Aerosmith experienced a major setback in the late 1970s and much of the 1980s, driven largely by their excessive partying lifestyle, but they bounced back in a big way heading into the 1990s. During this time, they experienced a new and unprecedented level of popularity, releasing numerous multi-million selling records, landing multiple singles on the Billboard charts, and earning a plethora of awards along the way.

The band's dogged pursuit of sobriety undoubtedly played a major part, but much of their newfound crossover success could also be attributed to their equally dogged pursuit of merchandising themselves, as well as a new reliance upon outside songwriters to make Steven Tyler and Joe Perry's hard-rock blues more accessible. (Which would lead to accusations of selling out.)

Their 12th album, 1997's "Nine Lives" would mark the end of this period of success, and serve as the beginning of the end for the group's pop relevancy up to that point. A combination of interpersonal band turmoil, label-related production issues, and a sometimes clumsy live tour that followed would all come to define Nine Lives, which generated big singles, but very quickly fell off sales charts, earned dismissive reviews, and is now considered Aerosmith's worst record to date.

On this episode of Jukebox Zeroes, Lilz and Patrick dig into Nine Lives with the help of actor/musician/haver-of-interesting-musical-opinions Shane Smith. Join them as Patrick and Shane dig for lost treasure in the craggy formations of Nine Lives, while Lilz refuses to get over her visceral hatred of Aerosmith for long enough to play devil's advocate just this once.

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