Steven Victor Tallarico (born March 26, 1948), known professionally as Steven Tyler, is an American singer and songwriter. Tyler is best known as the lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the keyboards, harmonica, and percussion. He has been called the "Demon of Screamin'" due to his powerful high screams and his wide vocal range. He is also known for his on-stage acrobatics. During live performances, Tyler is known for dressing in colorful, sometimes androgynous outfits and makeup with his trademark scarves hanging from his microphone stand.
In the 1970s, Tyler rose to prominence as the lead singer of Aerosmith, which released such hard rock albums as Toys in the Attic and Rocks as well as a string of hit singles, including "Dream On", "Sweet Emotion" and "Walk This Way". By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tyler had become addicted to drugs and alcohol, and the band's popularity waned. In 1986, Tyler completed drug rehabilitation and Aerosmith rose to prominence again when Tyler and Joe Perry joined Run-DMC for a re-make of "Walk This Way", which became a Top 5 hit. Aerosmith subsequently launched a comeback, and its multi-platinum albums Permanent Vacation, Pump, Get a Grip and Nine Lives produced a combined thirteen Top 40 singles and won the band numerous awards. In 2016, Tyler released his debut solo album, We're All Somebody from Somewhere, a country rock album that included the single "Love Is Your Name".
Tyler is included in Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest singers of all time. In 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Aerosmith, In 2013, Tyler and his songwriting partner Joe Perry received the ASCAP Founders Award and were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Steven Victor Tallarico was born on March 26, 1948, at the Stuyvesant Polyclinic in East Village, Manhattan, New York, and moved to the Bronx when he was three years old. The family relocated to 100 Pembrook Drive in Northeast Yonkers in 1957 when he was about nine years old. Tallarico is the son of Susan Ray (née Blancha; June 2, 1925 – July 4, 2008), a secretary, and Victor A. Tallarico (May 14, 1916 – September 10, 2011), a classical musician and pianist who taught music at Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx.
Tyler's father was of Italian and German descent, while his mother was of Polish, English and African-American ancestry. He has claimed on a number of occasions that his maternal grandfather was Ukrainian, and changed his surname from "Czarnyszewicz" (from Polish: czarny, lit. 'black') to "Blancha" (possibly from French: blanche, lit. 'white'). Genealogist Megan Smolenyak established that Steven Tyler's grandfather was Polish, born Felix Czarnyszewicz in 1892 in Klichaw, in today's Belarus. In 1914 he emigrated to the US and changed his surname to Blancha. There he married Bessie Elliott, with whom he had four children, including Steven's mother Susan. Felix's brother was Florian Czarnyszewicz, a well-known Polish writer who emigrated to Argentina. Florian Czarnyszewicz is best known for his novel Nadberezeńcy which describes the fate of Poles living in the lands between the Berezina and Dnieper rivers between 1911 and 1920.
His paternal grandfather, Giovanni Tallarico, was from Cotronei, Calabria, Italy. Tyler learned on the genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? that his maternal great-great-great-grandfather Robert Elliot was part African-American and part European-American. Steven has one older sister named Lynda.
Tyler attended Roosevelt High School on Tuckahoe Road in Yonkers, New York, which was about a mile from his house, but was expelled from the school just before graduation due to marijuana use. He later graduated from Quintano School for Young Professionals.
At 17, Tyler spent time in Greenwich Village, New York, the highlight of which was seeing a Rolling Stones concert. Tyler states that he and his friends "hung around for a while, buzzing like crazy just because we got to touch them." He added, "Everybody told me that I looked just like Mick Jagger with my big lips and Keith Richards basically was the music I used to love more than anything." A photo in the band's autobiography Walk This Way shows Tyler standing behind Mick Jagger outside a hotel.
During this period, Tyler sang backing vocals on The Left Banke Too, the second album by baroque pop group the Left Banke.
In 1964, Tyler formed a band called the Strangeurs—later Chain Reaction—in Yonkers, New York.
Formation and success of Aerosmith (1970–1978)
Before forming Aerosmith, Tyler wrote what would become one of Aerosmith's signature songs, "Dream On". In 1969, Tyler attended a local rock show in Sunapee, New Hampshire. While there, he saw future bandmates Joe Perry (guitars) and Tom Hamilton (bass) playing in a band called the Jam Band. Tyler later stated he was struck by their raw power and attitude.
Around 1970, Tyler, Perry and Hamilton decided to form a band. Tyler, who had played drums in many of his previous bands while in school, insisted that he would be the frontman and lead singer. Joey Kramer, an old acquaintance of Tyler's from New York, was recruited to play the drums. Driven by a collective ambition to launch their careers as full-time musicians and hopeful recording artists, the band moved to the Boston area.
The band moved into a home together at 1325 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, where they wrote and rehearsed music together and relaxed in between shows. The members of the band reportedly spent afternoons getting high and watching Three Stooges reruns. One day, they met to try to come up with a name. Kramer said that, when he was in school, he would write the word "aerosmith" all over his notebooks. The name had popped into his head after listening to Harry Nilsson's album Aerial Ballet, which featured jacket art of a circus performer jumping out of a biplane. Initially, Kramer's bandmates were unimpressed; they all thought he was referring to the Sinclair Lewis novel they were required to read in high school English class. "No, not Arrowsmith," Kramer explained. "A-E-R-O...Aerosmith." The band settled upon this name after also considering "the Hookers" and "Spike Jones". At some point prior to the weekend of December 25, 1971, they were known as "Fox Chase".
Soon, the band hired Ray Tabano, a childhood friend of Tyler, as rhythm guitarist and began playing local shows. Aerosmith played their first gig in Mendon, Massachusetts at Nipmuc Regional High School (now Miscoe Hill Middle School) on November 6, 1970. In 1971, Tabano was replaced by Brad Whitford, who also attended the Berklee School of Music, and was formerly a member of the band Earth Inc. Whitford, from Reading, Massachusetts, had played at Reading's AW Coolidge Middle School. Other than a period from July 1979 to April 1984, the line-up of Tyler, Perry, Hamilton, Kramer, and Whitford has stayed the same.
Aerosmith signed with Columbia in mid-1972 for a reported $125,000 and recorded their debut album, Aerosmith. Released in January 1973, the album peaked at number 166. The album was straightforward rock and roll with well-defined blues influences, laying the groundwork for Aerosmith's signature blues rock sound. Although the highest-charting single from the album was "Dream On" at number 59, several tracks, such as "Mama Kin" and "Walkin' the Dog", would become staples of the band's live shows, and received airplay on rock radio. The album reached gold status initially, eventually went on to sell two million copies, and was certified double platinum after the band reached mainstream success over a decade later. After constant touring, the band released their second album, Get Your Wings in 1974, the first of a string of multi-platinum albums produced by Jack Douglas. This album included the rock radio hits "Same Old Song and Dance" and "Train Kept A-Rollin'", a cover done previously by the Yardbirds.
In 1975, Aerosmith released their third album, Toys in the Attic. Similarly to fellow Leber-Krebs act New York Dolls, Aerosmith had been derided by music critics as Rolling Stones knockoffs, in part due to the physical resemblance between Tyler and Mick Jagger, Toys in the Attic showed that Aerosmith was a unique and talented band in their own right. Toys in the Attic was an immediate success, starting with the single "Sweet Emotion", which became the band's first Top 40 hit. This was followed by a successful re-release of "Dream On" which hit No. 6, becoming their best charting single of the 1970s. "Walk This Way", re-released in 1976, reached the Top 10 in early 1977.