"American Pickers" finds Aerosmith's first tour van

It sounds like a headline from The Onion but apparently it's legit...



The "American Pickers" have found a piece of rock and roll history right here in Western Massachusetts.

In a recent episode of the History channel hit, the duo of Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz made their way to Massachusetts after receiving a tip that the original tour van of the legendary rock group Aerosmith was sitting on a property in Chesterfield.

Apparently, the van was on the property when the current owner, only identified as Phil, purchased the land a few years back. The pickers showed up in Chesterfield and met the owner, who told them the original owner of the van had a connection to the property, but he didn't have many details beyond that.

The pickers called a member of The Black Keys, who connected them with Joe Perry, lead guitarist of Aerosmith, which formed in Boston in 1970. Perry connected them with Ray Tabano, a guitarist and founding member of Aerosmith, who just happened to be in Stockbridge at the time.

He drove out to Chesterfield and confirmed this was indeed the band's original touring van.

"It certainly looks like it. Oh my goodness gracious," Tabano said. "I'm afraid to say how long it is, but it's been like 40 years since we were in this thing. It was like a touring hotel... This is definitely the van. You found it."

https://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/08/aerosmiths_original_tour_van_f.html

That's awesome; thanks for sharing this!

Quote :

It sounds like a headline from The Onion but apparently it's legit...

I was going to say it sounds like a headline from The Hard Times, which is like the rock-oriented version of The Onion. Definitely follow it on FB if you don't already!

I wonder if they found any of Steven or Joe's old 'stash' hidden under the seats?

It reminds me of that scene in "Romancing the Stone" where they find the crashed dope smuggling plane with the cargo still inside

That's awesome. Looks like an old Good Humor ice cream truck. Groovy!

That's awesome! (if it's authentic)

But Is that Mick Fleetwood painted on the side?

Troublezone wrote:

But Is that Mick Fleetwood painted on the side?

I think it's the original Aerosmith logo. I wish the photo was from a better angle so we could see it more clearly.

I actually caught the very end of the episode when it aired the other night. Man, that thing is "roached" as Mike and Fran like to say.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

But Is that Mick Fleetwood painted on the side?

I think it's the original Aerosmith logo. I wish the photo was from a better angle so we could see it more clearly.

The funky looking dude is a caricature of one of Aerosmith's friends/roadie from the early days and a take-off the the "Keep on Truckin' guy" by artist Robert Crumb.


He was also mentioned in the song 'Mama Kin'. He was "bald as a egg at 18" and "working for your dad is just a drag".

I don't watch this show very often, but I happened to be watching this episode. It was one of the cooler moments I've seen. Mike and Frank (the hosts) are old Aerosmith fans apparently, and were really geeking out over this. I really hope this goes to a worthwhile museum somewhere!

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

But Is that Mick Fleetwood painted on the side?

I think it's the original Aerosmith logo. I wish the photo was from a better angle so we could see it more clearly.

The funky looking dude is a caricature of one of Aerosmith's friends/roadie from the early days and a take-off the the "Keep on Truckin' guy" by artist Robert Crumb.


He was also mentioned in the song 'Mama Kin'. He was "bald as a egg at 18" and "working for your dad is just a drag".

I don't know if was just the angle of the pic or what, but it looked like a guy with a skullett.

I just watched the episode on Demand. It's from the current season and called 'Rockin' Down the Road' or something like that. The first half, the guys are in Michigan, so you have to fast-forward a bit to get to the Aerosmith stuff. It's pretty cool and worth checking out.

I’m a Massachusetts resident. This is such a cool find.
I think it should go straight to the rock and roll hall of fame.
The origin of a band. What it takes to get about. Classic.
Aerosmith said they played all high schools in New England lol -
By the way, that includes the winter months.
Those days seem long gone.
I tried to sell my Marshall stack - to a music store in town.
They said - no one uses them anymore. I was dumbstruck.
I guess they use P.A equipment clubs and bars have ?

Caught a rerun of "American Pickers" a week or two ago that told the second half of the "van" story. Mike and Frank had the Aerosmith van restored by one of their "experts" and then drove it to Vegas, where the band was performing their "residency" gigs at the time.

They parked the van in the lobby and fans could have their photo taken with it. The band members were clearly blown away by the restoration job on the van, and moved by the memories it brought back.  (Steven climbed right in and started looking around to see if any of his old stash was still hidden away, haha!) It was pretty cool.