TESLA To Record Cover Of AEROSMITH's 'S.O.S. (Too Bad)'

TESLA guitarist Frank Hannon spoke to Ernest Skinner of Border City Rock Talk about the band's upcoming live album, "Full Throttle Live!". Due this summer, the LP will include the band's latest single, "Time To Rock!", plus other songs, all recorded last August at Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis, South Dakota.

Hannon said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "On 'Full Throttle Live!' that's coming out, it's all live, and we're gonna record, in my garage next week, we're gonna record live in my garage and put that on as a bonus track at the very end of it — a secret track. Remember when bands would put secret tracks [on their albums]? Well, we're gonna do a cover of AEROSMITH's 'S.O.S. (Too Bad)'… That's a rocker… Yeah, we're gonna work on that when I get home here next week. I'm really excited about recording that song. And it's gonna be the bonus track on the live album."

The official lyric video for "Time To Rock! (Live)" can be seen below.

Back in July 2022, TESLA vocalist Jeff Keith told "The Chuck Shute Podcast" about "Time To Rock!": "Like with all TESLA songs, we like to have that raw, live feel, and this song has totally just got that raw and live feel."

Regarding the lyrical inspiration for "Time To Rock!", Jeff said: "It's that kind of song that just, you know, everything you might have going on when you go to a concert, you wanna just kind of let your hair down and this song is exactly about that. Just not let things go, but just drop 'em down and still hold 'em in your hands tight, but just let things go and let your hair down for four and a half minutes. Time to rock!"

Keith previously discussed "Time To Rock!" that same month in an interview with the "Metal From The Inside" podcast. Regarding the band's decision to debut the track during a live performance in early June 2022 — weeks before the song's official release — he said: "We wanted to play it live for our hometown crowd. We played Thunder Valley [Casino], which is right down the street from our houses in Sacramento; it's actually in Lincoln, California. But we wanted to play it for our hometown crowd first. So we thought we'd play it for our hometown crowd, and we're having so much fun with it, we're playing it for every crowd — some new material — and we're excited about that."

As for whether TESLA fans can eventually expect to see a new full-length album from the group, Jeff said: "Right now, the way things work — the guys were explaining to me — 'cause usually that's all you did was made a record, since I've been in the band. And they go, now, with social media or whatever you call it — Spotify, whatever the names are; I don't go on the Internet, but it's a wonderful tool to have these iPhones and you can release a single without making a [full] record. So so far we've just put out some singles. But probably in the next year — no more than two years — we're gonna go and say, 'Let's make a whole record again.' But right now, it's very convenient because you can just download a single. And the guys were explaining to me, they go, 'Jeff, it's just like back when THE BEATLES, and before that when people would put out a single on a 45 record. Like Hank Williams, he'd do something live and just put it out as a single. Back in the day, they used to just put out singles, and then, of course, they would records too. So we're kind of in that mode. And now, instead of it being on a 45 record, it's on a digital form that you can have people download. I don't know — it's the best I can understand it."

Hannon spoke about "Time To Rock!" in June 2022 in an interview with Robert Cavuoto of Sonic Perspectives. Asked if DEF LEPPARD's Phil Collen, who produced TESLA's latest album, 2019's "Shock", will return to helm the band's follow-up effort, Frank responded: "The 'Shock' album that Phil did, they worked really hard on that. When I say 'they,' I'm talking about Phil Collen and Brian Wheat, our bass player. Man, they really worked hard on the album. It was a collaboration. Phil wrote most of the songs. And some people thought it was a great album and other people didn't like it. But we gave it a shot. But from now on… Brian and I had a discussion… Brian and I are the founding members of the band TESLA, along with Jeff Keith. And we decided from now on, we're gonna write and produce our own music. We worked with enough producers — we've had producers coming and going our whole career — so from now on, at our age, we're gonna produce our own music.

"The best thing about producing ourselves is it's imperfect and it's edgy and it's got the warts and everything and it's as real as it can be because it's us. We're not technicians where we know how to make things perfect."

Asked if TESLA will continue to focus on releasing individual singles before dropping another full-length album, Hannon said: "Yeah, we're gonna put out singles after singles and just focus on one song at a time, man, and rock that song.

"What happens is when you're young, man, you can write 10 songs and frickin' put out an album every year, but as you get older, like we are now, it's not as easy to do that," he explained. "So you end up sacrificing quality for quantity, and we don't wanna do that. Why put out 10 songs that are just in a rush when we can spend our time and just create singles that we're real proud of?"

In September 2021, TESLA drummer Troy Luccketta announced that he would "take a little time from the road" to spend with family and friends. He has since been replaced at TESLA's gigs by Steve Brown, the younger brother of former DOKKEN drummer Mick Brown.

TESLA will celebrate 36 years of entertaining audiences around the world with a five-night residency at the House Of Blues in Las Vegas, Nevada. The residency will begin on Friday, March 17.