AEROSMITH Guitarist Is 'Constantly Amazed' By Band's Longevity

AEROSMITH began work on its first all-new album since 2001 last year, with the rest of the band working on music while singer Steven Tyler made his "American Idol" debut.

AEROSMITH is currently mixing a reworked version of its 1991 outtake "Legendary Child" (originally written during the "Get A Grip" sessions) for inclusion in the upcoming summer film "GI Joe: Retaliation" (which arrives in theaters around the U.S. on June 29). The song is also expected to appear on AEROSMITH's long-awaited new studio CD, which is tentatively due this summer.

When asked by RollingStone.com if it was tough rebuilding the bridges with his bandmates to get everyone back in the same place so that they could work on the new album, AEROSMITH guitarist Joe Perry said, "No, because the music does that. After a band's been together as long as we have, everybody just gets into their own rhythms. You can't force shit. People do what they're going to do outside of the band, whether it's Steven wanting to put his name on motorcycles or doing 'American Idol', or Joey [Kramer] writing a book or me putting out a solo record. But the five of us always have this band, and we're constantly amazed that it's still happening."

Perry also spoke about AEROSMITH's renewed collaboration with producer Jack Douglas, who previously worked with them on classic early albums like "Toys In The Attic" and "Rocks" as well as on 2004's "Honkin' On Bobo".

"'Honkin' On Bobo' was supposed to be this record," Perry said. "As it turned out, the energy around the band wasn't right, but we needed to put something out. We did it in a room not much bigger than this, everybody set up and playing live. And that was what we carried into this record: live, in-the-room excitement."

He added, "I don't spend much time listening to the records when they're done. Usually I let go of it. Especially in the Eighties and Nineties – they were like product, almost. (There were) so many people involved, I felt like you lose ownership of the record. But I remember listening back to the tracks in the Seventies a lot, just for the fun of it. And this record, for some reason, I found myself doing that."

AEROSMITH's "The Global Warming" tour will kick it off on June 16 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota and wrap up on August 8 in Tacoma, Washington.