LOS ANGELES |
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Aerosmith rocker Steven Tyler has been in and out of rehab countless times, but don't expect him to appear on "Celebrity Rehab," the reality TV show about the addiction battles of the vaguely rich and famous.
In his new book, "Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?," Tyler rips both the VH1 show and its host, addiction-medicine specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky, who formerly worked at one of the hospitals where he sought treatment.
Tyler recounted that he was at the Los Angeles-area hospital, Las Encinas in 2008, at the same time as Steven Adler, the former drummer for Guns 'N Roses. Adler, who was kicked out of the band in 1990 because his antics were too wild even by the standards of his hedonistic colleagues, was told to fake his drug stupor for the "Celebrity Rehab" cameras, Tyler alleged.
"They wanted him to act out his own messed-up state when he entered rehab. It was ghoulish and unreal. They gave him 30 grand for the episode, he snorted it all, crashed his car, and he ended up in jail detox," Tyler wrote.
"It didn't seem to me all that ethical using actual f---ed-up people like Steven Adler in a reality show, but who am I to say? Not to mention getting trashed celebrities to mime their own self-destructive nosedives which they then sensationalize on a melo-f----ing-dramatic reality show, which so traumatizes them they end up in worse shape than ever -- from the drugs they bought with the money from the show."
A spokeswoman for Pinsky declined comment, suggesting that queries be directed to Tyler himself. Emails to spokesmen for VH1 and Adler were not immediately answered.
Tyler went on to describe the addiction theories of Pinsky, a board-certified physician, as "psychopharmalogical dogma."
"It's interesting that Dr. Pinsky never came up to me, never made any advances," Tyler wrote. "He certainly didn't ask me to be on his celebrity rehab (sic) because -- at best -- I would have gone, "Are you f---ing kidding me?"
Pinsky, a bestselling author who rose to fame as co-host of the syndicated radio call-in show "Loveline," is no longer associated with Las Encinas, the object of a series of complaints about care at the facility.
Pinsky comes off relatively lightly compared to others in Tyler's book, particularly his own bandmates. Tyler describes them as "pricks" -- hypocritical, henpecked husbands, some of whom have lingering drug problems.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman; editing by Jill Serjeant)
