-back pages of photographs, many from the band members' personal collections that had never been publicly released before.
The book received rave reviews from Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, and Rolling Stone as featured on the back cover of the paperback book edition. The book was also a New York Times bestseller.[1]
