You ‘don’t want to miss a thing,’ PM tells Aerosmith
After kicking off their world tour in Tel Aviv, Boston-based band meets Netanyahu in Jerusalem, but doesn’t sing for him
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with members of the rock band Aerosmith on Thursday, joking that they “don’t wan’t to miss a thing” during their Israel trip.
Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford and Tom Hamilton met with the prime minister in Jerusalem following their Wednesday night concert at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park before an enthusiastic crowd of 50,000.
Sitting down with the band, Netanyahu received groans instead of laughter when he asked them, “Where have you been? This is your second visit right? Well you don’t wan’t to miss a thing,” a reference to the band’s first number one hit.
The prime minister showed the rockers, who last played in Israel 23 years ago, artifacts from the biblical period, including a signet ring from an official working for the biblical king Hezekiah who was named Netanyahu ben Yoash. He told the band that these artifacts show that “we’ve been here a long time.”
Netanyahu also played up the fact that he had spent six years in the band’s home town of Boston, first studying at MIT and then as a consultant.
“You guys are all fake Bostonians,” he told them. “I’m the only one who was there.”
Despite a request from a photographer, Tyler refused to sing for the prime minister — perhaps the 69-year-old needs to save his voice for the stage.
The Israel show was the first on the rock band’s world tour, which will take it throughout Europe and the US.
