Aerosmith

Rock group

For the Record…

Recorded Debut Album

Regrouped and Got Clean

Continued to Win Awards

Finally Hit Number One

Selected discography

Sources

Although many critics of the 1970s dismissed the band as merely a vulgar imitation of the Rolling Stones and other British blues/rock acts, Aerosmith has become one of the most popular acts in rock ‘n’ roll history. Originally labeled rock’s “toxic twins,” founding members Steven Tyler and Joe Perry defeated alcoholism and drug use in the 1980s while retaining their characteristic anti-establishment charm and attitude. Chris Norris commented in Spin: “Aerosmith is as close to Hollywood as rock-n-roll gets…. The Boston crew of Tyler, Perry, guitarist Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton, and drummer Joey Kramer have gone from being the definitive 1970s hard-rock band to a textbook on economy, surliness, and soul to the ultimate comeback band brought back almost literally from the dead in the mid-1980s to the most bankable act in popular music.”

Aerosmith began on the East Coast. Tyler was born Steven Tallarico, son of a second-generation Italian classical musician who played and taught music in Yonkers, New York. The Tallarico family also ran a resort in the Catskills in Lake Sunapee, New Hamp-shire, where Tyler and Perry, whose family had a summer house there, first met. Tyler formed his first band and named it The Strangeurs, later changing the band’s name to Chain Reaction. In 1966, Tyler

For the Record…

Members include Jimmy Crespo (group member, 1979-84), guitar; Rick Dufay (group member, 1982-84), guitar; Tom Hamilton (born on December 31, 1951, in Colorado Springs, CO), bass; Joey Kramer (born on June 21, 1950, in New York, NY), drums; Joe Perry (born on September 10, 1950, in Boston, MA), lead guitar; Steven Tyler (born Steven Victor Tallarico on March 26, 1948, in Yonkers, NY), lead vocals; Brad Whitford (born on February 23, 1952, in Massachusetts), rhythm guitar.

Group formed in Boston, MA, 1970; signed with Columbia Records executive Clive Davis, recorded self-titled debut LP Aerosmith in two weeks, which included their first hit single, “Dream On,” 1972; released first platinum record, Toys in the Attic, 1976; became the undisputed topvenue rock act, 1979; replaced Perry with guitarist Jimmy Crespo and Whitford with Rick Dufay, 1979-80; band reformed, 1984; achieved widespread success with such singles as “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” “Angel,” “Janie’s Got a Gun,” and “Crazy,” 1980s-1990s; released Just Push Play, 2001.

Awards: MTV Music Awards, Best Group Video and Best Stage Performance in a Video for “Dude Looks Like a Lady,” 1988; MTV Music Awards, Best Metal/Hard Rock Video and Viewers’ Choice Award, 1990; Grammy Award for “Janie’s Got A Gun,” 1990; MTV Music Award, Best Metal/Hard Rock Video for “The Other Side,” 1991; MTV Music Viewers’ Choice Award for “Livin’ on the Edge” and Grammy Award, Best Performance by a Duo or Group for “Love in an Elevator” 1993; MTV Music Awards for All Time Favorite Video as voted by MTV viewers, Best Video, Best Group Video, and Viewers’ Choice Award for “Cryin’,” 1994; Grammy Award, Best Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for “Crazy,” 1994; Grammy Award, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for “Pink,” 1998; Billboard magazine, Artist Achievement Award, 1999; induction, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2001.

Addresses: Record company —Columbia Records, 550 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10622. Website—Aerosmith Official Website: http://www.aerosmith.com.

recorded two singles with Chain Reaction. Meanwhile, Perry and future Aerosmith bass guitarist Hamilton formed a combo, Pipe Dream (later Jam Band), also in Sunapee.

In 1970, Perry, Tyler, and Hamilton (whose family also vacationed in Sunapee), formed Aerosmith, with Perry on guitar, Tyler on vocals, and Hamilton on bass guitar. Tyler commented of Perry’s hard-edged guitar playing in a 1975 interview with Circus: “I loved Joe’s style. He always played out of tune and real sloppy and I just loved it.” In 1971, the trio recruited rhythm guitar player Brad Whitford and drummer Joey Kramer and began playing in the Boston area. The band cultivated a young audience following their first successful appearance at Nipmuc Regional High School in Mendon, Massachusetts.

Recorded Debut Album

Aerosmith signed with Columbia Records in 1972. The same year the band entered Intermedia Sound Studios to record their debut album, Aerosmith, which was recorded in only two weeks. Although the album garnered little notice and achieved only modest financial success, Aerosmith got a generally positive critical response and introduced the band to the American public with their classic single, “Dream On.” “We weren’t too ambitious when we started out,” Tyler said in comments at the Aerosmith Unwired website. “We just wanted to be the biggest thing that ever walked the planet, the greatest rock band that ever was. We just wanted everything. We just wanted it all.”

Aerosmith’s second album, Get Your Wings, further cemented the group’s growing reputation, but received mixed reviews. The album, like its predecessor, fell short of achieving blockbuster status and provoked sarcastic comparisons to the Rolling Stones. Charley Walters of Rolling Stone, however, asserted that Aerosmith’s second album “surges with pent-up fury yet avoids the excesses to which many peers succumb.” Get Your Wings remained on the charts for a total of 86 weeks. Between 1974-76, Aerosmith released many of their biggest classic hit singles, including “Same Old Song and Dance,” “Sweet Emotion,” and “Walk This Way.” The band toured heavily as their venues became larger and press coverage correspondingly increased. According to Phil Hardy and Dave Laing in the Encyclopedia of Rock, the band’s third album, Toys in the Attic, “represented a milestone in the band’s career and became their first album to represent the perfect distillation of the Aerosmith sound, a muscular but surprisingly agile rhythm section with the twin guitars howling and snapping around Tyler’s vocal lines.” Toys in the Attic stayed on the charts for almost two years.

Rocks, the band’s next album, followed the formula of Toys in the Attic, also achieving widespread critical and financial success. “Back in the Saddle,” “Sick as a Dog,” and “Last Child” remained prominent requests on classic rock stations well into the 1990s. “We were doing a lot of… drugs by then, but you can hear that whatever we were doing, it was still working for us,” Perry told Aerosmith Unwired. Draw the Line, released on Columbia Records in 1977, went platinum faster than any previous Aerosmith album. The band’s Draw the Line tour lasted through 1978 and early 1979, and their previously hectic recording schedule slowed for the first time. In 1978, Aerosmith released one live album, Live Bootleg, and made their Hollywood debut with an appearance in Robert Stigwood’s ill-received film Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, in which they covered the Beatles’ “Come Together.”

During the two-year tour that followed Draw the Line, Aerosmith developed a reputation for drug abuse of legendary proportions, and deep personal animosities developed between the primary band members. Tensions between Perry and Tyler escalated, and during the making of 1979’s A Night in the Ruts, Perry bowed out to pursue a solo career with his own group, the Joe Perry Project. The band’s 1980 debut, Let the Music Do the Talking, garnered Perry a minor hit with its title cut. Guitarist Jimmy Crespo replaced Perry and the band continued recording, keeping several tracks that Perry had recorded. However, shortly after A Night in the Ruts was completed, Brad Whitford left the band as well. In 1981, Aerosmith replaced Whitford with Rick Dufay.

Regrouped and Got Clean

In late 1981, Tyler was injured in a motorcycle accident, one in which his alcohol consumption was a factor. The accident took off his heel and put him in a hospital for over six months. By the time Aerosmith’s next album, Rock in a Hard Place, appeared in 1982, Tyler found that the band’s popularity had been eclipsed by a wide range of second-generation heavy metal bands. But in April of 1984, Aerosmith announced to the press that the original band would reunite and tour. The band’s members also took their first steps toward defeating their various drug and alcohol addictions. After auditioning for Geffen Records, the band won a new contract.

For their 1986 comeback album, Done with Mirrors, Aerosmith recruited heavyweight producer Ted Templeman, who had worked with Van Halen on its first six albums. Recorded at the Power Station, the album was recorded quickly when, according to Perry, the band went in with some riffs and winged it. Some critics were skeptical about a sober Aerosmith, including a Stereo Review writer who suggested: “A mediocre Aerosmith concert was two hours of imitation Stones. A great Aerosmith concert was a two-minute sound check punctuated by Steve Tyler hurling a bottle of Jack Daniels against Perry’s amplifier, followed by ten minutes of pugilism, after which the band would stumble off-stage.” Although the album’s sales were flat, possibly indicating that Aerosmith’s once-loyal audience had lost faith, Aerosmith re-entered the charts for the first time in six years and successfully teamed with Run-D.M.C. for a Rick Rubin-produced remake of “Walk this Way.” The cover was a hit and a new generation of young MTV viewers suddenly became interested in Aerosmith. Robert Christgau of Village Voice asserted, “Against all odds the old farts light one up: if you can stand the crunch, you’ll find more get-up-and-go on the first side [of Done with Mirrors] than on any dozen random neogarage EPs.”

In 1987, Aerosmith achieved undeniable success following the release of the album Permanent Vacation. The recording went multiplatinum and featured several blockbuster hits, including “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” “Rag Doll,” and “Angel.” The album also signaled Aerosmith’s introduction to the video medium, initiating a tradition of releasing some of the most popular videos MTV has aired.

Aerosmith continued to build upon their new, younger audience by touring with many of the groups they had helped to inspire, including Dokken, Guns n’ Roses, and Poison. From 1987-88 the band produced two live albums, Classics Live! and Classics Live II, as well as a greatest hits compilation, Gems. In 1989, Aerosmith released their second chartbuster of the 1980s, Pump, which went multiplatinum and garnered several MTV Awards, as well as their first Grammy Award for “Janie’s Got a Gun.”

Continued to Win Awards

Over the next seven years, Aerosmith received two more Grammys and many MTV Awards as they achieved increasing respectability for their ability to deliver high-charged rock while avoiding drugs during an era in which many rock stars succumbed to drug-related tragedies. In late 1991, Sony signed Aerosmith away from Geffen, investing an estimated $30 million in the band despite the fact that their contract would not begin until 1997. In 1993, the band released Get a Grip, which sold more than five million copies and scored Billboard His with such singles as “Livin’ on the Edge,” “Cryin5,” “Crazy,” and “Amazing.”

Nine Lives, Aerosmith’s 1997 release for Sony, appeared amidst public allegations of drug relapse and a flurry of personnel changes. The trouble first started when the band fired their producer, John Kalodner, and replaced him with Glen Ballard, who had initially been hired as a songwriter. Next, drummer Joey Kramer temporarily left following his father’s death. Kramer was replaced by studio drummer Steve Ferrone. Well into the recording process, Sony communicated its dissatisfaction with the rough cuts of Nine Lives. “I think they were right,” commented Whitford. “I was listening to them and I just thought, Huey Lewis.” Aerosmith replaced Ballard with producer Kevin Shirley of Silver-chair and Journey fame. Tyler commented of Ballard’s release from the band: “the general consensus of the band and the corporation was that, mixed with the fact Joey wasn’t down there when we did it, it might be to our advantage to re-record it with someone who has a little more of a rock head and is into the Aerosmith that we all know and love.”

In 1998, Entertainment Weekly featured a “centered,” “sober, happily married” Tyler, who boasted of an equally sober band. He said of the restraint, “I miss the insanity sometimes. The guy you’re talking to who spent 23 years on the dark side of the moon, ripping people off and shooting cocaine with Penthouse models, kind of misses that side, yet I’ve gained so much more,” quoted Sinclair. “Now I’ve got a couple mill[ion] in the bank, and my children love me, and I’m working on a successful marriage, and I’ve got my health.” In 1998, Stephen Davis wrote a biography of the group titled Walk This Way, based on more than 200 hours of interviews with the band members. Reportedly, Aerosmith held back few details about their wild past. “My sister read it,” said Joe Perry to People’s Joseph V. Tirella, “and she told me, ‘I knew you guys were bad, but I didn’t know you were that bad.’”

To release their thirteenth studio album, Just Push Play, Aerosmith decided to produce the album themselves. They built a studio in which to mix the album—in the farmhouse beside one of the band member’s houses, which held the studio where they recorded. “We locked ourselves down there with the idea we were gonna write the best album that’s ever been written,” Rolling Stone.com quoted Tyler. Columbia released the hard, edgy album in 2001.

Finally Hit Number One

Despite Aerosmith’s popularity, it took nearly three decades for them to get a song to number one on the Billboard charts. In 1998, the group recorded the Diane Warren-written “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” for the Armageddon film soundtrack. The new song won tons of airplay, and took its place among Aerosmith’s legendary power ballads. The single stayed at number one for four weeks.

In 2001, Aerosmith joined ’N Sync, Britney Spears, and Mary J. Blige onstage for the Super Bowl halftime show. Aerosmith’s performance was “stunning,” and pushed the band into the limelight once again. The performance also helped make “Jaded”—a single from Just Push Play—a success. Years of just such success earned the group induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Into the 2000s, Aerosmith is “exploring just how deep into the middle ages grown men can play rock music without looking like total jacka**es,” Entertainment Weekly’s Tony Sinclair quipped. Three decades after forming, at the average age of 50, and in the words of Sinclair, “the band’s train just keeps a-rollin.’”

Selected discography

Aerosmith, Columbia, 1973.

Get Your Wings, Columbia, 1974.

Toys in the Attic, Columbia, 1975.

Rocks, Columbia, 1976.

Pure Gold, Columbia, 1976.

Draw the Line, Columbia, 1977.

Live Bootleg, Columbia, 1978.

A Night in the Ruts, Columbia, 1979.

Greatest Hits, Columbia, 1980.

Rock in a Hard Place, Columbia, 1982.

Done with Mirrors, Geffen, 1986.

Classics Live, Columbia, 1986.

Permanent Vacation, Geffen, 1987.

Classics! II, Columbia, 1987.

Gems, Columbia (compilation), 1989.

Pump, Geffen, 1989.

Pandora’s Box, Columbia, 1991.

Get a Grip, Geffen, 1993.

Big Ones (compilation), Geffen, 1994.

Box of Fire, Geffen, 1994.

Nine Lives, Columbia/Sony, 1997.

(Contributor) Armageddon (soundtrack), Sony, 1998.

A Little South of Sanity (live), Geffen, 1998.

Just Push Play, Columbia, 2001.

Sources

Books

Clarke, Donald, editor, The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Viking Press, 1989.

Graff, Gary, and Daniel Durchholz, MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, Visible Ink Press, 1999.

Hardy, Phil, and Dave Laing, Encyclopedia of Rock, Macdonald, 1987.

Hitchcock, H. Wiley and Sadie, Stanley, editors, The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, Macmillan Press, 1986.

Morehead, Philip D., and Anne MacNeil, The New American Dictionary of Music, Dutton, 1991.

Pareles, Jon and Romanowski, Patricia, editors, The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Rolling Stone Press/Summit Books, 1983.

Stambler, Irwin, The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock & Soul (revised edition), St. Martin’s Press, 1989.

Periodicals

Audio, April 1980.

Billboard, December 4, 1999, p. 21.

Boston Phoenix, September 1989.

Circus Magazine, June 1975.

Entertainment Weekly, November 6, 1998, p. 86.

Maclean’s, July 21, 1997.

Music Wire, August 1996.

Newsweek, March 22, 1999, p. 83.

People, January 21, 1980; October 19, 1987; February 22, 1988; March 31, 1997; January 12, 1998; August 3, 1998.

Rolling Stone, October 22, 1987; May 13, 1993; October 3, 1996.

Saturday Night, March 1997.

Spin, October 1993; October 1996; May 1997.

Stereo Review, April 1986.

Teen People, May 15, 2001, p. 68+.

Online

Aerosmith Unwired, http://www.geocitJes.com/SunsetStrip/Club/4385/frameaero.html (April 1, 2002).

All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (April 1, 2002).

Grammy.com, http://www.grammy.com (April 1, 2002).

MTV.com, http://www.mtv.com (April 1, 2002).

Recording Industry Association of America, http://www.riaa.org (April 1, 2002).

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, http://www.rockhall.com (April 1, 2002).

Rocknworld, http://www.rocknworld.com (April 3, 2002).

RollingStone.com, http://www.rollingstone.com (April 3, 2002).

Yesterdayland, http://www.yesterdayland.com (April 1, 2002).

—Sean Pollock

Aerosmith

Aerosmith, the Boston-based band that became America's version of the Rolling Stones, has been making music for nearly 40 years. The band essentially has had two careers: one before they kicked drugs and alcohol and an even bigger one after rehabilitation.

One of the longest-running, top 10 best-selling bands in American hard rock history, Aerosmith was formed in late 1969 in Sunapee, New Hampshire. Two bands, Chain Reaction, led by Steven Tallarico, and the Jam Band, featuring Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton, had often played at a local club called The Barn. At a Jam Band gig at The Barn, Tallarico decided that he should front this sloppy, blues-based band, and that they needed another guitarist and a new drummer.

The new band formed, and Aerosmith played its first gig at Nipmuc Regional High School in Mendon, Massachusetts, in autumn 1970. The lineup: Steven Tallarico (born March 26, 1948) on vocals, Joe Perry (born September 10, 1950) on lead guitar, Ray Tabano on rhythm guitar, Tom Hamilton (born December 31, 1951) on bass, and Joey Kramer (born June 21, 1950) on drums.

The group moved into a three-bedroom apartment together on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. The band played at high school and fraternity parties and began writing their own material. Kramer had come up with the band's name back in high school and insists it had nothing to do with Sinclair Lewis' novel, Arrowsmith.

Tabano was replaced by Brad Whitford (born February 23, 1952) in 1971 after some artistic differences. Tabano later came back to work on Aerosmith's road crew and then as the band's marketing director.

First Record Contract

In 1972, Steven Tallarico changed his name to Steven Tyler. Big things were about to happen for the band. At a summer gig at Max's Kansas City in New York that year, record industry mogul Clive Davis saw the band perform. Aerosmith, managed by David Krebs and Steve Leber, was offered a $125,000 contract with Columbia Records.

"We weren't too ambitious when we started out," Tyler said in their autobiography, Walk This Way. "We just wanted to be the biggest thing that ever walked the planet, the greatest rock band that ever was. We just wanted everything. We wanted it all."

Moving quickly, the band's self-titled debut album was released in January 1973. Aerosmith went on tour in support of the album, opening for big acts like Mott the Hoople and The Kinks. Stardom would be a relatively short climb for the band from this point.

The following year, a second album, Get Your Wings, was released. A single, "Same Old Song And Dance"/"Pandora's Box" made a small splash and the album went gold. In April 1975, Toys In The Attic was released and hit the Billboard Top 20 Album Chart. "Sweet Emotion" was released on a single and became the band's first Top 40 hit.

On June 12, 1976, Aerosmith headlined their first stadium show at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, to a crowd of 80,000. The show had sold out within 12 hours. It was only the first in a series of successful stadium tours to follow.

Tyler later reflected, "The stage was so high and so far from the audience, you couldn't even see any kids, just lines of bullet-head security guys with their backs to us. The whole thing was too abstract. We were in, like, surrealism shock."

An Army of Fans

The band started calling their fans "The Blue Army" for the blue jeans that they all wore. In Walk This Way, "We were America's band," Joe Perry said. "We were the guys you could actually see. Back then in the Seventies, it wasn't like Led Zeppelin was out there on the road in America all of the time. The Stones weren't always coming to your town. We were. You could count on us to come by."

In 1976, the band released the platinum-selling Rocks album. Earlier songs, "Walk This Way" and "Dream On"/"Sweet Emotion" were re-released and garnered the band Top 40 hits. "Dream On," re-released from their first album, peaked at number three on the charts. In March 1977, "Back In The Saddle"/"Nobody's Fault" was released as a single. In October of that year, "Draw the Line" was released on a single, previewing tracks from their fifth album of the same name, to be released in December of that year. The album went platinum.

In October 1978, the band made a movie appearance in Robert Stigwood's flop, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, as the Future Villain Band. (Stigwood had produced '70s movie hits Grease and Saturday Night Fever.) The band recorded a cover of The Beatles' "Come Together" for the film, and the song made it to the top 30 on the charts. Kramer later remarked, "It was a disaster. A real debacle. The Stones refused to do the part that was offered to us. Now we know why. It was just a pretty silly movie." That same month, Live Bootleg, featuring live versions of the band's hits was released.

The End of Aerosmith

Disagreements between band members and ego clashes tore at the lineup in 1979 as their seventh album, Night in the Ruts, was recorded. Perry left, and Jimmy Crespo replaced him as lead guitarist. Aerosmith toured briefly with new lineup, but fans yelled for Perry.

Perry had formed the Joe Perry Project, rounding up a band of relatively unknown musicians. They released an album of covers and Perry originals called Let the Music Do the Talking. The group released three albums between 1980 and 1983, doing small tours, as well.

By 1980, the year Aerosmith's Greatest Hits was released, Whitford left the band as well. Rick Dufay replaced Whitford in the Aerosmith lineup. Whitford joined forces with Derek St. Holmes, from Ted Nugent's band, on an album, Whitford/St. Holmes. That summer, Tyler took a forced sabbatical after a motorcycle accident. Drugs and alcohol were involved, and the singer spent six months in a hospital.

Rock In A Hard Place, recorded with the new lineup, was released in August 1982. The follow-up tour was hit and miss. In the meantime, Whitford was on tour with The Joe Perry Project.

Aerosmith Reformed

On Valentine's Day in 1984, after a long and publicly infamous estrangement between Tyler and Perry, the two, along with Whitford, were reunited backstage after an Aerosmith show at The Orpheum Theater in Boston. Conversations continued between Tyler and Perry, and by April of that year, the original band was back together. They began this new phase with the aptly titled "Back In The Saddle Tour" and a new manager, Tim Collins.

In November 1985, the band released Done With Mirrors on a new label, Geffen. The album, produced by Ted Templeman, who had produced the early Van Halen albums, was not a platinum-selling comeback.

In 1986, up-and-coming rappers Run DMC gave Aerosmith the push back into the spotlight they needed with their cover of "Walk This Way" on their album, Raising Hell. The song hit the charts, and the video, featuring Tyler and Perry dueling with the rappers through a thin wall, played frequently on MTV.

Over the years, the band had become infamous for their alcohol and drug abuse. The press dubbed Tyler and Perry "The Toxic Twins." In September 1986, Collins called a 6 a.m. band meeting and included New York psychiatrist Dr. Lou Cox. It was an intervention for Tyler, but the whole band needed help.

In the band's 1997 autobiography, Walk This Way, Collins recounted that he had told the band, "You guys need to change your lives and get sober and I'll promise you this: We will turn this group around and make it the biggest band in the world by 1990." Tyler and Perry went through rehab. The band worked together to become—and to stay—sober.

Aerosmith released Permanent Vacation in August 1987. For the first time, the band had songwriting help. Desmond Child, who had written hit songs for Bon Jovi, was called in and helped finish "Dude Looks Like A Lady" and "Angel." The songs garnered the band their first hits in years. In September 1988, Aerosmith received their first MTV Music Award for "Best Group Video" for "Dude Looks Like a Lady." Single "Angel" peaked at number three on the Billboard charts.

Tyler's Famous Children

Tyler's former girlfriend, Bebe Buell, and her daughter, Liv, went to see Aerosmith in August 1988. "She was eleven years old," Buell said. "We were the only ones allowed in Steven's dressing room, and Steven took her around and introduced her to everybody. She met her sister Mia for the first time.… This was when everything finally clicked for her."

Liv Tyler, to that point, had been brought up believing that her father was performer/producer Todd Rundgren. Rundgren had been involved in her life and contributed support. Her younger sister, Mia, was born to Tyler and his first wife, Cyrinda Foxe. Tyler's two daughters made names for themselves in acting and modeling, respectively.

Hit the Charts, Won Grammys

Pump was released in September 1989 and produced multi-platinum album sales and numerous awards. In 1990, Aerosmith won MTV's Best Metal/Hard Rock Video and Viewers' Choice Awards, as well as their first Grammy Award, for "Janie's Got A Gun," a song about child abuse.

Their success continued in 1993 with Get A Grip, which shot up the charts to number one. Four tracks from the album, "Livin' On the Edge," "Cryin,'" "Crazy" and "Amazing" hit the charts. "Livin' On the Edge" won the 1993 Grammy for "Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal." "Crazy" also won a Grammy in 1994.

Nine Lives debuted at number one on the album charts in 1997 and spawned the hit single, "Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees)." The following year, the band contributed a track for the movie Armageddon, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" (written by Diane Warren). It was the band's first number one hit. Aerosmith continued recording for film in 2003, with a track called "Lizard Love," on the sound-track of the movie Rugrats Go Wild! Perry wrote score music for the 2003 Small Planet Pictures film, This Thing of Ours, as well.

In March 2001, Just Push Play was released, debuting at number two on the charts. "Jaded," the single from the album, hit number seven on the charts that year. The album was unusual in that it was recorded without the band being in the same room together. Joe Perry told The Tennessean, "We were making the record on ProTools and massaging everything, polishing everything up.… I couldn't make another record like that and call it an Aerosmith record."

The new century saw Aerosmith gaining awards and recognition. On March 19, 2001, Aerosmith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Boston's Berklee College of Music awarded Steven Tyler an honorary doctoral degree in music in May 2003. The band also has an "Aerosmith Endowment Award" recognizing outstanding musical and academic achievement, at Berklee.

Aerosmith was one of the few bands in rock history to come back as strong as they had started. One reviewer from The Times of London summed up the Aerosmith concert experience: "Tyler, a glamorous stick insect, brought the band out dancing through a two-hour set which took in all the best tunes of their career.… They saved "Walk This Way" for the last encore as the sunset grew to a distant purple glow. Tyler strutted and pouted until a giant fireworks display signaled the end. The shimmering brilliance belonged, however, to Aerosmith alone, a band who retain the power to astound."

In August 2003 Aerosmith once again, 30 years later, joined forces with Kiss to launch a summer tour called the Rocksimus Maximus Tour. This nation-wide tour was a huge success producing a gross of approximately $50 million. With some time on their hands before the tour with Kiss took off, Aerosmith decided to produce an all-blues album. "Honkin' on Bobo," the album's title, was released March 30, 2004. This album got back to Aerosmith's earlier sound of the 1970's making it appeal to past fans as well as new. According to Jim Farber from the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service the new album "treats blues as slamming party music rather than as the soul-searching stuff of legend."

Books

Aerosmith and Stephen Davis, Walk This Way, Avon Books, 1997.

Huxley, Martin, Aerosmith: The Fall and the Rise of Rock's Greatest Band, St. Martin's Press, 1995.

Periodicals

Associated Press Newswires, May 10, 2003.

Billboard, August 16, 2003; April 4, 2004.

Billboard Bulletin, January 20, 2004.

Business Wire, September 8, 2003.

Finance Wire, October 8, 2003.

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, March 30, 2004.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 22, 2003.

Plain Dealer, September 6, 2002.

Press-Enterprise, November 1, 2002.

Reuters News, September 4, 2003.

Rocky Mountain News, December 6, 2002.

San Antonio Express-News, October 4, 2003.

State Journal-Register, October 19, 2003.

Tennessean, September 19, 2003.

Times Union, November 27, 2003.

Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, September 6, 2002.

Online

"Aerosmith" 46th Grammy Awards,http://www.grammy.com (January 19, 2004).

"Aerosmith: Bio," MTV.com,http://www.mtv.com (January 12, 2004).

"Aerosmith: History," Aerosmith.com,http://www.aerosmith.com (January 12, 2004).