07/21/2026
In a dressing room mirror in Boston in the early 1970s, the reflection shows a very thin boy with an oversized mouth and a cascade of dark hair. His name is Steven Victor Tallarico, but for everyone he is becoming Steven Tyler. Together with guitarist Joe Perry, he founded Aerosmith, with a clear goal: to take the smoky blues of the Rolling Stones and inject it with the thundering power of American rock.
To stand out from anyone else, Steven invents a unique visual trademark: he begins tying dozens of colorful scarves around the shaft of his microphone. On stage, he never stands still; he moves with the elasticity of an acrobat and the sensuality of a decadent dandy. But the real magic lies in his vocal cords. Tyler has an extraordinary range and an innate ability to scratch out the high notes, alternating a rough voice with superhuman screams, the famous screams that would make rock history.
In 1973, the band releases its self-titled debut album. Inside is a ballad Steven had composed years earlier on the piano in the basement of his parents’ house: Dream On. It is the song that changes everything. The song builds slowly until it explodes in a finale in which Tyler unleashes an acutely high, desperate, and powerful scream that sets the standard for all power ballads to come.
Success becomes overwhelming in the middle of the decade with albums such as Toys in the Attic and Rocks. Songs like Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion redefine American hard rock. However, the dizzying rise brings destructive excess with it. Tyler and Perry are nicknamed the Toxic Twins because of their excessive use of all kinds of substances. The 1980s begin in the worst possible way: the band falls apart, the records stop selling, and Steven collapses on stage during concerts.
The comeback, in the mid-1980s, is miraculous. After a period of detoxification, the band reunites in the studio with the rap group Run-D. M. C. To record a new version of Walk This Way. It is the first historic crossover between rock and hip-hop: the video, in which Run-D. M. C. Literally knocks down the wall separating them from Tyler and Perry, becomes the symbol of a second artistic youth.
Aerosmith returns to the top of the world, racking up global hits throughout the 1990s with albums such as Pump and Get a Grip, accompanied by iconic music videos that also feature Steven’s daughter, actress Liv Tyler. In 1998, they reach number one on the American chart with I Don't Want to Miss a Thing, the soundtrack to the film Armageddon. Through spectacular falls, commercial rebirths, and a voice that has defied the laws of time, the boy from Boston has become the living, excessive, and immortal embodiment of the rock 'n' roll frontman.
