FILE - Tom Hamilton, from left, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, John Douglas and Brad Whitford of Aerosmith, perform on Sept. 8, 2022, at Fenway Park in Boston. Aerosmith will be touring a city near you for the last time to celebrate their 50-plus years of being together. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band announced Monday, May 1, 2023 the dates for their farewell tour called “Peace Out” starting Sept. 2 in Philadelphia. (Photo by Winslow Townson/Invision/AP, file)
On Friday, August 2, Aerosmith, long known as the Bad Boys from Boston, announced their retirement from performing, which came as both a surprise and not. It boiled down to singer Steven Tyler’s voice and the damage he sustained to his vocal chords and larynx last year. (Aerosmith has been hazy about how the injury happened.) A statement on the group’s website and social media sites read: “As you know, Steven’s voice is an instrument unlike any other. He has worked relentlessly for months to restore his voice to pre-injury levels. We’ve seen him struggle, despite having the best medical team on his side. Unfortunately, it is apparent that his vocal injury will not allow him to heal completely.
Is it over for good?
It seems so. But a keyword in the release could be “touring.” The statement did not address the possibility of a residency situation down the road, as they have done in Las Vegas previously, starting in 2019. Nor did it address their status as a recording band, and in interviews conducted before last week’s announcement, co-founding guitarist Joe Perry had always left the door ajar
Given the description of Tyler’s current situation, though, both scenarios seem unlikely. Their last album of original material, “Music from Another Dimension,” was released in 2012, their first in over a decade. Still, frequent Aerosmith producer Jack Douglas cryptically posted on Facebook: “Keep in mind, the Beatles quit touring in [19]66 after which they did their finest work.”
Responding to a request for comment, Perry’s wife and manager, Billie Perry, texted, “He doesn’t want to talk,” indicating the band’s public statement would suffice. (Perry will undoubtedly crank up his off-and-on The Joe Perry Project; he also plays in the Hollywood Vampires with Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp and Tommy Henriksen.)
“This only happened a few days ago and I’m basically trying to deal with that,” said Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton in an email. “Most of my focus has been on recording bass parts for a band I’ve been playing with. We have a bunch of great songs.”
The now-canceled 40-city farewell North American tour, called “Peace Out,” was slated to start in Pittsburgh on Sept. 20 and run through Feb. 26, 2025, including a New Year’s Eve performance at TD Garden. Since the 2019 “Deuces Are Wild” residency at Park MGM in Las Vegas, Aerosmith’s planned engagements have been problematic, stop-and-start affairs. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down the residency in early 2020. A return in the summer of 2022 was scrapped, with Tyler checking into rehab for his addiction to opiates after foot surgery. They played Fenway Park on Sept. 8, 2022, and then resumed the Vegas residency.
The “Peace Out” tour was announced May 1, 2023, and began in September of that year. They played three shows – in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Elmont, New York – but were forced to the sidelines under doctor’s orders: Tyler was instructed not to sing for 30 days. The injury was then deemed more substantial, and the tour was scrapped.
Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, Aerosmith has sold over 150 million albums worldwide. Formed in Boston in 1970, the band developed a sound that was clearly blues-based, revamping old blues and R&B songs much like its heroes the Rolling Stones and Yardbirds initially did. In 2021, Perry told me of these early days, “I thought it was the kiss of death to sit around and play slow blues. If it was a blues song that rocked, that was another story.”
