James Crespo Jr. was born in Brooklyn and raised by Puerto Rican-American parents (Jaime and Carmen) within a musical family. He has one brother, John Crespo. Crespo first took up the guitar at age 14. He joined his first band, The Knomes, shortly afterward. During his teenage years he became an accomplished guitarist, influenced by the stylings of such artists as The Yardbirds, Cream, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. Forming the New York club band Anaconda, Crespo drew the attention of industry figures, leading to session work with a number of high-profile artists such as Meat Loaf and Stevie Nicks, before he was recruited as lead guitarist and songwriter by producer Jimmy Iovine for the RCA-signed band Flame, which was fronted by powerful lead vocalist Marge Raymond. Flame released two albums: "Queen of the Neighborhood" in 1977 and "Flame" in 1978.\n', '

Returning to session work following the breakup of Flame, Crespo attracted the attention of Aerosmith\'s management following the departure of Joe Perry from the band in 1979. Invited to audition for the vacant lead guitarist position, Crespo was asked to join Aerosmith in October 1979. Contributing a guitar solo to the song "3 Mile Smile" for the already recorded Night in the Ruts album, Crespo commenced touring with the band soon after joining. The tour was hampered by the increasingly erratic state of the band\'s singer, Steven Tyler, at this stage heavily beset by drug addiction and suffering several on-stage collapses. Drummer Joey Kramer formed a band called Renegade during this time, and he recruited Marge Raymond to sing lead and front the band. Jimmy Crespo, Tom Hamilton and the late Bob Mayo completed the line-up. An album was recorded at the Power Station in NYC and was produced by Tony Bongiovi, but it has never been released. Renegade is somewhat of a legend in the music industry and the tapes are much sought after by fans. Tyler, after realizing that Renegade was buzzing the industry and about to take off, came back to fulfill his contractual obligation to CBS. Renegade is referenced in several Aerosmith autobiographies.\n', '

Despite the singer\'s troubles, including an incapacitating motorcycle accident in January 1981, Crespo and Tyler forged a songwriting and touring partnership. Crespo co-wrote six of the songs on Aerosmith\'s 1982 album Rock in a Hard Place with Tyler. Crespo performed most guitar duties on the album.\n', '

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