Aerosmith

History

Few bands in American rock history have burned as brightly, collapsed as publicly, or come back as convincingly as Aerosmith. Formed in Boston in 1970, they spent the first half of the 1970s building a reputation as one of the most dangerous live acts in the country, blues-soaked, riff-heavy, and fueled by an increasingly reckless appetite for substance abuse.

By the decade’s end, that same appetite had dismantled them. What followed was something rock rarely produces: a genuine second act, this time achieving commercial heights that in several respects surpassed even their 1970s peak. Over a career that stretched from the club circuit to the Billboard 200’s top position, from addiction to sobriety and back again, Aerosmith wrote one of rock’s most turbulent and absorbing histories.

From New Hampshire to Boston

The origins of Aerosmith trace back to Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire, where Steven Tyler crossed paths with guitarist Joe Perry and bassist Tom Hamilton, who had been playing together in a loose blues outfit called the Jam Band. Tyler was drawn to what Perry and Hamilton were doing, and by October 1970 the three had agreed to form a new band, with one significant condition: Tyler would join only as frontman and vocalist, refusing to sit behind a drum kit in any new configuration.

Perry and Hamilton had already settled in Boston after high school graduation, where they had connected with Joey Kramer, a drummer from the Bronx, New York, who had briefly studied at the Berklee College of Music. The initial lineup also included rhythm guitarist Ray Tabano, but by 1971 he had been replaced by Brad Whitford, formerly of a band called Earth Inc. The name Aerosmith was Kramer’s suggestion, and it stuck after the group cycled through considerably worse options including The Hookers and Spike Jones.

The quintet planted roots in Boston’s club circuit, building a following on the strength of their live shows, ferocious, blues-driven performances that drew heavily on the band’s shared admiration for the Yardbirds and the Rolling Stones. Their first documented Boston-area gig was at Nipmuc Regional High School in Mendon, Massachusetts.

Through 1971 and 1972, management figures Frank Connelly, David Krebs, and Steve Leber worked to get the band in front of industry ears, eventually arranging a showcase at Max’s Kansas City in New York. Clive Davis, then president of Columbia Records, attended and signed Aerosmith in the summer of 1972, the same year Columbia signed Bruce Springsteen after A&R executive John Hammond brought him to the label.

The self-titled debut, Aerosmith, was recorded in October 1972 at Intermedia Sound Studios in Boston and released on January 5, 1973, produced by Adrian Barber. Columbia devoted the bulk of its promotional machinery to Springsteen’s Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., and the Aerosmith debut was largely left to find its own audience.

It peaked at No. 166 on the Billboard 200. The lead single, “Dream On” (a piano-driven ballad written entirely by Tyler), stalled at No. 59 on the Hot 100 nationally, though it dominated Boston radio. The album’s commercial moment came three years later, when a re-release of “Dream On” became a Top 10 hit and drove the album to No. 21 on the Billboard 200 in 1976.

The Rise: 1974–1976

The real story of Aerosmith’s first era begins with Get Your Wings, released on March 15, 1974, and the arrival of producer Jack Douglas, who had been steered to the band by executive producer Bob Ezrin. Recorded at the Record Plant in New York City between December 1973 and January 1974, the album was a leaner, harder-hitting statement than the debut, blues-inflected hard rock with an intensity the studio had not yet fully captured.

“Same Old Song and Dance,” “Seasons of Wither,” and a pulverizing cover of Tiny Bradshaw’s “Train Kept a Rollin'” (which the band knew from the Yardbirds’ version) defined the record, with the latter becoming a permanent fixture in their live set. Get Your Wings peaked at No. 74 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and was certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA.

Douglas and Aerosmith reconvened for Toys in the Attic, released on April 8, 1975, and the result was the commercial and creative breakthrough that turned them into an arena-level act. The album peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 and spent 128 weeks on the chart.

“Sweet Emotion,” released as a single on May 19, 1975, reached No. 36 on the Hot 100. “Walk This Way” (built around one of the most imitated guitar riffs in rock) was first released as a single on August 28, 1975, and failed to chart; a 1976 reissue reached No. 10 on the Hot 100 in early 1977. Toys in the Attic was certified 9× Platinum by the RIAA and stood as Aerosmith’s best-selling studio album in the United States, with nine million domestic copies sold. Rolling Stone placed it at No. 228 in the original 2003 edition of its 500 Greatest Albums list.

Rocks, released on May 3, 1976, was where Aerosmith pushed hardest and, by most accounts, went furthest. Recorded using a mobile truck backed into the band’s rehearsal space, a cavernous room they called the Wherehouse, in the Boston suburbs, the sessions were aimed deliberately at capturing a live, overloaded sound. The result peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and shipped platinum immediately upon release, one of the earliest albums to do so.

Three singles charted on the Hot 100: “Last Child” at No. 21, “Home Tonight” at No. 71, and “Back in the Saddle” at No. 38. The album was certified 4× Platinum by the RIAA. Rocks has influenced many hard rock and heavy metal artists, including Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, and Nirvana. Rolling Stone ranked it No. 176 on its original 500 Greatest Albums list, later revised to No. 366 in the 2020 edition.

Collapse: 1977–1982

The same sessions that produced Rocks were being fueled by a level of drug and alcohol consumption that was beginning to corrode everything around it. Draw the Line, recorded between June and October 1977 in an abandoned convent in Armonk, New York, and released on December 9, 1977, peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200, a sharp drop from Rocks‘ No. 3 peak, and represented the first meaningful commercial retreat. The internal chemistry that had powered Toys in the Attic and Rocks was visibly straining under the weight of addiction, financial grievances, and the near-continuous touring that had kept the five of them in close quarters since the early 1970s.

Night in the Ruts, released on November 16, 1979, was recorded in a state of near-total collapse. The breaking point arrived backstage at Cleveland Municipal Stadium on July 28, 1979, during the World Series of Rock, when a confrontation between members’ families and bandmates, compounding disputes over finances and management, triggered Joe Perry’s exit mid-album.

Perry instructed his lawyer to inform the band he was not returning. His replacement, guitarist Jimmy Crespo, joined shortly after. The album debuted at No. 115 on the Billboard 200 and climbed to a peak of No. 14, and its sole charting single, a cover of the Shangri-Las’ “Remember (Walking in the Sand),” reached only No. 67 on the Hot 100.

Brad Whitford stayed on through the start of the next album’s sessions in 1981, contributing to “Lightning Strikes” before leaving the band; producer Jack Douglas recommended guitarist Rick Dufay to fill the vacancy. The resulting lineup of Tyler, Hamilton, Kramer, Crespo, and Dufay completed Rock in a Hard Place, released on August 27, 1982. The album cost $1.5 million to produce, reunited the band with Jack Douglas, and was eventually certified gold in November 1989. It was the only Aerosmith studio album recorded without Joe Perry.

Reunion and Reckoning: 1984–1987

On Valentine’s Day 1984, Perry and Whitford attended an Aerosmith show at Boston’s Orpheum Theatre and reconnected with Tyler and the rest of the band backstage. The reconciliation began that night. Under new management with Tim Collins, who secured the band a deal with Geffen Records, the original five road-tested their chemistry with the Back in the Saddle Tour in the summer of 1984 before entering the studio to record Done with Mirrors, released on November 4, 1985. Produced by Ted Templeman and recorded across studios in Berkeley, New York, and Tarzana, California, the album received decent reviews but failed to translate the reunion’s good feeling into sales.

Substance abuse had not loosened its grip. In the autumn of 1986, Collins staged a formal intervention, sending a therapist directly to Tyler, and the band’s sobriety process began in earnest from there. Tyler would later identify a 1988 intervention by the band and management as the decisive turning point in his own recovery.

Before Permanent Vacation arrived, a separate event had already begun to rebuild Aerosmith’s commercial standing. Producer Rick Rubin, working with Queens hip-hop group Run-DMC on their 1986 album Raising Hell, proposed a reinterpretation of “Walk This Way” that would layer Run-DMC’s rapping over the original guitar riff, with Tyler and Perry re-recording their parts in the studio.

Released in July 1986, the collaboration reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of the defining singles of the year. It won both groups the Soul Train Music Award for Best Rap Single in 1987, and both the original Aerosmith recording and the Run-DMC version are enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame. The track stands as a pivotal catalyst for hip-hop’s breakthrough into mainstream American radio and television.

Permanent Vacation, released on August 25, 1987, on Geffen Records, was the first Aerosmith album recorded in sobriety and the most commercially polished record of their career to that point. Produced by Bruce Fairbairn at Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver between March and May 1987, and built in collaboration with outside songwriters including Desmond Child and Jim Vallance, the album peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 and sold over five million copies in the United States. Three singles reached the Top 20 of the Hot 100: “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)” at No. 14, “Angel” at No. 3, and “Rag Doll” at No. 17.

The Second Peak: 1989–1999

Pump, released on September 12, 1989, confirmed that Permanent Vacation was not a fluke. Again produced by Fairbairn, the album peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and became the fourth best-selling album of 1990, certified 7× Platinum with seven million domestic copies sold. “Love in an Elevator” reached No. 5 on the Hot 100 and became the first Aerosmith single to top the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. “Janie’s Got a Gun” reached No. 4 on the Hot 100 and won the band their first Grammy Award (Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal) at the 1991 ceremony. “What It Takes” peaked at No. 9; “The Other Side” at No. 22.

Get a Grip, released on April 20, 1993, represented the commercial apex of Aerosmith’s career. The album, again produced by Fairbairn on Geffen Records, became the first Aerosmith album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200, achieving the top position on May 8, 1993. It sold seven million copies in the United States by 1995 and over 20 million copies worldwide, certified 7× Platinum domestically.

The album’s interconnected music video trilogy, “Cryin’,” “Amazing,” and “Crazy,” made Aerosmith a dominant presence on MTV and introduced actress Alicia Silverstone to a mass audience across all three videos, while bringing wider visibility to Steven Tyler’s daughter Liv Tyler. The Get a Grip Tour ran for a year and a half and encompassed more than 200 shows. Two more Grammy Awards followed: “Livin’ on the Edge” won Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 1994 ceremony, and “Crazy” took the same award in 1995.

Nine Lives, released on March 18, 1997, marked a return to Columbia Records and arrived after a brutally turbulent gestation. Initial sessions with producer Glen Ballard in Miami were scrapped after Columbia deemed the results unsatisfactory. Drummer Joey Kramer missed the early sessions due to depression. The band fired Collins in July 1996 and reconvened in New York in September 1996 with producer Kevin Shirley, rebuilding the album from scratch.

Controversy over the original album artwork drew protests from the Hindu community after release, prompting Columbia to replace the cover on subsequent pressings. Despite it, Nine Lives debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The single “Pink” won Aerosmith their fourth Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1999. The Nine Lives Tour, which ran from May 1997 through July 1999, kept the band on the road for over two years following the album’s release.

Later Years: 1999–2022

As that touring cycle wound down, the band’s commercial reach extended beyond their own studio work. “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” written for the 1998 film Armageddon, became Aerosmith’s first and only No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified 5× Platinum by the RIAA. On March 19, 2001, Aerosmith were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the 16th Annual Induction Ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Just Push Play, released on March 6, 2001, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with over 240,000 first-week sales and was certified Platinum within a month. Honkin’ on Bobo, released on March 30, 2004, took a different approach: eleven blues and blues-rock covers whose sources stretched from the 1930s through the 1960s, plus one original track, recorded live in the studio with Jack Douglas returning behind the board. The album debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the RIAA on May 11, 2004. Music from Another Dimension!, released on November 6, 2012, on Columbia Records, became the band’s fifteenth studio album, their first album of original material since Just Push Play in 2001.

In 2013, Tyler and Perry were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2019, Aerosmith launched a Las Vegas concert residency, Deuces Are Wild, at the Park Theater (later renamed Dolby Live) at Park MGM. The Las Vegas run ultimately encompassed 55 performances from April 2019 through November 2022, interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020; its planned June 2022 return was itself postponed when Tyler entered a treatment program following a relapse tied to the pain management required after foot surgery, and the residency did not resume until that September. In 2020, the band received the MusiCares Person of the Year award.

Retirement from Touring

The residency’s extended run and interrupted timeline made clear that large-scale touring had become an increasingly difficult proposition for a band in their seventies. In May 2023, Aerosmith announced the Peace Out: The Farewell Tour, a 40-date North American run with the Black Crowes as support. In September 2023, Tyler fractured his larynx during a performance, with his vocal cords also bleeding at the same show, forcing the postponement of multiple dates. The tour was rescheduled to resume in September 2024, but Tyler’s recovery proved insufficient. On August 2, 2024, Aerosmith announced their retirement from touring, stating that a full recovery from Tyler’s vocal injury was not possible. The rescheduled 2024 leg never began. The Peace Out tour was never completed.

Touring, though, was not the end of the band’s output. In September 2025, Tyler and Perry joined a tribute performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, and on November 21, 2025, Aerosmith released One More Time, a five-track collaborative EP with English singer Yungblud, via Capitol Records. It was the band’s first new music since Music from Another Dimension! thirteen years earlier, and it debuted in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. On March 20, 2026, the band released Aerosmith (Legendary Edition), a remastered and remixed reissue of their 1973 debut featuring previously unreleased material from the archives.

Legacy

Aerosmith have sold over 150 million albums worldwide, making them the best-selling American hard rock band of all time. In the United States, their catalog includes 25 gold albums, 18 platinum albums, and 12 multi-platinum albums, with more than 90 million RIAA-certified albums sold in the United States. Rocks became a touchstone for musicians including Slash, who credited the album with inspiring him to pick up the guitar, and Metallica’s James Hetfield, who has cited Rocks and Aerosmith more broadly as important influences on his own guitar playing.

The 1986 “Walk This Way” collaboration with Run-DMC stood as one of the most consequential crossover moments in American popular music, accelerating hip-hop’s entry into mainstream radio and television and laying early conceptual groundwork for what would become rap-rock as a genre. Rolling Stone ranked Aerosmith No. 57 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in 2011.

What makes Aerosmith’s story so difficult to neatly summarize is that their first commercial peak and their second were achieved under fundamentally different conditions: one driven by raw hunger and unchecked excess, the other by sobriety, craft, and a ruthless awareness of the commercial landscape. That both eras produced work of genuine quality, separated by years of near-dissolution, is the detail that keeps their history compelling long after the tours have ended.