Editing Aerosmith (section)

===Departures of Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, ''Night in the Ruts'', and ''Rock in a Hard Place'' (1979–1984)===
In 1979, the band started work on their next album, ''[[Night in the Ruts]]'', but Aerosmith decided to go on tour during a break in the recording schedule. As the decade was about to conclude, the band's drug use began taking its toll, and tensions were slowly coming to a head. The band's touring schedule brought them to [[Cleveland Stadium]] on July 28, 1979, where they headlined the [[World Series of Rock]] festival. Pandemonium erupted backstage when Joe Perry's wife, Elissa, threw a glass of milk at Tom Hamilton's wife, Terry. Following the show, Tyler and Perry got into a heated argument when Tyler confronted Perry about his wife's antics, and after the course of the argument, Perry left Aerosmith (while Tyler claims in his autobiography that he fired Perry from the band). Upon his departure, Perry took some of the music that he had written with him. Shortly after his departure, Perry formed his own side project known as [[The Joe Perry Project]].<ref name="allmusic" /><ref name="Aerosmith: Biography: Rolling Stone" />

Since there was still work to be done on ''Night in the Ruts'', Aerosmith needed fill-in musicians to take Perry's place on the songs that needed to be recorded to complete the album. Guitarist Brad Whitford took over some of the lead parts, and [[Richard Supa|Richie Supa]], the band's longtime writing partner, filled in where needed until the band was able to hire [[Jimmy Crespo]] to take over as the next full-time guitarist. ''Night in the Ruts'' was released in November 1979, but managed to sell only enough records to be certified gold at the time, although it would eventually sell enough copies to be certified platinum by 1994. The only single the album spawned, a cover of "[[Remember (Walking in the Sand)]]" by [[the Shangri-Las]], peaked at number 67 on the Billboard Hot 100.<ref name="Aerosmith Chart Positions"/>

The tour for ''Night in the Ruts'' commenced shortly thereafter, but the band found themselves playing in smaller and smaller venues than before due to their popularity beginning to wane. Steven Tyler's drug issues were starting to affect his performance and songwriting, and he reached rock bottom in 1980, when he collapsed on stage during a show in [[Portland, Maine]], and did not get up for the remainder of the set.<ref>Davis, p. 371</ref> Also in 1980, Aerosmith released their first compilation album, ''[[Greatest Hits (Aerosmith album)|Greatest Hits]]''. While the compilation didn't chart very high initially, it gained popularity later, and went on to become the band's best selling album in the United States, with sales of 12 million copies.<ref name="RIAA&nbsp;— Searchable Database" /> In the fall of 1980, Tyler was injured in a serious motorcycle accident, which left him hospitalized for two months, and unable to tour or record well into 1981.<ref>Davis, pp. 373–374</ref>

In 1981, Aerosmith began work on their next album, ''[[Rock in a Hard Place]]'', which saw them reunite with producer Jack Douglas. However, after the first song for the album, "[[Lightning Strikes (Aerosmith song)|Lightning Strikes]]", was recorded, Brad Whitford left the band and formed a duo with [[Derek St. Holmes]], with whom he recorded a [[Whitford/St. Holmes|self-titled album]], which failed to garner much interest. Whitford later joined up with the Joe Perry Project and played with them in 1984.<ref>Davis, p. 378</ref>

With [[Rick Dufay]] taking Whitford's place, ''Rock in a Hard Place'' was released on August 27, 1982. The album reached number 32 on the Billboard 200 album chart.<ref name="RIAA&nbsp;— Searchable Database" /> Only one single charted, the aforementioned "Lightning Strikes", which peaked at number 21 on the ''Billboard'' [[Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks|Mainstream Rock]] chart.<ref name="Aerosmith Chart Positions"/> As with the tour for ''Night in the Ruts'', Aerosmith was unable to book larger venues, and instead had to rely on filling clubs and theaters, which they struggled to do. At a homecoming arena show in [[Worcester, Massachusetts]], Tyler and Perry reunited and got high backstage before the show. Tyler was so intoxicated that he collapsed on stage again and, like before, could not get up.<ref>Davis, p. 400</ref>

On February 14, 1984, Perry (by then divorced from his first wife Elissa) and Whitford saw Aerosmith perform at Boston's [[Orpheum Theatre (Boston)|Orpheum Theater]]. Shortly thereafter, discussions began to reintegrate the two into the band and several months later, the original members of Aerosmith officially reunited.<ref>Davis, p. 417</ref> Steven Tyler recalls:{{cquote|You should have felt the buzz the moment all five of us got together in the same room for the first time again. We all started laughin'—it was like the five years had never passed. We knew we'd made the right move.|4=Steven Tyler<ref>Huxley, p. 128</ref>}}