Aerosmith

A popular myth is that the name came from a respelling of the title of the Sinclair Lewis novel “Arrowsmith”. But in the group’s autobiography “Walk This Way” Joey Kramer tells the story of how when he was still in school he was sitting around with his girlfriend one day listening to Harry Nilsson’s “Aerial Ballet” and he and his girlfriend started thinking of cool band names that had “aero” in them, he thought up “aerosmith” and liked the way it sounded. He loved the name so much he used to write it all over his school books. But the band he was with at the time didn’t want to use it. Later, when Kramer had joined Joe Perry and Steven’s band he suggested they use it. The band didn’t like it at first because they thought it was the title of the Sinclair Lewis novel they were forced to read in high school but Joey said “No, no, A-E-R-O” and it stuck because they liked the connotation of power and the lift their music gave off.