As DTJ said, $50 million dollars. Sadly, you can soon expect to hear Aerosmith songs on American Idol & car commercials near you.

It's called hiring a publicist. How do you think Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Britney Spears constantly make TMZ & US magazine etc Same way Sugar Ray (Mark McGrath) is on that show Extra or Entertainment Tonight... Do you think Letterman or Rolling Stone magazine will just randomly call Axl to ask him for an interview.

Here's one, kindof a heavyweight to start off with. I like writing about experiences I went thru, I've written (90% done) a novel about my youth of age 22. I should post it on a pdf file online.  Next I'll tell the tale of my night out with George, a cool guy I worked with.  [Tom's name below is fictional, so if he ever google's his name this story doesn't come up]

Tom Light was a guy I knew from High school. A pothead, and small time dealer, I felt comfortable when I came home from college my senior year for Presidents weekend and called some buddies up they said they were going to Tom's apartment. He was having a small get together. We show up, and there's a few people over, I don't think I knew any of them except him and the 3 friends I showed up with. I always felt awkward in conditions like these. Smoking pot never helped. I grab a beer or two, and it soon becomes obvious that weed is being consumed at this small shindig. My friend Dave called me over, and I wondered into Tom's room. I believe it was the first time I saw a gravity bong. Not sure how it functioned, Tom packed it and lit it up for Dave, he was always up for a hit. He was a crazy cat, I remember one time he bought a pack of rolling papers in a 7-11 while a cop was behind him in line. To top it off, he was wearing a Joker T-Shirt, a well known rolling paper brand. Me, I would have pussied out & bought a pack of smokes. Not Dave. Anyway, Dave inhales, & leans down, pushing the 3 liter bottle down, while inhaling the rising smoke. Seems easy enough. Tom repacks it, and they joke about how it's going to be good, and I'll love it. He lights it, pulls it up and removes the cap/bowl, I put my mouth over the bottles top, and slows press down, amazed at how the smoke smoothly enters my lungs with little effort. Maybe I should have put more effort into it, maybe I did it wrong, maybe Tom had some Specialty Weed that he pulled out for me. That night took a nasty turn.

I don't recall exactly but a few minutes later I was sitting on the couch, zoned out, again unaware of my surrounding. Suddenly I lost it. The TV was no longer there, the apartment was in another dimension, the only thing surrounding me was static. Color static. The kind you see on your television if you tune to a channel that is not in your area (8, 9, 27, 44 whatever) Thousands off tiny static dots completed my peripheral vision. Then, I noticed in the middle, was a pattern of static dots, which formed a tornado shaped whirlwind. The tornado was spinning, and after a short time, began to slow down. I had to make it go faster, in time, it slowed down again, I sped it up. After a few sessions, I realized the tornado was a parallel to my heartbeat, and if it stopped, I would flatline. I was fighting for my life to keep this thing going. There came a point, where it was struggling, spinning about once a second, with only 1 pump per spin, this thing was tipping over. I kept pumping it, to little avail. Fortunately, rather unfortunately as it began getting hugely embarrassing, my friends started to wake me out of it. I remember thinking of childhood friends, and the worst sight of all, my father looking at me and talking to me like I was in a mental ward. I feared for my life. I noticed once or twice some friends slapping me, attempting to get me out of it.  I began to snap loose, but was stuttering my words.. "Muh muh muhh muhhh matt.... Matt.. Matt." I said, as I recognized one friend who I knew since 1st grade. "Yeah Dave, it's me Matt. Matt." As God as my witness I never felt so helpless as I did at that moment. I remember overhearing girls say "Get him out of here." and "You should send him to the hospital" and Tom even came up and offered "Do you want me to call an ambulance" Scared, and not wanting to goto a hospital for drug use, especially hallucinations due to pot use, I declined. It was nice of him to offer. My friend Dave & Matt walked me outside, and the fresh air did me loads of good. I recovered, but didn't really want to stick around, but not wanting to ruin their night, I offered to stay. They were all mostly relieved I was ok, Dave drove me home, and I was fortunate to be able to somewhat laugh at the situation. He knew where I was coming from, he had done shrooms & tripped a few times, and knew I'd be alright. In true youth fashion, I asked him if he'd be able to hook me up with some weed before I went back to school on Monday. Sure enough he did.

Years later I'd see Tom in a local bar, funny because he pulled me aside and asked "hey man, sorry about that night. How are you, are you ok from it all?"  It's nice to know friends care for you, but I was soo far removed from that night it struck me as odd. I told him yeah it's cool. Never had such an experience again. I still don't know what it was, some people say something was in the weed, others think it was mixing beer, pot and an uncomfortable scene, whatever it was it's not a place & time I'd like to return to. But I made it thru. A learning experience, part of growing up.

I agree, I really like the song (rant aside) and on HTGTH I was one of the few who would put it on in the "What if UYI was 1 album" thread. But yeah, the rant is pretty lame, and useless. It would have been alot better if he went into some Zach De La Rocha/Rage Against the Machine type chant. That kinda shows the separation in angst grunge took vs. UYI. Rage chanted "Fuck You I won't do what you tell me...." 13 times. Cobain sang "I love myself  I'm better than you" Vedder sang "Jeremy spoke in class today" whereas GITR went on about reporters printing "lies in the media, starting controversy" that 13 year olds got into.

Hard to believe The Bodyguard Soundtrack is that high. I believe it, but it was basically all because of that 1 Whitney Houston song "I Will Always Love You" (A Dolly Parton cover). I remember that song being on non-stop back then, but that's pretty remarkable to have sold that many based off one song.