Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry reflected on the “encouraging” and highly emotional experience of watching Steven Tyler sing his heart out during the making of One More Time, the band’s recent collaborative EP with Yungblud.
The five-song collection, released last November, marked Aerosmith’s first release of new material since 2012’s Music From Another Dimension! It was also their most substantial move since the cancellation of their Peace Out farewell tour and retirement from the road in 2024 due to an insurmountable vocal injury Tyler sustained during the first few dates of the trek.
“Getting to work with Steven in the studio was awesome,” Perry tells UCR now. “It’s only been the last, like, half a year he’s really been able to sing without hurting his throat. So that was really encouraging. It was really an intense two or three months.”
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Joe Perry on Steven Tyler: ‘We Hadn’t Heard Him Sing Like That in F—ing Years’
Although Tyler has made brief, sporadic live appearances since retiring from touring (including Ozzy Osbourne’s Back to the Beginning concert last July and a subsequent tribute to the Prince of Darkness during the MTV Video Music Awards in September), the making of One More Time was the most Perry had seen his bandmate sing in years.
“Steven sang like six hours straight, three days in a row,” he recalls. “Billie [Perry, his wife] and I were sitting on the couch at Johnny [Depp’s studio], and she had tears in her eyes because we hadn’t heard him sing like that in f—ing years, literally since the Peace Out tour got pulled down.
“I don’t even know if he could have even started vocal exercises for at least a year after he got hurt,” Perry continues. “That was a real blow, and then finding out he may not be able to sing at all … so anyway, seeing him do that in the studio was f—ing amazing.”
Perry acknowledges that Aerosmith’s full-scale touring days are behind them, but he hasn’t given up hope completely on some sort of return to the stage. “I know we’ll never be able to tour again, like a regular tour, but who knows?” he says. “There’s a lot that goes into it, but we’ll see.”
Joe Perry Discusses Aerosmith’s Remixed and Remastered Debut Album
In the meantime, Perry and his bandmates have busied themselves with a Legendary Edition reissue of their 1973 debut album, featuring remixed and remastered tracks plus a wealth of bonus material. With the new version’s release last month, the sound in the band members’ heads has finally been captured on record.
“The first record just didn’t sound like how we wanted it to sound,” Perry says. “And I’m not talking about adding overdubs or anything like that. Just tonally. I mean, we never were happy with the way the drums sounded. They sounded kind of flat and flabby, and that’s not how they really sounded in the room. But we didn’t know how to say, ‘Well, let’s do it this way.’ Because we didn’t know enough about it.”
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Now, that’s changed. “When we were starting to hear the remixes and listening to it like an album, it was like, holy shit, this is amazing,” Perry enthuses. “The drums sounded like the drums should have sounded. The guitars sounded good. Steven’s vocals, to hear his vocal chords, I mean, it’s pretty amazing. I didn’t think it was gonna be as impactful as it is to me.”
Which classic album will Aerosmith revisit next? “I can’t wait to do Toys in the Attic. I think that’s the next one we’re gonna remix,” Perry says. “It was closer, definitely, to what we wanted it to sound like — especially with the songs, but actually, sonically, I think it was closer. But there are things about it that certainly we’ll correct when we get in there.”
Aerosmith Albums Ranked
Any worst-to-best ranking of Aerosmith must deal with two distinct eras: their sleazy ’70s work and the slicker, more successful ’80s comeback. But which one was better?
Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff
