If you heard the name Stephen Victor Tallarico, you probably wouldn’t realize that you had just heard the name of one of America’s top rock band icons and sex symbols.  Tallarico is the real name of Steven Tyler, Aerosmith’s frontman and lead singer for the last 38 years the band has been performing and recording.

Like many other rock icons and major celebrities, Tyler has ridden through his share of sex and drug scandals as he toured the country with his band and helped them win the record for the most platinum and gold selling albums in America.  However, unlike many of those same celebrities, Tyler has pulled through the addictions he fought since his youth, where he was expelled from Roosevelt High School in Yonkers, New York, for his drug use, and succeeded in keeping his band together to become one of, if not the most successful hard rock band in the history of the United States.

Born March 26, 1948, in New York City, Tyler has a diverse and rich heritage from both parents:  his paternal grandfather was born in Italy, and from his maternal line he received Cherokee Native American and Ukrainian blood.  Tyler grew up in New York and graduated from Jose Quintano’s School for the Young Professionals.  

Tyler was influenced from a young age by music, as his father was a classical musician and taught music at the Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx.  

In 1969, Tyler met Joe Perry in New Hampshire, who would later become Aerosmith’s guitarist.  Through the next year, the two men met up with Tom Hamilton, Ray Tabano and Joey Kramer to form the band.  

Throughout the band’s career, Tyler endangered its existence by his serious drug and alcohol addictions, collapsing on stage several times during the 80s.  After breaking up once and then reuniting, the rest of the band convinced Tyler to book himself into a rehabilitation center.  Tyler did and has been clean for the last 20 years.  

Tyler is the father of supermodel and actress Liv Tyler.