The next time Aerosmith come to town could be the last chance to see the Boston rock legends in action.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, frontman Steven Tyler says the band are “probably” going to do a farewell tour in 2017, once all his current county music commitments are fulfilled. Tyler, who last year launched a new career as a solo country artist, also suggested that Aerosmith could also just head back into the studio for business as usual.
“I’m doing 30 shows from May until August,” Tyler tells the magazine. “And then in 2017 we go out with Aerosmith. We’re probably doing a farewell tour. Look, there’s two bands that still have the original members, us and the Stones. I’m grateful for that. Whether we do a farewell tour or go into the studio and do another record, I’m just excited about it.”
Aerosmith’s last concert was held last September in Russia. Since then, Tyler has released a string of country songs, including “Love Is Your Name” and “Red, White & You”. Drummer Joey Kramer has also been busy, opening New England restaurants and building his coffee business.
Tyler’s musical efforts, however, have been criticized by Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, who recently told USA Today: “If I didn’t know him when I heard the song I’d go, ‘It’s okay, next’… He’s got a fucking rhinestone cowboy hat going, ‘Yippee ki yay.’ I don’t know what else to say about that.”
Ouch.
But a farewell jaunt could be the best thing going for the band that started in Boston back in 1970 and has sold more than 150 million albums worldwide, good enough for a claim as the most successful American rock band ever. Back in December, guitarist Brad Whitford hinted as some sort of “goodbye” on Eddie Trunk’s podcast.
“We are actually talking about that — about actually putting together a sort of wind-down tour which we would call the Farewell Tour,” Whitford said. “I guess it’s just because of our age. You know, something’s gonna happen. It’s just inevitable that somebody’s not gonna be able to do it anymore. So it would be very nice to take a nice long bow and say thank you and …put it to bed kind of gracefully.”
Of course, as we all know, “Farewell Tours” in this day and age can mean different things. After a highly publicized goodbye, LCD Soundsystem just returned to the stage after a five year absence, and Mötley Crüe paraded around for what felt like an endless goodbye run that finally concluded a few months ago in Los Angeles.