50 Fun Facts About Steven Tyler

Which rock musician signed Liv Tyler's birth certificate before Steven Tyler was revealed as her father?

Todd Rundgren acted as a father figure to Liv and paid for her education. Her real paternity only became public in 1991, when she swapped his surname for her father's.

Which Aerosmith ballad did Steven Tyler write on a piano about four years before the band formed?

Dream On stalled at number 59 when it first came out in 1973. A re-release after the band had broken through carried it to number six.

Steven Tyler smashes through a studio wall in the 1986 video for Walk This Way with which hip-hop group?

Run-DMC took the remake to number four, higher than the original had charted, and it became the trio's biggest hit. It also revived Aerosmith's fading career.

Which Diane Warren ballad from Armageddon gave Steven Tyler and Aerosmith their only US number-one single?

I Don't Want to Miss a Thing debuted at number one and stayed there for four weeks. Its writer had pictured a singer like Celine Dion performing it.

What does Steven Tyler famously hang from his microphone stand as a trademark at Aerosmith concerts?

Scarves complete a stage look built on colourful, sometimes androgynous outfits and makeup. He is also known for his on-stage acrobatics.

Which instrument did Steven Tyler play in many of his school-era bands before fronting Aerosmith?

Drums were his job in earlier bands, but when Aerosmith formed around 1970 he insisted on being the frontman, so an old acquaintance was recruited for the kit.

Steven Tyler and Aerosmith were the first band to guest star on which animated series, in 1991?

The Simpsons had the band play in Moe's Tavern in the episode Flaming Moe's. A producer later learned the drink's name was part of the reason they agreed to appear.

Which pop star joined the American Idol judging panel as a newcomer in the same season as Steven Tyler?

Jennifer Lopez and the Aerosmith singer both arrived for the tenth season in 2011, joining the long-serving Randy Jackson. Both newcomers left after two seasons.

Steven Tyler's charity for girls who have suffered abuse takes its name from which Aerosmith song?

Janie's Got a Gun tells of a girl abused by her father, and its words took nine months to finish. Janie's Fund followed in 2015.

Steven Tyler's daughter Liv starred alongside which actress in the 1994 video for Aerosmith's Crazy?

Alicia Silverstone was making her third appearance in the band's videos. The pair play schoolgirls who skip class and drive off in a Ford Mustang convertible.

Critics derided early Aerosmith as knockoffs of which band, partly because Steven Tyler resembled its singer?

The Rolling Stones were his teenage heroes, and seeing them in concert at 17 was a highlight. A photo in Aerosmith's autobiography shows him standing behind their singer outside a hotel.

Aerosmith's Walk This Way took its title from a gag in which Mel Brooks comedy seen by Steven Tyler's band?

Young Frankenstein gave the band a break from recording, and they came back laughing at Marty Feldman's limping walk. Their producer suggested the gag as a song title.

Steven Tyler was born with which Italian surname, passed down from a grandfather who came from Calabria?

Tallarico came from his grandfather Giovanni, of Cotronei in Calabria. His mother's family had changed names too, from Czarnyszewicz to Blancha.

Which guitarist, Steven Tyler's songwriting partner, joined him in the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013?

Joe Perry and his singer have co-written more than 85 songs. They first crossed paths at a local rock show in New Hampshire in 1969.

Steven Tyler and Aerosmith's lead guitarist were given which shared nickname in the 1970s?

The Toxic Twins label outlasted the habit: both men went through rehab in the 1980s, yet the name stuck to them. They are also a songwriting team.

Steven Tyler's 2016 solo debut, We're All Somebody from Somewhere, was an album in which genre?

Country took him to number one on the Top Country Albums chart, though the album only reached number 19 on the all-genre Billboard 200.

Steven Tyler's daughter Liv played which character in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy?

Arwen is an Elf maiden, a role Liv took three years after starring in Armageddon, the film whose theme song became her father's biggest hit.

Steven Tyler and Aerosmith co-headlined the 2001 Super Bowl halftime show with which boy band?

NSYNC traded songs with the rockers in a show billed as The Kings of Rock and Pop. Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige and Nelly joined them all for the finale.

Steven Tyler's band became the first to get its own dedicated edition of which video game series in 2008?

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith follows the group from a 1970 high school gig to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Each member did motion capture for the game.

Which of these rock nicknames belongs to Steven Tyler of Aerosmith?

The Demon of Screamin' trained his ear early: he recalled lying beneath his father's piano as a three-year-old, listening to him play.

Steven Tyler, forever linked with Boston, was actually born in which borough of New York City?

Manhattan's East Village was his birthplace, but the family moved to the Bronx when he was three and on to Yonkers when he was about nine.

In which New Hampshire lake town did Steven Tyler first see his future Aerosmith bandmates play, in 1969?

Sunapee is where two of his future bandmates were playing in a group called the Jam Band. He later said their raw power and attitude struck him.

Which Toys in the Attic single gave Steven Tyler and Aerosmith their first Top 40 hit in 1975?

Sweet Emotion was co-written with bassist Tom Hamilton, whose riff runs through it. The intro features one of the most famous uses of a guitar talk box in pop.

Dude (Looks Like a Lady) began when Steven Tyler reportedly mistook which glam metal frontman for a woman?

Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe had long blonde hair at the time, as co-writer Desmond Child tells it. Bandmate Nikki Sixx agrees in his own book that the song was inspired by him.

Which 1993 album, with a pierced cow on its cover, was the first by Steven Tyler's band to top the US chart?

Get a Grip sold over seven million copies in the US. An animal-rights group objected to the cover until the band confirmed the image had been digitally altered.

Steven Tyler called which 1987 comeback album the first that Aerosmith ever made sober?

Permanent Vacation put all three of its singles in the top 20. It was also the first of the band's albums to be promoted by heavy video airplay on MTV.

Steven Tyler and Aerosmith debated the fall of communism in which Saturday Night Live sketch in 1990?

Wayne's World gave the band a moment that E! later ranked number one in the show's history. They went on to appear in the 1993 film sequel as well.

Which Beatles song did Steven Tyler sing with Aerosmith in the 1978 film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band?

Come Together cast the group as the Future Villain Band. Their cover became their last Top 40 hit for nearly ten years.

Steven Tyler earned a 2011 Emmy nomination for voicing which Lewis Carroll character on Wonder Pets?

The Mad Hatter put him up for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program, thanks to a children's special called Adventures in Wonderland.

Steven Tyler sang Crazy with Hayden Panettiere's character in an episode of which TV drama about musicians?

Nashville had him play himself opposite Juliette Barnes, the show's young star. He had moved to the city itself in January 2015 to write songs for his solo album.

Steven Tyler plays himself in which 2005 crime comedy set in the music business?

Be Cool is set in the music business, and its plot turns on arranging for a young singer to perform with the Aerosmith frontman and his band.

Which rapper's 2003 single Sing for the Moment samples Steven Tyler singing an Aerosmith chorus?

Eminem played the track at his own Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2022, and the Aerosmith singer joined him on stage to sing the chorus live.

Which singer joined the American Idol judging panel the season after Steven Tyler left?

Keith Urban joined the panel after the rock singer announced in July 2012 that he was leaving. A new Aerosmith album followed that November.

Which former American Idol winner duetted with Steven Tyler on Aerosmith's 2013 single Can't Stop Lovin' You?

Carrie Underwood happened to be in town the day he called. She recorded her part that same night, because she had to leave the next morning.

A 2013 privacy bill nicknamed the Steven Tyler Act was put before the legislature of which US state?

Hawaii's bill would have let public figures sue paparazzi for taking unwanted photographs. The singer and other celebrities lobbied for it.

Steven Tyler launched his own brand of which vehicles in 2007 at New Hampshire International Speedway?

Motorcycles sold under the Dirico name were designed by the singer and engineered by Mark Dirico. A bike crash in 1980 had put him in hospital for two months.

Which model, a 1974 Playboy Playmate, is the mother of Steven Tyler's eldest daughter, Liv?

Bebe Buell moved to New York after signing with the Ford modelling agency. She first named another musician as Liv's father, citing the singer's drug addiction.

David Bowie said he wrote which song to amuse Cyrinda Foxe, the Warhol actress who became Steven Tyler's first wife?

The Jean Genie dates from Bowie's first American tour, when he became infatuated with Foxe in New York. She was married to David Johansen of the New York Dolls before her 1978 wedding to the Aerosmith singer.

Which band did Steven Tyler form in Yonkers in 1964, before it was renamed Chain Reaction?

The Strangeurs came six years before Aerosmith, in the suburb where he had lived since he was about nine. He was later expelled from high school there over marijuana use.

Before Aerosmith, Steven Tyler sang backing vocals on an album by which baroque pop band behind Walk Away Renée?

The Left Banke used his voice on their second album, The Left Banke Too. The New York group is best remembered for two hit singles, the other being Pretty Ballerina.

Steven Tyler wrote and sang Love Lives for a 2010 live-action film based on which Japanese anime series?

Space Battleship Yamato gave him his first solo project. He wrote the song from an English translation of the script and a few clips of the film.

Which label signed Steven Tyler's band in 1972 after its president, Clive Davis, saw them at Max's Kansas City?

Columbia paid a reported $125,000. The group had paid out of its own pockets for a place on the bill that night, reportedly the only band ever to do so at the club.

Steven Tyler sang guest vocals with which hard rock band at its Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2003?

AC/DC played Highway to Hell and You Shook Me All Night Long at the ceremony, where the Aerosmith singer also gave their induction speech. His own band had been inducted two years earlier.

Steven Tyler sang lead vocals on Just Feel Better, a 2005 single by which Latin rock band?

Santana released the song as the second international single from the album All That I Am. In Australia it entered the chart at number eight and picked up significant airplay.

Steven Tyler was a guest singer at the last concert ever played at Shea Stadium, headlined by which star?

Billy Joel's two shows in July 2008 drew a combined 110,000 fans before the stadium was demolished. Paul McCartney was another of the guests.

Steven Tyler fell off a stage and broke his shoulder in 2009 during a show near which South Dakota town?

Sturgis was the scene of a fall that also injured his head and neck. He was airlifted to a hospital in Rapid City.

Which track from the Nine Lives album won Steven Tyler and Aerosmith their fourth Grammy Award?

Pink won in 1999 for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. All three of the band's earlier Grammys had come in that same category.

Which Geffen labelmates toured with Steven Tyler's newly sober Aerosmith despite their own rampant drug use?

Guns N' Roses have cited Aerosmith as a major influence. The tour was intense at times, because the older band was struggling to stay clean.

Which single was on the charts when Steven Tyler and Aerosmith entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Jaded was a top-ten single from Just Push Play, the album the band released in the same month as the 2001 ceremony.

Which Aerosmith tour was abandoned in 2024 after Steven Tyler fractured his larynx on stage?

Peace Out was only three shows old when he was hurt in September 2023. The band cancelled the rest in August 2024 and retired from touring.