Born Stephen Victor Tallarico in New York, New York, in 1948, Steven Tyler came from a musical family.  His father helmed the Vic Tallarico Orchestra and taught music for many years at Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx.  Tyler's own time at high school was far less enjoyable, as he was expelled for drug use from his first school and later graduated Jose Quintano's School for Young Professionals.  After bouncing around through various odd jobs, Tyler decided to try his hand as a professional musician.

Tyler was the lead singer and sometimes drummer for a number of rock bands during the late 1960s.  In 1969, he first met guitarist Joe Perry.  When the two met again a year later in Boston, they decided to form a new band called Aerosmith.  While the contributions of the other band members should never be overlooked, the relationship between Tyler and Perry is the true driving force behind the band, and, ironically enough, it almost led to its destruction.

After experiencing phenomenal success during the 1970s with such albums as "Toys in the Attic," "Rocks," and "Draw the Line," Tyler and Perry fell victim to the drug culture of rock 'n' roll, even earning the nickname the Toxic Twins for their massive consumption of stimulants and heroin.  The wild ways and the emotional strife they caused eventually led to the band breaking up in 1979.  

But Tyler, Perry, and the rest of the boys reunited in 1985, with each member soon completing drug rehab and vowing to stay clean for the good of the band.  Tyler remained as flamboyant a performer as ever, still possessing the raw, shrieking vocals that have made him the Demon of Screamin'.         

Before they became known as "The Bad Boys from Boston" or sold more than 150 million albums, Aerosmith was but a humble group of struggling musicians trying to make their way in the world.  

Aerosmith formed in 1970.  Guitarist Joe Perry and bassist Tom Hamilton were already playing together in a group called the Jam Band when they first met singer Steven Tyler.  Drummer Joey Kramer and guitarist Ray Tabano were also brought on board, and they soon began gaining a loyal following around their hometown of Boston, Massachusetts.      

By the time Aerosmith signed with Columbia Records in 1972, Brad Whitford had replaced Tabano on guitar.  In 1973, Aerosmith released their self-titled debut album, and it barely made a dent on the Billboard charts, peaking at No. 166.  The band's first single was "Dream On," which only made it to No. 59 on the charts.  

The lack of mainstream success did little to dampen the band's enthusiasm, and they toured tirelessly over the next year before releasing "Get Your Wings" in 1974.  While the record produced some modest hits, like "Same Old Song and Dance" and "Train Kept A-Rollin'," Aerosmith didn't truly breakthrough until their third album.  

Released in 1975, "Toys in the Attic" became an instant smash hit, giving the band their first Top 10 hit single with "Sweet Emotion."  Aerosmith has been a household name ever since, enjoying a career that's still going strong more than 30 years later.  

Tom Hamilton has been at the heart of Aerosmith from the very beginning.  Born on the last day of 1951 in Colorado Springs, Colorado,  Hamilton picked up the guitar at age twelve, switching to the bass a few years later because the only band in town needed a bassist.  He soon mastered the new instrument, and after moving to Boston with Joe Perry, met Steven Tyler and set about forming a band that would dominate the music scene for decades.

Hamilton has been one of the most enduring members of the band, and until 2006 never missed a single show.  His contributions to the songwriting side of things have included co-writing credits on "Sweet Emotion", "Jaded", and "Janie's Got A Gun", three of the band's biggest hits.  Like his bandmates, he took the reunion of 1984 as an opportunity to reevaluate his life, and has been clean and sober since the reunion.

Hamilton's first missed show was in 2006, and he had a very good excuse.  He was diagnosed with throat cancer in August of that year, and took a hiatus to undergo a seven week course of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.  David Hull, who had previously collaborated with Joe Perry, stepped in to cover the bass, but Hamilton was given a clean bill of health at the end of the treatment and rejoined the band full time in December.  His bass has remained an integral part of the band's sound since then, with no signs of further health trouble.

Joe Perry was born on September 10, 1950 in Lawrence, Massachusetts.  He was interested in music from a young age, forming The Jam Band with his friend Tom Hamilton in the mid 1960s.  In 1969, Perry met singer Steven Tyler, and invited him to join the duo; the three musicians formed the core of the band that would later be known as Aerosmith.  Although at first compared negatively to the Rolling Stones, the band took off in the early 1970s.

Much like Steven Tyler, Perry found himself a victim of the band's success - he and Tyler earned the nickname "The Toxic Twins" for their drug habits.  Stresses rose within the band, until things came to a head in 1979.  A fight between Perry's wife and Hamilton's wife backstage at a show in Cleveland turned out to be the final sign that things weren't working, and Perry left the band, taking a considerable amount of unreleased songs with him.

For the next five years, Perry worked on The Joe Perry Project, a band he formed (and frequently reformed) with a number of different artists.  A chance encounter with an Aerosmith show in 1984 led to an invitation to rejoin, and the original lineup took to stage and studio once more.  As the band got their act together musically, the artists took steps to become clean and sober, and have remained so ever since.

Perry has remained with the band since its comeback, and has continued to perform guitar, vocal, and songwriting duties.  In 2005, he released his first bonafide solo record, which was self-titled.  His latest non-Aerosmith project is a personal line of hot sauces, entitled Joe Perry's Rock Your World. 

Born Stephen Victor Tallarico on March 26, 1948 in Yonkers, New York, the artist the world would come to know as Steven Tyler was the son of a classical musician and teacher.  He was exposed to a wide variety of music at a young age, and took a liking to blues and the infant genre of rock and roll.  By the mid 1960s, he had performed with a number of bands, and was proficient both as a singer and as a drummer.

In 1969, Tyler met guitarist Joe Perry, and together with bassist Tom Hamilton founded a new band they called Aerosmith.  Their first five albums brought the band considerable success, as gave the world longstanding favorites like "Dream On" and "Walk This Way".  With this success, unfortunately, came excess, and Tyler found himself addicted to both stimulants and heroin.  By the end of the decade, the band collapsed under its own success, and Perry and fellow guitarist Brad Whitford left the band.

Throughout the early 1980s Aerosmith struggled, their troubles multiplied by Tyler's worsening addiction - during a number of concerts he collapsed onstage in the middle of a set.  Perry and Whitford returned in 1984, but it was clear the band needed a change, and they were able to convince Tyler to enter rehab in 1986.  Upon his successful completion of the program the other four members followed suit, and to this day do not drink or use drugs, and do their best to keep a clean crew.

In the decades since the band's return to success and health, Tyler has become something of a pop icon, starring in commercials and becoming a media figure outside of the band.  In addition to the band's studio albums, he has worked on a number of collaborations and side projects over the years.