50 Fun Facts About Aerosmith

In which city was Aerosmith formed in 1970?

Boston was home base: the five shared an apartment at 1325 Commonwealth Avenue, and in 2012 they came back to play a free concert in the street outside it.

What nickname is given to Aerosmith's songwriting duo of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry?

The Toxic Twins got the tag for their drug habits on and off stage in the 1970s, and it outlived the habits: the name stuck long after both men got sober.

What is Aerosmith's fan following known as?

The Blue Army gave its name to a 2015 tour, and when the band retired from the road in 2024 their farewell statement thanked 'our Blue Army' by name.

Which instrument did Steven Tyler play in his 1960s bands before he fronted Aerosmith?

Drums came first for Tyler, who sang in those bands too; when Aerosmith formed in 1970 he left the kit to become the lead singer.

What was the name of the group Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton played in before Aerosmith?

The Jam Band shared a bill with Tyler's group in 1970; Tyler loved their sound and pushed to merge the two bands, and the result was Aerosmith.

Whose album Aerial Ballet gave drummer Joey Kramer the idea for the name Aerosmith?

Harry Nilsson's 1968 album set Kramer scribbling the word on his school notebooks; when he pitched it years later, his bandmates thought he meant Arrowsmith, the Sinclair Lewis novel.

What were Aerosmith reportedly watching before the meeting at which they chose their name?

Three Stooges reruns were a daily ritual in the band's shared apartment; at the meeting that followed they also weighed calling themselves the Hookers or Spike Jones.

Aerosmith were the first band to guest-star as themselves on which animated series?

The Simpsons brought the band to Springfield in the 1991 episode Flaming Moe's, where Moe's suddenly fashionable tavern draws them in and they end up jamming on stage with Moe.

Which Columbia Records president signed Aerosmith after seeing them at Max's Kansas City?

Clive Davis signed them in 1972 for a reported $125,000, and the band wrote the night into their 1979 song No Surprize, which names both him and the club.

Which single from Aerosmith's 1973 debut album first peaked at only number 59?

Dream On grew from chords Tyler traced to lying under the piano as a small boy while his classically trained father played; reissued in 1976, it climbed to No. 6.

Which producer made Get Your Wings and Aerosmith's string of 1970s multi-platinum albums?

Jack Douglas worked so closely with them that Joe Perry said he 'really became the sixth member of the band'; decades later they called him back to produce their 2012 album.

Aerosmith's Get Your Wings included a cover of Train Kept A-Rollin', previously done by which band?

The Yardbirds played it the night Tyler's teenage band opened for them in 1966, as he watched from the edge of the stage; it became a closing number at early Aerosmith gigs.

Which 1975 album was Aerosmith's breakthrough and is their best-selling studio album in the US?

Toys in the Attic was, Joe Perry said, the first record they had to write almost from scratch, building songs in the studio from a couple of guitar riffs; it has sold nine million copies in the US.

What was Aerosmith's first Top 40 hit?

Sweet Emotion grew from a bass riff Tom Hamilton had carried around for years and pulled out when the producer asked for last ideas at the end of the sessions; it reached No. 36 in 1975.

Early Aerosmith were often compared to which band, partly because Steven Tyler resembled its lead singer?

The Rolling Stones comparison dogged their first albums: bluesy, swaggering rock and a frontman who looked like Mick Jagger. Multimillion-selling records in the mid-1970s gave the band a name of its own.

Co-writer Desmond Child says Aerosmith's Dude (Looks Like a Lady) began when Steven Tyler mistook which singer for a woman?

Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe, seen from behind at a bar with his big blond hair, was the lady in question; Child then talked the band out of their working title, Cruisin' for the Ladies.

Which grunge frontman put Aerosmith's Rocks on the list of his 50 favourite albums in his journals?

Kurt Cobain's handwritten Top 50, published in his Journals, includes Rocks; Joe Perry chose the title because diamonds are called rocks and nothing is harder than a diamond.

Aerosmith's cover of which Beatles song was their last Top 40 hit for nearly a decade?

Come Together came from the 1978 film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, in which Aerosmith played the villains, the Future Villain Band; the film was panned, but the single was a hit.

What did Joe Perry's wife throw at Tom Hamilton's wife backstage in 1979, triggering Perry's exit?

A glass of milk flew during a backstage row in Cleveland, the last straw on a feuding tour: Tyler and Perry argued that night, and Perry was soon out of the band and leading the Joe Perry Project.

Which guitarist replaced Joe Perry as a full-time member of Aerosmith in 1979?

Jimmy Crespo held the job until a backstage meeting on Valentine's Day 1984 began the reunion of the classic line-up, which Rick Dufay, Whitford's replacement, had urged Tyler to pursue.

Which 1982 album is the only Aerosmith studio album made without guitarist Joe Perry?

Rock in a Hard Place lost Brad Whitford too: he quit after a single song had been recorded, and the album, finished with stand-in guitarists, stalled at No. 32.

Which rap group's 1986 cover of "Walk This Way" revived Aerosmith's career?

Run-D.M.C. had only ever rapped over the record's opening drum break and didn't know the rest of the song; producer Rick Rubin talked them into covering it, and it reached No. 4.

Which 1993 Aerosmith hit was partly inspired by the previous year's Los Angeles riots?

Livin' on the Edge came out of the unrest that followed the Rodney King verdict; by the band's account the loud thumps near its end were played on a bass drum taken years earlier from a high school.

Which 1987 comeback album was the first Aerosmith made after getting sober?

Permanent Vacation was also the first album on which they wrote with outside songwriters, a push from Geffen's John Kalodner that gave them three Top 20 singles.

Songwriter Holly Knight earned a credit on which Aerosmith hit mainly for suggesting its new title?

Rag Doll was called Rag Time until the label's A&R man said kids wouldn't care about that; after three days of brainstorming, Knight spotted the new title in Tyler's own lyrics.

Who produced Aerosmith's two late-1980s comeback albums?

Bruce Fairbairn, a former trumpet player, brought the band to his home city of Vancouver to record both albums and dressed their hard rock with a horn section.

Which song won Aerosmith their first Grammy?

Janie's Got a Gun sat unfinished for months until Tyler saw a Time magazine article tracking handgun deaths minute by minute; it became a song about a girl who shoots her abusive father.

Which band opened for Aerosmith on the 1988 comeback tour, testing the headliners' new sobriety?

Guns N' Roses, their wild young labelmates, were asked not to use drugs around the newly sober headliners; Tyler insists the reported ban on their drinking backstage never happened.

Aerosmith's 1990 Saturday Night Live appearance came in which recurring sketch?

Wayne's World had Wayne and Garth quiz the band on the fall of communism, then join them for the sketch's theme song, with Garth behind the kit and Joey Kramer handed a tambourine.

Which actress starred in Aerosmith's Cryin', Amazing and Crazy videos?

Alicia Silverstone was 16 and fresh from her film debut in The Crush when director Marty Callner cast her in the first; the three videos helped her land the lead in Clueless.

Which 1993 album was the first Aerosmith record to reach No. 1 in the US?

Get a Grip nearly came out a different record: Geffen's A&R man turned down the first batch of songs in 1992, so the band went back and wrote new ones with outside songwriters.

Which single from Nine Lives won Aerosmith their fourth Grammy, in 1999?

Pink was written by Tyler with Richie Supa and Glen Ballard, the producer the band parted with before the album was finished.

Aerosmith's only Hot 100 number one came from which film soundtrack?

Armageddon starred Tyler's daughter Liv, and its ballad, which the band did not write, entered the Hot 100 at No. 1 in 1998 and stayed four weeks: their first chart-topper in 25 years of trying.

Which songwriter wrote Aerosmith's 1998 ballad I Don't Want to Miss a Thing?

Diane Warren pictured someone like Celine Dion singing it and was surprised when it went to a hard rock band; she taught Tyler the song herself at a hotel piano.

Which Walt Disney World park opened a roller coaster starring Aerosmith in 1999?

Hollywood Studios, then called Disney-MGM Studios, ran the ride with the band's songs for almost 27 years; in 2026 it closed and reopened with the Muppets as its new stars.

Aerosmith co-headlined the Super Bowl XXXV halftime show with which boy band?

NSYNC traded songs with the band in 2001 in the first halftime show produced by MTV, before Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige and Nelly joined them all for a finale of Walk This Way.

Which Aerosmith single was on the charts when the band entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2001?

Jaded began as a melody Tyler liked so much that he kept it from the band at first; it peaked at No. 7, and he later claimed the hit stopped their label from dropping them.

Aerosmith's 2004 album Honkin' on Bobo was a collection of what?

Blues covers fill all but one track: Joe Perry wanted the band playing live in the studio after an album pieced together from overdubs, and only The Grind was newly written.

In 2008 Aerosmith became the first band with its own edition of which music video game series?

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith let players strum through the band's career on a plastic guitar; the publisher's chief executive said it earned the band more than any of their albums had.

Which singer said he was flattered but could never replace Steven Tyler when 2009 rumours linked him to Aerosmith?

Lenny Kravitz shut the rumours down himself; they had started after Joe Perry, feuding with Tyler, posted that the band was looking for a new singer to work with.

Steven Tyler angered Joe Perry in 2010 by joining which TV talent show as a judge without telling Aerosmith?

American Idol caused a public row: Perry complained that he had to read about the job in the press, and Tyler later admitted on television that he took it without telling the band.

Which country singer duetted with Aerosmith on the 2013 single Can't Stop Lovin' You?

Carrie Underwood had already sung with Tyler at the 2011 Academy of Country Music Awards and in a television special, so he called her when the band wanted a second voice for the song.

What was the name of Aerosmith's Las Vegas residency that began in 2019?

Deuces Are Wild borrowed the title of the band's 1994 single, a neat fit for a casino town; after its Las Vegas opening the show also played casino theatres on the East Coast.

Why did Aerosmith cancel the Peace Out farewell tour and retire from touring in August 2024?

Tyler's vocal cord injury came at the tour's third show in 2023 and proved worse than first thought: he had also fractured his larynx, and the band said a full recovery was not possible.

Which artist collaborated with Aerosmith on the 2025 EP One More Time?

Yungblud, a British rocker in his twenties, announced the five-song EP with them a week after he, Tyler and Perry paid tribute to Ozzy Osbourne at the MTV VMAs; it was the band's first new music in over a decade.

Joe Perry formed the Hollywood Vampires with Alice Cooper and which actor?

Johnny Depp plays guitar in the supergroup, which is named after the celebrity drinking club Alice Cooper ran in the 1970s with friends such as John Lennon and Keith Moon.

What does Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer's company Rockin' & Roastin' sell?

Coffee: Kramer launched his own organic brand, roasted to his specifications, and went on to open two cafés under the same name, which have since closed.

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith was born with which surname?

Tallarico was shortened to Tally in his 1960s band; his first idea for a new stage name was Tyler Britt, until the band's manager talked him into Steven Tyler instead.

Which Eminem song samples an Aerosmith classic?

Sing for the Moment loops Steven Tyler's chorus from Dream On, and Joe Perry went into the studio to record a new guitar solo especially for Eminem's track.

Which country star turned Aerosmith's Fever into a 1995 rodeo single?

Garth Brooks had the lyrics rewritten, trading the original's drugs and sex for a bull rider hooked on the ride, and released it as The Fever from his album Fresh Horses.