Aerosmith’s Joe Perry Opens Up About the Band’s Future

Joe Perry has opened up about the emotional and “encouraging” experience of watching Steven Tyler return to full voice during the recording of One More Time, Aerosmith’s recent collaborative EP with Yungblud.

Released last November, the five-track project marked the band’s first new material since 2012’s Music From Another Dimension! and their most significant creative step following the abrupt end of the Peace Out farewell tour in 2024. That run was cut short after Tyler suffered a serious vocal injury early in the tour—an incident that ultimately led to the band’s retirement from full-scale touring.

Reflecting on the sessions, Perry described both the intensity and the emotional weight of working alongside Tyler again. “Getting to work with Steven in the studio was awesome,” he said. “It’s only been the last, like, half a year he’s really been able to sing without hurting his throat. So that was really encouraging. It was really an intense two or three months.”

“We Hadn’t Heard Him Sing Like That in Years”

Although Tyler has made occasional appearances since stepping away from touring—including performances tied to Ozzy Osbourne’s Back to the Beginning concert and a tribute at the MTV Video Music Awards—the One More Time sessions represented a far more sustained return to form.

For Perry, the experience was nothing short of overwhelming. He recalled witnessing Tyler sing for hours on end across multiple consecutive days, delivering a level of consistency and power that had been absent since before the canceled farewell tour.

“Steven sang like six hours straight, three days in a row,” Perry said. “Billie [Perry, his wife] and I were sitting on the couch at Johnny [Depp’s studio], and she had tears in her eyes because we hadn’t heard him sing like that in f—ing years, literally since the Peace Out tour got pulled down.”

He continued, underscoring the severity of Tyler’s recovery period:

“I don’t even know if he could have even started vocal exercises for at least a year after he got hurt. That was a real blow, and then finding out he may not be able to sing at all … so anyway, seeing him do that in the studio was f—ing amazing.”

Revisiting the Past While Redefining the Legacy

While Perry acknowledged that traditional touring is likely behind the band, he stopped short of ruling out future live appearances altogether. “I know we’ll never be able to tour again, like a regular tour, but who knows?” he said. “There’s a lot that goes into it, but we’ll see.”

In the meantime, Aerosmith has turned inward, focusing on preserving and refining its recorded legacy. The band’s newly released “Legendary Edition” of its 1973 debut album offers more than just a polished reissue—it serves as a corrective lens on a sound they felt was never fully realized the first time around.

“The first record just didn’t sound like how we wanted it to sound,” Perry explained. “And I’m not talking about adding overdubs or anything like that. Just tonally. I mean, we never were happy with the way the drums sounded. They sounded kind of flat and flabby, and that’s not how they really sounded in the room. But we didn’t know how to say, ‘Well, let’s do it this way.’ Because we didn’t know enough about it.”

Hearing the updated mixes decades later has reshaped Perry’s relationship with the material. “When we were starting to hear the remixes and listening to it like an album, it was like, holy shit, this is amazing,” he said. “The drums sounded like the drums should have sounded. The guitars sounded good. Steven’s vocals, to hear his vocal chords, I mean, it’s pretty amazing. I didn’t think it was gonna be as impactful as it is to me.”

Looking ahead, Perry suggested that Toys in the Attic may be next in line for a similar overhaul. “I can’t wait to do Toys in the Attic. I think that’s the next one we’re gonna remix,” he said. “It was closer, definitely, to what we wanted it to sound like—especially with the songs—but actually, sonically, I think it was closer. But there are things about it that certainly we’ll correct when we get in there.”

Beyond simple restoration, however, the effort hints at something more deliberate: a band curating its own history with the benefit of hindsight. Rather than chasing new ground through relentless touring, Aerosmith appears increasingly focused on refining the records that defined them—ensuring they finally sound the way they always intended. In that sense, these reissues are not just about nostalgia; they are about authorship, control, and closing the gap between memory and reality.

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