Seventies Rolling Stones copyists whose career was revived when they guested on a 1986 hit remake of their funky-rock oldie “Walk This Way” by hip-hop pioneers Run-D.M.C. The song helped Run-D.M.C. (and rap generally) cross over to a white audience and introduced Aerosmith to a new generation of record buyers.
Reinvigorated, the band, led by ageless, rubber-limbed singer Steven Tyler (b. Steven Tallarico, 1948), cranked out a string of polished, lascivious hits (among them 1989′s “Love in an Elevator,” “Dude [Looks Like a Lady]“) that put them squarely back on the charts and MTV.
Even as the ’90s Aerosmith has grown stale and formulaic, the band has continued to dominate the channel, particularly with a trio of clips (“Crazy,” “Amazin’,” and “Cryin’”–memorably satirized by Saturday Night Live’s Adam Sandler) that showcased video nymphet Alicia Silverstone (and, in “Crazy,” singer Steven Tyler’s toothsome daughter, Liv).
Rumors of breakups and heroin recidivism abounded during the recording of Aerosmith’s first album under a 1991 megadeal with Sony subsidiary Columbia Records, and sessions with Alanis Morissette producer Glen Ballard were scrapped. Steven Tyler described Sony’s reaction to the initial tapes in Entertainment Weekly: “This isn’t the Aerosmith we spent $48 million on!” The final product, titled Nine Lives, was by-the-book Aerosmith.