Is it really any surprise that Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has a complicated family life? The father of four has been married twice but his hardcore rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle ensured a long history of crazy conquests, tortured relationships, and surprising paternity revelations.
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Steven Tyler
As the lead singer of the classic rock band Aerosmith, Steven Tyler is well-known for not only a magnificent vocal range – seriously, the highs in “Dream On” are almost inhuman – but also for a colorful personality that’s visible in the funky scarves draping off his microphone. When Aerosmith first gained popularity during the 1970s for hits like “Dream On” and their album Toys in the Attic which included “Sweet Emotion,” and “Walk This Way.” As a songwriting duo, Steven Tyler and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry became known as the Toxic Twins. But by the 1980s, Tyler was struggling with severe alcohol and drug addictions; the band’s work suffered. Due to conflicts, Perry quit the band.
The legendary comeback that followed goes down in rock ‘n’ roll history. Tyler successfully completed rehab in 1986, and once he was clean, he and Joe Perry remade “Walk This Way” with Run-DMC – and topped the charts. From, there Aerosmith was on a Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster back to stardom. Aerosmith booked a string of sold-out tours, produced well-received albums, and churned out later hits like “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” “Janie’s Got a Gun,” “Livin’ on the Edge,” and their first official number-one single, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” Aerosmith is now one of the best-selling rock bands of all time. Outside of Aerosmith, Steven Tyler also manages a lucrative solo career, and for a time, was a main judge on American Idol. But what about outside of work? What exactly has gone down in Steven Tyler’s personal life? Take a look below to learn about the lead singer of Aerosmith’s children and exes – in order.
Julia Holcomb
Technically the first kid in Steven Tyler’s care was also his… girlfriend. In 1975, when Tyler was 27 years old, he obtained legal guardianship of the sixteen-year-old Julia Holcomb so she could live with him in Boston. And date him. (Yikes.) The relationship that followed was, unsurprisingly, a mess. Holcomb, who is now an anti-abortion spokesperson, shared the details of her story with Lifsitenews.com. When her guardianship was signed over to him, Holcomb wrote that “A sense of vulnerability came over me, knowing that I was his ward, but we were not married.”
Holcomb lived with Tyler for two years. The couple reportedly broke up over the emotional fallout following her abortion, and Holcomb has centered her life around rallying for pro-life causes. Steven Tyler never addressed the story quite head-on, but in Walk this Way, the 1997 collaborative Aerosmith autobiography, Tyler is quoted by a friend as saying he regretted the decision once he found out the baby might have been a boy. (Yikes again. Did he know that was a possibility?) The event between Tyler and Holcomb has been taken up by many religious causes as a go-to anti-abortion anecdote as Holcomb often discusses the matter, and her relationship with Steven Tyler, publicly.
Bebe Buell
Bebe Buell is a singer and former model who has posed for Playboy and even Andy Warhol. In addition to Steven Tyler, throughout the 1970s and 80’s Buell also dated Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Jimmy Page, and Todd Rundgren. But don’t call her a groupie! When Buell became pregnant by Steven Tyler in 1976, she worried about how his addiction issues might negatively harm the family. Having an on-and-off relationship at the time with Utopia musician, Todd Rundgren, she planned for her child’s paternity not only from Steven Tyler – but the child herself, who turned out to be the beautiful actress Liv Tyler.
Born Liv Rundgren, Todd became, and remains, Liv’s adoptive father once the couple soon split; Liv did not learn of her relation to Steven Tyler until she was almost a teenager. Liv is Buell’s only child. Bebe Buell discusses the soap opera story, and more, in her 2001 memoir, Rebel Heart: An American Rock ‘n’ Roll Journey.
Liv Rundgren Tyler
Growing up as the daughter of Bebe Buell and rock and roll musician Todd Rundgren, Liv was used to the spotlight from an early age. But she never would have guessed that not only did she have one rockstar dad, but two! Liv ran into Steven Tyler at one of Rundgren’s concerts when she was 11 years old. As described in a feature story with the Daily Telegraph, “just from looking at him – at his face and his hands, the way he picked his cuticles – she figured out for herself who her father was.” It’s no wonder; Liv inherited Tyler’s classic wide-lipped, a feature that defined her leading lady look in rom-coms like Empire Records, One Night at McCool’s, and Tom Hanks’ That Thing You Do, in addition to a starring role in Armageddon and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Steven Tyler and his daughter Liv are now close. Once Bebe Buell finally admitted the truth to her daughter, Liv began to have a relationship with her biological father Steven Tyler and went public with the information by changing her surname to Tyler in 1991. (Before the news was known, Liv Tyler actually starred in an Aerosmith’s music video, “Crazy,” alongside Alicia Silverstone. However, she has noted that Todd Rundgren, who raised her and supported her upbringing financially, is still her real father. Rundgren is now Liv’s middle name.
Cyrinda Foxe
The beautiful, bleach-blonde Cyrinda Fox was a New York City nightlife party girl during the 1970’s. As that often goes, she also worked with Andy Warhol and starred in his significant 1977 slice-of-life film, Bad. (She later appeared music video, “Jean Genie,” for David Bowie, with whom she also had an affair) In 1977, Foxe married New York Dolls’ frontman, Steven Johansen and left him after less than a year – for Steven Tyler. The New York Dolls and Aerosmith shared a manager at the time, so the bands were together often. (Unlucky for Steven Johansen.) Fox and Tyler’s connection was instant; they married quickly and had a daughter, Mia, who Fox says became the center of her world. Although biologically Mia was Tyler’s second child, he didn’t know it at the time; it would be nine more years before Steven met Liv Rundgren Tyler.
Tyler’s first wife published a memoir in Dream On: Livin’ on the Edge with Steven Tyler and Aerosmith in 1997. After its release, she advertised an edition that would include nude photos of Steven Tyler; he sued, and in 2000 she started a website selling nude photos instead. Sadly, Foxe, a punk icon in her own right, died of brain cancer in 2002. During the final year of her life, she lived in New York’s historic Gramercy Hotel, and wed artist Keith Waa.
Mia Tyler
Mia Tyler was born in 1978 to Steven Tyler and Cyrinda Foxe, who divorced in 1987. Mia Tyler has a successful career as a plus-size model. She has modeled for such magazines as Vogue, Seventeen, Teen, and Teen People, and in campaigns for national chains including H&M and Lane Bryant. In 2002, she was on the cover for Flare magazine. In addition to modeling, Tyler occasionally acts and has appeared on various reality television programs: House of Style, Celebrity Fit Club, and Really Rich Real Estate, and was a judge on Oxygen’s Pretty Wicked. She primarily lives in Sacramento, California. She is divorced from the former Papa Roach drummer, Dave Buckner, and has a son, Axton Joseph, with her current boyfriend, Dan Halen.
Teresa Barrick
Teresa Barrick is a fashion designer who was married to Steven Tyler for 17 years. Unlike Tyler’s other exes, Barrick is notoriously private about her personal life and managed to shy away from the spotlight throughout her long rock star relationship. Most information known about Teresa Barrick comes from Steven Tyler: The Biography by Laura Jackson. Jackson writes that the couple became acquainted in New York City while Tyler was in the process of divorcing his first wife, Cyrinda Foxe. The two wed in 1988 at an intimate ceremony in Tulsa, Oklahoma although it’s unclear what the connection to the location was.
One Barrick became involved with Steven Tyler, she began to oversee the Aerosmith costume design and production. So you can thank her for some of Steven Tyler’s memorably flamboyant get-ups over the years. Barrick continued to work with Aerosmith even after the couple separated in 2005. At the time, Tyler released this statement: “We’re just a family trying to work through a difficult time. A little privacy and sensitivity – for Teresa, my children and myself – would be nice.”
The couple had two children together, Chelsea Tyler and Taj Tyler.
Chelsea Tyler
Chelsea Tyler, 30, is the oldest child from Steven Tyler’s long relationship with Teresa Barrick. She is one member of the two-person, bluesy-pop band, KANEHOLLER. The other member? Her husband, Jon Foster. Foster and Tyler were introduced by a mutual friend, fellow celebrity-kid Zoe Kravitz. Almost immediately they founded KANEHOLLER and began to date. Of working with her significant other, Tyler told People magazine, “You have your working relationship and your romantic relationship and your friendship.” Of performing as the daughter of Steven Tyler, she also joked: ““I definitely have moments of doing [my dad’s] moves onstage where I’m like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, don’t do that!’”
Tyler and Foster officially tied the knot in 2015 and had their first child together, Vincent Frank, in February of this year.
Taj Tyler
Like his mother Teresa Barrick, Steven Tyler’s only son, Taj Tyler, leads a private life. He was born in 1991 and is very close with his three older sisters. Taking after his mother, he is a songwriter and multi-instrumental musician and even tours occasionally with his full sister Chelsea Tyler and her band, KANEHOLLER. And although Taj does not reveal many details about his personal life, he often accompanies his father and other celeb family members to red-carpet events.