Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler has joined forces with Red Wing Motorcycles to create his owns visionary bikes which you can view at their website. This venture got me thinking about my interesting relation to Aerosmith and I would like to share it with you here.

Aerosmith impacted me big on their very first album and even more so later in life. I was in ninth grade and I got their debut album in the mail through a record club I belonged to. Dream on was on the radio but the rest of the album really blew me away, Write me, Movin' out, Walkin' the dog, holy crap the album is so much more than Dream on and Momma kin. There was a guy on the school bus named

Jim Matia and when Dream on would come on we would all chime in with “sing for the laughter SING FOR MATIA”. Anyway I proceeded to attend every concert they did in the area through the years. I loved Aerosmith, the shows, the albums, especially Rocks, all of it but sadly they started to suck. I saw them get blown away by Styx one year at the coliseum and some years later they played Hammerheads. The lifestyle and road was ripping the band apart. Subsequently my career was taking off and I was living a rock star type of life that ultimately would begin to tear me apart. Eventually after I got into radio I finally got a chance to meet the boys backstage out in California on the Permanent Vacation tour. I stepped right up to Steven and shook his hand and said "I have seen you rock and I have seen you suck and I am glad you're back" His eyes widened then he cocked his head and smiled and said thank you.

Fast forward five years. My life starts to suck and it train wrecks and I loose it all, the mind, the money, the job, the woman, everything except Fingers Metal Shop. After rehab I get back in the saddle (pun intended) and come across the album Get a Grip and more specifically the track Amazing. I was touched in a very deep emotional way. That song made me reflect and realize if my boys Aerosmith could turn it around so could I. The next time I had the chance to meet the guys was backstage at the Garden shortly after I was a year clean. The conversation was different it wasn't like rock star fan stuff it was more intimate and warm and gratifying. I had a little white book of recovery literature with me that the entire band signed. Last month I saw the boys again at the beach for the umpteenth time and although they are aging they are doing it well and their career is going strong. As for me I would have to say ditto.

Yes my life is entwined with this band and I am very lucky in more ways than one to have been able to experience a band and its songs as I have. I even had Steven propose to Ladyfingers for me at a show at Jones Beach back in the day. Not your everyday run of the mill band stories but their mine. In the song Amazing Steven sings “life's a journey not a destination” and that sentiment resonates well with riders. But at the very end of the song he also says “ ...and remember the light at the end of the tunnel may be you”. Shine on my brothers and sisters shine on.

On the air and in the wind, Fingers