Aerosmith goes 'organic' for new album

By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY

Unfazed by all the alarmist talk about rock 's steady march to the grave, Aerosmith headed straight for The Boneyard. That's the name of guitarist Joe Perry's Boston-area home studio, where the band is crafting an as-yet-untitled album due in the spring, its first album since 1997's Nine Lives.

Jaded, Avant Garden, Beyond Beautiful and Under My Skin are among 20-plus songs already recorded for an album said to merge classic Aerosmith rock energy and kaleidoscopic flourishes. Taking the helm for the first time, Perry and singer Steven Tyler are producing the disc with songwriting partners Marti Fredericksen and Mark Hudson.

"We didn't want to do a color-by-numbers with a big-name producer," says Perry, whose studio is a hodgepodge of vintage guitars, girlie pin-ups, Jimi Hendrix posters, lava lamps, leopard-print carpet and a cardboard Tony Soprano. "My stomach would get in a knot when we were considering other producers. Now it feels more organic. . . . We just let go, and the sparks flew."

The band, currently mapping a world tour, is the rare exception in a field of stunted careers. Current members Tyler, Perry, Brad Whitford, Joey Kramer and Tom Hamilton, the same lineup that founded Aerosmith in 1970, will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 19.