Let’s start with Toys.
Just about anybody who had an 8-track player in their car during the ‘70s had Toys In The Attic. With tracks like "Sweet Emotion," "Walk This Way," "Uncle Salty" and "Big Ten Inch Record," Aerosmith’s third album locked down the band’s position as one of the world’s premier rock acts.
Over 8 million copies of Toys have been sold over the years and in 2006 the album reached another milestone when astronaut pilot Mark E. Kelly took his copy into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.
Which is as good a transition as any for Brad Whitford’s head injury.
More than a few people were surprised on June 8 when the band’s publicist put out a short, one-paragraph press release stating Brad Whitford would sit out a part of this year’s tour while “he recuperates from recent surgery.”
Uh? Recent surgery? When asked, the publicist said there was no additional information.
Now it looks as if Whitford’s surgery was the result of a little collision between the guitarist’s noggin and his Ferrari.
According to Reuters, the 57-year-old Whitford banged his head while exiting the sports car – an accident that lead to him going under the blade for internal bleeding.
“It built up pressure and gave him this whoopin’ headache,” Aerosmith's Joe Perry told Reuters. “He’s not prone to getting migraines, so [he] knew something was wrong. He went right in, they did what they had to do, and now he’s getting better.”
Whitford is scheduled to rejoin the band on July 7 in Raleigh, N.C., at Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion. In the meantime, Bobby Schneck, who has played with Green Day and Weezer, is filling in for the ailing guitarist.
The “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Presents Aerosmith” tour, which started June 10 in St. Louis, will be joined by special guests ZZ Top starting June 21.
Click here for the entire Reuters article.