AEROSMITH GUITARIST BRAD WHITFORD SAYS THE BAND “FEEL[S] A LITTLE BIT ABANDONED BY [SINGER STEVEN TYLER],” CONFIRMS NEW MUSIC AND TOUR DATES FROM WHITFORD ST. HOLMES
Gary Graff of Billboard reports:
Scratch Aerosmith off the list of groups planning to tour in 2016 — at least in North America.
The group was slated to play in both early 2016 and during the summer, but that’s been put on ice by frontman Steven Tyler and his solo album plans, according to guitarist Brad Whitford. “Steven doesn’t want to do it,” Whitford, who’s readying a new album of his own with Ted Nugent singer/guitarist Derek St. Holmes, tells Billboard. “It’s unfortunate. 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…I don’t know if he gets that but, hey, that’s what he wants to do. I can’t put a gun to his head. It’s just pretty disappointing.”
Tyler has been recording his country-leaning album in Nashville, with plans for a 2016 release. His first single from the set, the Dann Huff-produced “Love Is Your Name,” came out in mid-May and peaked at Number 19 on the Hot Country Songs chart, and he’s been making the rounds of the assorted country music awards shows.
…The reunited Whitford St. Holmes — which the two launched in 1980 and released one self-titled album the following year — hits the road November 12th in Milwaukee for a 10-date tour. It’s a bit of a silver lining for Whitford and will see the release of a new album, Reunion, in the near future.
“Derek and I now live in the same town [Nashville] and we’ve been great friends since the mid-’70s, and once we were hanging out here together it was just the natural evolution of us sitting around and creating music and we just got to the point of, ‘Wow, we’ve got to do something with this,'” Whitford says. They recorded Reunion over a two-week period at Castle Recording in Franklin, Tenn., with Beau Maxwell and a band that includes Tesla drummer Tony Luccketta and Aerosmith touring keyboardist Buck Johnson, among others.
“It’s a classic rock album — modern classic rock,” Whitford says.
…Whitford and St. Holmes wrote all nine songs for Reunion and plan to return to the studio after the tour to start recording more material they’ve come up with.
Read more at Billboard.
Tyler needs Aerosmith…a country crossover? How cliche
Bummer to see Aerosmith go on “stand-by,” but how cool is it to see Derek St. Holmes come back to the mix these past few years. Nugent is monumentally better with Holmes and now officially reconnecting with Whitford, awesome! Holmes is so underrated. Check out his gem from the ’70’s the self-titled album “St. Paradise.”
Whitford and Perry have both done their solo albums; to bitch about Steven at this point in their career seems a bit disingenuous. If this was 1978 and Aerosmith was at their peak it would be different. Right now, the band is obviously enjoying the fruits of their hard work and for Steven to want to do this at his age and career is a very cool thing. He is the voice of Aerosmith: Perry and Whitford both quit the band and did their own thing; why not just be cool and support him? It is not like they are going to record another “Rocks” or “Get Your Wings.” Father time is ticking for them.
Maybe they should just let it go for now and let Steven do his solo gig, no matter how stupid it is (Country music? Are you serious, dude?). They know he’ll be back and, even though they flirted with the idea the last time Steven broke away, they know they can’t replace him. In the meantime, it’s cool that Brad and Derek have gotten back together to play shows and record again.
Agree 100% James. Maybe Steven just had some wild oats left he had to sow up? Or some wild grits, yee-haw! LOL!
LOL!
Can’t wait to catch Whitford-St-Holmes in Boston next week!