Aerosmith Is No More

We saw Aerosmith five years ago at whatever the hell it is they call the new University of South Carolina men’s basketball arena.  It was honestly a helluva rock-n-roll show (although the acoustics of the place are awful), and we remember being particularly impressed by lead singer Steven Tyler’s ability to nail the high notes in “Dream On.”

Of course, we also remember being impressed by a memorable display of girl-on-girl grinding that took place in our luxury box during “Sweet Emotion” … one featuring two shorter models who were “built for comfort” and a tall, red-haired drink of water who was obviously “built for speed.”

Seriously, people … the two short girls pretty much used the tall one like a stripper pole.  Which was … yeah …

Anyway, all of this by way of saying that Aerosmith – which has earned its place in the pantheon of rock Gods with dozens of 150 million records sold over the past three-and-a-half decades – is no more.  According to guitarist Joe Perry, Tyler left the band following a recent concert in Abu Dhabi.

“Steven quit as far as I can tell,” Perry told the Las Vegas Sun last week. “I don’t know for how long, indefinitely or whatever …”

Wikipedia is already referring to the band in the past tense, though, which can’t be good.

From Rolling Stone …

For years, Perry and Tyler — who co-wrote most of Aerosmith’s hits — have been unable to agree on a direction for the band’s music. As a result, it’s been nearly a decade since the group released an album of new material, despite repeated stints in the studio. “[We] haven’t written a song together alone in the same room in over ten years, so there’s been some changes in paradigm of what Aerosmith is,” Perry said to the AP in September. Tyler wants more slick, pop-rock hits like 2000’s “Jaded,” while Perry is still fighting for the harder, bluesy sound of their Seventies records.

Aerosmith’s final U.S. tour was a disaster – with 27 of the 42 shows canceled, most of those due to injuries sustained by Tyler during a fall from a catwalk in Sturgis, South Dakota.

The tour was also dogged by lackluster ticket sales.

By contrast, Aerosmith’s 2006 and 2007 tours were both hugely successful – a testament to the sustained success the band had been enjoying since the release of 1989’s Pump, which marked the beginning of one of the greatest comebacks in rock-n-roll history.

Aerosmith’s last studio album was 2001’s Just Push Play.

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