40 Years Later, One Riff Brings Aerosmith and Run-DMC Back Together
Aerosmith were a few bars into a familiar riff at the Hollywood Bowl on November 1, 2026, when Steven Tyler stopped the band. Something was missing, he told the crowd. Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels walked in from opposite sides of the stage, and the second night of Aerosmith’s Los Angeles comeback shows suddenly reached back four decades.
The connection dates to July 1986. Run-DMC reworked a 1975 Aerosmith track with Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry, putting rap verses and the original riff on equal footing. The record introduced both acts to listeners who might never have sought out the other and helped put rap and hard rock side by side on MTV.
Perry brought a piece of that history to the Bowl. According to Rolling Stone, the angular Guild X-100 Bladerunner he used that night was the same guitar he played in the 1986 music video. A viewer on YouTube singled out the instrument in the comments, a reminder of how closely fans still remember the original clip.
Founding Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer returned for the number alongside John Douglas, who played the main set. With the two kits visible behind the singers, the song brought together players from different chapters of Aerosmith’s live history as well as the two voices from Run-DMC.
The two acts have revisited the collaboration onstage before, including at the 2020 Grammy Awards. At the Bowl, the opening pause put the focus on how the song changes when those voices enter. The band already had the riff. The two MCs supplied the other half of the exchange.
The performance came late in the second of two Aerosmith & Friends concerts. In the footage below, listen for the first few bars, then watch what happens when Tyler calls for the band to stop.
Watch the Hollywood Bowl performance
For viewers who grew up with the original, the reunion brought back more than the opening riff. Comments on a second recording singled out Perry’s guitar and Kramer’s return. One viewer summed up the nostalgia in a simple observation: seeing the two groups together again made the older fans smile.
Four decades have passed since the studio collaboration. At the Bowl, the riff still worked as an invitation: Tyler broke off, the guests appeared, and a rock crowd made room for two rappers it already knew by heart.
