Going … Down – Aerosmith’s Tyler Takes A Tumble

It happened during the band’s performance at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, when, halfway through the set, the soundsystem failed while the band played “Love In An Elevator.”

While the crew attempted to fix the soundsystem, the 61-year-old Tyler, trooper that he is, entertained the crowd by dancing around the stage. At one point while on a catwalk, Tyler fell backward onto a couple of fans. Tyler was able to get back up, but that pretty much ended the show and the singer was airlifted to a nearby hospital.

“He was good natured about it,” Buffalo Chip Campground spokesman Mike Sanborn said. “He was in good spirits when he got in the helicopter. He was talking and joking with the physician.”

“It was an unfortunate end to an extraordinary evening.”

According to Sanborn, Tyler suffered minor head and neck injuries and a shoulder injury. Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry returned to the stage to tell the crowd the bad news and that the show was over.

In addition to the Aerosmith performance, Tyler was in Sturgis to promote his Dirico Motorcycles line and on Monday rode in the Rally’s annual Legends Ride from Deadwood, S.D. to Sturgis.

Sanborn said Tyler was helicoptered to Rapid City Regional Hospital. Jennifer Horton, the hospital’s VP of public relations and marketing, said early this morning Tyler was in the facility’s directory. Under the state’s privacy laws, Tyler either wasn’t at the hospital or chose not to be listed in the directory, according to the hospital’s Web site.

Fans were disappointed, but they were also worried about Tyler’s condition. Lance Yellow Robe, who said he was only 8 feet from the stage when Tyler fell, told the Rapid City Journal, “you could kind of see it coming because he was dancing all over the stage.”

“I hope he’s OK,” added Yellow Robe. “I could care less about the concert being canceled.”

Click here to read the entire Rapid City Journal article.