Interview 32 @ aerocrazed.bravehost.com

Kentucky.com, KY
March 5, 2006

The band has survived crippling addictions, outlived music industry trends and seen audience appeal passed down through generations.

But it wasn't until Aerosmith was preparing to return to Rupp Arena on Tuesday that bassist Tom Hamilton considered another milestone for the warhorse rock band he has played with since its inception more than 35 years ago.

"I love it that a place like Rupp still has the same name it had when we first played there," Hamilton said. "But you know what's really funny? A lot of the places that were new when we started touring in the '70s aren't just being renamed. They're being torn down. So on top of everything else, Aerosmith has now outlasted most of the buildings we've played in."

Such is the power of songs like Sweet Emotion, Dream On and Walk This Way as well as the appeal of a band that, aside from a period in the early '80s when drug and money problems were at their worst, has retained the same personnel lineup. At the heart of such a prominent and pioneering rock force, though, are musicians who still find their greatest artistic thrills by playing live.

"That's where you get the reward of being in the game," Hamilton said. "You're in there participating with what's going on in the present day. I still set goals for myself musically. They have to do with all the different aspects of being in a band. I always want to make what we do better. As long as you have that mind-set, you won't get stale. You only have to worry about that when you get this jaded attitude that you've made it, that you're established and that you can pretty much go and do the same thing for as long as you want. That, to me, is living death."

Perhaps the band's work ethic comes from the fact Aerosmith was far from an immediate success when its self-titled debut album was released in 1972.

"When the first album came out, we weren't getting much airplay," Hamilton recalled. "So the record company said, 'Your next record better be good, or that's it for you guys.' And ultimately, we were told that in order to make it, we needed to tour. And tour and tour and tour.

"We didn't have MTV then. We didn't have newspapers writing about us, except to report how many arrests there were at our concerts. That's just the way you did it in those days. If you didn't have a hit single, you got out on the road."

When Rupp opened in 1976, Aerosmith had released most of its initial hits and had become an unstoppable force on commercial radio. By the time the band played Rupp Arena after the release of 1977's Draw the Line, the lifestyles afforded by years of stardom were taking their toll, and guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford exited by the end of the decade. The members cleaned up and reconciled for a reunion tour in 1985. But achieving a full creative rebirth, Hamilton insisted, was far tougher.

"It's not something that was just luck. It was the product of a lot of effort, angst and longing. When we put the band back together, we found we still played pretty well on tour. But when it was time to do a record ... well, our creative process just needed work. We needed to break the old structures down."

Enter a reworked version of Walk This Way with veteran rap act Run D.M.C. and a pair of revitalized late '80s albums (Permanent Vacation and Pump) that introduced Aerosmith to the MTV generation. The subsequent string of popular records and tours continues to this day. So successful has its second life been, in fact, that Aerosmith was been able to indulge itself by recording a blues album (2004's Honkin' on Bobo) and talking a full year off touring. It hit the road again last fall with Lenny Kravitz as opening act. Fellow rockers Cheap Trick have the support slot on the tour's final dates before work begins on a new Aerosmith recording this spring.

"I still feel we have this challenge out there that we need to face and get started on," Hamilton said. "That's what it always feels like when we talk about making a new studio record.

Tom Hamilton "Aerosmith looks like it'll outlast anything" - March 5 2006