Aerosmith Retire From Touring, Cancel Farewell Dates

Aerosmith have retired from the road. Their farewell tour had made it to its third stop last September when Steven Tyler was waylaid with damaged vocal cords and fractured larynx. Now, after multiple postponements, the band says “a full recovery from his vocal injury is not possible.”

In a note on their website, Aerosmith wrote, in part:

It was 1970 when a spark of inspiration became Aerosmith. Thanks to you, our Blue Army, that spark caught flame and has been burning for over five decades. Some of you have been with us since the beginning and all of you are the reason we made rock ‘n’ roll history.

It has been the honor of our lives to have our music become part of yours. In every club, on every massive tour and at moments grand and private you have given us a place in the soundtrack of your lives.

We’ve always wanted to blow your mind when performing. As you know, Steven’s voice is an instrument like no other. He has spent months tirelessly working on getting his voice to where it was before his injury. We’ve seen him struggling despite having the best medical team by his side. Sadly, it is clear, that a full recovery from his vocal injury is not possible. We have made a heartbreaking and difficult, but necessary, decision – as a band of brothers – to retire from the touring stage.

Aerosmith began their farewell tour in acrimony after a woman sued Tyler alleging sexual assault and sexual battery when she was a minor. (He denied the allegations.) After the first postponement, another woman sued Tyler, claiming that he sexually assaulted her in 1975 when she was 17 years old and he was 27. A judge dismissed the latter lawsuit, ruling that too long had passed since the alleged incident.