Real reason for Aerosmith's name is all down to a schoolboy's scribblings

The legendary rock band Aerosmith's unique name has become iconic, but its origins are shrouded in mystery.

The tale harks back to the schooldays of Joey Kramer, later the band's drummer, and a seemingly innocuous moment spent doodling while in class.

Before they catapulted to fame with their hits like Sweet Emotion, Dream On, and Walk This Way, the band members were part of separate groups such as Strangeurs, Chain Reaction, and Jam Band.

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It wasn't until 1970 that they united in Boston to form what we now know as Aerosmith.

Those early days for the five members often involved lazing about, reportedly getting high and enjoying reruns of The Three Stooges on television. During one such afternoon following a comedy binge, they decided it was time to settle on a name for their group.

And it was then that a long-forgotten memory popped into Joey's mind. He recalled how, bored in school, he would sit and think about the 1968 Harry Nilsson album Aerial Ballet. The cover of the record featured an acrobat diving from a plane, in tribute to Nilsson's grandparents, who were acrobats.

In conversation with Ultimate Classic Rock, Joey said: "I was listening to an album at the time, by Harry Nilsson, called Aerial Ballet. We were listening to this record and I started really getting off on the lyrics. We started kicking around this word 'aerial,' and 'aerial' eventually came into 'aero' – I don't know how that happened."

Joey would doodle the name Aerosmith on his books to kill time, dreaming of the day he could use it for his band. "The question was always, 'What's Aerosmith?'" he recalled.

"And I would tell people: 'When I leave high school I'm going to go have a rock 'n' roll band, and that's what it's going to be called, and we're going to be big and famous, and that's the scoop.' And they were all like, 'Oh, that's very nice, Joey.'".

Years later, at a post-Stooges meeting in Boston, Joey remembered his high school dream name and threw it into the mix. His bandmates were sceptical at first, thinking it might be a rip-off of the Sinclair Lewis book Arrowsmith, which they all remembered from school.

But after Joey shared the backstory, they were sold. Now, fifty-five years on, Aerosmith is still rocking without a second thought.