Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler jokes about his tumble at South Dakota concert, taken to hospital

Official: Aerosmith frontman joking after tumble

RAPID CITY, S.D. — Rock legend Steven Tyler of Aerosmith suffered head, neck and shoulder injuries in a tumble from the stage at a South Dakota concert and joked about the fall as he was put into the helicopter to be taken to a hospital, a concert spokesman said Thursday.

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

Sanborn said it wasn’t immediately clear how serious Tyler’s injuries were and that he was taken to Rapid City Regional Hospital, the only major hospital in western South Dakota. A hospital spokeswoman would not confirm Thursday whether Tyler was there.

The fall happened halfway through the performance at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Tyler, 61, was dancing around the stage after the sound system failed during the song “Love In an Elevator,” Sanborn said.

“He does a lot of dancing on the stage and he does a lot of stuff with his mike stand. He put his stand down and twirled around and stepped backwards off the stage,” Sanborn said.

Tyler fell onto a couple of fans in the crowd of thousands, Sanborn said. Security rushed to help him and the crowd cheered when Tyler got back up and he was taken backstage, where a physician attended to him.

Around 12:15 a.m., Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry came out to tell the audience Tyler was being taken to the hospital and that the show would not go on.

“It was an unfortunate end to an extraordinary evening,” Sanborn said.

Jennifer Horton, Rapid City Regional Hospital’s vice president of public relations and marketing, said early Thursday that Tyler wasn’t in the hospital directory. Under the privacy laws, that means the person is either not there or chose not to be included in the directory, according to the hospital’s Web site.

Tyler’s publicist did not return several calls seeking comment.

Tyler attended Sturgis last year to promote his Dirico Motorcycles line and was back this year to do that again and play at Buffalo Chip.

Fans were disappointed the concert was cut short but hoped Tyler wasn’t seriously hurt.

Lance Yellow Robe, who said he was 8 eight feet from the stage when Tyler fell off, 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,” Yellow Robe said. “I could care less about the concert being canceled.”

On the Net:

Aerosmith: www.aerosmith.com/

Buffalo Chip: www.buffalochip.com/

Sturgis rally: www.sturgismotorcyclerally.com/