Joe Perry says he doesn’t know if recording a new Aerosmith album is worth it, saying the band might be better touring and playing songs the fans know and love instead.
Aerosmith are currently on the road with the Let Rock Rule tour, supporting 2012 album Music From Another Dimension, and the guitarist says fans want to hear the classics rather than newer material.
Perry tells Boston magazine: “When we go out there and play live, people don’t really want to hear anything unless they know it. We’ve played a couple of songs off the new record and got some polite applause.
“Before the tour, I tweeted, ‘What song off the new record would you like to hear?’ The first tweet I got back was, ‘It depends what song you have to take out of the set.’ That really put things into perspective.
“I don’t know if it’s worth going in and sweating blood over a new record when we could be out on the road playing all these other songs people want to hear. It’s an interesting position to be in.”
Perry has been working on the follow-up to his 2009 solo album Have Guitar, Will Travel and reveals Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, who recorded a track for movie Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and recently collaborated with Smokey Robinson, wants to do his own solo album, too.
He says: “Steven’s talking about doing another one, which is great because he has wanted to do it for a long time.”
The guitarist also reveals 2004 blues album Honkin’ On Bobo is one of the few Aerosmith records he listens to, saying the band put “every bit of creativity” into the recording.
He says: “That was just unfettered fun making that record. We put every bit of our creativity into that record. I don’t listen to our stuff that often, but that’s one I do.”
