With Aerosmith being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on
March 19, Columbia Records is releasing Just Push Play, the
eagerly-anticipated new album from America's premier rock & roll
band. The group's first full-length studio venture since 1997's
multi-platinum best-selling Nine Lives, Just Push Play is the first
Aerosmith album to be produced by band members Steven Tyler and
Joe Perry (along with Mark Hudson and Marti Frederiksen).
Jam-packed with the unforgettable pop melodies and bone-crunching
butt-shaking rock riffs that are the trademarks of Aerosmith, Just Push
Play will be in stores March 6.
Aerosmith fans got their first taste of Just Push Play when the band
debuted their new hit single, "Jaded," at this year's American Music
Awards on January 8. The members of Aerosmith were also the
recipients of the prestigious International Artist Award, which has only
been given five times in the 28-year history of the AMAs (previous
honorees were Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart, Michael Jackson, and the
Bee Gees).
On Sunday, January 28, 2001, Aerosmith upped the ante on their
already massive reputation as a live band with a show-stopping
medley of "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing"/"Jaded"/"Walk This Way" in
the MTV-produced E*Trade Super Bowl XXXV Halftime
extravaganza showcasing the group performing with *NSYNC, Britney
Spears, Mary J. Blige and Nelly. Drawing an audience of 86.5 million
viewers, the event garnered the highest ratings for any half-time show
in Super Bowl history.
Having sold nearly 100 million albums worldwide over the course of a
career spanning a quarter century, Aerosmith have not merely
survived and thrived, they've transcended the trends, fads and follies
of their times to become one of the most durable, and perpetually
exciting, forces in popular music. Unique even among the select
handful of rock bands of similar longevity, Aerosmith remains a potent
chart force (Nine Lives debuted at #1 on the Billboard album chart, "I
Don't Want To Miss A Thing," from the film "Armageddon," was #1 on
the Hot 100 for four weeks in 1998) and boasts the original line-up
that came together to cut the very first Aerosmith album back in 1973.
1964
- Steven
Tyler forms his first "serious" band, The Strangeurs, in Sunapee NH in
which he is the band's drummer. Tyler would later change the band's name
to Chain Reaction, writing songs with their keyboard player, Don Solomon
(with whom he co-wrote "Woman of the World"). The band also covers Beatles,
Stones, Animals and Yardbirds
1966
- At
the age of 18, Steven Tyler enters the studio for the first time with his
band Chain Reaction. They record two singles:
"The
Sun / When I Needed You" (Date) and "You Should Have Been Here Yesterday
/ Ever Lovin' Man" (Verve)
- Meanwhile,
Perry and Hamilton form a combo, "Pipe Dream" in Sunapee, NH which by1969
had become the blues-based, free-form "Jam Band"
1967-68
-
March - Chain Reaction opens 4 shows for the Yardbirds One Yardbirds set,
at New York's Anderson Theater, is recorded and released as the controversial
"Live Yardbirds"
-
October - NYC - Tyler, still with Chain Reaction, guests in the studio
on backup vocals with The Left Banke, who had a hit with "Walk Away Rene"
"He was hungry and a good singer, so I put him on there"
- Tom
Finn - Bass Player, The Left Banke
1969
- Chain
Reaction play occasional high profile gigs, opening for The Byrds (the
County Center in White Plains,) The Beach Boys (Iona College,) and the
last lineup of Yardbirds with Jimmy Page (Staples High School in Connecticut)
- Chain
Reaction and the Jam Band both play gigs at Sunapee, NH's "The Barn". Tyler
witnesses the Jam Band playing Fleetwood Mac's "Rattlesnake Shake"
- "They
did this song so well that I knew if I could get together with these guys,
we could pull the same feeling off with some songs I wrote, so I got together
with them...I loved Joe's style". He always played out of tune and real
sloppy and I just loved it."
- Steven
Tyler interview Circus Magazine 6/75
-
Aerosmith's most vital and (often) most overlooked element was synthesized
in this union. The Jam Band's wild, unadulterated improv-ability was successfully
merged with Chain Reaction's tight, disciplined control to produce the
furious but steady blast we know as Aerosmith
1970
- Aerosmith
is well received at their first public appearance, playing at Nipmuc Regional
High School in Mendon, MA in the late fall
- The
newly named Aerosmith play gigs outside of Boston University's Student
Union building recognizing that getting close to their fans is the key
to success. Sharing an apartment at 1325 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston,
the band defines itself in the best possible conditions for a young rock
n' roll band to do so
"There were six of us in the group, some of us were living in the kitchen,
eating brown rice and Cambell's soup. Those days, you know, when a quart
of beer was heaven. It was hard times and it was really good. During lunch
we would set up all our equipment outside of BU, in the main square
and just started wailing.
That's basically how we got billed. We never got much publicity in the
magazines and newspapers."
- Steven Tyler interview Circus Magazine 6/75
1971
- Guitarist
Ray Tabano leaves the band to return years later as a member of the crew,
then Director of Marketing during which time he launched the first Aerosmith
fan club and worked on developing their merchandise
- Tabano
is replaced by Brad Whitford who cut his eye-teeth in rock n' roll at age
16, playing
with
Teapot Dome, Earth, Inc. and Cymbals of Resistance
- At
this point the band is earning about $300 a night and dodging eviction
notices and stealing food from supermarkets to survive. Still an unsigned
local band, they compete for local press with others like J. Geils and
The Modern Lovers
- The
band's formative years are not without that most needed element in any
successful rock band's history - sheer luck. They had worked damn hard
and the payoff was on it's way
- John
O'Toole lets Aerosmith practice free of charge in the Fenway Theater. He
takes a liking to the band and brings in his friend Frank Connoly, the
first person of some commercial significance to have more than a passing
hunch about the bands potential -
"Frank was the first guy who knew, he was the one who said we were on to
something"
- Brad Whitford
1972
- Steven
Tallarico changes his name to Steven Tyler
- Summer
- Aerosmith lands a $125,000 deal with Columbia, following a show an New
York's Max's Kansas City, when Clive Davis saw them play. The song "No
Suprize" chronicals this event
- The
band enters Intermedia Sound studios to record Aerosmith their classic
self titled debut LP, produced by Adrian Barber. The album was recorded
and mixed in just 2 weeks
1973
- January
- The first album, Aerosmith, is released on Columbia Records.
- The
band begins touring in support of the first album, opening for the likes
of Mott the Hoople, The Kinks, Hawkwind and Mahavishnu Orchestra
- The
first LP sells faster than any other album in Boston at the time and gets
an outstanding review from Creem Magazine, while going largely unnoticed
by other mainstream media
- June
- "Dream On" / "Somebody" released as a single. "Dream On" gets #1 song
of the year at 2 popular Boston radio stations (WVBF - Framingham, and
WBCN - Boston)
1974
- March
- The band finish recording Get Your Wings at the Record Plant in New York
and release the first single, - "Same Old Song And Dance" / "Pandora's
Box" is released
- Circus
Magazine gives Get Your Wings the first mention as one of the year's "Ace
Albums"
- Circus
Magazine runs an article on Aerosmith
- April
- Letter to the Editors of Circus Magazine -
"Let's have more on a fantastic group called Aerosmith. They are very well-known
in Boston and New York. Their hit single "Dream On" is the number one song
of the year on two popular FM stations. They were also recently on tour
with Mott the Hoople, and they put on an incredible show! Lead singer Steven
Tyler really knows how to please the audience, and I hope in coming issues
I'll hear more about them.
-Ann Marie Foley, Waltham, MA
- September
- "Train Kept a Rollin'" / "Spaced" (a leftover from their days performing
as Chain Reaction) is released as a single
1975
- 76
- Early
'75 - Get Your Wings goes Gold
- February
- "S.O.S. (Too Bad)" / "Spaced" is released
- April
- Toys in the Attic, recorded in NY at the Record Plant, breaks The Top
20
- May
- "Sweet Emotion" / "Uncle Salty" is released, charting into Billboard's
Top 40
- August
- "Walk This Way" / "Round And Round" is released
- November
- "You See Me Cryin'" / "Toys In The Attic" is released
- Aerosmith
continues touring heavily as the venues get larger. Press coverage begins
to blossom
- Aerosmith
plays before a crowd of 80,000 in the Detroit Lion's Stadium, Pontiac Michigan
- Cover
of The Boston Phoenix dawns a picture of Steven Tyler in a black lace top
with the accompanying headline; "Boston's Biggest Export"
- Aerosmith
becomes a headlining act, and along with ZZ Top and KISS, one of the top
concert attractions in the country
"We were America's band, we were the garage band that made it really big
- the ultimate party band. We were the guys who 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."
- Joe Perry
- February
- Fueled by their recent success, the band begins recording their fourth
album Rocks at The Wherehouse in Waltham, MA and Record Plant Studios,
New York
- May
- Rocks, the band's fourth album, often heralded as their finest, is released
and immediately goes platinum
- Cover
of Rolling Stone has Steven Tyler lying in bed flashing his "Ma' Kin" tattoo.
The issue features a 6 page article: "Aerosmith's Wrench Rock, Music for
The New Stone Age."
- The
band embarks on 58 City tour of U.S.
- Aerosmith
gets voted #1 favorite band and Rocks gets #1 favorite album in the Reader's
Poll, Creem Magazine
- May
'76 - "Last Child" / "Combination" is released
- August
- "Home Tonight" / "Pandora's Box" is released
- November
"Walk This Way" / "Uncle Salty" is released peaking into Billboard's Top10
- November
"Dream On" / "Sweet Emotion" is released
- "Dream
On" reaches #3 in the Billboard Charts
1977
- Early
'77, band begins its first tour of the Far East in Japan.
- March
- "Back in the Saddle / "Nobody's Fault" is released
- The
band sets up headquarters in a quiet, converted 300 room convent known
as The Cenacle to record their fifth album, Draw The Line
"Sixty acres with a great big house, I don't know how much it cost but
it was outrageous. We had motorcycles and Porches and we'd go cruising
around the countryside terrorizing everybody. We had all our friends up
there and we'd go shooting off all these guns at the shooting range, just
blasting away. We had a great time up there."
- Joe Perry Creem Magazine
- Driving
back from the studio one night, Joey Kramer crashes his car
- Summer
- Aerosmith begins their second European Tour
- October
- "Draw The Line" single is released
- December
- Draw The Line, released on Columbia Records goes platinum faster than
any previous Aerosmith album
- The
band embarks on "Draw The Line Tour" which lasts through 1978 and early
1979
1978
- Summer
- Aerosmith co-headline "California Jam II" with Ted Nugent, the biggest
rock festival of the mid to late 70's, and are featured on the double album
release of the concert
- Aerosmith
pays $ 3,650 in bail-money to free fifty-two fans busted for violating
a No-Smoking ordinance during a show at Fort Wayne, Indiana
- The
band continue their ruthless touring schedule throughout the year
- Aerosmith
wraps up the tour playing a show at Boston's "Paradise" as "Dr. J. Jones
and the Interns"
- Tracks
recorded live at this show found their way onto Live! Bootleg
- October
- Aerosmith make their Hollywood debut with an appearance in Robert Stigwood's
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" movie as the "Future Villain Band"
-
Live! Bootleg is released on Columbia Records
"What
Live! Bootleg does make clear, as it highlights the best of their past
work, is that Aerosmith really is one of the best hard rock bands that
the U.S. has ever produced. I don't think that they set out to be an important
group: no great messages to get across, no big causes to champion. They
just wanted to be one hot Rock 'n' Roll band, rooted in the second generation
guitar-calisthenics-plus-frontman approach of their heroes."
- Billy Altman - Creem magazine
1979
- Aerosmith
finally slow down after seven solid years of pummeling the globe
- Aerosmith
begin work on their seventh album Night In The Ruts
- After
some internal turmoil with the band, Joe Perry leaves Aerosmith to further
pursue "The Joe Perry Project"
- Jimmy
Crespo, formerly of Flame replaces Perry on lead guitar
- Aerosmith
goes on tour with the new line-up to support Night in the Ruts
1980
- Aerosmith
release Greatest Hits on Columbia Records
- The
Joe Perry Project release their debut Let the Music do the Talking, which
earns the band a minor hit with the title cut
- Internal
strife continues to plague Aerosmith's progress as Brad Whitford leaves
the band
1981
-
Guitarist Brad Whitford teams up with Derek St. Holmes, who had previously
played with
Ted
Nugent, to record Whitford / St. Holmes
- Rick
Dufay replaces Brad Whitford on guitar
- Joe
Perry Project releases I've Got The Rock n' Rolls Again
- Steven
Tyler spends much of the year recovering from a motorcycle accident
1982
- 83
- August
- Rock In A Hard Place is released on Columbia Records
- The
band sets off on the "Rock In A Hard Place Tour" with Jimmy Crespo and
Rick Dufay
on
guitars. The tour continues into early 1984
- Joe
Perry Project Records Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker for MCA Records
- Brad
Whitford reunites with Joe Perry to play live at several shows
1984
- February
- Valentine's Day, after a long period of well-publicised estrangement
between Perry and Tyler, Perry and Whitford visit their old band backstage
following an Aerosmith show at Boston's Orpheum Theater. The wounds start
to heal...
- April
- The announcement is made that the original Aerosmith will reunite and
tour - The band teams up with A&R man, John Kalodner, who then signs
them to Geffen. Kalodner continues to be involved to this day
- The
reunited Aerosmith begins rehearsing at the Glen Ellen Country Club in
Millis, MA.
"You
should have felt the buzz the moment all five of us got together in the
same room for the first time again. We all started laughin' - it was like
the five years had never passed. We knew we'd made the right move."
- Steven Tyler
- Aerosmith
launches their 70-date "Back in the Saddle" tour
"I
know everybody's gonna' ask if we got back together for the money, and
of course we did. No, it's fun to have the money come in, but the reason
is definitely the pleasure we get from playing together again."
- Joe Perry in a Rolling Stone interview.
- After
interviewing the band, one writer observes,
"Hearing
Perry and Tyler rap about their career, their enthusiasm for good, fast,
hard, rock 'n' roll, and their good-natured comraderie, will dispel any
notion that they're just doing it for the money. Clearly, they are brimming
with enthusiasm over their new material, and the chance to have another
crack at being in the center ring of the rock 'n' roll circus."
- Jim Moran Sweet Potato
- America's
radio and TV airwaves are inundated with countless young, second-wave heavy
metal bands, many admittedly indebted to Aerosmith
"We
paved the road, so to speak, so why not fucking get in our cars and drive
down it again?"
- Steven Tyler
"The
Quiet Riot's and all those guys with the leather and studs and the stacks
of Marshall amps that aren't turned on better watch out. We are the band
your mother warned you about."
- Joe Perry
1985
- 86
- New
Year's Eve - Aerosmith culminate their "Back in the Saddle" Tour with a
legendary two-night stand at Boston's Orpheum Theater
- July
- Aerosmith enters the studio to record Done With Mirrors with Ted Templeman
producing
- November
- Done With Mirrors is released on Columbia Records. Aerosmith set out
on a world tour in support of their new album
- The
band is generally ecstatic about being back together and touring again
"I feel like it's ten years ago again. I feel like the band never was and
here we are starting out at the beginning again."
- Steve Tyler
- Aerosmith
re-enters the charts for the first time in six years, teaming with Run-DMC
for a Rick Rubin-produced re-make of "Walk This Way", a track that the
rappers had been burning up the clubs with for some time.
1987
"We crawled out from under our problems and got in touch with ourselves."
- Brad Whitford
- Aerosmith
release their ninth studio album Permanent Vacation. Going Triple-Platinum,
the album deservedly restores Aerosmith to a dignified position in the
music business and, more importantly, in the ears and hearts of the listening
public - the fans
"Aerosmith forfeited none of their bad-boy image, and their live shows
were among the best of their long career. Even critics liked them better
the second time around."
- Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll
1988
- September
- Aerosmith win their first MTV Music Awards for:
-
Best
Group Video - "Dude Looks Like A Lady"
-
Best Stage
Performance in a Video - "Dude Looks Like a Lady"
- "Rag
Doll" and "Angel" land Aerosmith on the Billboard Charts with "Angel" peaking
at #3, tying with "Dream On's" 1976 re-released as their highest charting
single
1989
- September
- Pump, their 10th studio album reaches # 5 on the charts and goes Multi-Platinum
- September
- Aerosmith receive MTV Awards Nomination for Best Heavy Metal Video -
"Rag Doll"
- The
Making Of Pump - longform video is released
-
Things That Go'Pump' In The Night - is released
1990
- Aerosmith
takes a well-deserved break and begins writing new material for the next
album
- "What
It Takes" hits #9 on the Charts
- August
- Donnington Park, England - Aerosmith is joined by longtime hero Jimmy
Page to jam with them onstage for "Train Kept a' Rollin'", an old Yardbirds
classic which Aerosmith had covered in the Seventies.
- Aerosmith
plays a 'secret' gig at London's Marquee club. Jimmy Page joins them onstage
for 6 songs
- September
- Aerosmith receives two MTV Music Awards for:
-
Best Metal
/ Hard Rock Video - "Janie's Got A Gun"
-
Viewers
Choice Award - "Janie's Got A Gun"
1991
- Aerosmith
inks a new record deal with Sony Music
- Aerosmith
receives a Grammy for "Janie's Got A Gun"
- "Pandora's
Box", a 3 CD Box Set, is released
- Aerosmith
makes an appearance on "The Simpsons"
- Aerosmith
are inducted into The Boston Garden Hall of Fame
- September
- Aerosmith wins MTV Music Awards:
Best
Metal / Hard Rock Video - "The Other Side"
1992
- Aerosmith
wins, "Outstanding Rock Band" and "Best Rock Video" at the Boston Music
Awards
- In
the fight against censorship, Aerosmith gives $10,000 to the List Visual
Arts Center at MIT in Boston, to fund a sexually explicit exhibition of
photographs and sculptures for which the National Endowment For The Arts
had pulled support
- Aerosmith
shoots the "Rock The Vote" video for a massive, national TV campaign encouraging
America's youth to vote in the Presidential elections
1993
- Get
A Grip is released, shooting to #1 on the charts and selling over 5 million
copies
- September
- Aerosmith plays Long Island's Jones Beach Theater and New York's Madison
Square Garden, inspiring Newsday's Ira Robbins to write:
"Whatever it is that fuels Aerosmith's unforgettable fire after all these
years (carrot juice? pasta? Milk of Magnesia?) must have been plentifully
stocked backstage. The band's live sets at the time were only building
more momentum as their new lifestyles fired them into a natural oblivion
on stage."
- Sony/Columbia
reissues all twelve of the band's Columbia releases in Box of Fire box
set
- Aerosmith
wins MTV Music Awards:
Viewer's
Choice Award for "Livin' On The Edge"
- The
band scores Billboard hits with "Livin' On The Edge", "Cryin'", "Crazy",
and "Amazing", putting the band back in its rightful place as one of the
most popular bands in the world.
1994
- August
- Aerosmith gives a stunning performance at Woodstock '94 headlining Saturday
nights' show, which also featured Metallica, Blind Mellon and Nine Inch
Nails, in a torrential downpour that was followed by a spectacular fireworks
display.
- 'Get
A Grip' World Tour steamrolls through North America, Canada, Europe, and
Japan
- Aerosmith
performs "Livin' on The Edge" at the Grammy Awards with the song winning
"Best Performance by a Duo or a Group"
- Aerosmith
wins three MTV Music Awards:
-
#1 All
Time Favorite Video as voted by MTV viewers - "Cryin'"
-
Best Video
- "Cryin'"
-
Best Group
Video - "Cryin'"
-
Viewer's
Choice Award - "Cryin'"
- Aerosmith
honored at "People's Choice Awards"
- Aerosmith
honored at American Music Awards
- Aerosmith
stars in their own video arcade game, Revolution X
- Aerosmith
tours Latin America for the first time, headlining the Hollywood Rocks
Festival in Rio in addition to playing their own stadium shows in Argentina
1995-96
- Aerosmith
win their Third Grammy at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards for "Best Performance
By A Duo or Group with Vocal" - "Crazy"
"The thing that really stands out in my mind about Aerosmith is that we're
still fucking together. Whatever we've done together and whatever we've
become, is second to the fact that we're still doing this. I'm still in
love with these guys. I'm not saying it didn't take a lot of work because
drugs will take you and pull you apart. But it wasn't anything we shot
up or put up our noses that gave us the edge- it was Joe Perry's fuck-all,
being as abrasive as that motherfucker is, and Brad Whitford's ear, Tom
Hamilton's well-aimed simplicity and Joey Kramer's solid bed of backbeat.
Keeping this band together has been the hardest and happiest thing we've
done in our lives. It's been a long time coming. So for all the music and
all the other stuff that comes from Aerosmith, the most amazing thing is
that we're still playing and still having some fucking fun."
