Aerosmith returns with Dave Grohl, Guns N’ Roses and more at Hollywood Bowl

When Aerosmith took the stage at the Hollywood Bowl on Thursday, Oct. 29, it was short – just six songs over 30-some minutes – but oh so sweet to see the hard rock legends back in the saddle for the first time in three years.

This was a night that the band and fans never dared dream could ever happen.

Not that Aerosmith would be backed by Foo Fighter Dave Grohl on drums during their set or that Guns N’ Roses and the Black Crowes would spend most of their sets covering Aerosmith songs in tribute to a band that inspired them.

No, Aerosmith was supposed to be finished, kaput, finito.

When singer Steven Tyler damaged his vocal cords in September 2023 on the third night of a planned farewell tour, the run was pushed back a year. After a year of rest and rehabilitation, with Tyler’s voice still ailing, Aerosmith announced its retirement from the road in August 2024, and that was supposed to be that.

But then, slowly, portents of possibility popped up here and there. In February 2025, Tyler performed at his annual Jam for Janie fundraiser at the Hollywood Palladium. In July, he sang at the Ozzy Osbourne farewell show in Bristol, England, and in September he joined his Aerosmith bandmate Joe Perry when the Joe Perry Project opened for the Who at the Hollywood Bowl.

Earlier this month, California, Dream On: Aerosmith & Friends was announced for Thursday, Oct. 29 and Sunday, Nov. 1 at the Bowl. Here’s how it went down on Night 1.

Aerosmith’s return

Aerosmith’s music videos for “Love in an Elevator” and “Crazy” played before Steven Tyler’s daughter Liv Tyler and actress Alicia Silverstone, who starred in the latter video some 30 years ago, walked out to introduce the band.

“How beautiful is this night, you guys?” Liv Tyler said as cheers for her and Silverstone died down. “Are we dreaming? Is this real?”

Steven Tyler walked out a moment or two later, carrying his beribboned microphone stand as usual, and after a quick hello to the cheering crowd, joined the rest of Aerosmith to kick off the night with “Toys in the Attic,” the title track to the 1975 album “Toys in the Attic.”

Tyler sounded great from the get-go and looked delighted to be back with the band whose membership hasn’t changed since 1971, when guitarist Brad Whitford joined Tyler, guitarist Joe Perry, bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer. Due to health issues, Kramer hasn’t performed regularly with the band since 2020, which meant Aerosmith needed to find a fill-in.

“So, if you didn’t know, right behind me is Mr. David [Bleepin’] Grohl,” Tyler announced at the end of the song. “I get a call from him; he says, ‘Steven, the Bowl, I gotta get in.’

“I said, ‘David, you wanna play drums? He says, ‘No, I wanna roadie.’ But he’ll play the drums.”

“Back in the Saddle” from 1976’s “Rocks” followed, with Tyler at one point standing next to Perry, his arm draped over his shoulders as they both sang, an image of Aerosmith’s rock-and-roll brotherhood that felt like a familiar flash from the past.

Things slowed a touch for the spacy opening grooves of “Sweet Emotion,” which, like every song the band played, had fans singing its familiar lyrics. As a white grand piano was rolled on stage, Tyler noted that Aerosmith made its L.A. debut on Dec. 3, 1973.

“At the Whisky A Go Go – remember that, Dave?” he said, laughing as he turned to look at Grohl, who was not quite 5 years old at the time.

“They really weren’t sure what to think about us back then, and they certainly weren’t sure what a rock and roll band was doing playing a song that sound liked … this,” he finished as the slow, almost classical-sounding opening notes of “Dream On” began.

The song is, of course, one of Aerosmith’s most-loved tunes with its slow build to the furious finish. Earlier this month, Rolling Stone magazine named the song and Tyler’s climactic vocal as the No. 1 scream in rock history.

On Thursday, that signature scream might not have had all of the power it had when it was recorded for the band’s 1973 self-titled debut, but Tyler, striking a pose atop the white piano as he wailed those final notes, did a terrific job with it – for anyone, much less a 78-year-old coming back from a vocal injury.

Perry then brought out actor Johnny Depp, his bandmate along with Alice Cooper in Perry’s side project the Hollywood Vampires, to join Aerosmith on “Train Kept A-Rollin’,” the 1951 R&B tune the band covered on its 1974 sophomore album “Get Your Wings,” which rocked and rolled along like the locomotive of its title.

“Before we say goodnight, I just want to say what a ride it’s been with my brothers – Joe, Tom, Brad and Joey,” Tyler said as Kramer, whose health has kept him from performing with the band since 2020, came out to take over on drums for the final number.

“Fifty-five [bleepin’] years and we’re the same [bleepin’] band that started 55 and a half years ago,” he finished.

“Walk This Way,” perhaps the band’s most significant single both for the hard-rocking original and the rock-rap mashup with Run-DMC – who’ll be at Night 2 on Sunday – wrapped up the short set, its heavy guitar riffs beneath Tyler’s rapid-fire verses alternating with the high falsetto of the choruses.

As a huge amount of confetti blasted over the amphitheater and an impressively large fireworks show rocketed off the top of the bandshell, you were left to wonder what, if anything, comes next. Is this a swan song farewell, videotaped by cameras around and over the Bowl for posterity? Or will Aerosmith, with or without the friends, continue in some form or another?

For now, all you can do is dream on.

Guns N’ Roses ‘n Black Crowes ‘n more

Just because Aerosmith kept the biggest hits for themselves didn’t mean the acts that played earlier in the night didn’t have plenty to choose from.

Guns N’ Roses, which played just before Aerosmith, opened with three of that band’s songs: “Nobody’s Fault” and “Last Child” from “Rocks,” and the moody, semi-acoustic fan favorite “Seasons of Wither.”

“Oh yeah, this is no stress,” said singer Axl Rose, who used his falsetto for all three, between the second and third of those. He, guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan, and the rest of the band then gave fans a little GNR thrill with performances of their own “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Paradise City.”

Before them, the Black Crowes played a five-song set that included Aerosmith deep cuts such as “Write Me a Letter,” “Combination,” and “Chip Away the Stone,” as well as “Let the Music Do the Talking” from the Joe Perry Project, for which Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson has also toured.

They played nothing of their own, though Robinson introduced Aerosmith’s “No More No More” as the song the band played after a 10-hour drive from Atlanta to New York City that landed their first record deal.

The show kicked off at 6:45 p.m. with an all-star band led by Don Was backing guests who each did an Aerosmith song or two. We missed most of those due to traffic, but friends in the seats and setlists online filled in most of the Aerosmith covers of that first section.

Those highlights included Anne and Nancy Wilson singing “Janie’s Got a Gun,” Billy Idol and Steve Stevens performing “Livin’ on the Edge,” Warren Haynes doing “Lord of the Thighs,” and Sammy Hagar on “Draw the Line.”