It started with a tease. On 6 November, Matt Sorum popped up in Hollywood, hinting he was rehearsing for a “fun secret gig” somewhere “high in the sky.” Fans did what fans do and followed the breadcrumbs. Word spread that Sorum (drums), Nuno Bettencourt (guitar), James LoMenzo (bass) and Steven Tyler (vocals) were holed up at Studio Instrument Rentals around 5 November. People lingering outside swore they heard “Sweet Emotion” and, because Nuno was in the room, “More Than Words.” It tracks: SIR isn’t just a lock-out with amps; some LA rooms are full production stages with real PA and lights — exactly where you go when you want to feel a show before the show.
By weekend’s end the whispers had a venue: the Space Needle. Not the arena beneath it — the actual Needle. You can rent the Loupe level for private events at roughly 500 feet, a surreal glass-floored room where a small band can play without a stage, practically in the clouds. “High in the sky” suddenly had a street address.
The gig took place on Saturday Nov 8 2025, photos were kept under wraps, but the purpose wasn’t. Richard Shaw, Chief Development Officer at Youth Villages and a longtime collaborator behind Steven Tyler’s Janie’s Fund, later posted short reels from the night, including flashes of a Led Zeppelin “Whole Lotta Love” and “Walk This Way,” with Becky jumping in and call-and-response — a “private with a purpose,” five hundred feet up, in support of Janie’s Fund. If you know Janie’s Fund, the alignment makes perfect sense: Tyler’s initiative with Youth Villages pairs rock-and-roll spectacle with very real fundraising for abused and neglected girls.
Then came the kicker: Sorum himself confirmed it. In an edited Instagram caption he called the Space Needle show “pretty special… high atop the Space Needle in Seattle,” said he, Steven, Nuno and James “played for a small crowd supporting Steven’s charity Janie’s Fund,” and noted “it was the 10th anniversary” — “another one for the books.” That’s as close as you get to an official stamp on an unofficial night, and it squares neatly with Janie’s Fund sliding into its tenth-year celebration cycle ahead of a major anniversary gala on Sunday, 1 February 2026 at the Hollywood Palladium.
There’s scene-setting texture, too. The room was small, no real stage, Steven in red, the skyline spinning under a glass floor. If “More Than Words” really was in the rehearsal bag, that’s the kind of intimate, room-wrapping moment that turns a benefit into a memory. And the human backstory holds: the host reportedly spent four decades at Boeing, won a huge lottery and started a charity — private means to fund a public good, with the Space Needle as both symbol and stage.
Fans fixated on one other thread: Steven’s recovery arc. The voice sounded freer, stronger — a notch past the mid-year benchmarks — and the energy had that mischievous snap that makes a small room feel too small. The comparison points are there in plain sight: the July “Back to the Beginning” farewell for Ozzy/Black Sabbath and the September VMAs tribute both put Tyler back in the blast radius with Perry, Bettencourt and friends. If you’re booking a tiny room with no safety net, you want players who can carry the air pressure.
Does it point to more? Maybe. With Janie’s Fund’s tenth year now signposted and a major gala on the horizon, a stealth, sky-high warm-up reads like a soft-launch signal before formal festivities roll in. It also doesn’t hurt, optics-wise, as other 2026 headlines edge closer.
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