Aerosmith have cancelled most of their 2016 tour plans because frontman Steven Tyler wants to concentrate on his solo career, guitarist Brad Whitford reports.
And he thinks the singer’s choice of focus is misguided, adding: “We kind of feel a little bit abandoned by him.”
Tyler – who launched country music single Love Is Your Name earlier this year – admitted in June that his colleagues were “not happy” about his commitment to solo work. But he added: “This is a side-project that’s now turned into a love of life.”
Whitford tells Billboard: “He seems to think his solo career is going to go great guns. He doesn’t seem to realise, in my opinion, his fans around the globe want to see him in the context of Aerosmith – and don’t really care for whatever he thinks he’s going to do.
“I don’t know if he gets that – but, hey, that’s what he wants to do. I can’t put a gun to his head. It’s just pretty disappointing.”
The only live appearances remaining make up an expected tour of South America in 2016. Meanwhile, Whitford has reunited with Derek St Holmes and they’ll release an album entitled Reunion some time after their upcoming US dates.
“Derek and I now live in the same town and we’ve been great friends since the mid-70s,” Whitford reports. “Once we were hanging out together it was natural evolution. We got to the point of, ‘Wow, we’ve got to do something with this.’”
The project also features Aerosmith touring keyboardist Buck Johnson and Tesla drummer Tony Luccketta, and Whitford describes it as “modern classic rock,” adding: “A lot of Aerosmith fans are really going to enjoy this.”
