Rock 'n' Roller Coaster

Disney's Hollywood Studios (1999–2026)

In April 1998, Disney-MGM Studios (later named Disney's Hollywood Studios) announced that they would be adding Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.^[6] The ride was set to open in 1999 for the park's tenth anniversary.^[6] The park hired Vekoma to build the launched indoor roller coaster, and construction began two months prior to the announcement in February 1998.^[7] The track layout was completed by June 1998.^[8]

Soft opening cast member previews began in June 1999.^[7] The following month,^[9] the attraction held its grand opening on July 29 with a special, invitation-only party featuring Aerosmith as the guests of honor.^[10] Winners were taken to the park, in stretch limousines and received complimentary meals.^[11] After a special performance by painter Denny Dent, winners received the chance to ride the roller coaster with one of the Aerosmith band members. A picture from the special event was on display near the exit of the ride. In each seat of each train, five speakers surrounded each rider, consisting of two mid-range speakers, two tweeters, and a subwoofer placed under the seat.^[12]

On December 17, 2015, the location at Disney's Hollywood Studios hosted a special one-night-only overlay for Star Wars Galactic Nights, to promote the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens the same year. The queue line featured Star Wars movie posters, the Aerosmith pre-show was disabled and the speakers played music from the film.^[13] The same Star Wars overlay also occurred on April 14, 2017.^[14]

In 2016, the pre-show at Disney's Hollywood Studios was edited to digitally remove a "crude hand gesture" known as "The Shocker" made by Steven Tyler.^[15] In 2017, the Disney's Hollywood Studios location received new television screens mounted in the queue line, as guests approached the boarding area, displaying loading and safety steps in an effort to reduce boarding time.^[16] In addition, the exterior of the main ride building was given a new coat of paint.^[17]

Walt Disney Studios Park (2002–2019)

The attraction's version at Walt Disney Studios Park (now Disney Adventure World) officially made its debut in time for the park's grand opening on March 16, 2002.^[18][19] It featured the same track layout as the Walt Disney World installation, but the theme and queue line were different.^[20] The attraction was located in the Backlot area near Moteurs... Action!: Stunt Show Spectacular, becoming one of the park's only three opening day rides, with Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic and Flying Carpets Over Agrabah being the others.^[21] In 2007, the queue was modified to accommodate single riders in addition to FASTPASS.

It was announced at the 2018 D23 Expo in Japan that the Walt Disney Studios Park location would be receiving a complete remodel that would feature a new theme based on the Iron Man and Avengers franchises of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.^[22] The attraction officially closed on September 2, 2019, for its transformation,^[23][24] reopening as the newly revamped Avengers Assemble: Flight Force on July 20, 2022, as part of the new Avengers Campus themed land.^[25][22][26]

Queue

As guests entered the queue line, they walked into a high-ceilinged circular room themed to a fictional record label called G-Force Records. Walls were decorated with ceiling-high guitars and digital posters of Hollywood Records artists, and the floor depicts a giant record. These digital posters sometimes displayed guests' names as recording artists, accomplished by short-range RFID scanners that read their MagicBands^[31] Also on display to guests was a small exhibit of recording instruments in the stand-by queue.

Pre-show

Guests waited outside the doors of Studio C, while different musical instruments can be heard being played in Studio B during a rehearsal next door. As guests enter Studio C, Aerosmith is working on an instrumental recording of "Walk This Way" with a sound engineer (played by Ken Marino). The band greeted the guests as their manager (played by Illeana Douglas) walked in interrupting, telling the band they are running late to a scheduled show on the other side of town. As the band got ready to depart, Steven Tyler stopped and said they cannot leave the guests behind. Joe Perry and the rest of the band agree, as the manager sarcastically replies, "Well, guys, what do you expect me to do? Send them all with you?". At this time, a cast member in the back of the pre-show room would say "How about some backstage passes?", Steven would pause and say, "Wait a minute. I love that idea!", before turning to the band's manager and requesting "How about some backstage passes?" on behalf of the guests. She reluctantly agreed and made a phone call ordering a "super stretch" limousine, calling it a "really fast car". The limousine that Aerosmith boards in the background peels out, leaving their manager behind to her disappointment. As the scene ended, "Walk This Way" resumed playing but with vocals. Guests then exited the pre-show to the queue that led to the Lock 'n' Roll parking garage, where the boarding platform was located.^[32]

The pre-show of the attraction was modified over time. One version featured band member Joe Perry asking Chris to grab his black Les Paul guitar, which prompted a cast member in the pre-show area to phyisically pick up and remove a black guitar signed by Joe Perry from the set. As a backup, and in the event that a cast member was not available to participate, the pre-show film instead had an on-screen roadie appear on the side, saying "Hey, Joe, I'll get it for ya";^[33] this version of the pre-show remained until the last day of operation, while the physically present pre-show Chris was rarely done.^[34]

Disney's Hollywood Studios

Walt Disney Imagineering worked with Aerosmith to produce a special soundtrack for the roller coaster. Each coaster train featured different songs from the band, some containing some new lyrics written specifically for the attraction; for example, "Love in an Elevator" is sung as "Love in a Rollercoaster". Each train had a license plate in the back with puns such as "one quick limo" and "hate traffic", shortened as a license plate number. The soundtrack for the ride vehicles (with license plates) included:

• "Nine Lives" (1QKLIMO)
• "Love in an Elevator" and "Walk This Way" (UGOBABE)
• "Young Lust", "F.I.N.E.*", and "Love in an Elevator"^[c] (BUHBYE)
• "Back in the Saddle" and "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" (H8TRFFC)
• "Sweet Emotion"^[d] (2FAST4U)

"What Kind of Love Are You On", an unused song, was only used during testing and maintenance (sung as "What Kind of Ride Are You On" in the last line). Vehicles were rotated in and out of use after a period of many thousands of laps around the track. A sixth limo in the fleet had no license plate and was always "in refurbishment", however, the maintenance teams would switch out the plate and add the proper song to the new vehicle every time a rotation was made. Prior to the 2007 refurbishment, the UGOBABE license plate has been used as UGOGIRL, and only the UGOGIRL and BUHBYE limos had actual countdowns,^[37] before it was added to the rest of the ride vehicles, along with commentary from Steven Tyler.

Walt Disney Studios Park

The vehicles in Paris were called "Soundtrackers" instead of limousines, each one with its own theme and corresponding song and light show:

• "Back in the Saddle" and "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" (Green)
• "Young Lust", "F.I.N.E.*", and "Love in an Elevator" (Purple)
• "Love in an Elevator" and "Walk This Way" (Multicolored)
• "Nine Lives" (Red)
• "Sweet Emotion"^[d] (Blue)