Rocks was ranked number 366 on the updated Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2020.

[7] It has influenced many hard rock and heavy metal artists, including Guns N' Roses, Metallica, and Nirvana.

The album was a commercial success, charting three singles on the Billboard Hot 100, two of which reached the Top 40 ("Back in the Saddle" and "Last Child").

Although often derided by critics, the band had amassed a loyal fanbase from relentless touring and their ferocious live shows.

Producer Douglas explains, "The only thing we were talking about a few months before Rocks was that it was going to be a real hard-rock album.

"[9] By the time of the album's sessions, the group had already begun living the rock-and-roll lifestyle to the hilt, indulging their already considerable appetite for drugs.

However, their hedonistic lifestyle did not appear to hamper them creatively; Rocks was considered by many fans, critics, and fellow musicians to be one of the highlights of their career.

"[11] Producer Jack Douglas later insisted: Rocks was the album where Tom and Brad had a lot more input and songs ...

It had to make a big statement about how loud and hard they were, how unapologetic they felt about being who they were – this brash, rude, sexual, hard-core rock band.

In 1997, Perry explained to Alan di Perna of Guitar World that he was inspired by Peter Green to write the riff on a Fender Bass VI and admitted that he was "very high on heroin when I wrote 'Back in the Saddle.'

"[14] Tyler explains that the song uses the "saddle image as a way of saying, 'Here's another album, folks, and we're gonna rock out and I've really got my spurs on'.

"[17] The song evolved from a riff Whitford titled "Soul Saver", a recording of which was released on Pandora's Box in 1991.

"[18] As Hamilton later remembered, it was "Mr. Tambourine Man" that was especially influential on him personally when it came to his eventual contributions to the song that became "Sick as a Dog."

"It really embedded in my mind that love of hearing [guitar sounds like that], especially when it was combined with a hard rock beat.

[19] Perry shared how they ended up dividing things up instrumentally in the studio: "Tom played rhythm guitar on "Sick as a Dog."

"[20] "Rats in the Cellar" evolved from Fleetwood Mac's "Rattlesnake Shake", a staple of the band's early setlists.

Things were coming apart, sanity was scurrying south, caution was flung to the winds, and little by little the chaos was permanently moving in.

"[21] "Nobody's Fault" remains a favorite of the band's, with Tyler calling it "one of the highlights of my creative career"[22] and Kramer insisting "it's some of the best drumming I did.

[24] "Combination" features Perry sharing lead vocal duties with Tyler for the first time, and the guitarist admitted in 1997 that the song was "about heroin, cocaine, and me".

[25] In his memoir, Tyler calls the line "Walkin' on Gucci wearing Yves St. Laurent/Barely stay on 'cause I'm so goddamn gaunt" the best lyric Perry ever wrote: "It was the truth, it was clever, and it described us to a tee".

I have cassettes of the evolution of every song on that record, and you should hear "Back In The Saddle" as it evolved from Joe's basic lick to the monster it became.

The first verse features the sound of clinking spurs, which was actually produced using bells and tambourines strapped to Tyler's cowboy boots by Perry and New York Dolls singer David Johansen.

[36] Tyler achieved the hoofbeat sound using coconuts from a percussion kit he ordered from SIR Studio Instrument Rentals.

[39] Douglas expresses his satisfaction with the album's production and sound: "Rocks was done in Waltham, Massachusetts, in a warehouse.

John Milward of Rolling Stone wrote that "the material is Rocks’ major flaw, mostly pale remakes of their earlier hits"; concluding that the return to the "ear-boxing sound" of Get Your Wings and Tyler's vocal performance cannot save the album from mediocrity.

[47] In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau wrote that Aerosmith were doing a good job of imitating Led Zeppelin, and that after this album the band began to lose steam.

He writes that "Back in the Saddle and Last Child are among their most renowned songs, but all the tracks prove essential to the makeup of the album".

"[43] In a November 1994 Los Angeles Times review of Rocks, Jon Matsumoto opined that the record "arguably is the best heavy metal opus ever concocted".

"[44] Many musicians have cited Rocks as a favorite: I was in seventh grade and just going through the whole 1978 music thing that was happening for kids – which was like Cheap Trick and the Cars.

We saw that record as a jewel, the culmination of all our angst and anger and excitement and joy as go-for-broke rock and rollers.