Aerosmith's Steven Tyler on 'What Could Have Been Love' - Track-by-Track Premiere

Aerosmith, 'Music from Another Dimension!'

Click to listen to Aerosmith's 'What Could Have Been Love'

RollingStone.com will be premiering Aerosmith's Music From Another Dimension! album, one track at a time, in the weeks leading up to the November 6th release.

"What Could Have Been Love" is the kind of wounded power ballad that dominated Aerosmith's run of hits in the Nineties, much to the irritation of some longtime fans of the band's early, hardest-rocking work. But that side of the group has been part of their repertoire all the way back to the Seventies, at least since "You See Me Crying" on 1975's Toys in the Attic.

The new song, another collaboration with frequent co-writer Marti Frederiksen, opens with a shimmering guitar melody and Steven Tyler singing, "I wake up and wonder/ how everything went wrong/ Am I the one to blame?" It's accompanied by the second video released from Music From Another Dimension!, which shows Tyler in a bar wailing miserably about a failed relationship while the rest of the band happily shoots pool, as the song builds to a teary crescendo.

"Marti and I had both been through divorce: Do you ever have feelings about that? Do you ever think about that?" says Tyler. "It started from there: 'What could have been love, it should have been the only thing that was ever meant to be, couldn't see what was right in front of me.' So many people are getting divorced now. When you've got kids, you still love the mother a little bit. Anyone worth their soul will admit it."

100 Greatest Artists of All Time: Aerosmith

Also getting a co-writing credit on the song is the band's keyboard player, Russ Irwin, who had a Top 40 hit as a solo artist in 1991 with the whispery romantic ballad "My Heart Belongs to You." Both Irwin and Frederiksen sing backup vocals on "What Could Have Been Love."

"It just reared its beautiful little head a couple of years ago," Tyler says of the composition. "It's a magical tune."

Album producer Jack Douglas gets a co-producer credit, but the song falls squarely in the soaring pop comfort zone of Frederickson, who produced the track with Tyler. "Jack is the overlord," says bassist Tom Hamilton of the album sessions. "He really brought this thing into the home port. But Marti had a big influence, just setting a good example creatively."

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Aerosmith's Steven Tyler on 'What Could Have Been Love' - Track-by-Track Premiere

Aerosmith, 'Music from Another Dimension!'

Click to listen to Aerosmith's 'What Could Have Been Love'

RollingStone.com will be premiering Aerosmith's Music From Another Dimension! album, one track at a time, in the weeks leading up to the November 6th release.

"What Could Have Been Love" is the kind of wounded power ballad that dominated Aerosmith's run of hits in the Nineties, much to the irritation of some longtime fans of the band's early, hardest-rocking work. But that side of the group has been part of their repertoire all the way back to the Seventies, at least since "You See Me Crying" on 1975's Toys in the Attic.

The new song, another collaboration with frequent co-writer Marti Frederiksen, opens with a shimmering guitar melody and Steven Tyler singing, "I wake up and wonder/ how everything went wrong/ Am I the one to blame?" It's accompanied by the second video released from Music From Another Dimension!, which shows Tyler in a bar wailing miserably about a failed relationship while the rest of the band happily shoots pool, as the song builds to a teary crescendo.

"Marti and I had both been through divorce: Do you ever have feelings about that? Do you ever think about that?" says Tyler. "It started from there: 'What could have been love, it should have been the only thing that was ever meant to be, couldn't see what was right in front of me.' So many people are getting divorced now. When you've got kids, you still love the mother a little bit. Anyone worth their soul will admit it."

100 Greatest Artists of All Time: Aerosmith

Also getting a co-writing credit on the song is the band's keyboard player, Russ Irwin, who had a Top 40 hit as a solo artist in 1991 with the whispery romantic ballad "My Heart Belongs to You." Both Irwin and Frederiksen sing backup vocals on "What Could Have Been Love."

"It just reared its beautiful little head a couple of years ago," Tyler says of the composition. "It's a magical tune."

Album producer Jack Douglas gets a co-producer credit, but the song falls squarely in the soaring pop comfort zone of Frederickson, who produced the track with Tyler. "Jack is the overlord," says bassist Tom Hamilton of the album sessions. "He really brought this thing into the home port. But Marti had a big influence, just setting a good example creatively."

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Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry on 'Legendary Child' - Track-by-Track Premiere

Aerosmith, 'Music from Another Dimension!'

Click to listen to Aerosmith's 'Legendary Child'

RollingStone.com will be premiering Aerosmith's Music From Another Dimension! album, one track at a time, in the weeks leading up to the November 6th release.

The first sign that Aerosmith were back as a creative force and writing new material came during this year's American Idol finale in May, where singer Steven Tyler signed off as a judge by joining the band to perform "Legendary Child," their first new song in eight years. With the big rock guitars of Joe Perry and Brad Whitford behind him, Tyler barked and wailed just like the old days, and even quoted from 1975's "Walk This Way," remembering when "I took a chance at a high school dance . . . " The lyrics go on to describe the life since, and "That same show/ 40 years ago /is being televised tonight."

The song was officially released in July as the first single from Music From Another Dimension!, accompanied by a high-concept music video of a girl carrying a coffin-shaped package being chased on roller skates. Aerosmith have been playing it on the road ever since. But "Legendary Child" has another, more profound meaning for the band – completing it was the first sign that their reunion in the studio was finally going to work out this time.

"Joe put the lead lick down. It was, 'Oh my God, we're back,'" Tyler says now. "It was so incredibly true at that moment to me that the band was back in the severest of ways. I was overjoyed."

100 Greatest Artists of All Time: Aerosmith

Aerosmith tried repeatedly to reconvene over the last several years, but were derailed every time by tension, breakups, tour-ending injuries, American Idol and more. Things already looked a lot different by last summer as the band began creating songs with producer Jack Douglas. Basic tracks were recorded, and soon the veteran rock act was invited to submit a song for the soundtrack to the upcoming action film G.I. Joe: Retaliation, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Bruce Willis.

The instrumental track for "Legendary Child" was submitted, though Perry insists a song is never really a song until vocals and all other parts are finished: "Until then they're just riffs." The filmmakers liked what they heard but needed to hear Tyler's vocals before committing. It was just the push the singer needed.

"So that weekend, Steven said, 'I gotta throw down,'" Perry recalls. "He went in and really sharpened the pencils and laid down a vocal. That was the first complete song. It had the vocals, the lyrics, the band track. That was the point where it was like, 'We got one.' We know we can do it now."

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Aerosmith's Steven Tyler on 'Beautiful' - Track-by-Track Premiere

Aerosmith, 'Music from Another Dimension!'

Click to listen to Aerosmith's 'Beautiful'

RollingStone.com will be premiering Aerosmith's Music From Another Dimension! album, one track at a time, in the weeks leading up to the November 6th release.

"Beautiful" unfolds like a collision of eras and Aerosmiths, opening with a grind of guitars as brutal as 1973's "Train Kept A-Rollin'" and a grunting, barking rap from Steven Tyler, before shifting into a soaring melodic chorus closer to the sweeping radio hits they'd perfected by the early Nineties. It was co-written and co-produced by Marti Frederiksen, a close collaborator since Aerosmith re-emerged as a major act in the MTV era.

"He can take a fart and make it a chorus," Tyler says of Frederiksen's skill at the Pro Tools monitor. And bassist Tom Hamilton calls him a challenging creative partner, "because the guy thinks and works so fast. He goes for it."

"Beautiful" emerged during 10 days of songwriting sessions at Frederiksen's home studio in Los Angeles, where guitarist Brad Whitford came up with the song's foundation in an unusual chord pattern. "They were like jazz changes. It was odd," says Whitford, and Frederiksen suggested they model the chorus after Slash's melody line in Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine."

After basic tracks were completed, Tyler didn't add lyrics for six months. "He had no idea what he was going to do lyrically or vocally, but it was such an interesting piece of music," Whitford says. "Every time we'd put it on, it was just awesome. It could have been an instrumental."

Tyler eventually scatted melody ideas over the track and began to see the song in cosmic terms. "My thought was that would be a future song – like something they'd listen to on the way to Mars," Tyler says. "What's rock & roll going to be like in 20 years from now when they're doing that?"

Tyler's daughter Mia joined him on harmony vocals on the big vocal melody, a section the singer says was difficult to nail down. "That was the hardest," he says. "I stayed up night after night with that one, and finally when I sang, 'Beautiful, we're free again, we're out of here . . . ,' it's like when you have an orgasm – you're free. It just worked."

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Steven Tyler on Aerosmith's New Album: 'It's the music that's keeping us alive'

Aerosmith are still going strong after 40 years of rock & roll drama – and now that frontman Steven Tyler has bid farewell to American Idol, he's putting all his energy toward their new album, Music From Another Dimension (due out in November). "It's the music that's keeping us alive," Tyler says. "I've seen a thousand bands go down the drain because they can't stop giving each other the finger and holding resentments," Tyler says. "Now I just look at [guitarist] Joe Perry and say, 'Fuck you about your 'fuck you!'"

Tyler called Rolling Stone's Austin Scaggs in between stops on Aerosmith's Global Warming Tour, which runs through August 12th in Bristow, Virginia. For even more Tyler, check out the latest issue of Rolling Stone, on stands later this week.

You've been playing a new song called "Oh Yeah" on this tour. Tell me about it.
It's a song Joe brought to the table, and it's a fucking classic. He brought it in at the last minute – a couple months ago – so Joe's definitely the employee of the month on the new album. It's got a great rock feel to it, and it works great at the beginning of the show. It's like, "Check this shit out. Here we are. We're back!"

I read that the license plate on your Mercedes says "OH YEAH".
Yeah! So I was surprised when Joe came in with that. But it really sums up what we do for a living. We play songs that make people feel good, that make people think, "Oh, yeah!"

Did everybody bring new songs to the table?
Yeah! The band has really come to the table, and I'm so fucking proud of that. Joe Perry brought astounding stuff. [Drummer] Joey Kramer wrote one. [Guitarist] Brad Whitford plays some fantastic leads. [Bassist] Tom Hamilton wrote a couple of great songs that we put on the album, where in the past his songs have been shunned.

Which is crazy, because he wrote the bass riff to "Sweet Emotion."
That was a magic moment. We were in an apartment in Boston and he just started playing that line and I said "Hold on!" and I just started singing "sweet emotion." The lyric just popped out and it was so cool. The same thing happened with "Janie's Got A Gun." I didn't know who Janie was or why she had a gun, but it was magic.

Whose idea was it to start "Sweet Emotion" with the chorus?
I used to arrange the band's licks and riffs. Starting with the chorus was way different than any other band's ever done, but we did it because it was so much fun singing that "sweet emotion" part.

So is the new album full of rockers?
No. I wrote a song called "Beautiful," and it was looked upon by the other guys as not Aerosmith. It's off the beaten path. But anything that I question these days, I just go, "Fuck it, let's do it." And there's another full-bodied melody song called "It Could Have Been Love." I can't get away from it. My dad went to Juilliard and played a Steinway, and when you've been given the gift of music, you've got to play to your muse. Otherwise it's gonna bite you in the ass. [Laughs]

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Steven Tyler on Aerosmith's New Album: 'It's the music that's keeping us alive'

Aerosmith are still going strong after 40 years of rock & roll drama – and now that frontman Steven Tyler has bid farewell to American Idol, he's putting all his energy toward their new album, Music From Another Dimension (due out in November). "It's the music that's keeping us alive," Tyler says. "I've seen a thousand bands go down the drain because they can't stop giving each other the finger and holding resentments," Tyler says. "Now I just look at [guitarist] Joe Perry and say, 'Fuck you about your 'fuck you!'"

Tyler called Rolling Stone's Austin Scaggs in between stops on Aerosmith's Global Warming Tour, which runs through August 12th in Bristow, Virginia. For even more Tyler, check out the latest issue of Rolling Stone, on stands later this week.

You've been playing a new song called "Oh Yeah" on this tour. Tell me about it.
It's a song Joe brought to the table, and it's a fucking classic. He brought it in at the last minute – a couple months ago – so Joe's definitely the employee of the month on the new album. It's got a great rock feel to it, and it works great at the beginning of the show. It's like, "Check this shit out. Here we are. We're back!"

I read that the license plate on your Mercedes says "OH YEAH".
Yeah! So I was surprised when Joe came in with that. But it really sums up what we do for a living. We play songs that make people feel good, that make people think, "Oh, yeah!"

Did everybody bring new songs to the table?
Yeah! The band has really come to the table, and I'm so fucking proud of that. Joe Perry brought astounding stuff. [Drummer] Joey Kramer wrote one. [Guitarist] Brad Whitford plays some fantastic leads. [Bassist] Tom Hamilton wrote a couple of great songs that we put on the album, where in the past his songs have been shunned.

Which is crazy, because he wrote the bass riff to "Sweet Emotion."
That was a magic moment. We were in an apartment in Boston and he just started playing that line and I said "Hold on!" and I just started singing "sweet emotion." The lyric just popped out and it was so cool. The same thing happened with "Janie's Got A Gun." I didn't know who Janie was or why she had a gun, but it was magic.

Whose idea was it to start "Sweet Emotion" with the chorus?
I used to arrange the band's licks and riffs. Starting with the chorus was way different than any other band's ever done, but we did it because it was so much fun singing that "sweet emotion" part.

So is the new album full of rockers?
No. I wrote a song called "Beautiful," and it was looked upon by the other guys as not Aerosmith. It's off the beaten path. But anything that I question these days, I just go, "Fuck it, let's do it." And there's another full-bodied melody song called "It Could Have Been Love." I can't get away from it. My dad went to Juilliard and played a Steinway, and when you've been given the gift of music, you've got to play to your muse. Otherwise it's gonna bite you in the ass. [Laughs]

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Q&A: Joe Perry on Aerosmith's New Album

Joe Perry of Aerosmith performs at Muhammad Ali's 70th birthday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Keep Memory Alive

Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry says he's frequently thought about leaving the band. "I've thought very often about throwing it over for just writing and doing my own thing, but nothing excites me as much as getting to do this. It's about being in the studio and working and taking it day by day, and suddenly you find yourself (here) 40 years later."

Rolling Stone spoke one-on-one with the 61-year-old Toxic Twin about the band's first album in eight years, which is almost complete and scheduled for release this summer.

Was it tough rebuilding the bridges to get everyone back in the same place?
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 (Tyler) 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.

You worked with producer Jack Douglas through the Seventies and then again on your last album, Honkin' on Bobo, in 2004.
Honkin' on Bobo was supposed to be this record. 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.

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.

Are there any songs left over from Honkin' on Bobo?
Well, there are riffs. It's funny, because some riffs have popped up in different songs that we've tried over the years. One riff on this record has to be at least 20 years old. It's been percolating, waiting for its time. It may end up turning up in a couple of songs on this record, in a mini-opera kind of way.

On recent Aerosmith tours, you've had lots of band injuries. Are you snake-bit?
Hey, man, if you snow-ski, you're going to fall down once in a while. The longer you ski, the more your chances are of falling down. There were years where we never had cancellations. I guess we're just saving it up for the end.

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Q&A: Joe Perry on Aerosmith's New Album

Joe Perry of Aerosmith performs at Muhammad Ali's 70th birthday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Keep Memory Alive

Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry says he's frequently thought about leaving the band. "I've thought very often about throwing it over for just writing and doing my own thing, but nothing excites me as much as getting to do this. It's about being in the studio and working and taking it day by day, and suddenly you find yourself (here) 40 years later."

Rolling Stone spoke one-on-one with the 61-year-old Toxic Twin about the band's first album in eight years, which is almost complete and scheduled for release this summer.

Was it tough rebuilding the bridges to get everyone back in the same place?
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 (Tyler) 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.

You worked with producer Jack Douglas through the Seventies and then again on your last album, Honkin' on Bobo, in 2004.
Honkin' on Bobo was supposed to be this record. 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.

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.

Are there any songs left over from Honkin' on Bobo?
Well, there are riffs. It's funny, because some riffs have popped up in different songs that we've tried over the years. One riff on this record has to be at least 20 years old. It's been percolating, waiting for its time. It may end up turning up in a couple of songs on this record, in a mini-opera kind of way.

On recent Aerosmith tours, you've had lots of band injuries. Are you snake-bit?
Hey, man, if you snow-ski, you're going to fall down once in a while. The longer you ski, the more your chances are of falling down. There were years where we never had cancellations. I guess we're just saving it up for the end.

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