We know, we know. We didn’t believe it either when we read the headline. But it’s apparently true — unless a previous trip to the building is one of the things he doesn’t remember about the ’70s and ’80s, Steven Tyler recently made his very first visit to the Playboy Mansion.

The first question, of course, is “how is this possible?,” and Rolling Stone tried to get to the bottom of it all when they interviewed Tyler following his visit. The Aerosmith singer’s answer? “I was too busy in someone’s bathroom getting high. I was too busy on tour, I was too busy writing songs. We were just busy.”

That doesn’t mean Tyler isn’t appreciative of Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner’s body of work. “I love people that are committed to their crimes of passion and he is the gentleman of all time,” he affirmed. “He’s been on every man’s mind around the world at least a hundred times in their lifetime for what he did. So he signifies the joys of womanhood and not the degradation…and even women love Playboy.”

So what finally brought Tyler to the mansion? Appropriately enough, it was a fantasy — Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, to be precise. Lured in by frequent Aerosmith songwriting collaborator Mark Hudson (‘Livin’ on the Edge’), Tyler showed up to serve as a mentor to current participants, and to offer them some pretty intriguing motivation to win their latest challenge. “I just dared them all to learn an Aerosmith song to see how good they can do it,” he explained. “If they do it good, which I’m sure they will, I’m gonna pick the best group of them all, we’re gonna pick straws and the best one out of that gets to ride around in my car and hear the new Aerosmith album.”

And as for that new album, Tyler pronounced himself “on fire” over the new music. “It’s one of the best Aerosmith albums ever,” he told Rolling Stone. “I’m one of the worst judges of my own music because I’m very harsh, highly critical. [But] we waited until we had at least four really good songs that were representative and we got 19.”

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