Aerosmith concerts in the ‘70s are legendary. Notorious for being rife with excessive rowdiness at a time when such debauchery was common, going to see Steven Tyler and company back pretty much guaranteed the rock and roll holy trinity: sex, drugs and rock and roll.
October 3, 1978: the band hit Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on the Live! Bootleg tour. Aerosmith fans were out in full force, and local authorities were not having any of it. Cops rolled into the show and arrested dozens of kids for the usual offenses: smoking weed and drinking alcohol.
Among those popped: Tyler’s touring seamstress, nabbed for lighting up onstage. It was enough for the singer to stop the show and rail against the cops who were arresting their fans. In turn, the police threatened to arrest Tyler for inciting a riot. When the dust settled, scores of fans were headed to the local jail.
The next day, Aerosmith’s tour accountant showed up at the jail and ponied up more than $4000 to bail out 28 fans arrested at the show.
“We did a reunion a while ago with people who could prove they were arrested that night,” Indiana radio DJ Doc West told the Fort Wayne Reader in 2011. Read Tyler’s first-hand account of the incident in the Aerosmith band biography, Walk This Way.
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