The Boston five-piece, set to headline Sydney's Stone Festival on Saturday, watched news of the attack unfold as they waited for their flight at Boston airport.
The band are scheduled to play their only New Zealand gig in Dunedin next week.
Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry said his children were a mile away from Monday's marathon blasts and claimed their friends were among the victims.
"It was really tough getting on the plane I have to say because the news was just dribbling in," Perry said at a press conference in Sydney.
"As they were putting the body counts on the TV we were in the waiting room to get on a plane and fly how many hundreds of thousands of miles away from where my kids are.
"They were both watching the race and both of them have lost friends. I'm still digesting it."
Frontman Steven Tyler paid tribute to the victims of the double bombings and said he hoped the tragedy would bring people together.
"My love goes out to everybody there... God bless the people that got hurt," he said.
"Hopefully it's a lone wolf and a one-off. It's a crazy world right now and people are echoing what they see in the news. We just have to be more careful about it."
