Rock legend Steven Tyler of Aerosmith suffered head, neck and shoulder injuries in a tumble from the stage at an outdoor concert and joked about the fall as he was loaded into the helicopter to be taken to a hospital, a concert spokesman said yesterday.

Tyler, 61, whose performances often include swaying and grinding on microphone stands adorned with scarves, fell while entertaining the crowd by dancing around after the sound system failed during the song Love In an Elevator, said Mike Sanborn, spokesman for the Buffalo Chip Campground, which hosted the concert.

"He was good-natured about it," Sanborn said. "He was in good spirits when he got in the helicopter. He was talking and joking with the physician."

Sanborn said it was not immediately clear how serious Tyler's injuries were, and that he was taken to Rapid City Regional Hospital, the only major hospital in western South Dakota. A hospital spokeswoman would not confirm whether Tyler was there.

"He does a lot of dancing on the stage and he does a lot of stuff with his mic stand. He put his stand down and twirled around and stepped backwards off the stage," Sanborn said.

Fell on fans

Tyler fell on to a couple of fans in the crowd of thousands, Sanborn said. Security rushed to help him and the crowd cheered when Tyler got back up and he was taken backstage, where a physician attended to him.

Around 12:15 a.m., Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry came out to tell the audience Tyler was being taken to the hospital and that the show would not go on.

"It was an unfortunate end to an extraordinary evening," Sanborn said.

Jennifer Horton, Rapid City Regional Hospital's vice-president of public relations and marketing, said early yesterday that Tyler wasn't in the hospital directory. Under the privacy laws, that means the person is either not there or chose not to be included in the directory, according to the hospital's website.

Drug, alcohol abuse

Tyler's publicist did not return several calls seeking comment.

Tyler, known for heavy hits such as Walk This Way and Dream On, attended Sturgis last year to promote his Dirico Motorcycles line and was back this year to do that again and play at Buffalo Chip.

He was known for heavy drug and alcohol abuse in the 1970s and early 1980s. Every member of the blues-rock five-piece band went to rehab in the mid-1980s, and staged an improbable comeback with the MTV generation.

Fans were disappointed the concert was cut short, but hoped Tyler wasn't seriously hurt.

Lance Yellow Robe, who said he was 8 feet (2 1/2 metres) from the stage when Tyler fell off, told the Rapid City Journal "you could kind of see it coming because he was dancing all over the stage."

"I hope he's OK," Yellow Robe said. "I could care less about the concert being cancelled."