Vocalist Steven Tyler of the rock band Aerosmith performs at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in this June 10, 2009, photo taken in Maryland Heights, Mo. (Jeff Roberson/Associated Press)

Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler was airlifted to a hospital after falling from stage during a concert Wednesday night at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in western South Dakota.

Tyler, 61, 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 outdoor concert.

Tyler was on the stage's catwalk when he fell backward onto a couple of fans in the middle of what was a record crowd, Sanborn said. Security rushed to help him and the crowd cheered when Tyler got back up.

"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."

"It was an unfortunate end to an extraordinary evening."

Tyler suffered minor head and neck injuries and a shoulder injury, but it wasn't immediately clear how serious that was, he said.

Tyler was taken backstage and around 12:15 a.m. local time Thursday, 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 happened about halfway through the performance, Sanborn said.

'A lot of dancing'

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

Sanborn said Tyler was attended to on site by a physician and flown to Rapid City Regional Hospital, the only major hospital in the region.

Jennifer Horton, the hospital's vice-president of public relations and marketing, said early Thursday 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.

Tyler attended Sturgis last year to promote his Dirico Motorcycles line and was back this year to do that again and play at the Buffalo Chip.

Fans were disappointed the concert was cut short but hoped Tyler was OK.

Lance Yellow Robe, who said he was about 2.5 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."