Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has never kept his Ukrainian origins secret, but chances are the media was more interested in finding out more about his drug-fueled, hedonist days when his band churned out hits like “Dream On” and “Walk This Way” in packed arenas. But he made his roots front and center in 2015 at a Moscow media conference hours before they were slated to perform at a concert commemorating the city’s 868th anniversary.
“My grandmother is German, and my grandfather is Ukrainian,” said Tyler at the scrum, as covered by Tass. “They met at a time when Ukraine and Russia were one country.” The rest of Tyler’s lineage, just like his rock star life, is complicated. HuffPost added that Tyler is also Italian, while website Ethnicity of Celebs claims his bloodlines also contain strains of Polish, English, Welsh, and a sprinkling of African-American.
All of that may have been confusing to Steven Tyler’s daughter, Liv Tyler, a model and actor with enough cred to rival her pop. Liv thought her dad was musician Todd Rundgren, who had romanced her mother, Playboy pinup star Bebe Buell. But in an interview with The Guardian, when she discovered the truth, somehow things made sense to her. “I felt a connection in a very strong way when I met him as a little girl and I didn’t know why at first,” said Liv, who also qualifies as a celeb with Ukrainian roots. “But I figured it out rather quickly.”
