Aerosmith’s Joe Perry Slams Steven Tyler’s Country Career
Steven Tyler deciding to “go country” recently is so achingly predictable and cliche, but unlike other aging rockers who switch to country to save a dwindling career, there’s still plenty of meat on the Aerosmith bones. The rock band could be touring the country and world right now and filling up arenas just fine, but instead they’re on a hiatus so frontman Steven Tyler can chase a lark. As you can imagine, some of Steven’s band mates aren’t too happy about it, and see right through his “country” career just like many true country fans.
“Hey, if I didn’t know him when I heard the song I’d go, ‘It’s okay, next,’” Joe Perry says to USA Today about Steven Tyler’s recent single. “I’m not going to say anything else about that. Steven is in Nashville doing whatever he’s doing. He’s got a (bleeping) rhinestone cowboy hat going, ‘Yippee ki yay.’ I don’t know what else to say about that.”
Steven Tyler signed to Big Machine Records in April of 2015. His first single “Love Is Your Name” was not terrible, but stalled in the charts. So Tyler recently released the dreadful “Red, White & You,” which might go on to be the worst “country” song of all 2016 with unbearable lines like, “We spinning’ on a roller coaster, A “Free Fallin’” into your yum yum”¦”
READ: Steven Tyler’s “Red, White & You” Should Have Died in the “Yum Yum”
But as some have pointed out, Joe Perry has had his share of side projects as well and has released multiple solo albums. Perry has also been using the hiatus to play with the supergroup Hollywood Vampires who recently performed on the Grammy Awards. However the Joe Perry solo material is much more complimentary of the Aerosmith legacy than what Steven Tyler has done in country so far. If anything, Tyler’s country career is sputtering, and we have yet to hear of a release date for his proper country album.
Joe Perry isn’t the only Aerosmith member who has spoken out against Steven Tyler’s country move. Brad Witford told Billboard recently, “We kind of feel a little bit abandoned by him. I guess he seems to think his solo career is going to go great guns, and he doesn’t seem to realize that in my opinion his fans around the globe want to see him in the context of Aerosmith and don’t really care for whatever he thinks he’s gonna do.”
February 17, 2016 @ 1:25 pm
If that’s not a cat fight I don’t know what is.
February 17, 2016 @ 1:44 pm
Steven Tyler has the facial hair of a pre-op who is only a few weeks into the hormone treatment… There is still time to go back!
February 17, 2016 @ 2:28 pm
It would be hypocritical of his bandmates to bemoan him spending time apart from the group when they, themselves, have embarked on more side projects to date.
That said, friends don’t let friends release bad music. Good for Perry in his (likely futile) efforts to at least try and bring him back down to Earth! 😉
(Of course, the most recent Aerosmith album was pretty bad too, so what do I know anymore? =P )
February 17, 2016 @ 5:04 pm
I agree their last album sucked. I have seen them in concert like 5 times and they always put on a great show. And they have made some classic rock and roll tunes. But ever since ” I don’t want to miss a thing” became their first number one hit, the rift between Steven Tyler and Joe Perry has escalated. One of the biggest things they fight about is that Joe Perry wants Aerosmith to be a rock band and Steven Tyler wants Aerosmith to be a pop band. This fight has gone on for over 20 years.
I wish they would go back into the studio and make another “Rocks” or “Toys in the Attic”. If I wanted to listen to pop I would listen to someone else. And when I want to listen to country, it damn sure won’t be Steven Tyler masquerading as a country artist.
February 17, 2016 @ 5:40 pm
I’m far from an Aerosmith fan but I agree with you. When I want a basic rock album, I’ll frequently reach for Toys in the Attic.
February 17, 2016 @ 5:52 pm
Rocks is a great hard rock album. This one’s probably my favorite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX-yuZFVm34
February 22, 2016 @ 6:48 am
Agreed. Rocks was their last truly great album, IMO. While I’d love to see another album like their first four, I just don’t know if they could do it sober.
May 5, 2016 @ 12:12 am
All side projects by other members were done on Aerosmith’s down time. Tyler is selfishly putting himself above the band! There were several years between the last two albums, when he could have done his Country twang thang! They’re all getting up there in age and in my opinion should be cementing their legacy!
February 17, 2016 @ 2:39 pm
Every good rock band is permenantly on the verge of collapse/explosion. Not to say they are currently good, but they were great at one time. Everyone knows Steven Tyler ain’t country…he is just trying to use the fact that women between the ages of 12-40 control country radio and the fact he is in good standing with that group due to American Idol to hopefully fatten his pockets a bit before decaying into dust.
February 17, 2016 @ 3:55 pm
Dude looks like a Lady.
February 17, 2016 @ 4:33 pm
Dude looks creepy as hell.
February 17, 2016 @ 7:46 pm
Lady? Dude looks like a Grandma.
February 18, 2016 @ 6:07 am
No, he looks like a transvestite, if he’s even a man to begin with. All jokes aside, this dude creeps me the F out. And I mean majorly. Really something wrong with this clown’s head..
February 17, 2016 @ 4:51 pm
An interesting contrast is Cyndi Lauper’s country detour. She stuck with classic covers, and enlisted many country stars for support.
February 17, 2016 @ 5:00 pm
Those brushes/combs are probably really pissing off the lice. And it looks like the marching band forgot their flags. And can somebody please give this guy a cheeseburger or something? This dbag makes anorexics jealous.
February 18, 2016 @ 6:08 am
I’m rolling!!!!!! Hahahaha
February 17, 2016 @ 5:08 pm
Steven Tyler referencing “Tom Petty” and “Free Fallin” is not only Music Row cliche’, it’s embarrassing as Petty was once his contemporary. I’d like to know who produced this slick crap? It sounds like Dan Huff to me. That guy could make Howling’ Wolf sound like a pussy.
Joe Perry, Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper, Duff McGagen, and Matt Sorwhatever fucking sucked playing the Grammys as the “Hollywood Vampires.” It felt very washed up and going through the rock-n-roll motions.
February 17, 2016 @ 5:28 pm
Well, that’s why Steven Tyler looks more like a sight gag and a washed-up rocker trying to pass himself off as “country” than a legitimate artist or a rocker–of which I personally think he isn’t much of either.
As for the Hollywood Vampires on the Grammys–well, at least their name is appropriate. They looked very undead to me.
February 17, 2016 @ 7:12 pm
Yeah, they just looked like a bunch of old guys feebly attempting to play hard rock. Especially Alice cooper. He really looked like hell. And their Motörhead cover was terrible.
February 17, 2016 @ 9:25 pm
Well, Alice Cooper ALWAYS looks like hell; he’s been doing that horror/shock schtick since the late 1960s. But all five of those lug nuts just drew that whole thing out to a ridiculous length. It wasn’t a good hard rock “jam” session by any standard.
If Tyler had been included, however, it would have been a catastrophe, so we can thank God for small miracles wherever they are.
February 17, 2016 @ 5:28 pm
Hey, apparently Stapleton is on Kimmel tonight.
11:30 eastern / 10:30 central
February 17, 2016 @ 5:54 pm
Whitey, JJ, Shaver, Dale Watson, etc all need to take notes on how to write and perform real honky tonk/outlaw country like Steven Tyler. The man is as country as fried okra.
February 17, 2016 @ 6:23 pm
I’m not a fan of this Tyler country solo stuff, but the dude has earned the capital to detour into whatever he wants.
Can’t be any worse than Jessica Simpson, Jewel or and of the others that have blown thru town the last ten years or so. Pay him no mind, he’ll go running back to Boston before you know it.
February 20, 2016 @ 12:06 pm
Actually IT IS worse. Take a listen. And Jessica Simpson, Jewel, and Sheryl Crow are at least easy to look at. Steven Tyler has to be seriously mentally ill to go around looking like he does.
February 17, 2016 @ 6:27 pm
Boys, get back on the coke and start kicking ass like you did on “Rocks”
February 17, 2016 @ 7:01 pm
‘Boys, get back on the coke and start kicking ass like you did on “Rocks”..’
Tooooo funny ….lol lol lol
February 17, 2016 @ 6:57 pm
” His first single “Love Is Your Name” was not terrible”
Hahahahahahaha….that’s the spirit Trigger !
February 17, 2016 @ 7:05 pm
Here’s a thought …fight fire with fire. Maybe the rest of Arrowsmith can go out and grab a fake country singer to replace Tyler . There’s TONS of them around ……go grab Rhett or Church or Brantley ..Aldean…..they’re all wannabe rockers anyway . Hey ….even ol Alice Cooper still sounds pretty good for 95 years old . He’d be a PERFECT fit for the Arrowsmiths .
February 17, 2016 @ 7:48 pm
Or Justin Beiber… That would get old Steven out of his daydream.
February 18, 2016 @ 6:14 am
Eric Church sucks. He has a terrible voice and terrible vocal range. He could never be a lead singer of a rock band. Rhett has a way better voice but his vocal range sucks. Gilbert and Aldean sound like something you’d hear on rock radio….they’d fit in great with a rock band. But then again, isn’t that what country music has turned into the past few years…? Softcore rock?? Rock is dead, so alot of it seems to be in country now.
February 18, 2016 @ 8:23 am
Take Sam Hunt…please. I’d like to see Perry on stage whack the grease out of Sam’s hair with his guitar after the first song. A big ol’ MLB swing.
February 18, 2016 @ 10:59 am
Sam Hunt isn’t bad, he just needs to stop with the pop crap and incorporate a country sound then he’d be pretty good.
February 18, 2016 @ 8:03 am
The thing is he has no “country career” there has been no radio play or sales to speak of. Swung and missed.
February 18, 2016 @ 10:15 am
More typical Aerosmith infighting.
Those guys have been doing it for the better part of the last 2 decades. If they couldn’t still make money hand over fist as a band they’d have broken up LONG ago. If you recall this exact same thing happened some years back when Tyler took a seat on American Idol.
I love Aerosmith, but Steven Tyler is more than a few nuggets short of a happy meal. You’d think by now the rest of the band would realize that, and realize that once the money runs thin he’ll come back to them and everything will be back the way it should.
February 18, 2016 @ 5:31 pm
Tax problems? Drug abuse? Mind control? What would make him destroy his legacy worse than American idol behavior?
February 21, 2016 @ 10:37 am
It would be a great time for the rest of Aerosmith to do an album under a different name with a different singer, somebody from the country realm, and make it rock…how about Garth Brooks?
February 22, 2016 @ 6:55 am
Brad Whitford is one of the nicest guys in rock. Tyler should take his comments as a sign that the pooch has been thoroughly screwed. What Joe said reminds me of something Keef once said about Mick. I’m paraphrasing a bit here, but basically it went something like: “Mick’s a great singer, but nobody gives a fuckin’ toss about anything he does outside of the Stones. ‘Goddess in the Doorway?’ More like Dogshit in the Doorway.”
February 22, 2016 @ 7:21 am
You mean Brenda? 😉
As a total aside, I will say that Mick did a real nice job on Henley’s album on the song Bramble Rose. Believe it or not, the first time I listened to the album, I forgot about him having a cameo vocal on the album and didn’t immediately recognize the voice as his. I thought “Who was that guy? He did a nice job.”
June 13, 2016 @ 4:06 am
Yeah tyler needs to stickthe genre that made him a house hold name. Saw him with that red white and whatever on Ellen and if the pitch would have been a little higher he reminded me of young Miley Cyrus party in usa. Learn from the true country singers before you sit there and claim you are one. Takes a special kind of person like cash and jones and haggard to be able to sing from your soul. I do not remember run dmc with willie Nelson ok
July 11, 2016 @ 10:08 am
i looked at the track listing for steven’s album and he’s re-recording a solo version of one of my favorite aerosmith songs janie’s got a gun (which is credited to steven and no one else from the band) that shows that he wanted to do an aerosmith song but had to choose a song that doesn’t have joe perry listed as a co-writer (which couldn’t have been easy because joe perry and steven wrote a lot pf these songs together)