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Steven Tyler is best known for being Aerosmith’s lead singer, but he has another side. He once spoke about his love of nature and how his passion for the outdoors is so strong that he once felt Mother Nature was “talking to him” while taking acid. Here’s what the former American Idol judge once said about that moment.

Steven Tyler’s connection to nature

Steven Tyler in a white suit during a performance
Steven Tyler | Frans Schellekens/Redferns

Nature has always been a big part of Tyler’s life. During an interview with Oprah Winfrey, he says he spent a lot of time in the woods when he was a child. “This is where I found my spirituality,” he tells her.

Tyler describes the stillness in the woods as “magic.” He says when he was a child, he would wander out into the woods and explore his surroundings. He would also sit in the woods and admire all the insects and life forms that crawled along the moss and grass. Tyler says today, when he sits in the woods, he says The Lord’s Prayer.

At one point, Winfrey asks Tyler if the woods are where he came to know himself. In response, he says the woods helped him know more about God. “I think I put together the beauty of mother nature and music, and somewhere in that, I felt a presence of God,” says Tyler. “In the music, I thought that God was there.” He goes on to say he has been closest to God through making music.

Steven Tyler says Mother Nature was ‘talking’ to him during an acid trip

In his book, Does the Noise Inside My Head Bother You? Tyler says there have been times where he felt Mother Nature communicating with him even though he wasn’t in the woods. As an adult, there was a time when he took acid and felt wind blowing across his face.

Tyler knew this couldn’t really be happening because he says he was in a bathroom with the door closed. According to him, this sensation he felt his face was Mother Nature “talking” to him.

Tyler says he was first introduced to drugs as a teenager. One day he went to an establishment called the Barn so he could see a band play. When he was in the bathroom, one of the band members offered him marijuana. At first, Tyler declined, but he became curious, so he accepted. He says he later began growing marijuana.  

Steven Tyler calls the woods a ‘private paradise’

When Tyler was a young boy, he and his family often spent summers in their Sunapee, New Hampshire cottage. In his book, he writes about the joy he felt when he explored the woods. Tyler described himself as “a mountain boy, barefoot and wild.” For him, the woods were his “own private paradise.” He says he still considers himself a “country boy.”

The fields where Tyler used to walk had a major impact on him. He later purchased the two fields. Tyler says he experienced a spiritual awakening from walking through the woods and embracing the stillness.

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