Aerosmith Now and Then: Pics of the Classic Band 5 Decades After Their Debut Album
In 2023, Aerosmith began their farewell tour over five decades after the band formed in Boston. Though the group postponed many of their tour dates after lead singer Steven Tyler damaged his vocal chords, they currently plan to resume shows in 2024. In recent years, the band has dealt with a number of health issues and sexual abuse allegations against Tyler.
Aerosmith didn’t score their first No. 1 hit until 1998, but they were a successful group for years before this. Their first album had a tepid reception from critics and the general public in 1973, but they became one of the biggest bands in the world by the end of the decade. Fifty years later, the band is still together and planning performances.
In 1969, Steven Tyler watched his future bandmates Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton perform in a concert. He was so impressed with them that just one year later, he formed a band with them. Tyler became the lead singer, a position he has gone on to hold with the band for multiple decades.
While Tyler remains a key member of Aerosmith, he has collaborated with a number of other artists over the years. Most recently, he joined Dolly Parton on the song “I Want You Back” for her 2023 album Rockstar.
In 2023, Tyler suffered a vocal injury while performing with Aerosmith. He damaged his vocal chords and fractured his larynx, leading the band to postpone their remaining tour dates (via Aerosmith).
Joe Perry, who became known as one of the Toxic Twins alongside Tyler, is a guitarist for Aerosmith. Though he was a founding member, he left the group in 1979 when the declining band dynamic became too much for him. After forming and putting out albums with the Joe Perry Project, Perry rejoined Aerosmith in 1984.
In 2015, Perry joined the Hollywood Vampires with Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp. He has toured and released albums with the group. Additionally, Perry has put out five solo albums with the most recent, Sweetzerland Manifesto MKII, coming out in 2023.
Tom Hamilton is the bassist for Aerosmith and has co-written a number of their songs. After performing with Perry in The Jam Band, he helped found Aerosmith. While Hamilton has been a bass player for years, he did not start out on the instrument.
“We lived in a little town in New Hampshire called Andover, and there wasn’t a big pool of musicians there – and everyone who wanted to play wanted to be a guitarist,” he told Guitar World. “Since I was the last one to join what was pretty much the only band in town, they said, ‘Hey, you can be in if you play bass.’”
While Hamilton has been a professional musician for decades, he said he tries to continually grow as an artist. He teaches himself the basslines of songs he admires and digs through music books. In 2023, Hamilton announced that he was in the studio recording songs for a rock opera called Rock Bottom.
Not only has drummer Joey Kramer been a longtime member of Aerosmith, he receives credit for naming the band. According to him, the name came to him in 1968 while he was listening to the Harry Nilsson album Aerial Ballet (via American Songwriter). He was a student at Berklee College of Music before joining the band.
Kramer released his memoir Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top in 2009. In 2020, he filed a lawsuit against his bandmates, claiming that they would not allow him to perform at the Grammys with them because of minor injuries. While he eventually began playing with the group again, he announced in 2022 that he would be taking a temporary leave of absence. Shortly after his announcement, his wife, Linda, died.
Brad Whitford was not an original member of Aerosmith, but he has been with the band for decades. He replaced guitarist and founding member Ray Tabano in 1971 and performed with the band until 1981. That year, he left to create Whitford/St. Holmes with singer Derek St. Holmes. He returned to Aerosmith in 1984.
In 2015, Whitford reconnected with St. Holmes and went on tour with Whitford/St. Holmes. He primarily works with Aerosmith, though.
As the band pushed the remaining dates of their tour back to 2024, fans can likely expect an update about their tour schedule in the coming months.
