Steven Victor Tallarico aka Steven Tyler, the famous lead singer and scarf lover of Aerosmith, the “Demon of Screamin’,” one half of the “Toxic Twins” (with guitarist Joe Perry), was born on March 26, 1948. Steven was born in Manhattan, NYC, and grew up in the Bronx and Yonkers. His father Victor Tallarico was a Julliard-trained classical pianist and HS music teacher.
Steven started playing music in high school. On weekends, he commuted to a resort owned by his parents in Sunapee, NH. Possessing a 4-octave tenor range, he was wasting his time as the drummer in the resort’s house band. While in high school, Steven was busted by a narc placed in his ceramics class. The guy sold pot to the class and then busted them. In a twist of fate, Steven’s “youthful offender” status exempted him from the draft.
Tyler put his pipes to better use as the drummer/lead singer in a Boston band called Chain Reaction. So unhappy with that group that he once tried to strangle the lead guitar player, on stage, in 1970, Steven was looking around for another band. He heard Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton’s group Jam Band and proposed a kind of merger. Steven was adamant about not playing drums, only wanting to front the band as its lead singer. That was cool with everybody and they were off and running.
In 1972, Clive Davis of Columbia Records saw and signed Aerosmith, as they now called themselves, at Max’s Kansas City, a NYC showcase for new bands.
Their first two albums were decent, with the debut album featuring Steven’s “Dream On.” Then, Aerosmith hit the big time with Toys in the Attic (1975).
By the following year they were on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Relentless touring and relentless partying and drug use caught up with the whole group by the late 70s. The group famously broke up after a fight following their appearance at the World Series of Rock in Cleveland on July 28, 1979.
In the fall of 1980, Steven suffered the first of a string of injuries in a motorcycle crash that landed him 2 months in the hospital. He was out of commission for almost two years and had to be replaced by the group. They reunited in 1982 but Tyler was still using. A 1984 intervention by the band, and a trip to rehab finally got Steven straight. By then, all the group members had beaten their addictions. But, professionally Aerosmith was just limping along.
Then, in 1986, Rick Rubin was producing rappers Run-D.M.C. He suggested they cover Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.” The mash up and its video were hugely successful, made Run-D.M.C. a cross over hit, and simultaneously revived Aerosmith.
The group went on a tear, producing great new albums Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get a Grip. Aerosmith was suddenly everywhere again, with “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)” “Janie’s Got a Gun” “Love in an Elevator” and “Crazy.”
Injury struck again in 1998, when Steven damaged knee ligaments when he was hit by a mike stand.
Aerosmith was inducted into the rock HOF in 2001. Typically, Steven hogged the microphone as Joe Perry looks on.
2006 brought throat surgery in the form of laser ablation of a burst blood vessel. That year, Steven was also diagnosed and treated for hepatitis C, presumably from intravenous drug use.
2008 was the year for in-patient PT for the multiple injuries and surgeries to his leg. Completely out of touch with Aerosmith, Steven recovered and appeared at several concerts with other artists. That fall, in a pissed off mood with Aerosmith, Steven went to London and sang for Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham, who wanted to reform Led Zeppelin. He thought better of it and instead rejoined his old band on tour.
At a concert in Sturgis, SD, in 2009, Steven fell off the stage and injured his head and neck, and fractured his shoulder. During his time off, including a follow up hospitalization for pain management, Aerosmith announced that Steven had quit the group.
To show the band that he was still in control of his career and as capable as ever, in 2011, Steven replaced Simon Cowell as an American Idol judge. That year he also published a tell-all autobiography, “Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?”
Suddenly a valuable commodity again, Steven rejoined Aerosmith in working on a new studio album. By the end of the year, he quit American Idol and announced his return to Aerosmith. Steven and Aerosmith have been touring regularly ever since.
Steven has 4 daughters, including actress Liv Tyler, offspring of a brief relationship between Steven and notorious groupie Bebe Buell. To protect Liv from Steven’s drug-fueled life style, Buell told Liv that her then-partner Todd Rundgren was her father. Todd went along and raised Liv as his own, and she still considers him to be her dad. When she was 8, Liv noticed the strikingly similar appearance between Steven, another of his daughters, Liv’s sister, Mia, and herself, and was told the truth. Steven and Liv developed a close relationship and they announced his paternity 6 years later, in 1991, when Liv changed her name from Rundgren to Tyler. She kept Rundgren as her middle name.
Happy Birthday to Steven Tyler!
