Steven Tyler: an upright piano, Dream On and Walk This Way | Highway to Hell

Why fans still care

STEVEN TYLER wrote Dream On and sang Walk This Way, Sweet Emotion and I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing. Dream On and I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing have both passed a billion plays on Spotify. Walk This Way is the song Aerosmith played live more than any other, and in 1986 it crossed rock over to hip hop with Run-DMC.

Early life

He was born Steven Victor Tallarico in New York City on 26 March 1948. In the mid-1960s he sang in a band called the Strangeurs, later Chain Reaction. His first recording was backing vocals on the Left Banke’s The Left Banke Too.

Career chapters

1. Mid-1960sthe Strangeurs, later Chain Reaction
2. 1970Aerosmith forms
3. 1973Dream On, the first single
4. 1975Toys in the Attic, with Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion
5. 1976Dream On reissued, and Rocks
6. 1986Walk This Way with Run-DMC
7. 1989 and 1993Pump and Get a Grip
8. 1998I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing goes to number one
9. 2001Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
10. 2003inducts AC/DC into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
11. 2013Songwriters Hall of Fame, with Joe Perry
12. 2024Aerosmith retire from touring
13. 2025One More Time, with Yungblud

Dream On and the 1970s 1970 to 1979

Aerosmith formed in 1970, with Tyler singing and Joe Perry, Who’s Who number 22, on guitar. Dream On came out as a single on 27 June 1973 and peaked at number 59. Reissued in 1976, it reached number 6. Toys in the Attic brought Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion and is now 9x Platinum in the US. Rocks reached number 3 in 1976.

Walk This Way, again 1986

Producer Rick Rubin suggested Run-DMC cover Walk This Way in full, and brought Tyler and Perry in to play on it. Accounts differ on how keen Run-DMC were at first. Their version reached number 4 on the Hot 100 and put Aerosmith back in front of a new audience.

Pump to Armageddon 1989 to 1998

Pump and Get a Grip both went 7x Platinum in the US. Janie’s Got a Gun won a Grammy. In 1998 I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing, written by Diane Warren for Armageddon, debuted at number one on the Hot 100 and stayed there for four weeks in September. It was Aerosmith’s only number one single.

Halls of Fame and an AC/DC night 2001 to 2013

On 19 March 2001, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, Kid Rock inducted Aerosmith into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Two years later Tyler did the same for AC/DC. Malcolm Young, Who’s Who number 28, said Tyler’s name “sprung to mind straight away” when the band was picking who should induct them. In 2013 Tyler and Perry went into the Songwriters Hall of Fame together.

Later years 2011 to 2026

He judged American Idol for two seasons, from January 2011 to 2012. Aerosmith retired from touring in August 2024. In November 2025 he released One More Time, a five-track EP with Yungblud. Aerosmith were billed for two Hollywood Bowl shows, “California, Dream On: Aerosmith & Friends”, on 29 October and 1 November 2026 (Los Angeles time), with a line-up that varies by night. Announced guests included Run-DMC, Heart, Slash and Duff McKagan, Who’s Who number 3.

Craft, sound and style

Piano first

He writes on the piano. Dream On began on an upright in his parents’ living room at Trow-Rico Lodge in New Hampshire. “I play in the key of C, F, F minor,” he told Songfacts.

The high notes

Vocal therapist Mark Baxter told Boston Magazine in 2006 that a larynx as large as Tyler’s normally means a low range. That is why he strains for the very high Cs and Ds he reaches.

Songwriting with Perry

Tyler and Perry are Aerosmith’s songwriting partners, long known as the Toxic Twins. They produced Music from Another Dimension! together and went into the Songwriters Hall of Fame as a pair in 2013.

Heard in other songs

Producer Daniel Lanois says he borrowed the Dream On piano technique for Mariah Carey’s My All.

Stories people still tell

1. Picking AC/DC’s inductor.

   When AC/DC went into the Rock Hall in 2003, Malcolm Young said Tyler was the first name they thought of.

2. A kid who wanted to do everything.

   Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC remembers Tyler in the 1986 session as “like this kid who wanted to do everything.”

Legacy

Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits is 12x Platinum in the US. Walk This Way, Dream On and Sweet Emotion have each been played at more than 1,700 Aerosmith shows, according to setlist.fm. Producers still borrow from his piano writing, and Yungblud has called the two of them “from the same … planet”.