Okay guys, this is getting a little weird. These famous folk are following me around.
As Kerry and I were getting settled into our airplane seats, leaving Maui, a woman boarding asked the person behind us if she could take his picture. At first he said no. But then she talked him into it by convincing him to put his hat on. The photo, she said, was for her son.
Who could it be? I was too timid to turn around, so instead I listened intently to a gravelly voice that sounded like Marlon Brando doing his best low whisper “Godfather” voice.
After much listening between he and the woman sitting next to him who was all excited about the magazines she was reading and the pajamas she had bought, I then heard “him” start singing a few bars of Steely Dan’s “Reeling in the Years” I finally unobtrusively turn around to see none other than Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith.
At first, I thought, “what a snob” for not wanting his picture taken. But when I got home, I did a google search, as the flight attendant told him to “have a good time tomorrow” and was wondering if he was going to be performing in town. The first thing that came up on the search was a picture of he and his girlfriend, (who he has reportedly been having problems with) taken one week earlier, at the Maui airport with their luggage on a Smarte Carte, another picture of him in front of the Enterprise car rental in Maui, and finally, the worst picture they could possibly find of him, supposedly taken prior to him going into rehab in December.
Why do I write about all this on a diet and fitness blog? Because Steven Tyler is a 61 year old athlete.
I know that many of you reading this blog are either ultra marathon runners, surfers, yogis etc. Because we need some fun in life, I have included the video from Aerosmith's sweet emotion you can watch it here. It's especially fun if you watch it all the way to the end. As many of us who consider ourselves athletes can attest, we've fallen prey to sports injuries. Can you imagine doing some of the gyrations Steven does, including that flip-over featured in the video, night after grueling night for forty years? Do you think that Kobe Bryant will be performing for his fans when he's 61? Not likely. I thought it was time for some honest reporting, and I also love a good celebrity sighting.
Here is the truth, according to a source (me) very close to the star: He ordered club soda with extra limes, salmon, no desert and black coffee. No alcohol. He was full of please and thank you's to the flight attendants. He was lovey dovey with his girlfriend. When I sneezed, he said "God Bless You" Of course I made it my business to get some kind of small talk in as we were exiting the plane and he was upbeat, positive, making jokes and eagerly talking to me about the change of weather from Maui to Los Angeles.
If you haven't figured out by now, the pictures taken of him are worth a lot of money. Usually accompanied by an unflattering commentary.
I later saw an interview in which he readily admits that he entered rehab due to the fact that he had surgery on both feet, caused by 40 years of running around like a maniac onstage, resulting in abuse of doctor prescribed opiates.
I know we as a culture like to "Throw the Christians to the Lions" I'm just glad no one was watching me on the flight because I drank two glasses of wine and ate the desert. Kudos to Steven for entertaining us all these years!
