Aerosmith On Their New Album and How Impossible Steven Tyler Is After American Idol

Courtesy Aerosmith

It's been years since "The Bad Boys from Boston" have put out a studio album, with their most recent being 2004's Honkin' on Bobo. Yesterday, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, and Joey Kramer (minus Brad Whitford who is currently on tour with The Hendrix Experience) greeted an eager crowd at The Grove and announced their new studio album will be out within the next three months.. They revealed plans for an upcoming tour with Cheap Trick, which includes a stop at the Hollywood Bowl August 6th.

The band participated in an audience-driven Q&A regarding the upcoming tour and discussed whether or not Tyler is more difficult to work with now that he's "a big TV star" and the strangest thing that's ever been thrown on stage during an Aerosmith show -- and it might be the strangest thing ever thrown on any stage.

You have called this The Global Warming Tour. Can you tell us a bit about your inspiration for that?
Steven Tyler: Just that we've been setting fires and putting them out our whole career. You know, whether it's at Rolling Stone or out there with our own fans. We like to light fires under people's asses and what better title than Global Warming, right? Everybody's been dancing around the fire -- you know the tribal fires -- of rock and roll forever and we're just throwing in heat. And we haven't had a chance to play any new music in a bunch of years since Honkin' on Bobo so we're really looking forward to kicking some ass with this new album.

You mentioned a few new songs that will make it into the set. Can you give us any sense of song titles, types of songs, where that direction is going and when might this new album show up?
Steven Tyler: "Legendary Child," "Beautiful," "Out Go The Lights" -- a bunch of great songs on this record. And it will be out - what, in 3 months we'll be on tour, so in 2 months. We're looking to doing this as quickly as possible. We're almost done with the record. We have two more songs to finish and then we have to mix which should take us another month and a half/two months and we'll be in your face before you know it.

Tom Hamilton: But before the album comes out, there will be songs coming out too -- a couple of singles between now and then. The most amazing thing about being in a band is hearing your songs on the radio and we're very anxious to hear our new ones coming out of the speakers.

You guys are working with Jack Douglass again for the first time since 1975. What's different now compared to back then?
Steven Tyler: We had a dream team going here. Joe, myself, Marti Frederickson, Jack Douglass, are producing this record and it's just been unreal. We've done a record in four months, unheard of in Aerosmith territory so things are good. It's already crazy.

Joe Perry: What Jack brings is a little bit of that 1975 back, kind of a reminder of it. It gets you in the mood.

Tom Hamilton: Jack is part of the DNA of this band and we learned how to make records with him back in the '70s and that process and the way we get along with him and the way he inspires us is still happening. I mean the first day of writing and rehearsal that process came right back.