Original Aerosmith tour van found buried in Massachusetts woods

Aerosmith's tour van — (Image credit: History Channel (screengrab))

Aerosmith's first tour van has been found abandoned in woods near Chesterfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, about 110 miles west of Boston.

The 1964 International Harvester Metro van was tracked down by Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz, the hosts of American Pickers, a reality television series shown on The History Channel.

The van's authenticity was confirmed by Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, and by Ray Tabano, a founding member of Aerosmith. Tabano was in the band from 1970 to 1972, before being replaced by Brad Whitford.

“I’m afraid to say how long it is, but it’s been like 40 years since we’ve been in this thing,” said Tabano on the show. “We’d drive from Boston up to New Hampshire for $125. Then after the gas, the tolls, and the food and back, we’d all make like $3 apiece.

"It just reminded me of the humble beginnings and I look at where [the band has] gone today it’s just amazing,”

How the van came to be in the woods is unclear, although the property owner claimed he originally purchased the land from "someone with a connection to Aerosmith."

Wolfe and Fritz paid $25,000 to buy the van from its current owner, Wolfe referring to the purchase as “a piece of American rock'n'roll history.”

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.