Background and career
Joseph Michael Kramer (born June 21, 1950) is an American musician best known as the drummer of the hard rock band Aerosmith, which was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
Kramer was born in the Bronx, New York City, the son of Doris and Mickey Kramer, a businessman. He is Jewish and had a bar mitzvah. Kramer's second wife, Linda, died on June 22, 2022, at age 55.
In the early 1970s, Kramer was a member of The Institution, a seminal New Jersey garage band founded by Philip Rubin, J. Howard Duff, Richie Lester, and Marv Coopersmith. On November 25, 1970, the early Bruce Springsteen band, Steel Mill, opened for The Institution at Newark State College.
Kramer wrote that he idly conceived the name Aerosmith while listening to Harry Nilsson's album Aerial Ballet in 1968, two years before the band was formed. He insists that there is no connection between the name and Sinclair Lewis's novel Arrowsmith. Shortly before joining Aerosmith, Kramer moved to Boston, where he attended Berklee College of Music and worked with Chubby & the Turnpikes (later renamed Tavares) alongside Bernie Worrell. Kramer's memoir, Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top, was released on June 30, 2009. Kramer made two guest appearances on The Simpsons, with Aerosmith in the episode "Flaming Moe's" (1991) and by himself in the episode "The Ned-Liest Catch" (2011). In 2015, NECA released a Simpsons themed action figure of the members of Aerosmith. In 2013, Kramer launched Rockin' & Roastin' Coffee, a whole bean organic brand. In 2015, he announced a business partnership with Les Otten, the former vice chairman of the Boston Red Sox, to open two Joey Kramer's Rockin' & Roastin' Café and Restaurant locations which since closed.
Kramer currently endorses Pearl drums, Zildjian cymbals and sticks (including his own signature model), plus Remo heads. He has also used many other brands of drums including Ludwig with whom he was closely associated with for much of his career up until switching to Pearl. In the past he has also used sets by Fibes, Ludwig, Tama and DW. Pearl Crystal Beat series drums:
24"x18" bass drum 13"x10" mounted tom 16"x16" floor tom 18"x16" floor tom 14"x6.5" UltraCast snare Avedis Zildjian cymbals:
