Kramer was born and raised into a Jewish family. Kramer was born in the Bronx, New York City, the son of Doris and Mickey Kramer, a businessman. His memoir, Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top, was released on June 30, 2009. Kramer is credited with originating the name Aerosmith. In his memoir, Kramer revealed that he idly conceived the name Aerosmith while listening to Harry Nilsson's album Aerial Ballet in 1968, two years before the band was formed. Kramer insists that there is no connection between the name "Aerosmith" and Sinclair Lewis' novel Arrowsmith. Shortly before joining Aerosmith, Kramer was attending Berklee College of Music and worked with Chubby & the Turnpikes (later to be known as Tavares) alongside Bernie Worrell. He made a guest appearance in the 22nd season of The Simpsons, in the episode "The Ned-Liest Catch", as a former partner of Bart's teacher Mrs. Krabappel, as told in the third-season episode Flaming Moe's, which featured the whole of Aerosmith, the first-ever band to guest star on the show. In 2015, NECA released a "Simpsons-ized" action figure of Kramer, as well as the other members of Aerosmith, as part of the fourth series in the company's Simpsons 25th Anniversary collectible figure line.