“Did Steven or Joey invent it? The jury’s still out on that one,” Whitford said. Aerosmith producer Jack Douglas sides with Tyler, and guitarist Brad Whitford splits the difference. The article features rare interviews with the performers, producers, managers, executives, radio jockeys, and other individuals who were involved or tangentially affected by the song, as well as never-before-seen footage of the day the bands met in a Manhattan studio to record the track.Įdgers’s interviews reveal several facts about the song and about both bands that most fans probably don’t know, beginning with the fact that members of Aerosmith still can’t agree on who came up with the beat for the original song as it appeared on their 1975 album, Toys in the Attic. Lead guitarist Joe Perry said that he was “fooling around” with the now iconic guitar riff and asked drummer Joey Kramer to play along to it. Frontman Steven Tyler says that he heard it, ran to the stage, and came up with the rest.
Washington Post reporter Geoff Edgers recently crafted an extensive oral history that reflects on the importance of Aerosmith and Run DMC’s 1986 collaboration, “Walk This Way”-a song that not only influenced rock and hip hop culture moving forward, but also changed music and pop culture forever. Thirty years ago, two very different bands met in a studio to partner on a genre-bending song that few people thought would work.