Papa Roach, Ja Rule, Shakira, Nas, Sum-41, and X-Ecutioners have joined the lineup for MTV’s upcoming mtvICON salute to Aerosmith. As previously reported, Kid Rock, Train, and Pink will also perform Aerosmith songs at the event, to be taped April 14 in Los Angeles and airing three days later on MTV. Inaugural mtvICON honoree Janet Jackson will offer a testimonial, as will Fred Durst, Dana Carvey, Method Man, and frequent Aerosmith video star Alicia Silverstone.
Sum-41, Ja Rule, and Nelly have teamed for a special recreation of Aerosmith’s classic “Walk This Way” video, which originally featured Run-DMC. The new clip will debut during the mtvICON broadcast and will subsequently only be seen if it is voted for on “Total Request Live,” which airs each weekday on MTV. Aerosmith is expected to perform live for the finale of the event.
Aerosmith’s late ’80s resurgence owed a great deal to MTV exposure for such videos as “Walk This Way,” “Dude Looks Like a Lady,” “Janie’s Got a Gun,” and “Crazy,” the latter of which which featured Silverstone and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler’s daughter Liv as temptress runaways. Another clip starring Silverstone, “Cryin’,” was voted as the all-time favorite video by MTV viewers in 1994.
“When MTV first went on the air, it was during a three-year period where Aerosmith was kind of broken up,” bassist Tom Hamilton tells Billboard.com. “I remember how cool and exciting and new and different it was, and thinking, ‘wow, we’re not going to be there for that.’ We’ve managed to put the band back together, and I think maybe having a taste of missing out on [early MTV] made us really want to concentrate on videos and doing as well as we could with it. It’s been an amazing part of us getting back together and getting back up there with our career.”
Along those lines, MTV.com is soliciting Aerosmith fan tributes, some of which may appear online or during the show. Fans can vote for their favorite Aerosmith videos in several categories, including best power ballad, best Alicia Silverstone appearance, and more. The winning videos in each category will later be shown on an MTV2 special.
Hamilton says Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry recently wrote a couple new songs in Hawaii, which will likely be released as part of an upcoming greatest hits collection. An appearance on the “Spider Man” soundtrack is also possible, as is a live DVD or longform video compilation.
