Aerosmith's Steven Tyler: "When I Took 'Idol,' There Was a Lot of Jealousy"

Ross Halfin

While in town filming the last two seasons of American Idol, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler kept a storm of paparazzi busy. But that's not all he was doing during his time in L.A. Following his daily reality show obligations, Tyler would sneak off to West Hollywood's Swing House Studios to meet up with Joe Perry and co. and put the finishing touches on the band's latest album.

We recently spoke by phone with Tyler and Perry, who had played a show in their hometown of Boston the night before. "It was veni vidi vici, baby. We came, we saw, we needed a Kleenex and a cigarette," says Tyler.

With West Coast Sound Aerosmith's toxic twins discuss recording their first studio album in 10 years, Music From Another Dimension, and "losing their shit" over local L.A. bands. They play at the Hollywood Bowl tonight.

How has the tour been going so far?

STEVEN TYLER: Just stupid great -- and without a record. We've got a single ["Legendary Child"] out but we're not putting the album out till Nov. 6. South America and Japan sold out and now the States. We're on about show 11 and the band is on fire now.

Aerosmith are releasing their first solo album in 10 years. What makes this different from past Aerosmith releases?

JOE PERRY: This one has a lot of band-generated material on it. This is the first record we've done in a long time where the band got together and actually hammered out the arrangements and the whole vibe of each song.

ST: We went in with the original guys and just carved it out. It was like taking a weed whacker and going into the middle of an overgrown field.

Why so long between Aerosmith records?

JP: We've been trying to get this record done for 10 years, but somehow the stars weren't right. Every time we would get together, though, we'd write something new and get something else in the can. With this record, we were able to grab the best of that stuff -- some of it going back 20 years.

What is Aerosmith's songwriting process like after all these years? Very different than in the '70s, I'd imagine.

ST: The band kind of fell apart for a little bit, and it was one of those things where we said, "Let's get together no matter what it takes." The band flew to L.A., where I'm here with all the hoity-toities and doing Idol, and they sat in the studio with me and Marti Frederiksen. I said, "We'll do a song a day for a week -- just come out, I'll prove it to you." What do they say in The Godfather? "It was an offer they couldn't refuse." We did it and three of those songs are the singles on the record.