“We were getting comfortable being back together – that was part of the reason we went out on the road without a record deal. Another reason was that we couldn’t get a record deal...” Why Aerosmith’s ’80s misfire, Done With Mirrors, was the making of them

Joe Perry wears a lilac blazer as he plays a hot-rodded T-style onstage with Aerosmith in 1986.

Joe Perry and Brad Whitford rejoined Aerosmith in 1984 after being away for four and two years, respectively. Soon after, the Bad Boys from Boston launched their successful Back in the Saddle tour, which spanned the summer of ’84.

“It was a pretty tumultuous decade,” Joe Perry says while looking back on Aerosmith’s mid-’80s reboot. “It always felt like ‘us against them.’ But we really hung together as a band. Nothing was going to break us up, because we [already] went through all the stuff that usually breaks bands up.”