Sweet Emotion in Philadelphia as Aerosmith Starts its Farewell Tour, and Fans Dream on 

(L-R) Joe Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith perform live on stage at the Wells Fargo Center on September 02, 2023, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Getty Images/AFP)
(L-R) Joe Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith perform live on stage at the Wells Fargo Center on September 02, 2023, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Sweet Emotion in Philadelphia as Aerosmith Starts its Farewell Tour, and Fans Dream on 

(L-R) Joe Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith perform live on stage at the Wells Fargo Center on September 02, 2023, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Getty Images/AFP)
(L-R) Joe Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith perform live on stage at the Wells Fargo Center on September 02, 2023, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Getty Images/AFP)

Aerosmith is one of the best things to come out of Boston, and soon it will exist only in memories and playbacks — like Tom Brady, “Cheers” and Larry Bird.

The quintet has given the world 50 years of classic rock and some of the most enduring songs of all time, including “Dream On,” “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion.”

Aerosmith began its farewell “Peace Out” tour Saturday in Philadelphia with a two-hour set spanning its voluminous catalog — giving the world one last chance to see what earned these skinny guys from New England an exalted place in the pantheon of rock’s all-time greats.

Singer Steven Tyler, guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, and bassist Tom Hamilton all wore black cowboy hats as they ripped into “Back In The Saddle,” the song that has opened Aerosmith shows for decades as a giant Aerosmith logo folded down from the rafters, flanked by an even bigger set of wings.

Tyler and Perry sang from either side of a microphone stand draped in Tyler’s trademark scarves, recreating one of rock’s most iconic poses. Tyler nailed the extreme high note at the end of the song, proving that even at age 75 and after a life filled with pharmaceutical misadventures, he can still bring it.

“Love In an Elevator” and “Cryin’,” two major radio hits from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, followed, setting up the band’s controversial hit “Janie’s Got A Gun,” a song about a girl who was sexually abused by her father.

The band also tossed fans some rare chestnuts like “No More, No More,” on which Tyler forgot several of the words; “Adam’s Apple,” “Seasons Of Wither” and the Mississippi Delta blues-inspired “Hangman Jury.”

But there’s only room for so many songs in a two-hour show, and with a catalog as deep as Aerosmith’s, some of the biggest hits got cut, including “Dude (Looks Like A Lady)” and “Train Kept A-Rollin’,” which often closed the show on previous tours.

That Aerosmith even played Philadelphia is amazing, given its fans’ history of injuring band members. In Oct. 1977, someone threw an M80 explosive onstage that went off in Tyler’s face, burning his cornea and opening a bloody wound on Perry’s arm. A year later, at another Philadelphia show, someone threw a bottle that shattered against an onstage speaker, sending glass shards into Tyler’s face and mouth.

Tyler referenced those assaults during Saturday’s show, recalling them as “the big bang theory” before Perry shushed him. Tyler quickly changed the subject to the fact that his mother’s family came from Philadelphia.

Saturday’s show was the 40th that Aerosmith has played in the City of Brotherly Love, and ended without anyone needing paramedics.

There were the typical opening-night glitches. Tyler started singing the chorus of “Dream On” a verse too soon before catching himself. Perry’s guitar died a few notes into the iconic opening riff to “Walk This Way.” And after a masterful harmonica solo on “Hangman Jury,” Tyler tossed the small instrument backwards over his shoulder, only to realize he’d need it again at the end of the song. A roadie was summoned to hand it back to him.

But so much more went right than went wrong, and it’s been that way for decades at Aerosmith concerts. Perry was positively brilliant on vocals and guitar during a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s 1968 three-chord blues jam “Stop Messin’ Round,” during which he and Whitford traded solos, and Tyler gave the harmonica another workout.

Perry even played a guitar that the wife of the late guitar legend Jeff Beck gave him — keeping Beck’s presence onstage for a bit longer — and “Rats In The Cellar,” a song about the filthy environs of drug use in New York in the 1970s, was as hard, fast and tight as it ever was.

Drummer Joey Kramer opted out of the farewell tour “to focus his full attention on his family and health,” according to the band. John Douglas, a drummer, artist and drum kit customizer for acts including Van Halen, ZZ Top and Guns ‘N’ Roses, filled in admirably.

Bassist Tom Hamilton got a huge ovation while playing the opening notes of “Sweet Emotion,” possibly the most famous bass intro to a song in rock history. And a giant elephant, frog, gnome and teddy bear descended from the ceiling on “Toys In The Attic.”

“Walk This Way” was a huge worldwide hit for more than a decade, before taking on added significance in 1986 when rap group Run-D.M.C. teamed up with Aerosmith on a version of the song that is widely credited with helping break down the barriers that had separated fans of rock and rap. (In case the significance of the breakthrough was lost on anyone, the video for the collaboration shows the two acts literally kicking down a wall that separated them in adjacent recording studios, and finally playing together.)

During the song’s performance to close the show Saturday night, confetti and streamers cascaded down from the ceiling; Tyler grabbed a piece of confetti from the air and ate it.

The opening act, The Black Crowes, presumably had a lead singer onstage. But vocalist Chris Robinson was so thoroughly drowned out by his brother Rich’s guitar for most of their hour-long set that it was hard to tell. I’ve got a remedy: turn the guitars down and turn the vocals up. That shouldn’t be too hard to handle.



Val Kilmer, ‘Top Gun’ and Batman Star with an Intense Approach, Dies at 65 

Val Kilmer poses for a portrait, Jan. 9, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP)
Val Kilmer poses for a portrait, Jan. 9, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP)
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Val Kilmer, ‘Top Gun’ and Batman Star with an Intense Approach, Dies at 65 

Val Kilmer poses for a portrait, Jan. 9, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP)
Val Kilmer poses for a portrait, Jan. 9, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP)

Val Kilmer, the brooding, versatile actor who played fan favorite Iceman in "Top Gun," donned a voluminous cape as Batman in "Batman Forever" and portrayed Jim Morrison in "The Doors," has died. He was 65.

Kilmer died Tuesday night in Los Angeles, surrounded by family and friends, his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, said in an email to The Associated Press.

Val Kilmer died from pneumonia. He had recovered after a 2014 throat cancer diagnosis that required two tracheotomies.

"I have behaved poorly. I have behaved bravely. I have behaved bizarrely to some. I deny none of this and have no regrets because I have lost and found parts of myself that I never knew existed," he says toward the end of "Val," the 2021 documentary on his career. "And I am blessed."

Kilmer, the youngest actor ever accepted to the prestigious Juilliard School at the time he attended, experienced the ups and downs of fame more dramatically than most. His break came in 1984’s spy spoof "Top Secret!" followed by the comedy "Real Genius" in 1985. Kilmer would later show his comedy chops again in films including "MacGruber" and "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang."

His movie career hit its zenith in the early 1990s as he made a name for himself as a dashing leading man, starring alongside Kurt Russell and Bill Paxton in 1993’s "Tombstone," as Elvis’ ghost in "True Romance" and as a bank-robbing demolition expert in Michael Mann’s 1995 film "Heat" with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.

The actor — who took part in the Method branch of Suzuki arts training — threw himself into parts. When he played Doc Holliday in "Tombstone," he filled his bed with ice for the final scene to mimic the feeling of dying from tuberculosis. To play Morrison, he wore leather pants all the time, asked castmates and crew to only refer to him as Jim Morrison and blasted The Doors for a year.

That intensity also gave Kilmer a reputation that he was difficult to work with, something he grudgingly agreed with later in life, but always defending himself by emphasizing art over commerce.

"In an unflinching attempt to empower directors, actors and other collaborators to honor the truth and essence of each project, an attempt to breathe Suzukian life into a myriad of Hollywood moments, I had been deemed difficult and alienated the head of every major studio," he wrote in his memoir, "I’m Your Huckleberry."

One of his more iconic roles — hotshot pilot Tom "Iceman" Kazansky opposite Tom Cruise — almost didn’t happen. Kilmer was courted by director Tony Scott for "Top Gun" but initially balked. "I didn’t want the part. I didn’t care about the film. The story didn’t interest me," he wrote in his memoir. He agreed after being promised that his role would improve from the initial script. He would reprise the role in the film’s 2022 sequel, "Top Gun: Maverick."

One career nadir was playing Batman in Joel Schumacher’s goofy, garish "Batman Forever" with Nicole Kidman and opposite Chris O’Donnell’s Robin — before George Clooney took up the mantle for 1997’s "Batman & Robin" and after Michael Keaton played the Dark Knight in 1989’s "Batman" and 1992’s "Batman Returns."

Janet Maslin in The New York Times said Kilmer was "hamstrung by the straight-man aspects of the role," while Roger Ebert deadpanned that he was a "completely acceptable" substitute for Keaton. Kilmer, who was one and done as Batman, blamed much of his performance on the suit.

The Times was the first to report his death on Tuesday.

"When you’re in it, you can barely move and people have to help you stand up and sit down," Kilmer said in "Val," in lines spoken by his son Jack, who voiced the part of his father in the film because of his inability to speak. "You also can’t hear anything and after a while people stop talking to you, it’s very isolating. It was a struggle for me to get a performance past the suit, and it was frustrating until I realized that my role in the film was just to show up and stand where I was told to."

His next projects were the film version of the 1960s TV series "The Saint" — fussily putting on wigs, accents and glasses — and "The Island of Dr. Moreau" with Marlon Brando, which became one of the decade’s most infamously cursed productions.

David Gregory’s 2014 documentary "Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau," described a cursed set that included a hurricane, Kilmer bullying director Richard Stanley, the firing of Stanley via fax (who sneaked back on set as an extra with a mask on) and extensive rewrites by Kilmer and Brando. The older actor told the younger at one point: "'It’s a job now, Val. A lark. We’ll get through it.’ I was as sad as I’ve ever been on a set," Kilmer wrote in his memoir.

In 1996, Entertainment Weekly ran a cover story about Kilmer titled "The Man Hollywood Loves to Hate″ The directors Schumacher and John Frankenheimer, who finished "The Island of Dr. Moreau," said he was difficult. Frankenheimer said there were two things he would never do: "Climb Mount Everest and work with Val Kilmer again."

Other artists came to his defense, like D. J. Caruso, who directed Kilmer in "The Salton Sea″ and said the actor simply liked to talk out scenes and enjoyed having a director's attention.

"Val needs to immerse himself in a character. I think what happened with directors like Frankenheimer and Schumacher is that Val would ask a lot of questions, and a guy like Schumacher would say, ‘You’re Batman! Just go do it,’″ Caruso told The New York Times in 2002.

After "The Island of Dr. Moreau," the movies were smaller, like David Mamet human-trafficking thriller "Spartan"; "Joe the King" in 1999, in which he played a paunchy, abusive alcoholic; and playing the doomed ’70s porn star John Holmes in 2003’s "Wonderland." He also threw himself into his one-man stage show "Citizen Twain," in which he played Mark Twain.

"I enjoy the depth and soul the piece has that Twain had for his fellow man and America," he told Variety in 2018. "And the comedy that’s always so close to the surface, and how valuable his genius is for us today."

Kilmer spent his formative years in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles. He attended Chatsworth High School alongside future Oscar winner Kevin Spacey and future Emmy winner Mare Winningham. At 17, he was the youngest drama student ever admitted at the Juilliard School in 1981.

Shortly after he left for Juilliard, his younger brother, 15-year-old Wesley, suffered an epileptic seizure in the family’s Jacuzzi and died on the way to the hospital. Wesley was an aspiring filmmaker when he died.

"I miss him and miss his things. I have his art up. I like to think about what he would have created. I’m still inspired by him," Kilmer told the Times.

While still at Juilliard, Kilmer co-wrote and appeared in the play "How It All Began" and later turned down a role in Francis Ford Coppola’s "The Outsiders" for the Broadway play, "Slab Boys," alongside Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn.

Kilmer published two books of poetry (including "My Edens After Burns") and was nominated for a Grammy in 2012 for spoken word album for "The Mark of Zorro." He was also a visual artist and a lifelong Christian Scientist.

He dated Cher, married and divorced actor Joanne Whalley. He is survived by their two children, Mercedes and Jack.

"I have no regrets," Kilmer told the AP in 2021. "I’ve witness and experienced miracles."