Steven Tyler
Pull a thread
The Story of "Janie's Got a Gun": How Aerosmith's Darkest Hit Became a $4.1 Million Lifeline
In 1989, Steven Tyler spent nine months writing a pop-metal hit about a girl who shoots her abusive father. Thirty-seven years later, that song is funding houses for girls like her.
Start with the bass
Pull up “Janie’s Got a Gun” and just sit with the intro for a second. That queasy, circling bass figure under Steven Tyler’s wordless vocal: before a single lyric lands, the song already sounds like something is wrong in this house. Most of Pump swaggers. This track creeps.