Aerosmith Rollercoaster Rolls On

Fresh off their South American tour, Boston rockers Aerosmith will soon hit the road again, this time for a European tour that will take them from Sweden to Italy. U.S. fans can catch them live when they return at the end of July to kick off their U.S. tour.

Although the news has all been pretty good for the past few months, some comments by guitarist Joe Perry may have fans wondering what the future holds for Aerosmith. Every Aerosmith fan remembers the off-again-on-again rollercoaster ride that threatened to break up the group, at least in the sense that iconic frontman Steven Tyler seemed poised to call it quits and do his own thing.

Although Perry now says he was confident that Tyler would return to the fold, something else he said puts the band’s future ambitions in question. When asked recently by The Guardian newspaper about the status of the group’s next album, Perry doubted that there was sufficient fan demand for new material.

“Actually, I’m not sure there is,” Perry says. “Until a couple of years ago, fans would ask for more records like the old records, but that’s all fallen off. New material is not that important any more. We’ve been at this for a long time. I think of some of the songs I’ve written or co-written and I think, why should I bother trying to top that? It’s like Leonardo Da Vinci painting the Madonna again. Why should I paint the Madonna again?”

Perhaps fan demand for new Aerosmith material really has waned. Maybe the group is just thinking they would like to do other things besides recording. After some four decades, it seems perfectly reasonable for them to kick back a bit and be satisfied with what they have already accomplished, if that’s what they want to do.

The group reportedly started working on the new album before the breakup drama emerged, and work on it has been kind of start-and-stop from the beginning. Perhaps that’s an indication that recording is just something they have had their fill of, and are satisfied with the touring side of the business.

Although Aerosmith seems to be healthy, fit, and rocking live audiences, the question that looms large for groups with the longevity of Aerosmith is: Will this be the final tour?