Aerosmith Band Members: A Look Back

With iconic hits such as “Dream On,” “Crazy” and “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” rock band Aerosmith taught us how to “Walk This Way” and encouraged fans to belt out their iconic rock anthems in the same unique style frontman Steven Tyler did. On August 2, though, the group’s “Sweet Emotion” turned bittersweet as they announced they were ending their Peace Out farewell tour due to Tyler’s ongoing vocal chord struggles and fractured larynx. 

“We’ve always wanted to blow your mind when performing,” the band promised in a statement, but without Tyler’s trademark voice — which they called “an instrument like no other” — they were forced to make the “heartbreaking and difficult, but necessary, decision…to retire from the touring stage.”

The “band of brothers,” as Tyler, Joe Perry, Joey Kramer, Brad Whitford and Tom Hamilton have called themselves, thanked their faithful followers for their support, adding one final request: “Play our music loud, now and always. Dream On,” they wrote to those they call “the best fans on Planet Earth.”

To celebrate the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame icons’ Grammy-winning career, we take a look at the members who’ve proven that they had “What It Takes” to rock fans’ faces for six decades. 

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Lead singer Steven Tyler

The charismatic lead singer, 76, is one of the band’s founding members, along with lead guitarist Joe Perry, bassist Hamilton, guitarist Ray Tabano (replaced by Whitford in 1971), and drummer Joey Kramer. The son of a New York-based classical musician, Tyler was drawn to the arts from a young age, and he played in a string of bands throughout his youth before launching Aerosmith in 1970 after he moved to Boston, Massechussetts. He’s also battled drug and alcohol addictions through several stints in rehab. “What happens with using is: It works in the beginning, but it doesn’t work in the end. It takes you down. There’s nothing but jail, insanity, or death,” he told GQ of overcoming his struggles. 

The father of four (he’s dad to model-actors Liv and Mia Tyler, musician Chelsea and son Taj) served as an American Idol judge for two seasons, and he’s also used his voice for good outside of the entertainment world: In 2015, he co-founded Janie’s Fund (inspired by Aerosmith’s 1989 hit “Janie’s Got a Gun”) “to support girls who have been abused and neglected,” as he notes in a video on the fund’s site. “As a father and grandfather, I want to focus my energy on things that really matter and leave behind something else in this crazy world along with my music,” the rocker has said of the initiative.

Guitarist Joe Perry

Massachusetts native Joe Perry, another co-founder, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame along with Tyler in 2013. Perry’s guitar skills have landed him on several “greatest of all time” lists, and he’s also enjoyed long-standing success as a solo artist, as well as with The Joe Perry Project and the supergroup Hollywood Vampires, which he started in 2012 with Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp. 

“At my age, the calendar gets shorter. But if it’s in your blood there's nothing else that you want to do,” Perry, 73, told Rock Candy about his love of performing. While not touring, he’s composed the theme to an animated Spiderman series, and he’s even dabbled in acting, appearing on Homicide: Life on the Street and on the big screen in Wayne’s World 2. Perry has four sons: Adrian, with first wife Elyssa Jerret, and Tony, Roman, and stepson Aaron with current wife Billie Paulette Montgomery.

Guitarist Brad Whitford

This Berklee College of Music alum’s guitar skills have often been overlooked in the shadow of Perry’s, which has led to some frustrations for the musician. But as Whitford, 72, told Guitar World last year, “the people who actually listen – and know what they’re talking about” appreciate his talents. And though his time in the band came with its ups and downs, “standing next to Joe Perry pounding out songs all afternoon [makes me] as happy as a clam,” insists the rocker, who’s branched out with his Whitford/St. Holmes project with vocalist Derek St. Holmes. 

He’s also played in The Joe Perry Project on the road and produced for other artists. “There’s more appreciation for the higher powers as we go along, because it’s truly a miracle that we’re still here doing this,” he said as Aerosmith headed into their now-canceled 2024 farewell tour, adding, “We still have so much love and respect for each other. That’s something that will forever be frozen in time.” Whitford and his wife Kimberly have a son, Graham.

Bassist Tom Hamilton

Performing with Aerosmith has been a valuable lifeline for the group’s bassist, who has twice beaten throat cancer. “I start to realize that I’m so used to being out on the road that sometimes being at home I feel like I don’t do it right,” he told Digital Journal of the breaks the band would take through the years. “I do get itchy to get back out here, especially knowing that there’s a lot of people…waiting for us to come back. That’s something that’s a joy for us.” 

Hamilton, the known comedian of the band, announced through social media last year that he’d played on some tracks for an addiction-themed project called Rock Bottom, the Rock Opera. Now 72, he and wife Terry Cohen have two sons, Julian and Sage.

Drummer Joey Kramer

Another former Berklee College of Music student, Kramer is Aerosmith’s original drummer, though he took a break from the band he’s credited with naming in 2022 to spend time with his family ahead of his wife’s Linda’s death that June. As he dealt with his own reported health issues, Kramer was replaced at Aerosmith’s Deuces Are Wild Vegas residency and for their now halted 2024 farewell tour by John Douglas. Mixing his love for music and caffeine, the “KrameDog,” 74, founded his organic Rockin’ & Roastin’ Coffee line in 2013. 

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