Steven Tyler's Transformation Is Turning Heads

This article contains references to drug use, addiction, abortion, and child abuse. 

Having spent a lifetime as the debauched harlequin at the forefront of Aerosmith, rock's loudest mouthpiece may have finally mellowed in his golden years. As a result, Steven Tyler's transformation is turning heads, but just how did he get that to point? The rock legend has undergone a fair amount of evolution in his life, with his style, music, and even professional trajectory changing course at various milestones. 

Sartorially, the "Sweet Emotion" singer has a colorful history with pushing against gender norms. In his autobiography, "Does the Noise In My Head Bother You?", he even expressed that he identifies with "the stronger of the species" just as much as he does being male, describing his gender identity as being half male, half female. However, his style choices have also leaned toward a libertine romanticism — something potentially picked up from his childhood. 

According to Rolling Stone, the former "American Idol" judge was raised in Yonkers, New York, where his pianist father helped him to appreciate the work of romantic classical composers including Chopin, Bach, and Beethoven. Crucially, Tyler explained that before rock and roll, he "cut [his] teeth on" playing drums to accompany his father's tame "society music" performances. Something which led to a crucial realization for the young star — he wanted to impress girls, and this wasn't cutting it. He explained, "Girls would come in, look at the band and go, 'Ugh!' Roll their eyes," he said.

Thus began Tyler's first transformation.

Aerosmith began the band's impressive ascent in Boston at the beginning of the '70s, and with it, Steven Tyler's style transformation was in its infancy. Primarily influenced by British culture, such as the structured flamboyance of "Mod English [and] Carnaby Street" styles, Tyler was "made fun of" for his look, but he didn't care. By 1971, he was having "over-the-top" looks tailor-made for him, prompting Joe Perry to regularly ask, "That looks great. Do they make that for men?" as Tyler recalled to WWD.

In 1970, Aerosmith played their first gig at a Boston High School, with Tyler wearing a school basketball shirt he'd swiped from the locker room. The Boston Globe recalled that the band wasn't "particularly memorable," though "they were getting pretty good." By the time the band had signed to a major label and released their first two albums — in 1972 and 1974, respectively — the music press was salivating over the coarse promise of the band. 

In their review of Aerosmith's second album, "Get Your Wings," for instance, Rolling Stone described the band's sound as "an agile balance between Yardbirds- and Who-styled rock and Seventies heavy metal" which "surge[d] with pent-up fury," but not too much. In Tyler, they saw an artist with raw power and a vocal "whose discipline is evident no matter how he shrieks, growls, or spits out the lyrics." And with that, a rock star was born. 

It was during his time of performative excess that Steven Tyler found himself in a taboo relationship with 16-year-old groupie Julia Holcomb. According to Tyler's autobiography, "Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?", he "fell madly in love" with the teenager, whom he described as "a cute skinny little tomboy dressed up as Little Bo Peep." Holcomb wrote of the romance less affectionately in an essay for Life Site, where she suggested her relationship with the 27-year-old rock star began at a vulnerable time for her, following a series of family traumas.

Holcomb explained that while she was still a minor, Tyler received guardianship of the teenager after her mom "signed the papers" so that she "could travel across state lines" with the Aerosmith frontman while he toured. "I became lost in a rock and roll culture," she wrote. "...I didn't know it yet, but I would barely make it out alive." The two planned to start a family together, but at five months pregnant, Holcomb alleged that Tyler pushed for her to get an abortion — she's since become a pro-life spokesperson. 

In the band's "Walk This Way" autobiography, Tyler also expressed heartache at the shared experience, which he suggested was a mutual decision with the band. "I was pretty devastated. In my mind, I'm going, Jesus, what have I done?" Tyler recalled. After three years, the two ended their relationship, and by 1978, Tyler was married to Warhol Superstar Cyrinda Foxe, with whom he had a daughter, Mia.

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According to The Washington Post's oral history of '80s mega-hit "Walk This Way," Aerosmith's manager Tim Collins credited the Run-DMC collaboration as being "part of what gave Steven [Tyler] the incentive to get sober." As described by the Post, the hip-hop trio — then one of the biggest acts of their kind — wasn't exactly thrilled at the potential to record with a "down-and-out arena-rock group" that was clearly "struggling with drugs and low record sales." But luckily for everyone, they made it work.

The track peaked at number 4 on Billboard's top ten. But as The Guardian wrote of the hit, it more importantly left a legacy of "worlds colliding, and walls tumbling down," creating an influential genre mash-up which also lent the now washed-up rock act some much needed kudos. The song introduced Aerosmith to a new audience — one that they'd cater to as the band stormed the '90s. 

Meanwhile, Tyler was entering a new phase in his personal life. In 1987, the singer separated from wife Cyrinda Foxe, telling OWN that he "abandoned" her and their 9-year-old daughter by walking out on them both. "I know what I did regardless of whether I was on drugs a lot," he said, adding, "A piece of me, my heart's still broken that I did that to her." He moved on quickly enough and married Teresa Barrick in 1988.

In 1998, Steven Tyler doubled down on his love for daughter-dedicated power ballads with the "Armageddon" tie-in tune, "I Don't Want To Miss a Thing." As The Ringer put it, the "thundering and majestic ... intergalactic slow dance" at the heart of the Liv Tyler flick helped to bring an emotional core to what was "the ultimate Boy Movie." It also helped to reconfigure Steven's reputation for being the prince of machismo and sexual excess. Instead, the song re-announced him as an artist whose sole focus was on sensitivity, string sections, and love. 

Naturally, the mainstream ate it up. So much so that in 2001, Aerosmith shared a headline slot with *NSYNC at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. As Entertainment Weekly put it in their retrospective of the show, "the song about loving your daughter so much you want to punch meteors with your America-shaped fist" gave the popular boy band a run for their money. As did his outfits.

While the outlet described him as being "already deep into his substitute art teacher phase" with his coat and scarf combo, a change in the latter half saw the star rocking a personalized sports jersey with his name on the back. Was it a nod to the basketball jersey he wore at Aerosmith's first gig in 1970? Potentially. The star was about to begin the retrospective part of his career, after all.

By the time Steven Tyler had joined the TV big leagues with "American Idol" in 2011, tensions in his life and music career had hit a critical peak. In 2009, the star was "hospitalized after falling from stage" during an Aerosmith show in South Dakota, according to Billboard. A few months later, CNN reported that he'd "entered a rehab facility for pain management and an addiction to prescription painkillers."

His relapse was something that apparently made his band mates "angry," with Tyler alleging to Rolling Stone that none of them called him during his time in rehab. It hurt, so he took his emotions to television. "I was so p***ed with them for not calling me that I told my manager, 'Get me something else, I need a side job, I need a day job, get me something like 'Idol,'" he told the magazine. 

There was just one problem: He didn't tell the Aerosmith boys. Guitarist Joe Perry complained to the Boston Herald that he unfairly found out about his singer's plans "on the internet ... that kind of affects the rest of us," he said. "We'd like to plan our lives, you know?" (via Digital Spy). For his move into reality television, Tyler upped his suit game with an assortment of structured looks which shrieked his expertise via animal prints, leather, and frills. He looked less like an "American Idol" judge than a professor of hard rock who had just received tenure.  

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Although he continued touring with Aerosmith — including a Las Vegas residency beginning in 2019 — it seemed like the rocky Rock 'n' Roller Coaster of the band was almost at its exit gate. In 2017, Steven Tyler confirmed the band would be doing a Farewell Tour — the length of which he joked to Rolling Stone could go "probably forever." Sadly, the tour was canceled due to "unexpected medical issues" experienced by Tyler, per NME. 

The Tyler-brand was running strong, regardless. In 2016, the singer released "We're All Somebody from Somewhere" — his first solo album, a country pop effort which served a whip-crack-away to his blues rock roots. Cue an increase of ramblin' man cow-print ensembles, and a slew of sniffy reviews from music critics unimpressed by "a past-his-prime, attention-seeking celebrity" desperate "to remain commercially relevant," as Slant scornfully put it. 

Somewhere within Tyler's transformation, however, seemed to be a man who'd reflected on his life and settled on a need for change. In 2015, he started the charity "Janie's Fund" to support at-risk young women — the likes of which he'd met in rehab, and felt protective of, per Haute Living. In 2017, he further opened "Janie's Home" to house "abused and neglected girls just outside of Atlanta," per CNN. But was it appropriate? Some, such as Consequence, raised an eyebrow at Tyler's charity given his "own history of misconduct with a minor," from his relationship with Julia Holcomb.