Aerosmith's Steven Tyler Hospitalized After Stage Fall
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STURGIS, S.D. — Aerosmith's Steven Tyler suffered head, neck and shoulder injuries in a tumble from the stage at a South Dakota show, a concert spokesman said Thursday, and the audience thought it was part of his hip-shaking act until he didn't get up.
Tyler, 61, fell several feet while entertaining the crowd by dancing around as the sound crew replaced a fuse that blew during the song "Love in an Elevator," said Mike Sanborn, spokesman for the Buffalo Chip Campground, which hosted the Wednesday night concert. An amateur video showed him spinning around before falling off the stage.
A concertgoer said Tyler's head was bleeding and he was holding his shoulder after the fall, but it wasn't immediately clear how seriously he was hurt. The frontman was airlifted to Rapid City Regional Hospital, Sanborn said, the only major hospital in western South Dakota. A hospital spokeswoman would not confirm whether Tyler was there, and a representative for Aerosmith's publicity firm said the company was gathering information about the accident.
The band's next concert, which was scheduled for Friday in Winnipeg, Manitoba, was postponed. On June 28, Tyler hurt his leg at a concert in Uncasville, Conn., and the band had to postpone seven shows in July. Tyler also battled pneumonia before the tour began in June, while guitarist Joe Perry fought a knee infection.
Tyler, whose performances often include swaying and grinding on microphone stands adorned with scarves, was dancing on a catwalk Wednesday night that was connected to the main stage.
"He does a lot of dancing on the stage and he does a lot of stuff with his mike stand. He put his stand down and twirled around and stepped backwards off the stage," Sanborn said.
Many in the crowd were surprised and thought it was part of the act, said Jessica Kokesh, a University of South Dakota journalism student who covered the concert for the Rapid City Journal.
"We thought maybe he stage-dived into the crowd, but he didn't get back up," Kokesh said. "I thought he was falling back to crowd surf."
Tyler landed on a couple of fans, Sanborn said, and security rushed to help him. Sanborn did not immediately return a call Thursday evening about exactly how high the catwalk was. The crowd cheered when Tyler got up.
"There was like a big sigh, a collective 'Whoa' from everybody," said Chuck Baker, 53, of Denver, who was about 20 rows from the stage when Tyler fell.
The rocker was taken backstage, where a physician attended to him. Later, Perry told the audience the show would not go on.
"It was an unfortunate end to an extraordinary evening," Sanborn said.
Backstage, Jake Cohen was in the VIP area and didn't see the fall, but said he saw Tyler afterward.
"When they took him out, he was bleeding from his head and holding his shoulder," said Cohen, a salesman for Tyler's Dirico Motorcycles line.
Tyler, known for hits such as "Walk This Way" and "Dream On," attended Sturgis last year to promote his motorcycle line and was back this year to do that again and play at Buffalo Chip.
He was known for heavy drug and alcohol abuse in the 1970s and early 1980s. Every member of the blues-rock five-piece went to rehab in the mid-1980s, and the group staged an improbable comeback with the MTV generation. They were also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The Grammy-winning group was scheduled to play its next five shows in Canada. According to a Ticketmaster Web site and the band's Twitter page, the first of those shows was postponed and there were no further details. An official with Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, where the band is supposed to play Tuesday, said she hadn't heard anything about a possible cancellation there.
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AP Music Writer Nekesa Moody in New York contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
Aerosmith: http://www.aerosmith.com/
Buffalo Chip: http://www.buffalochip.com/
Sturgis rally: http://www.sturgismotorcyclerally.com/
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CARSON WALKER 08/ 7/09 12:33 AM ET Associated Press