Aerosmith

0:00Hey, it's Tom from Arosnoth. How you doing? Pretty good. How you doing? I'm doing well. Thanks. I've listened to the record like three times today It's it's rockin man. It's it sounds huge Well, I'm really good. That's Great to know that you've been able to listen. No seriously that you've been I've been worrying about how we're gonna do all the press Worrying about how much people will have been able to listen to the record. Yeah, well they said the press they will At least heard it so you've been able to listen to it. Oh, yeah, and the bonus tracks to your song as well very nice Yeah, that's awesome. No, that's great to hear because of course I sit around wondering if anybody's ever gonna hear that Well, I was gonna get to that in a bit because I read a quote from you saying how tough it is to keep this stuff in because it's been

0:46done for a while now Yeah, but but we can get to that in a bit because I want to I want to I want to talk about you first and how how are you doing? Because I heard things came back about a year ago the the cancer and whatnot Yeah, that was actually an oh nine Okay, funny. I had a recurrence in oh nine and I had to go and I Was fortunate to go to this doctor in Boston that you've probably heard of who helped the Dell and a lot of other like Roger Daltter and all these people he's a He's a guy who does novel techniques with lasers and When I had my recurrence I was told that I had to have this horrifying operation that would have like really left me without a voice and You know, it just would have been awful

1:35but I They suggested I go see this guy and and he said I think I might be able to help you in a way that I don't have to do that and So when I went in and had the surgery day they they you know When I went under I thought it was 5050 whether I was gonna have the good way or the hard way He was able to do it the good way. So but anyway, I did some I didn't interview with him last summer a Year ago this past summer about that and when it got out there everybody thought I had had the surgery last summer But it was actually no night. Oh, I see so you're doing all right though. So thanks for asking. Yes. Yes I'm very grateful for where I'm at right now. Amazing. Well, let's let's start with the record then right so

2:22Maybe we'll go back. Let's start with 2006 2007 is that when the ball started rolling for this record? I think the The ball started really rolling with this record Right about when we almost broke up for good, which was What was it? A couple of January's ago, okay? This is before Brendan O'Brien or after? This was after okay Brendan was probably three four years ago and we got into it pretty deep with with Brendan and But you know a couple of us we're kind of pushing to take this four months period We had before our next tour and see how far into the record we could get because

3:09After all these years of going to work with Brendan We had an opportunity to get him to actually come and work with us So we wanted to see hey, maybe we can we can grant this thing out But it was a little bit ambitious and you know, we made a lot of progress a lot of good work But the album kind of went back to do its whole for a while while we went back out on tour and then you know, we had the tour where Stephen fell off the stage at the sturges event and You know the subsequent Near breakup of the band really we went through a period after that where we were out of communication with Stephen for months because we were in absolute loss how to deal with this and

3:56We figured man we better just like chill and just you know put it on ice for a while and You know of course later that year Um, Stephen was very wounded, you know, not only from his accident, but from you know how he thought we were Abusing being abusive and for all I know we were you know I hate that things happen the way they happened, but they did and so he You know, he told a lot of people that he wanted to now go out and do a solo thing which he has been talking about a lot over the last few years and We were convinced that that you know between what had happened at Sturgis and his desire to kind of go out and prove to the world

4:44You know whatever you want to prove that You know what happened is finally it just you know Stephen hit a bottom. He said to hell with us this sucks I'm gonna get get my shit together and what she did and he did an amazing thing and got really clean and Got right back in touch with the band. They said come on you guys. Let's You know, let's keep this going which of course is what everybody wants Right and we're just so you know, but we were we were waiting to hear that he was really ready to To do that do it right. We didn't want to go back into a situation where we'd have another sturgis, but man he did a fucking unbelievable Saying in terms of getting his health back together and his attitude back together and So we went back out on the road did a bunch of touring and

5:36He finally said okay, you know, I'm hot and horny to do this record and You know another thing that happened was that he he climbed on board with the idea of having jacked Elvis produce it and Once you know the rest of us were you know, it was one of those things where yeah, great We would love to work with Jack. It's got to take all five people to want to do it So finally we had all five people Ready to go and work with Jack Douglas and as soon as I knew that was Solid I knew that we were gonna I had their best chance of having a record that we'd had in a long time And I knew that it was gonna be an amazing experience Because Jack

6:23You know, he's an awesome producer from a musical standpoint a technical standpoint But it's the one thing that he does for us is coach us in a way that that eliminates a lot of the internal bullshit that goes on in a band and everybody trusts the guy and Everybody just knows that working with him is gonna be fun. So We had everybody on board we had Jack on board and you know some of us have been really like saving up for a long time with our writing and our material and our wrists and And we got in there and and This was last summer. Okay, so you recorded the bulk of the record last summer. We did really yeah the basic tracks we did last summer at our studio in Massachusetts and

7:12then we went out on tour and You know Stephen had to go back and do his TV stuff and Then I think it was the following like February It was time to go back out to you know come out to LA where Stephen would put down his vocals and Show would then do you know most of his leads and stuff and where all the overdubs we get done And You know it was it's been a tightrope the whole way, you know It's been so long since we've done a record of the material You know even though everybody was was gone home There's always that that feeling of you know there's always a chance that we're just It's not gonna happen. You just don't know and that's always there. It's always there

8:03but you can't listen to that you know you just got to go forward and You know amazingly enough we wound up with all this friggin material. Yeah the record's 15 tracks That's crazy, you know if we were really smart smart businessman we would have saved Material so we could when we're out as free agents You know after this record go out and have another record ready, but you know what everybody said fuck it man we just Everybody was so You're learning to have this You know everybody not only wanted to have an arrowsmith's record But everybody wanted to recognize for what they do on it and recognize for doing new things that they've never done before Well, let's see let's go on that because you have your first lead vocal on an aero Smith record

8:52I mean it's on the bonus tracks, but it's it's still your first leave vocal as far as I know That's a that's something that you know I've You know, I guess it's a bucket list thing really But yeah, I've I had this song and I knew that The way the song would we come off would be to have Steven doing a very prominent sort of almost a duet type back on vocal with me saying and It's kind of ironic because we did it and and then on this guy that that mixed it You know instead of going in and saying to the guy look, you know

9:37Make sure that the the vocals are making 50 50. He did it however He thought it should be and he did a great job of making my voice sound half decent And and you know with Steven kind of mixed in there a little bit. So I mean just what it would an amazing thrill, you know, I suppose You know if everybody likes it, I'm gonna have to figure out how to sing it Yeah, exactly are you do you because I mean there's two tunes you also you also do tell me on this one Do you write on guitar or piano like where does it where did the song start for you typically? usually on guitar but Like tell me with an acoustic guitar thing right well it's an acoustic guitar that really drives that song anyway Yeah, right so I came up with all those guitar changes just you know strumming on an acoustic

10:26But then I sat down and learned to play just the very basic chord changes on piano and kept sort of thinking about it that way and You know so there's definitely some keyboards involved in there It's interesting because you it's a song about loss and acceptance and and Well, I don't know where I was gonna go with that But but it is and but you also have some other songs that you co-wrote on there and it seems like There's more writing credits than any other record So it was it more of a band experience making this record was it was everyone did everyone have more of a say? Yeah, okay. Yeah again. This is a Jack dope, you know part of the whole paradigm of working with Jack is you know if you come out come in one day with an also all-riff that you

11:16That you think has a special little something about it There's a there's a good chance that Jack is gonna support you and bring it to the band and trying to get everybody's attention To try it out So yeah, you know, you had stuff that you know on Joey worked on with Marty Fredericin and then Brad had this riff that he's had for a really long time and you know that became the basis of Street Jesus and So yeah, you had a combination of a lot of the stuff that was developed by the group and Then some other stuff that was you know completely written by individuals and So yeah, I mean the thing

12:03I also could do probably two albums a year if it was if it's the whole thing of writing a lyrics just a little bit simpler, but you know Stephen That's kind of a dark room for Stephen when he goes in there and But once he gets in there and and does it he turns into the exuberance self and starts going at everything and that's what happened with the record we were sort of at the beginning of the point where Stephen was writing most of the lyrics and We had an opportunity to have legendary child in this big GI Joe movie that was supposed to come out and it was literally they said okay if you can get it done over the weekend Maybe we can use the song so everybody how did Stephen and Stephen went and and

12:49grounded out and I think that that was an amazing experience for him I think he came out and it really boosted his confidence because he pulled it off Until he went and finished all this other stuff I hear that that was a song that's been around for a while And and you guys couldn't really figure out what to do with it until Jack Douglas came around and he just knew what to do with it I can't remember who said that but I read that from somebody That's true of a lot of it, you know, and I wonder like really emphasized man this record Was made in the last two years I mean all this material was developed and finished in the last couple of years but you know some of it is derived from stuff that we had taken a crack out in the past and You know again, it's just oh Some of this, you know, we developed this way of working with Jack in the 70s. It was kind of never forgot and

13:40So a weird riff will come up and and When we work with other producers, we might think okay. Well, he's gonna hear this and hear the how it can be developed But a lot of them don't you know, it's kind of Jack, you know, he enjoys a weird Off the wall idea. He's not kind of on the phone half the time, you know Working his career and trying to figure out how to you know You know be buddies with the record company, right? You know, I mean we are buddies with our record company. They've been doing fantastic for this, but You know, so Joe a Jack is just in there. We must have facilitated everybody getting their ideas across so then That's why that is Joe said we've been trying to make this record since the band got back together in 84

14:29Do you feel do you feel the same? Oh, I don't know if I go back that far. I've been trying for a long time And I think once this thing up going and the way I always dreamed that how this record was happening What that it would be this big comeback album for us? Where this band that has been together since You know time that was so long ago. Everybody's almost forgotten it comes back and Statement out this career statement, you know, it's like our It's our dissertation That that reflects everything we've learned since we started making records The dissertation starts with this talk intro that says we control your emotions What and what kind of emotions are you trying to evoke from people who are listening to this record?

15:20the emotions that we are of one of the folks with most of the sons whatever makes people want to like Put on their party clothes and come to the show and have a blast you know, we're always Wanting to energize the audience and see how much of a reaction we can get from the audience How much of a reaction did Steven get from you guys when you found out the Carrie Underwood had already laid vocals down on one of your tracks? You know, I just kind of shook my head now. I always kind of pissed off because I didn't want That to all of a sudden be what everybody focused on when this record came out I didn't want it to be like all the news, you know talking about how this thing happened with Carrie Underwood and then nobody notices all the rock

16:06but I think I was a little too nervous about that and you know the thing that You know when I heard that it was going on I Got a little pissed off But I kind of knew in the back of my head that was probably gonna sound really freaking good And that if it if it came out sounding really good You can't be a jerk off and then I have you know, I mean the piece of music is good. It's good Exactly absolutely. Oh, yeah Yeah, I hope I hope I hope everybody really really takes it and you know the rockers can Can skip ahead to the next tune if they want Yeah, you gotta go a little bit everything you have the country song you got the rockers you got a couple of power ballads on there It's a mix. It's what I would hope for an Aerosmith record to sound like a little bit of everything but a lot of rock at the same time

16:57So it makes me The trunk of the tree has got to be the rock yeah We don't have too much time here and there is one song I wanted to get to with you just cuz I know you and Steven wrote it years ago and it's one of my favorites And I was wondering if you could just tell me about coming up with the riff to sweet emotion when when did that happen for you? Oh man probably I Think it was like in between our first and second album and you know like you know, I'm sure I smoked a joint sat down and started noodling on the bass and You know I sit down and start to play you know I go for like 10 or 15 minutes things start to sort of come along sort of like

17:42You know envision a river going by and everything everyone's oh wow Something floating in it that you want to pick out and so I don't know I just kind of like the way That little bass thing sounds like you just kind of stuck with it and kept messing around with it and I think I timidly Played it for Steven when we were working on Probably get your wings and you know He was busy doing something else. He's like yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's okay. All right, but how about this and And so I just continued to work on it and then I thought up some guitar parts and those sections that go between the verses we're kind of me trying to evoke the feeling of it The bass playing on the Jeff Beck rough and ready album

18:31So You know I kind of had that all and we went into the basic tracks for toys, Indiana We got all the way at the end and Jeff said, you know you guys we have an extra day Does anybody have any riffs lying around and so I you know that was my opportunity to raise my hand and say hey, you know Well, I've got this thing and of course once I had everybody's attention you know I started showing everybody all these ideas and and you know we made it into an arrangement and recorded and then You know a couple of months later. I hear this fucking thing was Steven singing this really flipped out both a lot Yeah, become a classic Yeah, I know it's kind of funny to think that you know, there's a you know a base riff can be a hook

19:17But I guess I can't hey Jack Jack's worked in another Canadian band called the trues who their first hit was just based on a bass riff too So it it happens more often than we like to think yeah, that's good. Yeah Five quick questions before I let you go with one word answers we do this with everybody Road or studio Lenna McCartney When you hear a song what usually hits you first lyrics melody or rhythm song you've written your most proud of Nice and in one word aero Smith together. That's a good one. I like it