The Members of Aerosmith: Then and Now

Aerosmith’s staying power is nothing short of “Amazing.”

The rock band, made up of Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer, was formed in Boston in 1970 and has since become one of the best-selling rock groups of all time. Aerosmith has sold over 150 million records during its five decades together.

Aerosmith has released 15 studio albums, starting with its eponymous debut album in 1973. Twelve albums have gone multi-platinum, including 1989’s Pump and 1993’s Get a Grip. Their hits have included “Cryin’,” “Dream On,” “Sweet Emotion” and the Armageddon soundtrack’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing" — with the majority of their songs written by “Toxic Twins” Tyler and Perry.

Over the years, internal struggles led to a few lineup changes. Perry left the band in 1979, followed by Whitford the next year, but the band restored the original lineup in 1984. After a rough few years, Aerosmith staged a comeback with a collaboration with Run-DMC on “Walk This Way.” In 2020, Whitford told PEOPLE, “things would have been different” if they never made that rap-rock mash-up. “We just had no way of knowing. Then it caught fire, and it was huge,” he said.

Aerosmith won four Grammys between 1990 and 1999 for "Janie's Got a Gun," "Livin' on the Edge," "Crazy" and "Pink." They joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, and Tyler and Perry were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013.

In May 2023, Aerosmith announced they would embark on a 40-date farewell tour, albeit without Kramer. "After 50 years, 10 world tours and playing for over 100 million fans, it's time for one last go," the group said in a press release. "It's not goodbye it's PEACE OUT!”

However, the rock band only played three shows before postponing the tour due to Tyler's vocal cord damage.

Here's a look into the lives of the members of Aerosmith, then and now.

Steven Tyler, 75

Frontman Steven Tyler was born Steven Victor Tallarico on March 26, 1948, in New York City. He grew up in nearby Yonkers, New York, and attended Roosevelt High School. Tyler formed Aerosmith in 1970 with Hamilton, Kramer, Ray Tabano and Perry, with whom he writes the majority of Aerosmith’s songs. The singer, who is known as the “Demon of Screamin’ ” due to his high vocal range, is also the founder of Dirico Motorcycles and the nonprofit Janie’s Fund.

Tyler has four children and five grandchildren. His oldest daughter, actress Liv Tyler, was born in 1977 to model Bebe Buell. (Growing up, Liv was told that her father was her mother's partner at the time, Todd Rundgren.) Tyler also shares daughter Mia Tyler with the late model Cyrinda Foxe, whom he was married to from 1978 to 1987.

He also has two children, daughter Chelsea Tyler and son Taj Tallarico, with designer Teresa Barrick, to whom he was wed from 1988 to 2006. The “Crazy” singer was engaged to Erin Brady from 2011 to 2013 and has been in a relationship with his former assistant, Aimee Preston, since at least 2016.

Aerosmith began a Las Vegas residency called Deuces Are Wild in 2019, but shows were canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The band resumed performances in early 2022 but later canceled their summer dates when Tyler checked into rehab after relapsing following foot surgery.

The Aerosmith frontman has been open about his struggles with addiction, and his bandmates even staged an intervention in 1988. "I have had many times in my life where I just couldn’t handle — whether it was a marriage or my addiction had reared its ugly head — and the rest of the guys in the band are not unlike that,” he told Haute Living in 2019. “But we have all seen each other through it, and we are here today.”

Aerosmith resumed their Vegas residency in September 2022. It wrapped in late November after canceling the remainder of the shows on the advice of Tyler’s doctor.

Joe Perry, 73

Born Joseph Anthony Pereira in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on Sept. 10, 1950, Perry is a founding member of Aerosmith and part of the “Toxic Twins” songwriting duo with Tyler. While he originally hoped to become a marine biologist, he learned to play guitar at age 10 and became excited about starting a band while attending a boarding school in Vermont.

Before Aerosmith, Perry was in the Jam Band with Tom Hamilton. After a major fight in Cleveland in 1979, the musician left Aerosmith and formed the Joe Perry Project, but he rejoined the group in 1984. Outside of Aerosmith, Perry has released four solo albums since 2005, including 2023’s Sweetzerland Manifesto MKII.

Perry’s first marriage to Elyssa Jerret lasted from 1975 to 1982, and they share one son, Adrian. He married his second wife, Billie, in 1985, and the pair have two sons, Tony and Roman; Perry also has a stepson, Aaron, from Billie’s previous marriage. Perry still lives in Massachusetts and used to sit in with Adrian and Tony’s now-defunct band, Dead Boots. He also has his own line of hot sauce, Joe Perry’s Rock Your World Hot Sauces, and has been a part of Hollywood Vampires, a rock supergroup with Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp, since 2012.

Over the past decade, Perry has dealt with several health issues. He collapsed backstage after a Hollywood Vampires performance in 2016 and again after a guest performance with Billy Joel at N.Y.C.’s Madison Square Garden in 2018.

He also joined the Hollywood Vampires on tour in 2023, although multiple concerts were canceled over the summer.

Brad Whitford, 71

Rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford has been an integral part of Aerosmith since replacing founding member Ray Tabano in 1971. Whitford was born in Winchester, Massachusetts, on Feb. 23, 1952, and studied at Berklee College of Music.

Before joining Aerosmith, he was in local bands like Cymbals of Resistance, Teapot Dome and Justin Thyme. He left Aerosmith in 1981 to create Whitford/St. Holmes with singer Derek St. Holmes and toured with the Joe Perry Project. Whitford rejoined Aerosmith in 1984.

Whitford co-wrote a number of Aerosmith songs, including “Last Child,” “Kings and Queens” and “Round and Round,” and has been lead or co-lead guitar on nearly 50 tunes. He told Goldmine Magazine that he didn’t regret letting his bandmates take the lead in songwriting. “It's just the nature of the way things have gone. I literally got pushed out of the writing circle. I don't consider myself a terribly prolific writer,” he said. “I really can't create a song. It's very difficult to do.”

He has been married to Kimberly Whitford since 2006, and the pair share one child, musician Graham Whitford. The father-son guitarists appeared together on a 2019 episode of American Pickers.

In 2015, Whitford reunited with St. Holmes and Whitford/St. Holmes went on tour the next year. Whitford is still a main member of Aerosmith and is a part of the band’s 2023 Farewell Tour.

Tom Hamilton, 71

Tom Hamilton was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Dec. 31, 1951, as the third of four siblings. His older brother, Scott, taught him how to play guitar when he was a kid. Known primarily as Aerosmith’s bassist, Hamilton has also co-written songs, including “Sweet Emotion” and “Janie’s Got a Gun,” and played guitar on tunes like “Uncle Salty.” He’s also provided vocals to some tracks, like backup on “Love in an Elevator” and lead on “Up on the Mountain.”

Hamilton has been married to wife Terry Cohen since 1975, and the pair share two grown children, Julian and Sage. They live in the Boston area and had a home on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He was also diagnosed with throat cancer twice, undergoing treatment in 2006 and again in 2011.

“I just saw [Dr. Steven Zeitels] the other day and he said, ‘You beat this one. You can keep coming to see me if you want, but I don’t think you need to worry about this cancer coming back,’ ” Hamilton told Long Island Pulse Magazine in 2015. “I said, ‘I’ll come back to see you every six months from here until eternity, if it’s alright with you!' ”

In 2023, Hamilton tweeted that he had been in the studio recording songs for a rock opera, Rock Bottom. One day before Aerosmith announced their Farewell Tour, he wrote that he was “PSYCHED” about the big news.

Joey Kramer, 73

Drummer Joey Kramer was born Joseph Michael Kramer in the Bronx on June 21, 1950. He was a part of the New Jersey garage band the Institution before moving to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music. He is a founding member of Aerosmith and is credited with giving the band its name.

Outside of music, Kramer released a memoir, Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top, in 2009. He also appeared on the 22nd season finale of The Simpsons and has his own organic coffee line, Rockin’ & Roastin’ Coffee.

Kramer lived in New England for 40 years but now calls Austin, Texas, home. He and his second wife, Linda, wed in 2009. Linda died on June 22, 2022, at age 55, three months after Kramer announced he was taking a leave of absence from the band to focus on family.

In January 2020, the musician filed a lawsuit against Aerosmith ahead of the group's Grammys performance, claiming he was unfairly asked to audition for the band following “minor injuries” that rendered him “unable to perform several concerts” during the band’s 2019 Las Vegas residency, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.

A Massachusetts judge ultimately denied Kramer’s request to play with the band at the 2020 Grammys, and Kramer responded in a statement, “Although I’m extremely disappointed by the Judge’s ruling today, I respect it."

Kramer is not a part of Aerosmith’s 2023 Farewell Tour. "While Joey Kramer remains a beloved founding member of Aerosmith, he has regrettably made the decision to sit out the currently scheduled touring dates to focus his full attention on his family and health," the band said. "Joey's unmistakable and legendary presence behind the drum kit will be sorely missed."