Aerosmith’s future remains up in the air after guitarist Joe Perry claimed frontman Steven Tyler is not interested in touring.
Last year, the legendary five-piece rock band announced they were retiring from touring due to a vocal injury Tyler, 77, suffered in 2023. They said the decision was made after it became clear that a “full recovery” for Tyler is “not possible.”
The “Dream On” band, who were traveling on their Peace Out farewell tour, were forced to cancel the rest of their dates.
Now, a year later, speaking to Boston’s WBUR, 74-year-old Perry revealed that he recently met with Tyler to discuss the group’s future, including a potential documentary.
“He just doesn’t want to tour and he can’t tour. It’s tough,” Perry said. “I’m not sure I would want to go out and book another 40-city tour. It’s a long way to the top and staying there takes it out of you, especially an Aerosmith tour.”
“You really have to want to be out there,” he explained, “and we’re all at that point of: How do you want to live? How do you want to spend the next however long you’ve got?
“I’ll never say never, but I wouldn’t bet on it — no pun intended,” he added, teasing: “I would bet that there’s an Aerosmith show left.”
The Independent has contacted Tyler’s representatives for comment.
In September 2023, just three dates into their farewell tour, the band announced that Tyler had “fractured his larynx.” They postponed tour dates in the hope he would be able to recover.
Then, a month before they were expected to return to the road, they announced their immediate retirement.
“We’ve always wanted to blow your mind when performing. As you know, Steven’s voice is an instrument like no other. He has spent months tirelessly working on getting his voice to where it was before his injury. We’ve seen him struggling despite having the best medical team by his side,” the band said in an August 2024 statement.
“We have made a heartbreaking and difficult, but necessary, decision – as a band of brothers – to retire from the touring stage. We are grateful beyond words for everyone who was pumped to get on the road with us one last time.”
As speculation swirled that the band was over, bassist Tom Hamilton debunked these rumors, insisting they were “still alive.”
Founded in 1970 by Tyler and Perry, Aerosmith is among the most influential rock ‘n’ roll bands. Over the years, they have collected four Grammys, performed the Super Bowl halftime show in 2001, and even had their own theme park attraction in 1999 at Disney World in Florida and later in Paris with the launch of the “Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith” ride.
They broke boundaries by intersecting rock and hip-hop with their epic collaboration with Run-DMC for “Walk This Way” in 1986.
