Dispelling the myth that bad-boy rockers don't have the best manners, Steven Tyler wanted to make sure all the celebs who participated in the recent MTV Icon event honoring Aerosmith recived a proper thank-you. So the star commisioned Manhattan T-Shirt makers Funky Lala to create a finged tee with the band's logo. Among the lucky few bestowed with the $68 keepsake: Kid Rock, Janet Jackson, Jay Leno and an attendee who didn't have to twist Tyler's arm for the gift, his actress-daughter Liv...

There are, among others, pictures of Steven Tyler, Russ Irwin, Marti Frederiksen & Bob Clearmountain mixing the new Aerosmith song "Girls of Summer" in April 2002.

http://www.johnkalodner.com/ArtistImages.html

An UCLA student who were there yelled at him, and he yelled back "WHAAAAAAT!?!?" in his classic scream.... :)

They showed him on KTLA (Channel 5 - Local LA station) during their 10 pm news... I know E! did a premiere thing tonight, but I don't know if he was on it...it repeats various times tomorrow.

I apologize for any confusion this may have caused, I guess I was just personally hoping for more than one new track. So... it does seem likely that what was posted yesterday really is the correct listing for "Ultimate," as the album seems to be titled.

The site is: thestaph.tripod.com
The Aerosmith show review is:
http://thestaph.tripod.com/thestaph/id8.html

I work on the News page from home and my stereo set is rarely silent during the time I'm writing and editing the stuff you've just been reading. I thought it would be nice to give you a little bit of insight into what kind of albums I play. I therefore introduce the NPWIPP: the News Page Work In Progress Playlist.

Aerosmith "Ultimate"

1) Dream On
2) Mama Kin
3) Same Old Song & Dance
4) Seasons Of Wither
5) Sweet Emotion
6) Walk This Way
7) Big Ten Inch Record
8) Last Child
9) Back In The Saddle
10) Draw The Line
11) Walk This Way (w/Run DMC)
12) Love In An Elevator
13) Rag Doll
14) What It Takes
15) Dude Looks Like A Lady
16) Janie's Got A Gun
17) Cryin'
18) Amazing
19) Dueces Are Wild
20) The Other Side
21) Crazy
22) Eat The Rich
23) Angel
24) Livin' On The Edge
25) Pink
26) Falling In Love
27) I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
28) Jaded
29) Fly Away
30) Just Push Play
31) Girls Of Summer (New Song)

-------------
This doesn't seem too likely, not as the final list of song to appear on it. The only new song listed is "Girls Of Summer," all previous reports has stated that several new tracks will be featured...

"Our unknown auther strikes again. Just as I was taking it easy my email lit up from RUDE JUDAS. First it was The Van Halen Chronicles and this time he takes on the Kings Of Pop: AEROSMITH.

The name of the article is Aerosmith: The Emperor's New Clothes. In classic Rude Judas style he rips the band to shreds while at the same time showing deep respect and admiration. Be sure to check this out and send up your Rude Reaction to us in an email and look for it in the soon to be posted Rude Reactions page!

Classic Rock Revisited Staff"

Aerosmith recorded "Painted On My Heart" for the "Gone In 60 Second Soundtrack," but it wasn't included on that album. The song was instead recorded by The Cult.

IF this is true I guess it means we'll get to hear Aerosmith's version too...

Two New Songs On Latest Aerosmith Best-Of Collection
04.25.2002

"Girls of Summer," the midtempo song Aerosmith debuted on mtvICON will be one of at least two new songs on a greatest-hits collection due June 25.

Another new track, "Bad Enough," will also be included. Both songs were written in Hawaii last month by vocalist Steven Tyler, guitarist Joe Perry and Marti Frederiksen, who wrote, produced and co-wrote the band's last record, 2001's Just Push Play (see "Aerosmith Head To Hawaii To Record New Tunes"). The still-untitled two-disc set will include hits from the band's years on Geffen and Columbia.

The upcoming album won't be the only Aerosmith-related double-disc to hit shelves this year. Drummer Joey Kramer has just released a set called Aerosmith's Joey Kramer Drum Loops and Samples on East/West that retails for approximately $150. The collection features 80 tracks of beats that DJs can sample without having to pay a licensing fee. While none are from the band's back catalog, there are funk, ballad and rock beats that sound similar to Aerosmith songs. Kramer has also created a 10-CD version for the comprehensive DJ beat collector.

On 04/22/2002, the Japanese newspaper NIKKAN SPORTS reported about what can be found below. The same day a lot of Japanese newspapers reported the same thing.

Summary of newspaper report.

1.
FIFA World Cup 2002 Official Concert / International Day,
06/27/2002
Aerosmith will perform for 80 minutes.

2.
That concert opens 17:00 - closes 21:30.
The audience will be 50000 or more.
The ticket price is 15750 JPN.
The concert will air worldwide on TV.

3.
This concert will feature two headliners.
Japanese band "B'z" and Aerosmith will play 80 minutes each.
Opening act is TBA.

4.
There are plans for B'z and Aerosmith to perform together, at the end of the concert.
Maybe that song will not be a B'z or Aerosmith song,
it will be a Rock-classic, like a Led Zeppelin song.

5.
Aerosmith asked for/nominated B'z to perform at the concert.
They met during a Japanese TV-show "MUSIC STASTION" in 1997.
Steven liked B'z, so he wanted B'z to perform at this FIFA concert as the 2nd main act.

From Steven's Mouth...... to my ears:

The Greatest Hits compilation will include 3 NEW SONGS. Girls of Summer is 1 of them and the 1st single. The other 2 will be a choice of...

-"Climbing The Walls"
-"Bad Enough"
-"Easy"

Rolling Stone also has a got milk ad with Tyler.

According to sources, the new Aerosmith "Greatest Hits" album will be released on JUNE 18th, and will combine BOTH Columbia era and Geffen era tracks. Not really sure buisness wise how they can use Geffen material on Columbia albums, but I guess they reached a deal somehow...

Also, there will be only 2 new tracks on the GH. More to follow... Chris @ AeroFANatic.com

Artists appearing on the release include: Bobby Kimball (TOTO), Whitfield Crane (UGLY KID JOE), Doug Pinick (KINGS X), Tim "Ripper" Owens (JUDAS PRIEST), Ansley Dunsbar, Eric Singer, Vinnie Appice, Jeff Pilson, Jimmy Bain, Phil Soussan, Jimmy Haslip, Craig Goldy, Blues Saraceno, Steve Salas, Al Pirelli, Steve Lukather, Richie Kotzen and others.

The tracklisting:

'Eat The Rich' - Jack Russell/Doug Aldrich/Jeff Pilson/Carmine Appice,

'Let The Music Do The Talking' - Joe Lynn Turner/Al Pitrelli/Carmine Rojas/Pat Torpey,

'Round And Round' - Tim "Ripper" Owens/Reb Beach/Tim Bogert/Eric Singer,

Cryin'' - Jeff Scott Soto/Craif Goldy/Jason Scheff/Aynsley Dunbar,

'Kings And Queens' - Glenn Hughes/Steve Lukather/Tony Franklin/Frankie Banalie/Paul Taylor,

'Rats In The Cellar' - Fee Waybill/Richie Kotzen/Jimmy Haslip/Vinnie Colaiuta,

'One Way Street' - Doug Pinnick/Elliot Easton/Jimmy bain/Gregg Bissonette,

'Living On The Edge' - John Corabi/Stevie Salas/John Alderete/Brian Tichy,

'What It Takes' - Bobby Kimball/Waddy Wachtel/Michael Porcaro/Tony Thompson/Derek Sherinian,

'Lord Of The Thighs' - Whitfield Crane/Bruce Kulick/Marco Mendoza/Vinny Appice and

'Angel' - Robin McAuley/Blues Saraceno/Phil Sousson/Rick Morotta

As last years and first ever MTV Icon, music diva Janet Jackson got the party started with her heartfelt tribute and introduction to our rocking bad boys who made their way through their slew of fans as The Executioners scratched out Walk this Way and Sweet Emotion on the turntables. The guys then proceeded to sit in the audience surrounded by friends and family to take in the amazing evening that would follow. Between performances and testimonials, short video clips of Steven, Tom, Joey, Joe and Brad were shown talking about their relationships with one another, their passions as musicians as well as the trials and tribulations that have all been a part of the Aerosmith mix.

Taking the stage and covering Aerosmith tunes were artists Train performing Dream On, Papa Roach giving their spin to Sweet Emotion, Kid Rock jamming to Last Child, Shakira kicking out Dude Looks Like a Lady (joined by Steven Tyler as she walked into the audience where the band was sitting for a couple lines), and Pink for a pumped up rendition of Janie's Got a Gun. Laced between it all were testimonials by Christina Applegate, Alicia Silverstone, David Spade, Metallica, Jay Leno, Fred Durst, Method Man, Mila Kunis, Michelle Branch, and Jillian Ashley; as well as a remix of Walk this Way shown on the big screen by Sum 41, Ja Rule, and Nelly.

For the evening finale, Jennifer Aniston and Liv Tyler introduced Aerosmith to the stage. Their stage was set too resemble Max's Kansas City from back in the day when it all began. With the rock presence of no other and in grand OLE Aerosmith style the guys played medleys of Movin' Out, Toys In The Attic, Cryin', a new song called The Girls of Summer which they announced they had just finished the day before, and Train Kept A Rollin! Just when you're thinking it couldn't have possibly been any better than this, Aerosmith then took to the stage again and announced that they were going to film a video for The Girls of Summer right then and there! They did a couple takes and Steven left the stage. On their own, Joe, Joey, Tom and Brad continued jamming camera crews a rolling for a few more takes on their new song, The Girls of Summer.

The evening was simply mind blowing folks! You'll have to see it for yourself tonight on MTV, check your local listing for time near you!

Movin' Out
Toys In The Attic
Cryin'
Girls Of Summer (just a little part but sufficient to understand how it sounds...)
Train Kept A Rollin'

From what I hear they sound amazing and are the entire length of the songs. The medley is 8megs while Kid Rock is only about 3 megs.

I'll repost the text here, but you'll have to go to the pages at MTV.com to get to see the video clips!

Aerosmith - The 'mtvICONS' Interviews

-- Interviews by Jesse Ignjatovic

If you're in your teens, perhaps "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" from the "Armageddon" soundtrack was your introduction to Aerosmith. For those in their 20s, it's a good bet that first memory of the 'Smith is inextricably linked to the Alicia Silverstone video trilogy from the early '90s ("Cryin'," "Crazy," "Amazing"). Someone in their 30s may have first seen and heard the band in Run-DMC's 1986 video for "Walk This Way," which saw Joe Perry and Steven Tyler busting through the recording studio wall with their mic stand, angry at the Adidas-wearing rappers for biting their rhymes. And a person in their 40s may remember the first time they pushed an 8-track tape of Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic into their car stereo in 1975, screaming along to "Sweet Emotion" while day-dreaming about Steven Tyler galloping around the concert stage in a black-and-white-striped unitard.

Whatever that moment was when you first realized that Aerosmith existed, that there were five guys named Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer and Brad Whitford who played rock and roll together and who immediately warranted an "Aerosmith Rocks!" or "Joe Perry Rulz!!!" pen-scratched into your loose-leaf binder, it's a moment that sticks. Aerosmith have been around for so long that they're a cultural reference point for people born in four different decades. Maybe even five. And that's why they're icons.

All five guys spent hours talking about what it's been like to be in Aerosmith for the last 30-plus years for the "mtvICON" special. We've compiled some of the best moments from those interviews here. In "In the Beginning ..." the band remembers the early days, from how Steven Tyler and Joe Perry met in the kitchen of a hamburger joint to how Tyler crouched under his father's piano, listening to Brahms as a six-year-old when he wasn't allowed to go downstairs to see the girl he liked. In "Making the Music," the guys talk about the songwriting process, and share their memories of writing "Walk This Way," "Janie's Got a Gun" and other classic tracks. "The Drug Years" is a chronicle of the group's battle with drug addiction and alcoholism. And in "Brotherly Love," the bandmates divulge how they've managed to get along — or not — over the years, and how the days of furniture-throwing and awkward moments between Joe and Tom's wives have turned into one big lovefest.

In The Beginning ...

Steven Tyler: When I met Joe Perry I was in this band called the Chain Reaction. We were a cover band, we had "Wooly Bully" down, we were playing at a place called the Barn. We went and ate at this restaurant, the Anchorage, and I'd order my French fries with my cheeseburger and I'd smoke a nice Marlboro along with that. And the French fries were brilliant, they were great. They were crispy, delicious, thick. I asked, "Who made these?" Well, this guy in the back. I said, "Can I meet him? Bring him out." They didn't. So I went back. And there he was. Joe Perry. Short hair — well, kind of long for the time, but not like I liked it — black horn-rimmed glasses with tape (mouths "with tape" again).

Three years later, I was mowing the lawn, I get down toward the bottom, and this MG pulls up. And it's Joe Perry. That same guy, with hair down to here. (motions to his waist). Like the Pretty Things. Horn-rimmed glasses, just hair waving in the car. "Yo dude!" I said. "Hey man, what are you doing?" "Oh, I'm in this band, I'm playing over at the club," he said. I said, "Wow, great, maybe I'll come see you tonight." He goes, "Yeah, come."

[Later at the show] I thought, if I can get my melodic sensibility in with this f--- all, this music that is just pure feeling, we'll have something. Thirty years later we got Aerosmith.

Joe Perry: Steven Tyler was kind of the local hero because he had the song on the jukebox at the hamburger place where I worked. And Tom [Hamilton] and I heard about him and he'd come up every summer with his band and play.

I remember them coming into the place where we worked ... it was kind of a soda fountain hamburger place, a summer kind of place. I used to do everything from sweep the floor to scrub the grill to make the fried clams and French fries. So I was working out back and they came in one day, him and his band. I guess that's how you were supposed to act when you had a rock band — dress like you came from Greenwich Village and be kind of loud. He's three years older than me, and when you're 16 or 17, that's a big difference, especially when he'd been in the recording studio and his band sounded great. His reputation preceded him. So when he came in he was clowning around, I remember they were sitting at a table down at the other end of the place and throwing food. I had to clean it up when they left.

Tom Hamilton: We used to play at the Barn. And the Barn was the Holy Grail. If you were in a band then, you wanted to play the Barn. It was the place where supposedly a lot of really bad things went on that your mother wouldn't want you to do. So of course we wanted to be there. And Joe and I had a band with a friend of ours named Pudge. Steven was a summer kid. He was from New York. He was in bands that were unbelievable. We used to sneak in to see them play at places that would just be so sold out, there wasn't a chance of getting a ticket. And they did their own songs, they did cover songs ... they covered Beatles and Stones songs and Yardbirds songs, and did them probably better than the original band. So here was this guy that everyone just assumed was going to be a monster someday. And in the meantime, Joe and I were listening to the Who, Ten Years After, Beatles, Stones, Yardbirds, Cream, Hendrix — just our total guitar heroes. And we would get up onstage and try to be that. As far as harmonic theory, and whether the notes were right, we weren't that worried about it. We were just worried about playing loud and fast.

Tyler: I was called n----- lips at school. Remember, high school for me was the '60s, the '50s. I was a white boy with these big lips, so all the kids on the block made fun of me. My mom said, "All the better to kiss the girls with, so don't listen to 'em." Um, shut up.

I was always over-amping on something because I was so excited. I'd be out playing ball in left field looking for bugs and crushing ants and missing the high balls. No one ever had any faith in me. My mom did, school didn't. Never got math. Didn't get anything but choir and gym. I felt like music was my only outlet.

I grew up in a small tenement apartment on the sixth floor — the apartment was the size of a postage stamp. And my father had a grand piano and two chairs and a TV, and I grew up wanting to go outside, but I couldn't, so I sat under the piano and listened to him playing Brahms. And wanting to go see the girl downstairs, but I couldn't, 'cause I was six. So I took all those emotions and stuffed them and listened to classical music. So I always took what I was told I couldn't do and threw it into music. "You'll never make it," my father would say, "you've gotta have something to fall back on." But there never was a whole lot of support from school on, so it was always, "I'll show you." Even to this day. My favorite saying is, "You'll miss me when I'm quiet."

Perry: All the guys in the band lived in one house together. Every room in the house was a bedroom, except the kitchen. So every room also doubled as something else. Tom's room had the piano in it. We weren't unlike so many other kids coming into Boston for school with so much idealism and being away from home for the first time, and living with a bunch of roommates, and seeing who you could meet ... who liked your kind of music, who else was in town, what other bands were playing. That's really what it was about. The only thing was, we didn't go to school. We partied. We were, hopefully, the band you came to hear to party and listen to. It was around the clock, pretty much. You never knew who was going to walk through the door next.

Hamilton: As the songwriter, Steven was very demanding about the dynamics: when it was loud, when it was quiet, when it crescendos. And at first it felt to me like too much technical stuff to learn. I just wanted to turn up the bass and pound on it. I never really cared about vocals until I was in this band. I always thought vocals were there so the girls would listen.

Brad Whitford: We fought always about the volume — every day at rehearsal, every show we did. It's too loud it's too loud it's too loud. And it probably was. The amplifiers were better than the PAs and the monitors. And it made it very difficult for Steven to have to sing in that environment. And we would have a lot of fights about it. Furniture would get thrown around the room. Joe and I might say, "Oh, it's not that loud," when we knew it was pretty loud.

Making The Music

Tyler: Joe Perry is one of the greatest riff masters of all time. Even in the old days when he was gacked to the nines and stoned out of his gourd and nodding out, he would still have some kind of a lick. I would come with my father's melodic sensibility in the sense that something had to go there, we needed a melody line. And he would give me a cassette full of all these riffs and I would listen to them and I'd get so stoned, and I would let the music do the talking to me, to tell me what lyrics to sing. And when you find somebody like that that you can write with it's like, "Oh! Pay dirt."

Perry: The first thing we wrote together was "Movin' Out." That incorporated some of our mutual influences. So it really gave us a kind of sound to build on. That's why it didn't stop after that. I remember sitting on the bed in the apartment and going, "This is new and different." I can remember being there that day, sitting there with a guitar, coming up with the stuff ... it was amazing. And then to play it live to an audience and have them react, it was great. It's what it's all about.

Tyler: We worked on [Toys in the Attic] with Jack Douglas, and I arrive at the studio, everyone's gacked out of their gourd and drinking Jack Daniel's, and it's my night for singing. So I go over to get my stuff and I realize I left all the lyrics to the album in the cab. Gone. And there's a song called "Walk This Way." Track was finished, I freaked out. I had my pencil, paper and my cassette with the song. It was eight o'clock at night, everybody had left so I knew no one would hear me so I wouldn't be embarrassed. I put the headphones on, started singing, came up with these great lyrics, realized I left my notebook downstairs, but I had the pencil. So I wrote all the lyrics out on the wall. Right by the exit sign, right by the stairway, I wrote all the lyrics to "Walk This Way." Comes to pass years later that Run-DMC takes it, when hip-hop is brand new, and it becomes the backbone of all that I ever believed in. And it's the backbone of today's music.

Hamilton: "Sweet Emotion" just started from a bass riff. You know, just (singing) bum bum da da da ... the intro. I actually had that in my head when we did the Get Your Wings album. And I showed it to Steven and he was not relating to it much. And then he got onto whatever he was working on, and I kind of shied away. Just kind of saved it. And then the next time it came up was on the following album, Toys in the Attic, and I'd been doing more on it. I'd come up with another part, and written some guitar parts. I remember when I first played it for Steven he went, "No man, it's backwards. Instead of starting there, the one is there." And that threw me off, but then I tried it that way. I got myself to learn it that way, and started to feel the sense of it.

Tyler: For "Janie's Got a Gun," what does a white boy know about a gun? What does he know about Janie? Who is Janie? So in many instances, I had to rely on another personality that was the me that nobody liked. That was the me that would go down to the basement and take a couple pills. And then start getting this buzz in this fantastic place where I'd boldly never gone before. But in that place finding out who Janie was and why she had a gun.

Hamilton: I always thought Steven and Joe were an awesome collaboration. Those guys would go away for a month and come up with riffs and just jam. Steven would play drums, Joe would stand there and play guitar, and they would come up with riffs. There would be a half hour of jamming, and all of a sudden Steven would say "Stop! Stop! Stop! What did you just play?" "I don't know, just a riff." "No no! What was it?" And most of the time we can remember what it was and develop it. Jam on it, play it over and over, until it threw off another idea.

Whitford: We all used to write together. That's part of what made it feel like a band. We don't write together anymore. I don't know why I don't write with them. You would really have to ask them. That was OK with me because they didn't want me to be there and I didn't want to be there.

Actually I feel very sad about it and I think it's quite selfish. But that's the way they want to do it. Would I like to be a co-writer? Yeah, I wouldn't mind it. But only if it's with open arms

The Drug Years

Perry: I had the typical attitude of most 20-year-olds when it came to drugs, where you figure, "It ain't gonna happen to me. I'm smarter than that." And that's all. I didn't think that much more past it. I was careful enough not to go over the top. We certainly mixed enough things together ... and you mix that with fast cars, and you're bound to have accidents. We heard about it happening to a lot of people, and we had a lot of accidents. I can't even count all the smashed-up, totaled cars amongst all of us, but fortunately we walked away from all of them.

Hamilton: I never thought it was a dependency for me. I thought it was just what everybody was doing and I'm doing it too. As long as I could get up onstage and play a whole show and not make too many mistakes, I felt like I was in the groove. So my awareness of how drugs and alcohol really affected me negatively didn't come until after I kind of got out of it, after I got clean.

Whitford: We had expensive tastes and we were making more money, so you'd buy better drugs. And it was like every night was Saturday. That was just the way it was. That was the '70s. And when you're 20 years old, for some reason you think you can do that forever.

There were certainly enough moments where it looked awfully dangerous. It was like working around high explosives. People were starting to kind of go in their own directions, just as a survival technique. I can't be around this. This is too crazy. But what else am I gonna do? In my case, I didn't know what else to do. I wanted to be in Aerosmith but I didn't know how to fix any of the problems. As the drug use escalated it really started to become a factor in people showing up for work or being able to work. How do you deal with that? For myself It was a sense of helplessness. Most of the people I talked to were sympathetic but also had no answers.

Hamilton: Maybe this is the mercenary side of it, but I never worried about [Joe and Steven's] health. I worried about whether we were going to finish a tour or get the songs done.

I really started to feel the consequences of it when we started rehearsing for the Draw the Line album. The only ones that would really be there were me, Joey and Brad. And there were days when I was there but not really there. But I really started to worry because Steven and Joe weren't coming to rehearsal. And it's not that they weren't into the record or anything — they were both working on music — but all of a sudden this close huddle that I was used to was not happening anymore.

Whitford: Things were getting pretty bad. But we realized we just lost the whole focus of why did we come here? Why did we get into this room? What got you excited about this when you were a kid? Was it beer? No, I think I was watching Ed Sullivan one night and the Beatles were on. I don't remember any beer. And you go back there. You get clear enough and you go back there and you go, "That's why I'm here."

Perry: I had a lot of fun partying and doing the things I was doing but one of the things they point out to you is that you're feeling sh--ty and sick a lot more than you're feeling good. And you're spending a lot more time chasing down the drugs and chasing down everything else than you are doing anything else. And then you put up with whatever discomfort you might have for the first time you go to a bar and you have to order soda water. It depends on how important it is to you not to wake up with a hangover. And I use the hangover as just one example, whether it's finding your car wrapped around a telephone pole for the 15th time or 10 stitches in your forehead from falling down stairs 'cause you were drunk, whatever it is that gets you to the point where you go, "I'll trade whatever discomfort I'm having now." For us it was some friends around us and our manager that said, "Look, if you clean up it'll open up a lot of doors. The worst that can happen is you can clean up, find out that your life is worse and you can always start drinking again. You can always go out and get high again. Why not give it a try?" So we figured, let's give it a try.

For artists that use [drugs], it's a shortcut. You don't need that. You're born with the talent, it doesn't give you the song. You have that inside you. And I think that what happens is you can convince yourself that you can't do it without it and that's one of the hurdles as a musician you have to get over. I didn't think I could go onstage and play unless I had a beer to loosen up. Well, if it was only one beer to loosen up I'd probably still be drinking today. But one beer always led to another to another to another and then a bottle of Jack Daniel's and then the phone would ring and it would be the dealer. But one of the things I realized was that the first time I heard rock and roll and the hair on the back of my neck stood up, I wasn't drunk. I was pretty sober. So when I put that together I realized that I'm getting off more on the music than I have in the last 10 years because I'm clean.

Joey Kramer: It was ruining my life, it was taking my band apart, it was taking us down. It was interfering with my relationship — my love was with cocaine as opposed to anything else. I didn't consciously realize that at the time; I realize that now. But I wasn't a smart enough guy to realize that I needed help in making getting sober happen.

Perry: Cleaning up was a big chance ... we felt like it was a big risk. We felt if word got out that we didn't drink and do drugs anymore, we'd lose a lot of our fans. And I know we still have to answer the question, "You guys must be really boring now." I think it's less of an issue now, but back then it seemed to be a really big issue, because everyone was still out there partying and Aerosmith was known as a party band. But it was really about the music. We figured it would be better to give our fans the music than not. And there was no way we could make music on that other level. We had reached the bottom.

Brotherly Love

Tyler: Joe's really a hard sell. He's always been a loner. I had a relationship with Joe unlike any relationship with anybody else. I dreamt of meeting somebody like this who would have licks that I could throw on top of ... that we could possibly be a songwriting team. It's always been a little sad for me with Joe, in that I get the lick, but I don't get that full-time friend. And he may argue with me to this day about it, but I think Joey had an experience with Joe as well, where he asked, "Why can't we be really close friends?" And Joe said, "Just because we're in a band doesn't mean we have to be best friends." And I have this passion in me that is so much deeper that I feel that in order to get the true value out of a friendship you gotta give the all. Even when the other person doesn't think so.

Perry: Steven's f---ed up. I know where he's coming from and what he's really running. A lot of times he'll come up to me and say something and I'll immediately just say the opposite, whether it's to just piss him off. Then I'll listen to it, think about it. And I'll usually come back and say, "Yeah you're right," or "I thought about it." It's that family stuff. And I'm sure he does the same thing with me. But he's got really good intuition. And a lot of times, I hate to admit it, but he's right.

Over the years, I've looked at the band as a brotherhood. It is a family in a sense. You have to have a bigger vision of what you have. And don't let the stuff get personal. We've made every mistake you can make. We've argued and walked out of rooms and not spoken to each other for weeks. The band broke up. But we've learned over the years how to make it work. Even when we do things to each other that go right to the core, there's still something about having the band that's bigger than that, and we work through it.

Kramer: The band is a democracy. I compare us a lot of times to a blueberry pie. If you take a slice of blueberry pie out of the pie and replace it with apple ... APPLE! It doesn't work. How I can relate that to being a democracy is that we're all blueberries. We all work together in that if I have a question about something that I'm not real sure of about myself, I'll go to Tom to ask him, and I'm going to get an honest answer from him because he knows me. Nothing is going to be held back. There's no person that's more important than the other when it comes to treating each other equally.

I think that Steven and I both relate on a very gut level. He feels a lot of the same sensitivity I do as far as emotions. He expresses them one way, I do another. There are times he reads me like a book, and I don't like that, and there are times I do the same to him. We can have a good cry, look in one another's eyes, tell the other that we love him, and be done with it. He can piss me off to the point where I want to hate him for the moment, and I know I can do the same to him.

I think the one guy that probably inspires me to continue being a loving soul is Joe. I can remember when we first started the band — I remember an instant one day when we walked down the street and Joe just said to me, "Why do we have to be buddies to play in a band together?" And for me to hear that was just unspeakable. Because for me, a big part of being in a band was the camaraderie. And having your girlfriends get along and eating together and going to movies together. That's the way I was. So for him to say that to me really threw me off. Now here we are 30 years later, and I can have the same kind of conversation with Joe that I can have with anyone else. I feel closer to this guy now than I ever have in 30 years.

Hamilton: My relationship with Joe was pretty difficult at one point because our wives didn't get along at all. And for me, the awkwardness came out of my WASP upbringing, where an awkward conversation is a drag. Every day there was potential for extremely awkward confrontations. "Hey, your wife said this about my wife," or vice versa, so we're not talking to each other right now and petty stuff like that. That's what I worried about. I didn't worry about whether the band was going to make it or not, I worried about, "Oh my God, what if tomorrow when we leave the hotel, Terry and I wind up in the same limo as Joe and Elissa?"

You may be having an argument with this person but yet he's one of only four other people in the entire world that understands how you experience things. With Joe and I, there's a lot of things that are kind of unspoken. Things that we find ironic or humorous about events that come along where you don't have that same reaction to those events as you would with another group of people. So it makes it like a secret society.

One thing that I have had to come to grips with in life is that I don't have that much natural musical talent or aptitude, which makes me feel good because that means everything I've gotten is because of wanting it so freaking bad I was willing to fight for it. There have been a lot of times where getting a musical nod from Steven really feels good. And it really spurs you on. Steven is the kind of person that is so blunt that they are beyond the realm of common courtesy, but that's exactly why they are so filled with value.

Whitford: I can hate these guys one day, or one moment or five minutes, but with the amount of things that we've done together, I love these guys, all of them. I love them deeply. I don't know how or when [Aerosmith] has to end, but when it does end, it's going to be a crushing blow. Because you put in so much time. And you finally learn to live with each other. I think for many, many years we looked at each other and went, "Boy, if I could just change this about him," and you finally realize you don't change anybody. If there's anything in the mix, it's you. That's the only thing you can control. And once you figure that out it makes life a lot easier.

Kramer: In the end, when I'm onstage and I'm looking out in front of me, and I see those four asses in front of me, that's my favorite place to be.

Tyler: It is so f---ing hard to come up with a song. It is so hard to be creative. It is so hard to put aside that I missed my daughter's function at her school. What do I say to her? And live the life and balance the two. And deal with managers that go public and say you're stoned again. Or go and tell your wife that you're screwing girls in Florida. It's so hard to keep it all in check and still come out with a song and a dance and want to be onstage. But I look over and see Joe and go, "Wow man, this is my brother." And I see Brad and go, "Wow man, this is the guy I love." And it's really all about those moments. All the rest pales.

Actually I feel very sad about it and I think it's quite selfish. But that's the way they want to do it. Would I like to be a co-writer? Yeah, I wouldn't mind it. But only if it's with open arms."

There's a video of Brad saying this at MTV.com [click here for the video] and he looks quite lost and sad...


------
I can only speak for myself but I sure wish they would write together again too. Hey, Steven and Joe, kick out all the outside writers and let Brad get some of his songs on the next album! I obviously don't know how much of a songwriter he is these days (as he don't get to put any of the things he write on an Aerosmith album), but we're talking about the man behind some of Aerosmith's very best classics, like Round And Round, Last Child and Nobody's Fault for god's sake! That is some of Aerosmith's heaviest material right there! How a person who has his name credited as writer of "Nobody's Fault" isn't invited with open arms into the writing process is beyond me!
I believe I once saw an interview with Brad where he stated he's been writing mainly songs in more of a Jazz vein (can anyone confirm this? I can't seem to find this interview anywhere). Now, this may not really fit on an Aerosmith record, but on the other hand neither does plain pop as far as I'm concerned. I'd love to hear how it would sound if Aerosmith was to do some jazzy stuff. I'm sure it would beat most of the Just Push Play album anyway... ; )

Sorry, but I believe it's true. Now, if I was in the position of deciding what Aerosmith should do next, I'd say the "Toxic Twins" should encourage the "LI3" to take a bigger part in the making of the next Aerosmith album. You are 5 members in the band, not just two. Hey, just sit down, jam and write the songs together! We all know you are more than capable of writing good songs on your own. You don't need Hudson, Frederiksen or any of the other guys (not to put these outside guys down, nothing against you :) to make a good Aerosmith album. Go on and give us a real back to the roots album! Give us some hard bluesy rock, or better yet, the Blues album there's been talk about for a while now!

OK. End of the webmaster's monologue. / Cristoffer

Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean On Sobriety & Aerosmith's Steven Tyler
Tue Apr 16, 9:07 PM ET

(4/16/02, 6 p.m. ET) -- Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean was present at the taping of MTV Icon: Aerosmith on Sunday (April 14) in Los Angeles. The ceremony airs Wednesday night (April 17) on the cable network.

McLean explained to LAUNCH that he can relate to Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler not only because Tyler is a superb vocalist, but because Tyler also battled his drug demons and soundly beat them. "Well, Steven is practically my idol. He's a great human being. He's got a great heart, he's got a great voice, and he's got a great future. They've been doing this for years, and they haven't stopped. We have the whole sobriety thing similar, which is great. I look up to him," he said.

As for McLean, he explained to LAUNCH that after struggling through his own highly publicized battle with alcohol, he's now doing better than ever. "I've got almost 10 months now," he boasted proudly of his sobriety.

-- Jason Gelman, New York and Billy Johnson Jr., Los Angeles

- The greatest hits set is due June 25, featuring the new track "Girls of Summer"

- Tom's favorite Aerosmith music video is "Livin' on the Edge"

- Hamilton talks about the making of videos

- He talks about Steven and Joe's recent stop in Hawaii, and about the writing/recording process.

- He says they want to release a live DVD, but that they haven't had time to work on it yet. Also, references to compiling the post-Get A Grip videos

- Hamilton didn't seem too happy with Geffen and the Young Lust album

- He talks about the World Cup show set for June in Japan. He says he doesn't think they're doing a full gig. He think they'll do "an hour-and-twenty or an hour."

- Some bullshit (sorry, yes, I'm a bit bitter) about why they haven't done Europe at all on this tour yet. Saying "Somebody actually came up to me and said, 'Well maybe in Europe, parents don't want kids to go to your shows because you're Americans and you might get attacked!'" The band believed that? That's just stupid... :(

- Hamilton says he hasn't heard about the song that Nikki Sixx supposedly wrote for them.

- Regarding Eminem covering "Dream On" on his next album in some form, Hamilton says "Yeah. We hope so. I don't know at what stage that's at. You never know until it comes out. You know what, I don't want to say because I'm not sure whether just going to sample part of it or what. Something he's doing has its basis in the song."

- He also talks about some ideas he has for Aerosmith on-line, the differences between recording Nine Lives and Just Push Play... and whether he thinks there will ever be another album of all band-written songs..


As you can tell, there's alot of interesting things to read about....


from billboard.com:

Aerosmith Relishes 'Icon' Status
By Jonathan Cohen

As bassist Tom Hamilton puts it, Aerosmith's collective feet are pushed solidly to the floor. On the heels of the million-selling Columbia album "Just Push Play" and the No. 7 Hot 100 hit "Jaded," the group spent most of 2001 on the road, playing sold-out shows that bridged the musical generation gap for fans old and new. Indeed, all the hard work over the past 15 years has helped the Boston quintet revive a career that was nearly extinguished by drug abuse and rock star egos in the mid-'80s.

Now, a new generation of artists weaned on Aerosmith's down-and-dirty rock'n'roll has paid tribute to the group via MTV's "icon" special, taped last weekend in Los Angeles and airing tonight (April 17) on the music channel. Pink, Kid Rock, Shakira, Papa Roach, the X-ecutioners, and others rattled off their own interpretations of Aerosmith favorites, while the band was recognized for a lifetime's worth of memorable music videos, such as "Cryin'," "Livin' on the Edge," and "Amazing."

With a cover of the "Spider-Man" theme on the accompanying movie soundtrack and a greatest hits set (due June 25 and featuring the new track "Girls of Summer") in the pipeline, Aerosmith's members have had little time to rest. Hamilton recently talked to Billboard.com about the MTVicon honor, some possible future projects, and what keeps him busy during those rare moments of free time.

-----------

What does this MTVicon honor mean to the band? Videos seem to have been a very important part of Aerosmith's promotional campaigns for many years.

When MTV first went on the air, it was during a three-year period where Aerosmith was kind of broken up. I remember how cool and exciting and new and different it was, and thinking, 'Wow, we're not going to be there for that.' We've managed to put the band back together, and I think maybe having a taste of missing out on [early MTV] made us really want to concentrate on videos and doing as well as we could with it. It's been an amazing part of us getting back together and getting back up there with our career.

Do you have any favorite clips that stand out?

You know what? My favorite is the "Livin' on the Edge" video. There was something that just came together on that video that to me made it so cool.

How involved is the band in each video treatment?

At that period we were working with a guy named Marty Callner, who we did a lot of videos with. The style of working with him is that we would brainstorm. We'd have these really long brainstorming meetings and then we'd come out with, like, legal pad-size pieces of paper filled with ideas. We'd kind of start shooting, and going down the list, and basically whatever we had time to shoot was what we got. He used to call it jazz. You know, he'd just record and film tons and tons of footage and go and fish out the good parts. Then he'd worry about how it went together with the concept.

Nowadays, it just seems like with our career, the foot is just to the floor. More and more, we'll go out and look for treatments and concepts that are already kind of put together by directors that we like to work with. As far as that initial thinking up the theme of the video, we're a little more in the background on that. But nothing gets shot until we know what's going to happen and we've put our two cents in on it.

Do you expect there will be anymore videos for "Just Push Play?"

Probably not, but I'd love to. I think there's a single on that record. We had a big hit with "Jaded," and then the next two were "Fly Away From Here" and "Sunshine." What was the other one? [he hums the riff]

The title track!

Yeah! "Just Push Play." Thanks! Those came out and people said, 'Oh yeah, good songs, good songs.' But they weren't really 'hits.' I think there's another song on this record that could be a hit and I suppose it's just all timing. It's got a lot to do with what else is on the radio at the same time.

For the MTVicon taping, are you guys involved in shaping the actual program?

We've been very active in searching out people to come and do songs on it. It's really a cool thing, the idea. Tribute albums have been around for a while, but having a show where artists you think are pretty cool come and do your songs is a neat thing. On a creative level, I think it's a really valid exercise.

And this is where I get my grateful feeling: the only reason we're doing it is because there's an audience demanding it. It's just an amazing feeling that after all these years, there's still a lot of people out there saying, 'We want to see these guys!'

What can you tell us about Steven and Joe's recent stop in Hawaii?

Steven and Joe stopped off there on the way back from Japan to write a couple of songs. It's hard to tell the difference these days from writing and recording, because stuff gets demoed as it gets written. The studio is almost like an instrument in itself. Sometimes we'll keep most of a demo and just replace parts that need to be focused a little more, and sometimes we'll redo everything. We're thinking of a lot of things.

There has also been some talk of a DVD. Anything happening with that?

Oh, we were thinking about putting out a live record this year. We probably won't do that. But in conjunction with that idea, when we were out on the road, we started filming shows. We have a lot of footage we haven't even had time to deal with yet. But, I mean, we have not put out any longform video product in so long that we have a massive pile of it. It's going to wind up on DVDs and being available, but it's just a matter of having a period where we can actually concentrate on it.

Do you imagine that would be grouped into era by era? Or would you release a couple of huge, all encompassing DVDs?

We haven't really gotten as far as the concept and everything. We haven't really gotten to that point. But just off the top of my head, we have such a pool of cool, interesting, and funny videotaped bits. We've wanted to get them out there for a long time.

But also, none of the videos we've done for like the last three albums have been out in a longform video. For "Permanent Vacation," "Pump," and I believe "Get a Grip," it was just a given that at the end of an album/tour cycle, we'd take all the videos we'd done for that, add in some behind-the-scenes footage, and put out a longform [video release]. But we haven't done it. It's funny. The density of stuff we have to deal with, as far as career stuff, it's much more than it ever used to be. It's great, but we'll get to stuff as we have time.

There has been no shortage of Aerosmith compilation and hits packages!

I know! People love compilations. It's usually delineated by what record company we were with. You have the Geffen era, then the Columbia era. I was thinking of the term pre-Columbian. Isn't that an archeological term [laughs]? So we've got early Columbian, Geffen, then we've got neo-Columbian. We'd love to do something that really covers the whole gamut.

Didn't Geffen do an archive cleaning last year?

They did. It was kind of like a double album. I think it was mostly stuff that had been out there before. You know what? I have not actually listened to that whole thing, so maybe I should shut up about it. They never sent us a copy! Do you believe that? It's common courtesy that you send a band a copy of the record you are putting out that involves them! They probably did and got lost in the shuffle. But I started seeing it around and thinking that I had to go to the record store and get that record. But then I would forget.

What can you tell us about the show Aerosmith is doing in Japan at the end of June?

Well, this show in Japan is the finale of the World Cup, which outside of America is beyond gigantic. Wars could get started over these things. For us to be asked to come and play at that, wow! It's just going to be a great chance for us to spread the word, you know? Spread the germs! I don't think we're doing a full gig. I think we'll do an hour-and-twenty or an hour. I'm sure it's part of a show where a lot of other stuff is going on. I don't know how many other bands are going to be on it or if it's going to be a rock show.

Could you see that leading to more shows this year?

Well, we're dying to go back out in the fall. We've basically done North America twice, although it was all major markets, which is the first time we've really ever done a tour that was all major markets. A lot of places where we only booked one show, we found we could have done two shows. So we went back and covered a lot of them again. As far as, have we worn out our welcome? We're not sure. But we want to make sure if we go back out that there's serious interest in it. We're just watching that now.

What about touring in Europe?

We haven't done Europe at all on this tour yet. My take is that we were totally into the North American mode, and then September 11th happened. That had a chilling effect on people planning tours in Europe. Somebody actually came up to me and said, 'Well maybe in Europe, parents don't want kids to go to your shows because you're Americans and you might get attacked!'

Did you guys ever get the chance to play in a smaller venue, just for kicks?

Yeah, we played the Joint in Las Vegas. That's one of the nights that we filmed, on 16mm, in fact. We've got all that to look at. We did one small show in Munich when we were over there on our press tour right when the record was coming out. We played at a decent-sized club. I think there were 900 people there. Those are so fun. That's when we really feel confident to bring out the old bluesy stuff. It definitely influences the set list. Very much so.

I've got to ask you about a couple of rumors I've heard. One is that Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue penned a song for possible inclusion on an Aerosmith record.

Not that I know of! It's possible. Did that happen sometime in the last eight or nine years? That fax has not come across my machine.

There is a rumor that Eminem is covering "Dream On" on his next album in some form.

Yeah. We hope so. I don't know at what stage that's at. You never know until it comes out. You know what, I don't want to say because I'm not sure whether just going to sample part of it or what. Something he's doing has its basis in the song.

Has Aerosmith considered making archival material available online in some form?

Yeah. I would really like to. First of all, we need to digitize all this stuff that we have. We had it archived, and the book, I swear, is five inches thick. A listing of all the little tidbits, everything from doing IDs in Japan, to filming little special things for conventions or something.

I think now that we're off the road, we can start thinking about our Web site more. We've got this 3-D Web site called Aerosmith World. You go in, and you pick an avatar. Then you go walking around in these rooms that are custom designed, according to our little tastes and quirks.

I have this vision of little areas where you would run across film bits. How that would then evolve into something you could go and buy, I'm not sure. But, you know, we've just got such a huge supply that it would be nice to do something like that and have it be available, for hopefully a really reasonable price.

The band definitely is interested in getting into projects that are not the once-every-two-years, blockbuster, career making or breaking album-type mode that we've been in. That has been the tradition in the industry until recently. People are starting to get used to the idea of things being a little more immediate and spontaneous. We want to do that. We also want to have our major presentations, but we're definitely interested in doing other things that would be smaller projects. You never know: the thing that makes a project big or small is how many people buy the record. So, we're always talking. And I think we're going to try a couple of those things.

Overall, "Just Push Play" seems a little more immediate than "Nine Lives." Can you talk about the process that went into making both albums?

I tend to look at records based on how it was to make them. "Nine Lives" was torture. We got a whole s***load recorded, but then we had this big meltdown in the band, so that this original wave of material that we did with Glen Ballard never saw the light of day. The idea was that we were going to go in with a different producer, Kevin Shirley, and re-record a few of them. And we wound up just making a whole new record. We also had a management regime change in there, and unfortunately there was some nasty press about that. It was really hard on the band emotionally. We probably came pretty close to just saying f*** it.

When we went to do this record, we were determined not to go through anything like that. We have new management that treats us like adults, so that's one thing. We were ready to go into the studio with a big producer and make an Aerosmith record, but something weird happened with the timing where he couldn't come up. We just started writing and demoing, and that just morphed into being the actual recording. Then we decided, 'Wait a minute. We want to keep going this way for awhile and see what happens.' The record company supported us in doing it, so the record was put together very spontaneously and in a very organic, creative process.

Instead of having a flurry of writing where Steven and Joe were traveling to all the different cities in the country working with this guy or that guy, we did it all close to home. And all as one long continuous process, as opposed to in the past, where there'd be a three or four week blast of writing, and then there'd be some inane appearance we'd have to go do that would completely break up the momentum. This time, it was like, 'You guys are in the studio and that's it until the record is finished.' We got a lot of support from the record company and from management in respecting the old-fashioned creative process.

At this point in Aerosmith's career, would you foresee doing an album with all band-written songs?

Yeah, well, I think so. I think that would be based on what I was talking about before, about having smaller projects come around from time-to-time, instead of one giant one. That's when I think everybody could relax about the make-or-break career decisions.

I think with the way people are wanting to get music these days, they want to go download it a piece at a time. Obviously I hope there's a resolution where people still want to buy music to some extent. But I think there's a desire out there for immediacy, and I think along with that desire is some understanding that it's not going to be the blockbuster syndrome. Things will be a little funkier. We can throw stuff on our Web site, pictures and stuff, that we've snapped that afternoon, and put it up there immediately. It has to be interesting and entertaining but it doesn't have to be perfectly, professionally polished.

What keeps you busy when Aerosmith is not all that active?

Jeez. We got home from Japan about five weeks ago, and I couldn't stay out of my studio. I have to be careful because when I come home off the road, I need to re-up with my family, you know? I come off the road and I get into this thought process where I go,'Okay, this is a writing period,' and I'm desperate to be out here doing it every day. So, coming home, I had to adapt that way.

I've got a good balance of enjoying the simple things of life right now, like enjoying a meal, or enjoying driving down Storrow Drive down by the river [in Cambridge, Mass.]. Stuff like that, which I've always kind of put in the background because I was desperate to be a relevant part of the creative process. I love playing live. It's a blast. But one of the things I love about being at home is that I can pick up my guitar for the fun of it, and let my mind wander. I can come up to the studio, record ideas, and develop them. It's kind of like the musical equivalent of daydreaming, which I just love.

Wed 04/17 9:00 PM
Thu 04/18 6:00 PM
Fri 04/19 10:00 PM
Sun 04/21 5:00 PM
Thu 04/25 8:00 PM

http://nme.com/news/101437.htm

EMINEM'S UNDER THE INFLUENCE!

EMINEM has said that his new album 'THE EMINEM SHOW' has been influenced by '70s rock.

The album, the rapper's third solo effort, is due for release on June 3, with a single 'Without Me' to precede it on May 20. Speaking in the current issue of The Face, the controversial rapper claimed that the likes of "Led Zeppelin or Aerosmith" have been an influence on how the record sounds.

He said: "I don't know if I succeeded or not but I was trying to capture like a '70s rock vibe for most of it. We treated this record like it was a rock record in so far as how it's produced. It's, like, loud.

"There's a lot of guitars in it. There's a lot of hiphop shit, too. Like, strictly hiphop shit. I tried to get the best of both worlds. But I listened to a lot of '70s rock growing up, when I was real little. When I go back and listen to them songs, like Led Zeppelin or Aerosmith or Jimi Hendrix...'70s rock had this incredible feel to it."

Eminem has co-produced the record with long-time collaborator Dr Dre. Tracks that feature on the album are set to include 'Without Me', 'Business', 'Dream On', 'Collapse' and 'Hailie's Song'.

Eminem confessed that the drama in his life has been an inspiration. He commented: "It's like I need drama in my life to inspire me a lot, instead of just trying to reach for something. Last year was a really rough year for me. You know, divorce and trying to raise my little girl. Obstacles are thrown at me - you've just got to fall or you don't fall. And I can't fall."

Yesterday's results:

Madonna 1023 24%
Britney Spears 745 18%
Stephen Tyler 661 16%
Michael Jackson 621 15%
Tommy Lee 338 8%
Ted Nugent 254 6%
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs 203 5%
Beyoncé Knowles 203 5%
Celine Dion 144 3%

Total Votes: 4192

---
According to Chris @ AeroFANatic.com.

E! News Live had a very brief thing about the Icons show playing. They showed brief parts of interviews with Liv, Christina Applegate, Cher, David Spade and some other people. Then they talked to some of the band, Brad is not standing with them for this and Joey doesn't say anything. They show Steven and the family and Steven says some stuff. They also show clips of them playing. As usual with the media, they focus on Steven mostly.

Entertainment Tonight also showed a little clip of the MTV Icon. They showed clip of the boys playing, Liv, and Stevens family.

EXTRA also showed segments.

Most of the Entertainment News programs (with the exception of Access Hollywood) showed tidbits last night. Doubtful that MTV will give too much emphasis on the arrivals other than maybe shots at the beginning of the show, as they seem to have a lot of show content they have to cover.

Other celebrities at the bash included Janet Jackson, Cher, Pamela Anderson and her fiance Kid Rock.

"I personally LOVED the song. It was very catchy and melodic, sort of a rock song that you can really sing along with. I was really excited to be able to hear them play it twice (and a small part during the medley at the end of the taping) but Chris says they played the instrumental version w/o Steven and I don't remember that happening but all in all, I loved the song and can't wait to get my hands on a copy"

"Girls Of Summer" is the title of the song, and it was first played (8:54 PST) as a part of a medley that Aerosmith performed! Then at 9:10 PST- Aerosmith comes back out, and announces they are going to film the Video for "Girls Of Summer" right then! They played the song twice as a band, and then once as an instrumental sans Steven!

According to Chris @ AeroFANatic.com, "Girls Of Summer" was just finished yesterday, with the last vocal getting layed down. Chris says it's really got a laid back, summertime twang to it.

Tonight at a PACKED Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, CA, MTV honored the life and music of Aerosmith in their 2nd ever "ICONS" tribute. MANY celebrities, musicians, and regular fans like you and I crammed into this venue and witnessed one of the most crazed and soon to be talked about events in MTV history. Without further buildup, here's what went down....

****NOTE::: The following information is "spolier" material. If you'd like to be surprised when MTV airs the ICONS episode on Wed the 17th at 9pm EST, read no further. If you want ALL the juicy details from tonight's events......READ ON!!!****

7:07 PST- Janet Jackson comes out, and passes the "ICON" torch to Aerosmith.
7:10 PST- The Executioners scratch out Walk This Way and Sweet E on the turntables as Aerosmith walks in through the crowd.
(Various clips from the band and their early musical life)
7:25 PST- Train takes the stage and covers "Dream On".
7:32 PST- Christina Applegate comes out and talks about the band, shows more clips.
7:37 PST- Papa Roach takes the stage and does their take on "Sweet Emotion".
7:42 PST- David Spade comes out and does a comedic roast on Aerosmith.
7:47 PST- Metallica comes out, and talks about getting out of rehab and what Aerosmith means to them.
7:58 PST- Kid Rock comes out, plays a few bars of "Mama Kin" and launches into the full version of "Last Child".
8:04 PST- Jay Leno talks about how he and Aerosmith started out in Boston and how they lived near each other on Commonwealth Ave.
8:10 PST- Fred Durst and Method Man in the crowd, talk about how Aerosmith basically invented the "rock/rap" sound.
8:12 PST- The re-creation of the Walk This Way video featuring Sum 41, Ja Rule, and Nelly is played.
8:15 PST- Shakira takes the stage, and does her best version of "Dude Looks Like A Lady". Towards the end of the song, she goes up to Steven in the crowd and they both sing a few lines together.
8:21 PST- Mila Kunis and Michelle Branch come out, and talk about a fan with Cancer and how much Aerosmith's music means to her.
8:28 PST- Pink takes the stage for "Janie's Got A Gun".
8:50 PST- Liv Tyler and Jennifer Aniston introduce AEROSMITH.
8:54 PST- Aerosmith performs a medly of, in order, "Movin' Out", "Toys In The Attic", "Cryin'", "Girls Of Summer", and "Train Kept A Rollin".
9:05 PST- Kid Rock comes out, and tells everyone there is more left.
9:10 PST- Aerosmith comes back out, and announces they are going to film the VIDEO for "Girls Of Summer" right then!! They played the song twice as a band, and then once as an instrumental sans Steven.

{NEWS and NOTES}
-"Girls Of Summer" was just finished YESTERDAY, with the last vocal getting layed down. It's really got a laid back, summertime twang to it. I wonder how close the live version sounds to the studio. We'll be hearing it VERY soon...
- Aerosmith's set looked like Max's Kansas City. There was the BIG GYW logo sheet from the old days behind them, and bars and stools all around with Max's written on them...
- Guys in Metallica were in the audience REALLY getting off on "Train Kept A Rollin"
- Pictures from the event can be seen by accessing this link...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index&cid=707
- Steven says in closing "Its all about you, its all about the music, and its all about the crew". Coulden't agree more. Especially with part #2.... ;-)

Now, it remains to be seen EXACLTY what MTV decides to show, and what will be cut due to TIME constraints. Most of it though Im sure will make the final cut. SO much cool sh*t...

Well, thats it for now folks. Hope I was of some assistance to you all!!!! Don't forget to watch it for yourself this Wednesday at 9pm, only on MTV.

``I don't normally get nervous. But it's one thing to cover a song from a band, it's another to cover it while they are listening to it,'' he said.

So what is "The Webmaster's Pick", you wonder? Well, It's going to be periodically updated section of me giving purchase suggestions, telling you about an album that I personally enjoy listening to. If there is any interest for this or if anyone takes my word for what is a good album, I do not know, but as I enjoy giving musical tips to people I'll do it anyway. Hopefully some of you will bother to read it, and maybe even check out some of the albums. I hope you will, even if you do not buy the albums. The albums to be featured here will Not necessarily have anything to do with Aerosmith, actually, they most likely won't. I will try to be a bit varied, listing different types of albums, but the thing they will all have in common is that I like them alot (which, I guess, narrows it down to mainly albums in the genres of blues, rock, 60's pop, metal and prog). I have not yet decided how often I will take a new "pick" from the wealth of great albums and put up something new, if it will be once a month, twice a month or once every two months etc. It will certainly be updated from time to time anyway.

The first album to be featured is Bo Hansson's classic all-instrumental album from 1970, "Lord Of The Rings," inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy.

So... what are you waiting for? Head right over to the Aerosmith Store, which I by the way updated yesterday with a new design and Many new Aerosmith-related items! Please let me know what you think! :)

// Cristoffer (the webmaster)

"This girl Jane played by Selma Blaire gets stuck giving a guy a blow job. The guy has a piercing. So there are like 50 people in the apartment when her friends get home and they try to save her more embarrassment so they decide to have her sing to relax her throught and get unstuck. They try a few songs and then every one ends up singing I Don't Want to Miss a Thing."

2002 FIFA WORLD CUP KOREA/JAPAN(TM)
OFFICIAL CONCERT INTERNATIONAL DAY

6/27 Tokyo Stadium, Tokyo, Japan
17:00-21:30

featuring:
Aerosmith
B'z (Japanese rock band)
one more opening act - TBA.

Ticket price 15750 JP Yen (= about 120 USD for FIFA charity.) Tickets may go on sale May 11th.

6/28 is FIFA OFFICIAL CONCERT KOREA/JAPAN DAY.
Aerosmith will play 6/27 only.

It has several different pictures put together: Steven and Joe in the middle singing, Joe playing his red/white/blue guitar, Steven singing to an asian looking girl, Joe and Brad playing, Tom, Joey drumming and another of Steven and his mic looking like he was ready to kick his leg out. They kind of all run together, making a nice looking poster.

Skrivet av: Martin
• Datum: 2002-04-10
Ted Nugent är just nu i studion och jobbar med kommande albumet "Caveman". Plattan kommer sannolikt inte att hinna ut i affärerna före Nugents framträdande på Sweden Rock Festival men gästas i alla fall av bland andra Metallicas James Hetfield och Aerosmiths Steven Tyler och Joe Perry.

Hey Aerosmith Fan!

- Where do you stand on censorship? Pick a Side. Join the Fight. PLAY!
- Check out VH1.com's newest game, Rock'N Box. It's Down, it's Dirty, it's Rock n' Roll Boxing!!!
- Aerosmith's "Pink" is featured as one of twelve songs chosen for possible censorship.
- Take a stand and prevent it from getting censored!

From,
VH1.com

www.wnew.com/opack/2002/0410_StevenTyler_WOW/TylerWOW.jpg

I've been talking to VH1/Behind the Music this week and we have scheduled an on-camera interview for Rick this coming Monday, April 15th.

As many of you know, the Aerosmith Behind the Music project has been on again, off again, but now it's back on again evidently. When the project first came up last summer, I tried to verify that Rick, Jimmy and Jack would indeed be included - I was told "of course". Then later in the year, Aerosmith's (primary) management told us the project was on hold indefinitely even though folks on the other side of the Aero management camp said "it's a go for sure". VH1 swung "both ways" but usually responded with "it's gonna happen". So here we are.

The MTV ICONS - AEROSMITH taping is the night before also here in L.A. At one point I thought I might be going to this but probably not at this point - not sure if Rick is going or not but since they want him to do his interview Monday morning (I called the Associate Producer back and said...MORNING? You've got to be kidding! These are rock stars LOL!). So hopefully I can at least get it delayed to noon-ish LOL. Have no idea how much of Rick's footage they will use but it's cool just to know he's being included.

Tyler and his Aerosmith bandmates are contributing their version of the "Theme From Spider-Man" ("Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can ...") to the soundtrack for the live-action feature, according to a Columbia Records spokesperson. The LP, composed of tracks exclusive to the soundtrack as well as previously released album cuts, is set for release April 30.

Sum41's recently recorded studio version of "What We're All About" will serve as the soundtrack's first single. A live version of the song appears on the Canadian quartet's four-song EP, Motivation. "What We're All About (Original Version)" will be trailed by second-single "Hero," a new track by Nickelback singer/guitarist Chad Kroeger, Saliva frontman Josey Scott, Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron and guitarist Tyler Connolly of Theory of a Dead Man, whose debut album Kroeger is producing. The group shot a video for the track March 24 (see "Nickelback, Saliva Pearl Jam Members Make 'Hero' Sandwich For Spidey").

Macy Gray, who has a cameo role in the film, has allowed Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello to remix her "My Nutmeg Phantasy," which originally appeared on last year's The Id, for the soundtrack. Former Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman, who composed the theme to "The Simpsons" as well as scores for the films "Batman," "Beetlejuice" and "Planet of the Apes," wrote the movie's main title theme and penned the track "Farewell." The LP also includes the original composition of the "Theme From Spider-Man," which was used in the 1960s cartoon series, and was also once recorded by the Ramones (for 1995's various-artists compilation Saturday Morning Cartoons' Greatest Hits).

Other contributions to the soundtrack include new tracks from Alien Ant Farm ("Bug Bytes") and Slipknot's Corey Taylor ("Bother"), and album cuts from Default, the Strokes and Pete Yorn, among others (see "Sum41, Alien Ant Farm Spin Songs For 'Spider-Man' ").

"Spider-Man," starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, hits theaters May 3.

The complete track list for the soundtrack to "Spider-Man," according to Columbia Records:

a.. "Theme From Spider-Man" (original version)
b.. Chad Kroeger featuring Josey Scott, Matt Cameron and Tyler Connolly - "Hero"
c.. Sum41 - "What We're All About (The Original Version)"
d.. Black Lab - "Learn to Crawl"
e.. Bleu - "Somebody Else"
f.. Alien Ant Farm - "Bug Bytes"
g.. Default - "Blind"
h.. Corey Taylor - "Bother"
i.. Greenwheel - "Shelter"
j.. The Strokes - "When It Started"
k.. The Hives - "Hate to Say I Told You So"
l.. Theory of a Dead Man - "Invisible Man"
m.. Pete Yorn - "Undercover"
n.. Macy Gray - "My Nutmeg Phantasy (Tom Morello remix)"
o.. Injected - "I-IV-V"
p.. Jerry Cantrell - "She Was My Girl"
q.. Danny Elfman - "Main Titles"
r.. Danny Elfman - "Farewell"
s.. Aerosmith - "Theme From Spider-Man"

Now, today I was reading the lastest issue of "Sweden Rock Magazine" (#5) and noticed an advertisement from Mascot Records. One of the albums included in the ad was "One Way Street - A Tribute to Aerosmith." This album is the same album as "Let The Tribute Do The Talkin'," only with a different title and a slightly different album cover.

MTV has a site up dedicated to Aerosmith and the ICON show. It has a timeline of the band, celebrity tributes, the fan tributes, and more...

Also up is some info on the Aerosmith shows to be aired...

mtvICON: Aerosmith
Airs on MTV on Wednesday, April 17 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, 8:00 p.m. CT

Aerosmith Viewer's Choice
Airs on MTV2 on April 6th at 12 noon ET/PT, 11:00 a.m. CT.

Kid Rock, Pink, Shakira, Train, Papa Roach, Nas, and the X-ecutioners are scheduled to perform signature Aerosmith songs. The show will also feature testimonials from Janet Jackson, Fred Durst, Alicia Silverstone, Mila Kunis, Method Man and more, plus a comedic roast by David Spade. For the finale, Aerosmith will take the stage for a show-stopping performance.

There are 5 "Celebrity Tributes" up, written by Brett Scallions (of Fuel), Andrew W.K., Dryden Mitchell, Mike Cosgrove (the latter two of Alien Ant Farm) and Tweet. They are as follows:

Brett Scallions, Fuel

"Touring with Aerosmith can definitely spoil you especially when you go to catering and there's steak and lobster we were eating high on the hog with Aerosmith it was a great time it was just for the longest time it was kind of weird. Wow, I'm hanging out with Steve Tyler and then by halfway through the tour it was like, 'Oh yeah, where's Steven? Big deal,' because I looked at him differently I just looked at him as a friend and I mean there's a huge respect for him I'll still know that he's a rock n roll legend in his own day. Between him and Joe its amazing I would watch them every night of that tour and I don't think that they could write a bad song if they even tried to. It's impossible; and to hear them churn out song after song after song on that tour- every single song that they played was a hit sooner or later in their career so it's just amazing stuff.
I would watch them during sound checks and stuff too; the thing is they just love it so much they go on sound checks and they're just having fun together playing Steven's dancing around and Joe's up there just rocking out playing his guitar and stuff and they're just having fun-all the guys. And it's so great to see after all the years of them and all the albums that they've done and everything that they still have such a huge passion for the music and for playing live and just being a part of that band. They still just love it and savor that flavor so much its such a good feeling and I hope to do the same."

Andrew W.K.

"With a relentless, never ending blast through, this band worked hard to make it hard. Imagine all they have seen and done and experienced. Solid iron songs clad in a screaming satin slam out. They are a true example of an uncompromising devotion - to living their lives to the limit. Never done. Through their efforts they have made millions of people feel good, and for that they deserve all that they can have." "Well I remember when Pump came out, I was in, um, sixth grade, and uhh.. The cover on the album, I remember seeing it was the cars stacked and I was like, oh, its the tow-truck, yeh know, its being towed. And somehow, someone explained that it was, a sexually oriented, uh photo. And I remember I was like "Whoa", yeh know, thats really intense. And it made me feel a little queasy in a way, cause I thought of it as very strange for automobiles to have a sort of human quality about them, not only because they're controlled and made by humans, but we. We have this very, uh they have a very humanistic thing about them, to the extent that when we were driving around in cars, and we see cars around us, and in front of us, we look at them and they have their own personality beyond the person thats driving them -- thats in them. And we look at them in this way, and I... And that was definitely represented in that photo very well."

"I really, really like the Diane Morin Song "Dont Want to Miss A Thing," that they sang for the Armageddon Soundtrack. I think its absolutely fantastic, I think his vocal performance is astounding. Its a perfect song. I like that "Jaded" song a lot too. It's real beautiful. They're just real hard workers, they're real committed to what they do and thats an inspiration to me and everyone else."

Dryden Mitchell, Alien Ant Farm

I think "Back in the Saddle," is like, the greatest guitar riff, ever. I think so many bands kind of absorbed their sound into what they are. Even like AC/DC to me, has like a lot of Aerosmith in them. I dont know who came first, what, but It's just weird, I was just saying too, like there's only a handful of bands that stay around and Aerosmith is like the only rock band that survived. They just keep getting better, and they stay with the times. Like, I was just saying, the Rolling Stones are always there, and they'll always be huge, but they dont stay with the times the way Aerosmith has. Kids still dig 'em. Like, kids don't dig Rolling Stones. I mean some do, but you know what I mean. Like, it seems Aerosmith always has that ability to become mainstream. And, they dont really change their sound too much, like, they just get slicker. And they're so hookey. And I'll just stop kissing their ass.

Mike Cosgrove, Alien Ant Farm

It's like their sound got bigger with like technology and recording or whatever, but I mean, their songs have always had the same kind of quality, that Its just great song structure, smart stuff, like good hooks. And it's not like their just writing good, like, things to sell. It's really good music. And I think that Steven Tyler has maintained like, kind of like It doesnt seem cheesy. Like to a certain degree every rock star, cool guy, front-man, that's kind of like that, becomes a burnout, or the public becomes burned out by them, and hearing them say "Yeah," or "Ooh Baby," or whatever it is and he could still rock the bandana or the crazy stuff off the mic, and it doesn't seem cheesy. And he looks comfortable all the time. He looks like he's digging what hes doing. I hope that I'm like him. I never met him, but I hope that I look that happy and that content, you know. It just seems like he just gets to go and make good music, and whatever falls into his lap, if it's a commercial or this or that whatever.

They've made good videos that somehow stay in tune with the kids. Like with different characters. Like when Alicia Silverstone was coming out and all that. And "Pink" was a good video 'cause it was kinda goofy. Like the way they were morfing everybody and all that. I thought like, "Whoa," thats kinda funky looking on some stuff, you know.

Tweet

"Well, know what, anytime I hear or see Aerosmith perform its like exciting to me, cause their chemistry is like phenomenal. And my favorite songs, uh, "Jaded," and uh, the one (singing) "I was crying, when I heard you." And that video was just, with Alicia SilveryeahThat was just awesome, and like the funniest part was when she did the bungee jump thing, and she had her middle finger up at the end.

Its just amazing to think that Steven Tyler is like the handsomest man, he's...He's fine OKAY!

And they deserve this, its about this time, yeh know. And Congratulations, and Ill continue to be a fan."

My personal opinion on these "tributes"? Well, OK for that guy from Fuel but what's up with these other people MTV has gotten to speak their minds about the band? To me it seems they haven't even ever really listened to Aerosmith, more than seen a video or two on MTV. I think MTV is sucking really bad at this to be honest. Where are the bands and artists that actually grew up on and were influenced by the band?
------------

Finally they give you a chance to vote for Aerosmith videos in different categories. The results will determine what will be shown on MTV2 starting April 6th at 12 noon ET/PT (11 a.m. CT) when the winning videos will be aired. The categories and options are as follows:

Best Alicia Silverstone Performance:
"Cryin'"
"Crazy"
"Amazing"

Best Power Ballad
"Angel"
"Dream On" (MTV Unplugged)
"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"
"What It Takes"
"Jaded"
"Cryin'"
"Crazy"

Best Special Effects
"Pink"
"Livin' on the Edge"
"Jaded"

Best Classic Aerosmith Video
"Walk This Way (featuring Run DMC)"
"Dream On" (MTV Unplugged) "Sweet Emotion"
"Chip Away the Stone"

Best Steven Tyler look
"Pink"
"Dude Looks Like a Lady"
"Jaded"
"Livin' on the Edge"

Best Live Video
"Dream On" (MTV Unplugged)
"Love in an Elevator" (from 1990 Video Music Awards)
"Walk This Way" (from 1994 Video Music Awards)
"Dude Looks Like a Lady" (from 1988 Video Music Awards)
"Livin' on the Edge" (from 1993 Video Music Awards)

Best Guitar Lick
"Sweet Emotion"
"Eat the Rich"
"Walk This Way (featuring Run DMC)"
"Dude Looks Like a Lady"

Best 80's
"Janie's Got a Gun"
"Walk This Way (featuring Run DMC)"
"Love in an Elevator"
"Angel"
"Let the Music Do the Talking"

Best 90's
"Crazy"
"Cryin'"
"Livin' on the Edge"
"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"
"Pink"

Best Aerosmith Video of All Time
"Walk This Way (featuring Run DMC)"
"Janie's Got a Gun"
"Cryin'"
"Love in an Elevator"
"Jaded"

Hello we like to inform you of the new CD produced by Get Your Wings, Toys In The Attic, Rocks, and Draw The Line producer Jack Douglas, ADAM BOMB New York Times.

New York Times features Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens, Billy Squier drummer Bobby Chouinard, Flo & Eddie, keyboardist. Nicky Hopkins, Michael Lee Smith, Kenny Aaronson, Alan St. Jon, T.M. Stevens, The Uptown Horns and others. The CD has 12 songs including a cover version of It's Only Rock 'N' Roll with Mick Taylor on guitar. The music is classic hard rock in the style of old Aerosmith albums. New York Times was the last record to ever be recorded in the same studio as Toys In The Attic & Rocks.

This CD is now available online at this link: http://adambomb.com/products/newyorktimes.htm

Adam Bomb is the singer/guitarist featured on Led Zeppelin Bassist John Paul Jones new solo CD, The Thunderthief. Adam Bomb was managed by former Aerosmith managers Leber Krebs. There is detailed information on this story in the bio section of AdamBomb.com

Adam Bomb's first album Fatal Attraction features Aerosmith Rock In A Hard Place guitarist Jimmy Crespo and is also available on CD at AdamBomb.com For information please visit AdamBomb.com


-------------------------

Adam Bomb Drops New York Times CD on Get Animal Records
Guest Stars Include Mick Taylor, Steve Stevens and others
Release Date: Tuesday, June 4, 2002

Stolen and missing for over a decade, tracks including some of rock'n'roll's most legendary figures will be released for the first time on cult rocker Adam Bomb's independent label, Get Animal Records. Bomb, whose unique career has exhibited a fearless number of experimental forays beyond his pioneering voice in hard rock and heavy metal, designed this collaboration to link anarchic guitar with orchestral pop and stretch the limits of classic rock. Recorded in 1990 and entitled New York Times, the 12 track CD features the work of hotshot cohorts Mick Taylor, Steve Stevens, Michael Lee Smith, Flo and Eddie and the unmistakable imprint of the work of the late Nicky Hopkins, Bobby Chouinard and songwriter West Arkeen.*

Produced by Jack Douglas (John Lennon's Double Fantasy, Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic, etc.), New York Times evokes the spirit of New York City when New York City still had innocence.

Since recording New York Times, Bomb has released three other albums - Grave New World (Rockworld/Sony), Get Animal (SPV) and Get Animal Number Two (SPV)- and has developed a globally interactive following and fan base. Prior to 1990, he released "Fatal Attraction" on Geffen Records and "Pure S.E.X." on Relativity Records.

Covertly unassuming and sometimes known as Pink Gibson, Bomb has worked with such artists as Michael Monroe and Johnny Thunders, and recorded with Steel Pulse (uncredited solo on the track "Hijacking").

He is currently featured on the new John Paul Jones CD, "The Thunderthief," where he lends a shrieking, kick-ass guitar solo to the radio favorite "Angry Angry."

To receive an advance copy of New York Times for review, please contact: Claire O'Connor at 212-245-5784/ oconnorpr@aol.comJane Friedman at 212-334-0001/aireps@aol.com Please visit www.adambomb.com

* Mick Taylor - Rolling Stones
* Flo and Eddie - The Turtles
* Nicky Hopkins -Quicksilver Messenger Service, Rolling Stones
* Bobby Chouinard - Billy Squier
* Steve Stevens - Billy Idol
* Michael Lee Smith - Starz
* West Arkeen - Guns 'n' Roses

Aerosmith astronaut
Steve Tyler bored of earth
Clearly bored of the many highs that planet Earth has to offer, Aerosmith rocker Steve Tyler is the latest star to consider taking a trip into space on a Russian rocket. Lance Bass, Michael Jackson and Steven Spielberg have already expressed a desire to be fired beyond Earth's atmosphere. According to his spokesman, the floppy-lipped singer – who is actress Liv Tyler's father – is currently considering whether to embark on the gruelling training routine that the Russian space agency insists on for propspective astronauts. If he passed the rigorous physical tests, Tyler would have to fork out $20 million to travel in a Soyuz rocket.
Posted 04 April 2002

There are 2 versions of the Spiderman theme on the Soundtrack. The first song on the soundtrack will be the original 60's cartoon theme song. The final track on the Soundtrack, #19, will be Aerosmith's take on that same theme.

The 60's theme song runs approx. 1 minute long. Aerosmith's version is an extended version...running 2 minutes and 57 seconds. Some BIG guitars and sounds in this one folks...

Guitar Center recently caught up with Aerosmith cofounders Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, who talked about their upcoming album, the recording and songwriting process, and how to stay inspired after 30 years making music together.

GC: What's the band up to now? What are you guys getting ready to do?

Steven: We just found out that we had a chance to write something for the "Spiderman" movie, so during the vacation Joe and I went with Marti Frederiksen to Maui, rented a house and wrote four songs, one of which we submitted to "Spiderman."

Joe: It's amazing that you can go into a house like that with the amount of equipment that we really needed and you can come out of there with tracks that you can record with. Everything we do now is as a finished track. It's really about a performance more than it is anything technical. We used to do that kind of writing with a four-track cassette and then you'd have to go in and record it. But now with the equipment, anything that you put down, if it's the right performance, you've got it. So it's really changed the way everything works. Obviously, if Steven wants to rewrite the lyrics or change the melody he can do that. Or if I put a guitar solo on there and I want to change it, I'll do it. But what goes down on the so-called demo is album quality.

GC: Is that the way you did your last record? Was it pretty much tracked and mixed at home?

Steven: I think that if everybody could, they would do it wherever the inspiration comes from - in the shower, in the back of the car, or wherever. It's like the old adage, "don't f--k with perfection." Why should I go in and do it over?

Joe: It takes a lot of the pressure off. It used to be, you'd gear up and you'd do all of this pre-production and there was this whole thing about putting it in the studio and there was this whole mystique. It's like lawyers; they sit there and invent this language so you can't understand, only they can understand. Just put it in plain English! Well, the equipment has gotten to the point where if you get the inspiration in the shower, that's where you can record it.

Steven: If you think that you've got a great sound in the shower, why not just do it there? If for nothing more, it makes for a great story.

Joe: And the thing is, it's not much different than what we used to do. Most of "Rocks" was recorded at our rehearsal studio with a mobile truck. Now you don't need a truck, you need a couple of hard drives.

GC: When you set out to record this last record yourselves, did you feel the need to live up to an "Aerosmith standard of production"?

Steven: It wasn't so much standard of production as much as it was just to write the classic Aerosmith song. Only we can define that because it's a little bit based on what we did before, a little bit based on what we haven't ever said, and a little bit based on what we'd like to say. In the old studios the machines were there, the two-inch tapes--they were huge juggernauts, huge behemoths of things. What I remember the most was to get the sound you had to have the separation--you had to go in 16, 24, 32 tracks. You've got to have separation otherwise it won't sound good. Pretty much all we worried about was the separation of the songs when they came, that's when the thank you God came and we couldn't get the smile off our faces. The good time turned into a great lead or a melodic thing in a song.

Joe: Certainly, from the technical end of it, we weren't going to allow it to come out sounding s--ty. That wasn't the objective here come hell or high water. Just by doing an Aerosmith record, it was going to have to have a certain standard of technical quality. Steven and I have been there since the first day of the first record, when the tape rolled, until the time when we walked out the door from the last record when it was being mastered. We've always been there, so not much has changed by doing it here. It was just a matter of course that we checked ourselves technically to make sure that when we got in there and started mixing we wouldn't find that maybe there wasn't enough bass on the bass guitar or that there was a hiss at 5k. Technically, we made sure that it was right. We never sat here and said that we were going to record it no matter what. If we needed a specific piece of equipment to get something right, then we needed it. But, we already had all of the basic good s--t--that is one of the things that we made sure of anyway. That was a concern, but it was like, when you're on the road for so many years, you know enough to pack your toothbrush.

GC: So you had a good understanding of how it ought to sound while you're tracking so you're making sure that it's going to be good enough for the mix?

Joe: Whatever the standard is, you always back-to-back it. Whether it is in 1976 and you put it up against a Led Zeppelin record or it's in 1986 and you put it up against a Def Leppard record, just to see - almost everybody does that. Or the "Pump" record, we know people that used the "Pump" record as a technical standard. If their record sounded as good and as fat as that, then they were home.

GC: What do you guys reference against for this record?

Joe: We used a little bit of "Get a Grip" and a couple of Brendan O'Brian records. There was some rap things that we put up there that had some really killer bottom. It wasn't like we were going to record it here no matter what and then throw it over to some guy to mix and have him pull his hair out. We were checking ourselves from the start to make sure that we were getting what we needed.

Steven: We were so intoxicated by the whole writing process and the creativity, that as it was going down we kept thinking, "is this really happening?" We were coming up with these songs and putting them down so fast. The energy went from our excitement right on to the tape.

Joe: I've always had a studio in my basement. Even in the 70's I had an old Scully 8-track. I remember in the mid 80's taking some of my tapes up to Little Mountain and spending some time on the demos and wanting to use some of the guitar solos on there. I put it up next to what we were recording up there and they sounded a little thin. That's when I said, "f--k this", if I am going to put this much energy into this and use these performances then I had better get the s--t. So that's when I got a Neve board and a better tape machine and I learned a lot more about engineering and what it takes. I went to lawyer school real fast. That's why we knew that we were going to get the sound we wanted, so it became the fun part of getting the music to play.

Steven: The bigger you are and the longer you've been around, the more mistakes you're allotted. If you make enough mistakes and you own them, it's considered to be your style.

GC: What equipment was in the studio?

Joe: We felt like we were beta testing Pro Tools the whole time we were here. It worked pretty amazing. It was the first time we did a whole record that way. We recorded "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" on Pro Tools. I couldn't believe that it sounded so good coming off of the hard disk--that was the first time we did a whole piece of music using Pro Tools. This was the first time that we said let's go for it. We AB'd it. I have a Studer A800 down here with all the bells and whistles and we AB'd some guitars on it and I'll tell you, the creativity that comes with doing Pro Tools just swept us away. We just didn't have time to fool with the tape machine.

Steven: We'd get our ideas back so fast that it was like instant gratification. Conversely, you also knew when something sucked and could move on a lot quicker instead of trying to polish a turd and do something and get it down and cut tape and edit that together and then two days later decide that it doesn't work. I could put a scat chorus down and we could immediately fly it into all of the places and fool with it and while you're having fun fooling with it, a monster is being born. It's just so much fun, your brain is an ocean and all of the fish are ideas so anything you're using is a drift net. If you can catch those thoughts and the quicker you can get it played back to you through some speakers - it's flipped out! It's like a whole new day for us, especially in creativity. Thank God we've invested in this and have it in our back yard!

Joe: It really works. I think that it opens it up for a lot of people. I've also seen a lot people say if I could just edit with Pro Tools like that, my record would sound like that. Well, you still have to write the song, you still have to come up with a chorus, you still have to come up with a melody, you still have to come up with the guts of what makes people able to listen to it because it really doesn't matter what you record it on. Having been doing this for so long, anything that tweeks our interest or makes it move faster, we're on top of. But, we still started off in a room with acoustic guitars and either a little voice recorder or a mini disk recorder and the songs started like that - most of them did. Some of them started with some loops that we generated, but it still has to have that and then you can go in and record it on it. I still talk to people today that swear by tape and then they bounce it over to Pro Tools. I think that the next thing I want to do is use tape to record the guitars. It just naturally sounds better. You can make up for that stuff because Pro Tools or any one of those top end digital things, they record exactly what they hear, tape doesn't. Tape turns around and puts that sweet compression on it and accentuates those harmonics and certainly there are ways you can do that. That was always something that bothered us in the early CD's. Even now sometimes we make a CD or listen on a DAT and there is that digital kind of harshness that naturally just doesn't happen in tape. In some instances you don't want that, but I think that for guitars and sometimes with vocals and certain instruments you want that, so it becomes almost a piece of outboard gear. I know guys that will actually run the tape machine and keep it running the way we used to run it, by recording through the 24-track and right on to Pro Tools and use it like a kind of a compressor or something.

GC: On to tape and back off again?

Joe: Yeah exactly! There's that way to do it. I mean there are different ways.

GC: Is there other stuff that you would pre-process things with before you hit the computer in order to get that warmth? Like tube stuff or anything?

Joe: I have a Neve console from the 1970's that has been totally re-built and everything goes through some kind of old piece of gear except for the Distressor. That is probably the most used new piece of equipment we have.

GC: Now what's that?

Joe: The Distressor from Empirical Labs. It's a compressor. It was probably the most used in his vocal chain.

Steven: And I use my FocusRite and the Manly Lab's VoxBox.

Joe: You definitely have to hit it in front. Like I said, it records exactly what it hears, but you got to get it when going in. I mean you can't make up for having no top end, you know, because of bad mic'ing. And if you are, you're already starting behind the eight ball.

GC: So what's in your traveling vocal rig and does that mean you were able to do vocals at home as well?

Joe: Yeah. Steven did everything like that, he had a AKG C12 with some Neve EQ.

Steven: I've got 8 Neve strips.

Joe: Whatever I use on guitar here, that's what I brought on the road with me, so I actually played through the same front end on stage as was down here. We had matching C12s. Steven was singing at his house and it would match up with what he was singing here. The same gear at both ends. So with the hot-swap hard drives, you could just pop the hard drives out and plug it in over here and mix or do whatever. We couldn't do it if we had 24-track machines. You just can't move those things around that easy.

GC: Pretty soon you might not even have to swap a hard drive, you'll be able to just e-mail the whole song over to a new place and keep working.

Joe: It's really close to that.

Steven: We've done that, too. On the ISDN line. We both have those in our studios.

Joe: We did string sessions like that.

Steven: If you want to really get technical and anal about it you just record it there in L.A. and then ship it back and track it here. Or you can be the engineer on the other side of the glass, so to speak, and the other side of the country. Or you can play together. Again, I'm just saying it's more about tweaking and having these toys. I have the Sony IC recorder in my bag. I'm just digging it.

Joe: It's probably just as important as any piece of equipment, any out-board gear.

Steven: It's just having that little recorder that I can plug into my computer and down-load it. We also found this Samsung voice pen. You know, you just hit record and you got, I don't know, 30 or 40 seconds or a minute of ideas and it was mostly just ideas of words and choruses and it was always around my neck, and I got everybody one. I probably did half the lyrics to "Jaded" that way! The other thing I do, if there's no other option, is call myself and leave a message - just sing into the phone. Marti Frederiksen and Pink and I came up with some ideas during a limo ride once and we had to do that.

Joe: That's why the big equipment is like a secondary thing, I mean to me it's a hobby, I love having all the gear, and I love to be down in my studio. I just bought another Ampeg ATR so we can do flanging, cause there's nothing like the real thing and I just got another Lexicon reverb. And then we just upgraded Pro Tools. We recorded some stuff on that in Maui. I think that it sounded better. I think it's going to be faster because it links up better with the tape machine.

GC: What instruments and amps do you use in the studio?

Joe: It's all about what the song calls for. I have a pretty good collection of old stuff. It's like a guitar museum around here. I have a Fender Twin, serial number 006, so everything from that to the newest. I've got a Soldano, I've got an Ampeg B-15, I've got a really nice 50-watt Marshall Plexi, and I got a 45-watt Plexi. You know, I've got a good array of everything. A lot of times when I want something really big and fat and heavy, I'll go more with the newer Les Pauls 'cause they just seem to have a little more ping and a little more meat than the '50s Les Pauls, like the classic old ones.

GC: So you used a whole bunch of different things?

Joe: You have to. For example, Steven and I were talking to somebody and they said that they worked with this band and described it like, the Les Paul through the Marshall sound and that's it. They don't even mess with the volume control and that's - I can't imagine being in that space. I mean I love that sound, you know what I mean? And if I had to live with one sound for the rest of my life, that's probably as close as you're going to get to it. But I'll tell you, to live in that box is just so scary. We use 12 string balalaikas. We used everything.

GC: So why limit yourself.

Joe: Well, of course, you hear the sounds on there. Some of those things you can't even tell what they are. The keyboards sound like guitars and the guitars sound like keyboards.

Steven: Telephone dial tones

Joe: Dial tones, we are not snobs about that stuff. I mean, we've had a saying now for 15 or 20 years, if it makes a sound, it has a place.

GC: So how about effects and pedals?

Joe: Well, probably a Rat pedal is a kind of a standard into the front end. A lot of combos. I shy away from master volume-kind of amps. Whatever you get from having that kind of gain, you lose in tone. I would rather use an amp that you have to turn the thing wide open to get the sound or you turn it down a little bit and plug a fuzz tone into it. It seems you get more tone out of it. I lean towards that less compressed sound. You get more percussion out of it and you can control it better. You want to get that heavy distortion you get it, but then you use your hand on the string to get the percussion. But we use everything, especially when we're making a record. Which is one of the reasons we're doing this interview, because Guitar Center has been a really big asset. Chances are you guys have it if it's new. You have a really good branch in Boston and it just works.

GC: Did you feel the need to go out to a big drum room or studio somewhere to do the kit?

Steven: That's another one of those things that is subjective and objective. Some songs really warrant that presence, that bigger presence, because nothing beats samples. It's proprietary, it's singular, it's huge, but if you can get a drum set to sound like that (it's great). There is a place we like to record at called Longview Studios out in Massachusetts. It's got a huge room that was built as a soundstage. The (Rolling) Stones rehearsed for a tour out there. Plus it's a barn, so you know it's right up our alley as far as where our roots come from.

Joe: I think it was built in 1918. They really haven't done anything in there, refurbished it or anything. It's that old wood, there's nothing like that huge sound. Not huge in the like 80' kind of like wide open sound. It's open is what I mean. So the cymbal is breathing and you can mic 25 feet away and hear what the drums really sound like.

Steven: Well again, it has to do with when you are putting a part down. The vigor and venom you put it down with and the excitement in you as you're writing or playing it. If you listen to the front of "Drop Dead Gorgeous," the drums were in my workout room in my barn. I said, "let me just throw something over this track." If you listen to the drums and the room, it's nothing but the thumbprint of the room. It's got a character you can't buy.

Joe: It sounded great. But the most important thing is the feeling you get when you hear it come back. When you play the instrument and it talks back to you, then that's the place to record it. When Joey recorded his drums it felt amazing to sit there in that room and just the way the drums feel. That's the most important thing.

Steven: That's right. The organ in "Wolly Bully." If you can catch the enthusiasm in the performance, then bingo. All you have to do is call it yours and you got it.

Joe: It's really about how it feels when you play it. If it feels good to play it in the big room, it's going to have that sound. It's going to have that feel. What's really going to come through is the enthusiasm of the guys playing it. That's what you're really looking for.

GC: Do you take the Pro Tools rig up there in order to record drums on the same recorder that you were using at home?

Joe: Actually we did. We had three systems. We had the system that stayed in my studio. We had a system stay in Steve's studio. And then we have a traveling one that the band has. Pro Tools has a removable hard drive, so we would leave the system out there and then just bring the hard drives back. It just kept it really mobile.

GC: I've read a little bit that you guys built a separate mixing studio. What's in that studio that's different from the tracking studio?

Joe: I've heard rumors of a Digidesign mixing console. We felt we needed to be able to break out after Pro Tools to get to some outboard gear. The preferred instrument for that was an SSL. We were in the middle of trying to choose a mixer. This house next door was just sitting there empty so we moved an SSL in there. We were able to continue recording here and continue working while mixing over there. I don't know if we'd ever do it again. Putting the thing in was a science project and a half. When I found out what the air conditioning, it was a lot. It was really a lot. If we did it again, apparently some of the new digital mixing consoles will have the break-out capability. You wouldn't have all the mechanical problems that we had moving it in. The house is like 200 years old and the floor almost collapsed when we rolled in there. They did it though, and it was great.

GC: So you came out of Pro Tools and mixing in analog at that point?

Joe: We did it in three different formats. We mixed it onto DAT. One on the half-inch tapes. And back on the Pro Tools. We had these ADD converters that were all handmade to make sure it's right. Some songs sounded better coming right off the hard drive. Some things sounded better coming off tape.

GC: You've had an amazingly long career. At various points through the arch of your career, at various albums and things like that, have you felt pressured to change your sound or writing? Or repeat what you've already done?

Joe: I don't know if we know how to go back. The only thing we hear is that people would like to hear a record like the old days. I don't really know what that is. I think the '80s are the old days sometimes. And I don't want to make records that sound like that again. At this point, I think we may have a new slant on where the next one's going to go. But it's really just about making the best music we can with all the tools. We just don't want to stay in the same place. There are some people that just never change. That would be so boring and deadly for us.

GC: So you're just going to do what you do and not really worry about if it's the same or different than it was in the past.

Joe: It stays within a certain parameter. We're not going to start playing jazz. It's going to stay under the vast umbrella of rock and roll.

GC: How do you or the whole band settle differences about how something might sound or should be?

Steven: That's a hard one because I'll do a demo and look at Joe and say, "This is great." But then you've got to take that sound out of the box and bring it to the band. Then they have to replay everything. Sometimes it changes everything drastically and then I have to swallow it and say, "I've got a band. I can't take them off, but I also can't leave it as a demo." That's why we try to do as much as we could with everybody there. We don't all write like we used to anymore. Joe and I pretty much write together or separated. The other guys come in and learn the parts. That's what it's gravitated to. In the old days, we would rehearse together in a room so we kind of wrote the songs together. But we couldn't get as many songs out as we could today like we do.

GC: Because you can work separately?

Steven: Separately from the whole band. If you start inviting people in, they have their take and then it slows. It's just difficult. Then there are egos in a band. Fortunately, the band's been around long enough where Joey accepts my drums on the front of the song or if I grab the bass guitar, Tom's all right with that if I play something. It's just a process.

Joe: It gets harder and harder to write songs. It just does. It is like magic that we've been able to keep coming up with new music within the confines of rock and roll without sounding the same. It's because we've morphed our style of writing and allowed it to go places that some people wouldn't. Whether that means including other people, like outside songwriters, that's what we do because that's what it takes. Otherwise you end up sitting in the room, grinding away on things. I remember Steven and I would inevitably have the majority of the guts of the songs in the old days. We would work to the point where we would get like, six songs and then we'd go in the studio and then piece together whatever else was lying around. That's why some of the records had only eight or nine songs on them because we would work until we had just enough songs. Some of them turned out to be classics and some of them were never to be heard. Now, we look at it differently. We try to make every song worth something. That's why we end up writing 20 or 30 songs per record now.

GC: So you've done a lot of writing with outside writers as well as writing alone, you talked a little about why you use outside writers because maybe it brings new ideas or so you don't wind up writing the same thing again and again. Is it a problem to make sure that a collaborative song still stays Aerosmith-like? Does the stuff that's too left field just not make it on the album? Is that how that works?

Steven: No, it's personal. It's really personal. I've worked with producers that had me re-sing my vocals 20 times and then do a composite. And I'd say, "Why? What's wrong with that vocal?" And you've got to look out for these producers that go, "Well I can hear the difference." Well good, that means that only one person can. The masses never will -

Joe: They can get to be too anal.

Steven: They really can! And what we look for in this band is that if you can catch the enthusiasm in a performance, you know you've got it. And our passions match our emotions. You know I'm writing these things down as we're saying them, Joe, because it's so true! If you can get your passion, wherever you may be, to match the emotions and the performance then you got something! I think that an outside writer is nothing more than Keith Richard's fuzz tone on "Satisfaction." -

Joe: Exactly!

Steven: - It was just the inspiration for the song! Wherever you get it, it could be the smile on your face walking out and seeing the spring after living six months in the kind of weather we have here in New York and in Boston. I mean, we did most of our albums in the winter. Remember that Joe?

Joe: Yeah.

Steven: In the dreary, cold, one of the reasons they say so many people drink up in Canada and Maine is cause it's dark and dreary and the sun goes down at five o'clock at night. And then comes the summer which is so inspirational to us. We wrote "Nine Lives" in Florida. It was so beautiful with parrots and thongs and girls and flowers and smells! It's all where you get your inspiration. And I hear so much about people trying to take the piss out of you for writing - whatever your inspiration, whether it's a carrot juice or getting laid or whatever it is that you can get it from to make your muse pop - Guitar Center! Walking in like a child in a candy shop! Whatever it is, people like to label it and blame. And it's not about that. It's the fuzz tone in "Satisfaction." - (mimicking the intro to "Satisfaction") - What a great thing!

Joe: And the thing is the template that you have in your own brain that gets you off, I think that's what's seen us through all these years. Most musicians have a template in their head that goes "I like that" or "I don't like that." Some people have a really wide one. Some people have a really narrow one. And ours is pretty wide. We still love to rock. You know what I mean? I'd say that's the biggest thing in the template but there are so many other flavors and sounds that we allow in. An Aerosmith record is only going to sound a certain way because there are places we naturally go and places we're not going to go there. It's a gut thing. It's not some kind of book of rules that we have up on the wall. It's just a natural feel for what it is. That's what an Aerosmith record is and will always be. It will always be some kind of template of what's going on inside. The point is that we let a lot of stuff in. That's why we got the constant stream of Fed Ex trucks down here with new s--t in them because you never know what's going to inspire you next. You never know what foot pedal is going to come along and make a sound that makes you go "We got to write a song around this!" Or some new f--king vocal sound. Just something that makes you go, "Wow we just got to use this."

Steven: Plus once we realize how to get what we want, we just go off on it. You know we lost it fifteen years ago, our whole muse went down the drain from our abuses. Then we realized that "Ok the secret to this is: you go in a room, you lock the door and you don't leave until you've got something!" Joe used to push me so much I hated him! You know "Just sing something!" And I'd say "Come on, I'm not ready! The song! I need the inspiration!" We're still fighting all the time. Joe wants me to sing something so he can put his guitar down and I want him to put his guitar down so I can sing something. But if one of us jumps in first, we got it! It's like we both - Joe used to walk around the lake with rocks around his belt with a fish tank over his head so he could breathe under water! Then we both got scuba certified. Now we're into rebreathers! So it's never enough. There's always more. And I think that is so good for the creative spirit of where we could possibly go with this band and how much further we can get into this, what songs we haven't written yet. It's just a great trip!

GC: In that sense do you think that your Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction was premature?

Steven: I think that we're all mistaken if we're thinking that the Hall of Fame is like the end of something. It's not the climax of a life, it was just them tipping their hats to us. That's how you've got to look at it. Still, though, we were surrounded by people that would be considered, you know - I looked over and saw, like, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and I thought, "Why did you stop?" I'm looking at him and I'm thinking "Well Jesus!" I didn't say this to him but he fell off the face of the earth! What happened? You know did his music go out of style? No!

GC: So he reached a certain high point and then stopped?

Steven: Wait a minute! In my book you're not supposed to let that happen. Of course, he could come along and say "How dare you? I do what I want to do! If I wanted to be over, I was over!" I just look at it as "I missed him." Maybe he was out there singing maybe for himself and making money maybe for his family, or maybe doing it for his own ego. But for all of us who listened to Frankie Valli and used his singing as a background to our growth in high school, sucking face and making love and all that we ever did, we missed him dearly! I don't know why he stopped, why he didn't join some other band. His voice was so great! He just rested on his laurels. I may be looked at for the rest of my life as an asshole, but I see a lot of people as - you know - Jeff Beck, where is he?

Joe: You know that he just won a Grammy?

Steven: No kidding! He finally stepped up to the plate!

Joe: You know he's nominated every year for an instrumental. I mean almost every year!

Steven: Look at this guitar player that just stepped up to the plate. Not "Surfing With The Alien" that's Satriani. Not Satriani but the other guy! Steve Vai! OK, look what happened. He played at the Grammy's and he's so good. The guy is so busy, he shoots himself in the foot all the time. But when he's sitting with someone who can sing, like Nelly Furtado, and it's just him by himself, he's a virtuoso!

Joe: Well he's a virtuoso anyway, but he doesn't know how to f--king focus it! You know what I mean?

Steven: But someone was smart enough to let him just do it. I looked over and everybody was going, "Wow, who is that?" It was brilliant! That was one of the highlights of the show for me!

Joe: You know what? I'm looking at his last record right now. It probably sold like 20 records, you know what I mean? The guitar guys love it and he's totally amazing! He's so innovative! He is brilliant! He is a f--king prodigy, but he doesn't know how to write a hit song. And unfortunately in our business it's almost all or nothing. There is so much music out there that you never hear about that isn't in the mainstream. On the other hand there are so many people out there that you can still have a career even if you're not on MTV. It's tough and you'll only get so big, but you can have a career even if you're not willing to play the game. Frank Zappa was the king. He was so outside the mainstream, but he still got rich and was able to support his art! But he was one of the first ones to do that. He had his own record label, he owned his own P.A. system you know what I mean? He just went out there and he did his own thing and he had his own following, but you can only be so big. If that's where your art takes you, more power to you. The same with Steve Vai, he'll do something like that and get some noteriety and maybe someone will pick up his solo record. He's got a small record label now and he'll do really good. But we choose to try and stay in the mainstream and it's tough.

Steven: We learned early on that if we didn't do something on the record to take it to the mainstream it wasn't going to get heard at all. Aerosmith was famous for album oriented music and there were radio stations at the time that played nothing but album oriented music. And so much got heard that was out of the mainstream. You listen to the early 70s stuff and it's brilliant. So much more so than today's music. Not just one thing, you know, blues and rap. But so much diversified other stuff. And there's just no room for it anymore because corporations took over and were looking for only the hits. When we climbed out of the ashes, we thought, "Let's try writing with some outside people because we need another 'Dream On'". So we wrote "Angel." It forced people to buy the record for "Angel" and then hear the other stuff, you know, what they call deep album cuts. That's a big hoot for us! But we've turned in our schlocky stuff and it's all subjective anyways. A lot of people hate Aerosmith. They think we're soppy and ballady, but a lot of people love it for just that. So we're not trying to please everybody - that's the kiss of death. It's just how do you get it out there? How do you turn kids on? One of the best things about the Internet is that kids can download music they would never, ever have heard because they can just get in there. They feel like they're doing something wrong. They're checking it out! They're climbing a tree, climbing different branches for different fruits! That's great. Not necessarily good for people that are like Blodwyn Pig. There's not a guy in the band that wouldn't do something really strange for a little bit of money right now, but they're not going to get it because Joe's son is downloading they're music! But maybe someone is hearing it. And if that's what it takes, then so be it! But it's unfortunate that the problems stem from the corporations wanting to make money, money, money! So Sony invents an MP3 player. Whoops! What about all your artists? That's looking out for our futures. But it was all about money. It's a corporation and money. Of course Sony had to do it because if they didn't, someone else was on to the technology. What are they going to do? Do they want to fail? So just release it now! Quick get it out now! So they released it six years ago without thinking that we were going to get downloaded and lose our back catalogs. It's not good. But it's a necessary evil in the world that we created which is called capitalism. But it's the only world we got!

Joe: Well we're going to work it out. It will be a big balancing thing, an evening out. It always does, every technology. It's nothing new and it's always new.

Singer and Boston native Steven Tyler, from the rock group Aerosmith sings the national nnthem prior to the start of the Boston Red Sox game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park on opening day, Monday, April 1, 2002. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

AEROSMITH Frontman To Sing National Anthem At Boston's Fenway Park - Apr. 1, 2002

AEROSMITH frontman Steven Tyler will sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Fenway Park in Boston today, April 1st, as part of the opening-day festivities at the ballpark, where the Red Sox will play host to the Toronto Blue Jays in both teams' season opener. The game is scheduled to begin at 1:05 PM ET.

The Sox have been trying to get Tyler to sing the anthem at Fenway since Steven sang the song at the New England Patriots opening game in 1999, but after hearing his rendition of the Francis Scott Key's epic at the Indy 500 some months later, the then-Sox brass reportedly revoked his invitation. Now that the team has new owners (including John Henry, who happens to be an AEROSMITH fan), the offer to Tyler was once again extended.

Tyler's version of the national anthem at the 2001 Indy 500 angered some veterans' groups after he changed the last line of the song from "the home of the brave" to "the home of the Indianapolis 500." This prompted Vietnam veteran Don Gillingham to tell Associated Press, "It would have been nice had it been about us. It is Memorial Day weekend." A short time later, Tyler released a statement saying he meant no disrespect to veterans, adding, “I'm very proud to be an American, and live in the home of the brave.”

courtesy of blabbermouth.net

http://members.papadocs.com/dank/aerosmith/

http://www.whymilk.com/free/tyler_video.htm

Sum-41, Ja Rule, and Nelly have teamed for a special recreation of Aerosmith's classic "Walk This Way" video, which originally featured Run-DMC. The new clip will debut during the mtvICON broadcast and will subsequently only be seen if it is voted for on "Total Request Live," which airs each weekday on MTV. Aerosmith is expected to perform live for the finale of the event.

Aerosmith's late '80s resurgence owed a great deal to MTV exposure for such videos as "Walk This Way," "Dude Looks Like a Lady," "Janie's Got a Gun," and "Cryin'," the latter of which which featured Silverstone and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler's daughter Liv as temptress runaways. That clip was voted as the all-time favorite video by MTV viewers in 1994.

"When MTV first went on the air, it was during a three-year period where Aerosmith was kind of broken up," bassist Tom Hamilton tells Billboard.com. "I remember how cool and exciting and new and different it was, and thinking, 'wow, we're not going to be there for that.' We've managed to put the band back together, and I think maybe having a taste of missing out on [early MTV] made us really want to concentrate on videos and doing as well as we could with it. It's been an amazing part of us getting back together and getting back up there with our career."

Along those lines, MTV.com is soliciting Aerosmith fan tributes, some of which may appear online or during the show. Fans can vote for their favorite Aerosmith videos in several categories, including best power ballad, best Alicia Silverstone appearance, and more. The winning videos in each category will later be shown on an MTV2 special.

Hamilton says Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry recently wrote a couple new songs in Hawaii, which will likely be released as part of an upcoming greatest hits collection. An appearance on the "Spider Man" soundtrack is also possible, as is a live DVD or longform video compilation.

- Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Follow the link below to read it, it's quite interesting!

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/
aerosmith/aerosmith1.html

From what I hear, the whole insert thing wasn't too good. They put "What It Takes" down as being a GAG video and there was no mention of "Sunshine" at all, even though it's been a good while since that's been out. Also, they claim there's a video for "Toys"....where?!