The Tennessean-USA TODAY NETWORK
Steven Tyler has spent decades as the lead singer of Aerosmith, and one of his hallmarks is the scarves that are tied around the microphone stand when he performs. You might be under the impression they serve a purely aesthetic purpose, but his daughter noted they were a practical accessory during the band’s drug-fueled days.
It’s been 55 years since Aerosmith formed in Boston before taking the world by storm with the string of hit albums they released in the 1970s. Every member of the quintet is a rock and roll legend, but there isn’t a single one who’s more well-known than lead singer Steven Tyler.
You can’t really talk about the musical acts that rose to prominence during the era where Aerosmith was at its peak without talking about the many, many drugs that tended to flow like the waters of Niagara Falls when they were in the studio and on tour, and Tyler has been very transparent about the addiction battles he’s grappled with over the course of his life.
Those issues are inextricably linked with his tumultuous (and fairly problematic) personal life, which included a relationship with model Bebe Buell that led to the birth of Liv Tyler. Her mom initially told her another musician was actually her father due to fears her real dad would be a bad influence on their life, although she eventually discovered her true parentage.
Liv is one of three daughters Tyler helped bring into the world (he also has a son), and she recently sat down with her half-sister Mia (who was born to Cynthia Fox) on an episode of the Sibling Revelry podcast where they got the chance to chat about their famous dad.
During the conversation, Mia shed some light on the dual purpose the scarves on Tyler’s mic stand served in the past, saying:
“The story of why he has scarves on his microphone is because he liked to hide his pills and whatnot, so he could do them live on stage. He would have little pockets sewn so he could be on stage and just take whatever.”
That wasn’t always the case, as Tyler says he first adopted the fabric adornments after deciding to repurpose a tattered shirt and scarf he didn’t want to throw out and viewed them as a good luck charm.
In the 2003 Aerosmith autobiography Walk This Way, he admitted he eventually realized they could come in handy when he was looking to get his fix while performing, noting, “I’d weigh them with Quaaludes and Tuinals. That way I wouldn’t run out.”
The singer has had multiple stints of lengthy sobriety since setting out to get clean in the 1990s, and while he’s hit a few road bumps along the way, all evidence suggests the scarves are now purely decorative.