Aerosmith News

Aerosmith is everywhere.

No matter where you look these days, Aerosmith seems to be there. The rock Gods of Boston are in movie theaters singing both the theme from "Spider-Man" and a Dodge commercial. Aero-singer Steven Tyler can be seen in magazines flaunting his famously thick lips in two different "Got Milk?" ads. Heck, Tyler will even show up wearing a Santa suit next December in an episode of the Disney Channel comedy "Lizzie McGuire."

Music fans will be glad to know they still can find Aerosmith in the more usual rock-band places. A new greatest hits collection,"O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits," arrives in stores Tuesday (July2nd), the sixth such compilation of Aerosmith's 30-year recording career and the first to gather songs from both its Columbia and Geffen releases.

And come August, Aerosmith will be back on the road, touring with Kid Rock and Run-D.M.C., a show that touches down at the Tweeter Center on Aug. 22, 24 and 26.

In separate interviews, Tyler and lead guitarist Joe Perry seemed equally eager to get back onstage. Otherwise, excitable, motormouth Tyler and thoughtful, down-to-earth Perry couldn't sound more different.

Larry Katz talks with Steven Tyler

Katz: Tell me about "O, Yeah!" Did the band decide what 30 songs would get on it?

Steven Tyler: But of course, my darling. But it was a no-brainer. Let me see. "Dream On" Duh. "Sweet Emotion", "Angel" You know what I mean? But if it was up to me it would be "Train Kept A Rollin'" "Young Lust," "Reason A Dog." But it is what it is. It's greatest hits. And the good thing is Sony bought the rights to the songs on Geffen. Isn't it strange? Don't you think a band should own its own songs? Crazy.

Katz: "O, Yeah!" gives fans two CDs for the price of one. Did you do that to make downloading it for free less appealing?

Tyler: Seeing that my mother company, Sony, and some other large conglomerates sat around 18 years ago and came up with this new format that you can download with no degradation, I don't think they were thinking about me or Bob Dylan or any of their clients. Now, because of the Internet, our back catalog is worth the price of a skateboard and a Sno-cone. I only thank God that I live to rock. I love looking over at Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton and singing to 20,000 people at the Tweeter Center. Not only do I get to be onstage with these guys, but I get to sing a song I wrote three months ago in my barn.

Katz: Is that where you wrote the two new songs on "O, Yeah!", "Girls of Summer" and "Lay It Down"?

Tyler: No. Sony called us up and said, "Look, you can either do a new record a year from now, a blues record or a greatest hits. But we need two hit singles on a greatest hits." Sure, like I got a couple in my back pocket. So I was talking to Joe while we were touring in Japan and told him my dream of going to an island. So on the way back we stopped in Maui and rented a house. We pushed all the furniture out of the living room, set up Pro Tools and brought in Marti Frederiksen to write with us. In 12 days, nose to the grindstone, we came up with five ditties and two are on the new album.

Katz: You'll be going out on tour with Kid Rock and Run-D.M.C. Do you think you'll all end up onstage playing together?

Tyler: Gotta do it. How do you stay away from that? That's like me asking you, "Larry, I know you're interviewing Kid Rock next week and I know Pamela Anderson's gonna be with him 'cause she's pregnant. Now, let me ask you, are you gonna be looking at her breasts?" Come on!

Katz: VH1 will broadcast a two-hour Aerosmith "Behind the Music" in August. Did working on it give you a perspective on your career?

Tyler: There's a larger than life truth people will see. There really are evils you can get something out of. There are losers and there are winners. Losers bitch and complain about what's wrong and winners do something about it. We've always been a band that's done both.

Like the thing with (former manager) Tim Collins. Here's a guy who helped us get sober and helped so much in our career, but in the end went to Sony and told them I was back on heroin. You don't do that. So he went out as large as he came in. Now look what we've done since we fired Collins. A song in Charlie's Angels; doing Saturday Night Live, doing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, launching a tour and four days later doing the Super Bowl. We did more in the first year after leaving Collins than in the whole time with him. But we would not have got to that if not for what he did.

It's interesting how Behind the Music is bringing this all up. I used to think that people like Collins were road kill and were to be buried without a headstone. But he really was monumental in the big picture. Believe me, God's got a plan for this band or we wouldn't have been around for this long.

Larry Katz talks with Joe Perry

Katz: You had knee surgery recently. Are you completely recovered and ready to get onstage?

Joe Perry: I just got the good news that I'm going to be OK to tour. I was going to go out and play if I had to do it from a stretcher. The doctor had to put a new tendon in, so the surgery was pretty extensive. I won't be able to jump around the way I usually do onstage, but I'll be able to walk around.