Tyler Recalls, Tyler Remembers

Tyler recalls how he worshipped the Rolling Stones during the mid 1960s. People kept telling him that he looked like Mick Jagger (with his big lips), and Keith Richards was the music he loved the most. When the Stones came to play a concert in New York in May 1965, Tyler and his friends schemed to get close to the band, waiting outside the hotel for the limo to pull up. When it did, Bill Jones, Mick Jagger, and Bill Wyman emerged. A friend aimed his Polaroid camera as Tyler tried to get close to Jagger. Girls started screaming and people started shoving, but the Rolling Stones stopped to sign a few autographs in the midst of the chaos. Tyler recalls in Aerosmith’s autobiography, “We hung around for a while, buzzing, like crazy just because we got to touch them!” Today, the members of Aerosmith are the ones dealing with screaming fans when they pull up to their hotels. Tyler remembers what it was like to be a fan and treats his fans accordingly, signing autographs when asked and taking the time to talk to people he meets.

Letting Customers Get Close to You Aerosmith values its relationship with fans and looks for ways to let them get closer to the band. But that’s easier said than sung. In addition to making the web site sing with stories from the concert road, insights on band members, photos that can be downloaded, and fan club only information, Aerosmith finds ways to get close to fans physically. When fans make contact, they spread stories like wildfire and generate even more interest in the band.

Lyndon Johnson may have made pressing the flesh-meeting people and shaking hands-commonplace, but in the rock and roll world, Aerosmith is one of the bands that has perfected it. When other bands of its stature choose not to deal with fans one on one, Aerosmith still does old fashioned meet and greets. The fans who are lucky enough to get backstage, usually by winning a radio contest, get their pictures taken with the band and have the chance to get something autographed, from album covers to various body parts.