Feature: Aerosmith: This band is famous for being complicated

You might remember them from late-90s deb ball ballad Dont Wanna Miss A Thing, but Aerosmith have managed to sustain a 40-year career against all odds. DARREN LEVIN speaks to bassist Tom Hamilton to find out how.

The last time Aerosmith toured Australia bungee jumping was in its prime. It was 1989 and the tail-end of a long and gruelling world tour that started in Germany and wound up at Perth Entertainment Centre almost a full year later. Times were good for this notoriously volatile band. Theyd just put out the multi-platinum-selling monolith Pump, featuring mega hits Love In An Elevator and Janies Got a Gun; appeared on SNL and The Simpsons; and had finally kicked the booze and drugs. So on a sunny afternoon on the Gold Coast, bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer decided to take the plunge.

I pictured jumping off a bridge with some whacked-out adventure people, recalls Hamilton from Boston, where the band formed in 1970, but the place was right next to Sea World, so there were a lot of people there waiting with their girlfriends. I remember that and just remember having a great time. I just wish it wasnt so long [between tours]. So why the delay? This band is famous for being complicated and hard to organise, he shrugs. So lets blame it on that.

Complicated and hard to organise is understating it slightly when it comes to the past decade in Aerosmiths 40-year run. The story of their 15th studio album, Music From Another Dimension, is a rocknroll soap opera that stretched from 2006 until the albums release in late 2012. There were on-stage injuries and multiple surgeries. Scrapped sessions with big-name producers and aborted tours. Solo albums and autobiographies. Hamilton beat throat cancer twice, guitarist Joe Perry injured his knee twice and singer Steven Tyler developed an addiction to painkillers that forced him back into rehab for the eighth time. Things were looking particularly grim whe! n Joe Perry announced they would be auditioning other singers to fill in for Tyler while he recuperated. He sent them a cease and desist letter.

It seems like every few years we have to go through an ordeal like that, says Hamilton. Hopefully it gets to the point where those things dont take place too often because it always takes a while to recover and get the band back together from it. God knows we dont have all the time in the world. We have to be smart about enjoying what we have and keeping going.

Endurance probably wasnt on Hamiltons mind when he formed Aerosmith with Kramer, Tyler and Perry in Boston in 1970. Rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford joined a year later, solidifying a line-up that would last more than 40 years. Where their peers have split up, succumbed to substance abuse, or simply faded away, Aerosmith have endured because theyve managed to continually reinvent themselves.

In the 70s they gave the British blues-rock invasion a US context with a trilogy of classic records (_Get Your Wings_, Toys In The Attic and Rocks). In the 80s, they embraced a slicker pop sound and found chart success with Permanent Vacation and Pump, before inadvertently bringing hip-hop to the mainstream via Run-D.M.Cs cover of Walk This Way. The 90s were particularly fruitful. Get A Grip achieved worldwide sales of 20-million and spawned memorable clips starring Edward Furlong (Terminator 2), Alicia Silverstone (Clueless) and Steven Tylers daughter, Liv. And then came I Dont Want to Miss a Thing, the Dianne Warren-penned power ballad (known to fans as The Song That Dare Not Speak Its Name) that landed them their first #1 single for 28 years in 1998.

The past decade has been arguably the most tumultuous and least productive in their stretch, but Hamilton says theyre as good as theyve ever been live. I love the fact that we can get out and play 12,000 miles away and theres fans there. Were touring outside of the States this year and it! s really ! fun. Being onstage is more fun than its ever been. A lot of that has to do with sound technology and how well things sound, how we can hear each other and anticipate each other.

We can bring a spectacular production and get into the theatrics of it all, he continues. Were fans of big drama on stage. Im grateful we can stand up and still do it. Hopefully the time between this tour and the next trip to Australia is a lot shorter.

Does that apply to a possible new album as well? If I had my wish wed do these gigs [in Australia] and go right back into the studio, Hamilton explains. Theres no excuse for an album to take so long to do Thats something we need to learn. Hopefully it wont be too long until we get back in [to the studio] and do the next one.

Saturday, April 20 Stone Fest @ ANZ Stadium, Sydney
Sunday, April 28 ANZ Stadium, Sydney
Sunday, April 28 Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne
Wednesday, May 1 Entertainment Centre, Brisbane
Saturday, May 4 Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne