Aerosmith finds harmony for new album, tour

By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY

Posted June 13, 2012

Not long ago, an Aerosmith powwow, much less a tour and album, seemed implausible, as singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry openly squabbled.

Frictions remain, but the two have called a truce to record 15th studio disc Music From Another Dimension! and get back on the road.

The Boston quintet, which also includes guitarist Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer, kicks off its Global Warming tour Saturday in Minneapolis. Dimension, Aerosmith's first all-new set since 2001's JustPush Play, arrives Aug. 28.

"A year ago, nobody wanted to do an album," says Tyler, 64. "Now we're all on the same page, and we've been burning the candle at both ends. It all comes together when the band gets on stage. It's nothing but beautiful, and all the crap melts away. That's when the band is a band, no matter what else is going on."

The Tyler/Perry feud flared in 2010 when the singer became an American Idol judge without first informing his bandmates.

While tempers have cooled, sparring "is business as usual," says Perry, 61. "We don't agree on everything. But the machine is bigger than the parts. We all know that. We sorted out what we had to sort out.

"Some personal things got overblown, and a few things got misconstrued. We've been working together on the record for the last four months. Hey, if we didn't have disagreements, something would be wrong, and the record wouldn't be what it is."

So what is it? Dimension, a true team effort "hammered out with everyone in the room," recalls 1976's landmark Rocks, Perry says.

Noting the album's stylistic diversity (watch for a Carrie Underwood duet), Tyler takes special pride in the song Beautiful, "which is so strange that nobody thought it was an Aerosmith song," he says. "It took me five months to talk the band into liking it. That's why they hate me. I'm hard to deal with. I like to take risks."

Perry hopes to shoehorn single Legendary Child and two or three other new tunes into the summer shows but says "playing half the record would not serve the audience."

"We have a catalog going back 40 years, and every classic we take out of the set is going to be missed by some kid who hasn't heard it live yet, whether it's Walk This Way, Dream On or Jaded. We have to honor that. It's going to be a real rock 'n' roll show."