From Publishers Weekly
Being a rock star in the music business oftentimes is not all it's cracked up to be, as Aerosmith drummer Kramer aptly shares in his memoir. Much of the story centers on his drug and alcohol abuse, and his love/hate relationship with his father, his wife and bandmember Steven Tyler. He delves sporadically into the discovery of his own musicianship and creation of his sound, but the main theme is recovery—as an addict and again as a sober but emotionally unhealed man who suffers a nervous breakdown: I felt like someone was peeling back my skin, ripping off scar tissue. Having been with Aerosmith since its inception and naming the band himself, Kramer recounts climbing to the top of the musical ladder, the fall from grace and virtual disappearance of the band to the climb back up, but this is not an autobiography of the band. It's a sideman taking front and center. If "sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll" is what you want, it's what you'll get in these photo-laden pages. Although the tale is a predictable one, Kramer's style is honest, straightforward and pulls no punches. (July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
“I love this book; this is an important book, because it’s not bullshit. Joey had the balls to see what underneath the hood, and to fix it. Being a rock star was easy compared to that.” --from the foreword by Nikki Sixx, author of The Heroin Diaries

Product Description
In 1997, amid Aerosmith's sold-out world tour and number one album release, word about Joey's troubles was reported in the press.Despite the advice he had received to play it down, Joey revealed in an interview his ongoing struggles with depression. The response from fans and people battling those same internal demons was overwhelming. Joey—who has been the drummer in Aerosmith since it was founded in 1970 and is the first member of the band to release his own book—now tells the complete story: the early days of the band, glamorous drug-addled events leading up to their eventual sobriety, battles within his family and among bandmates, and the explosive internal dynamics in Aerosmith that continue to unleash a fury of endless creativity.

This is not just another rock 'n' roll memoir. In addition to the never-before-told Aerosmith war stories that abound in the book, Hit Hard unpacks the history of a rock star who was both fragile and tough, who after years of insane wildness became willing to accept help and finally kick a serious alcohol and drug addiction, only to find that the real terrors and hard work were still ahead. It's the story of an average kid from an average American suburb who went through physical and emotional trauma. It's about years of depression and the nervous breakdown at the height of the band's comeback success. Ultimately, Hit Hard is about how Joey recognized his confusion between love and abuse, awakening to the kind of self-acceptance and compassion that make relationships possible in the "real world" as a member of the biggest band in American history.

About The Author
Joey Kramer is the legendary drummer with the most successful band in American history—Aerosmith. Since 1970 he and his partners have sold over 150 million albums, and today their multigenerational, global audience is bigger than ever. In addition to the Grammys and the twenty-one multiplatinum albums, Aerosmith was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and they are the subject of several documentaries, including a film dedicated to Joey and his lasting influence, called It's About Time. Joey lives south of Boston, Massachusetts.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0061566624/?tag=imwan-20

I knew that Steven Tyler's been working on an autobiography, but I was unaware that Joey Kramer had one coming out, too. Hmmm.

Aerosmith's autobiography, Walk This Way, was a great read. I wonder if Kramer's and Tyler's books will reveal even more stuff.

Bump: added finalised cover image to the first post.

Interesting book. The sex, drugs and rock and roll are present, but the psychological angle makes for very compelling reading. There were aspects of Kramer's breakdown that even the band's autobio didn't cover.

Here's a little blurb from melodic rock about it:

http://www.melodicrock.com/

AEROSMITH DRUMMER PENS HARD-HITTING BOOK:

From Billboard.com: Gary Graff, Detroit / Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer says he wrote his new book, "Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top," in order "to be entertaining, but at the same to...help people."

Kramer tells Billboard.com that "Hit Hard," which publishes today (June 30), is the result of a four-year process with writers William Patrick and Keith Garde. The book, which includes a foreward by Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx, chronicles the drummer's substance abuse problems, his psychologically scarring relationship with his father and a similarly tumultuous, "co-dependent" battle with Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. Kramer hopes that by sharing his experiences the book will shed some light for those dealing with the same issues in their lives.

"My desire to help people plays a strong part in my character," Kramer says. "Because I've been allowed to do what I've done via Aerosmith, I'd like to be able to carry it on as I get older, on another level. Whatever that may be is really unbeknownst to me -- maybe some sort of a lecture series or circuit or whatever -- but I know that it will come."

Kramer says that Tyler -- whose own autobiography, "Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?," has been pushed from an October publication date to the summer of 2010 -- was supportive during his bandmate's book process. "When I was trying to tell him about some of the stuff that was in the book, his comment was...'Hey, man, as long as it's the truth, I don't care,' " Kramer recalls. "And that's pretty much where Steven is at. He's about the truth."

Bassist Tom Hamilton, who Kramer portrays in "Hit Hard" as perhaps his closest friend in Aerosmith, calls his rhythm section partner's tome "pretty amazing. It's a really hard hitting book...but there's also a lot of neat references to people that we knew when the band started and things that happen that I forgot about. So it has some real entertainment value, too."

Though Aerosmith as a band collaborated with author Stephen Davis on 1997's "Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith," Hamilton says he does not anticipate each member of the Boston quintet bringing out his own book in the future.

"Right now my passion is expressing myself through music," Hamilton says. "I think the thing to do is to be the last one to write a book. That way you can let everybody else put things in their book that are gonna make you mad, and then you can answer back and (have) the last word."

Aerosmith is on the road with ZZ Top until mid-September and playing its 1975 album "Toys in the Attic" during the shows. The group plans to return to working on its next album with producer Brendan O'Brien after the tour.

Bump: a paperback edition has been published. See first post for updated details.