Rock icon Steven Tyler is taking his new solo album out on the road, with a Chicago stop planned. "Love Is Your Name" is his first single from his debut country solo record, We're All Somebody From Somewhere.
The "Demon of Screamin'" will be forever known for his antics and vocal gymnastics as part of the band Aerosmith for more than 45 years. A steady strings of radio hits has kept the band in the spotlight over time from "Dream On" to "Walk This Way" to "Sweet Emotion."
His television appearances have been memorable from judging American Idol to recently on the series Nashville as himself. He narrates an upcoming episode on Discovery Channel's newest series Hello World.
Aerosmith plans a farewell tour in 2017, but first he heads out on his own for his Out on a Limb Tour.
Windy City Times took part in a recent press conference that featured Tyler.
Question: What can you tell our readers about your upcoming solo tour?
Steven Tyler: It's called Out on a Limb. It [kicked] off July 2 at the Venetian in Vegas. It's the most phenomenal band called Loving Mary that I get to sing with. There are 20 stops on the tour that runs through Sept. 13.
Question: With the tour being called Out on a Limb, do you feel you are putting yourself out there a bit by going solo?
ST: It kind of started when the band started putting little snippets in the press about lead singers and I'm not doing this and that. There were just little things every now and then that people in the band were saying about me doing a solo project.
I've always jumped into things with both feet, whether it was an Aerosmith album or this thing. I came to Nashville and rented a house. Now I just bought a house so I'm living in Nashville full on. It's a musical mecca. It was very scary in the beginning.
Question: Will this solo show be different from an Aerosmith concert?
ST: I'm doing a bunch of songs that I wrote for Aerosmith like "Janie's Got a Gun" and "Dream On." It's more about the country songs and I get a chance to story tell.
With Aerosmith, the audience pays a lot of money. It's 20,000 of them out there. They want to hear the hits and we got to bang one to the other. I love it, it keeps me young. But I also like telling a little story and not being afraid to talk about the music business.
Question: Did you enjoy your time on American Idol?
ST: My biggest role was sitting next to Randy Jackson and, particularly, J.Lo. I fell so in love with her and she knew it and we made each other blush a lot of times. I loved that. I loved being next to her and feeling her love. She's a very strong woman and beautiful and I was enamored by her and her smarts for music. I think she's a dynamic musician and singer and dancer. I got such joy out of talking with Randy. Randy Jackson is such a great TV personality.
They're out of their mind at American Idol for letting him go. But it's TV, so it really had nothing to do with them seeing that they really had something. They went on to other things and now they're off the air, so it's sad. I feel happy that I was part of something that I knew was working so great. At one point, we had like 40 million people watching that show.
Question: How was writing your song for SpongeBob the Musical?
ST: We were in South America somewhere and the offer came in and it was like, "Oh shit, really? Right now?" I mean, Joe Perry's a genius. I can sit with him anywhere and he just starts noodling and diddling on the guitar and he'll come up with a riff that turns into a classic, all-time thingy. Just he and I sat down for a couple hours and came up with "Bikini Bottom Boogie."
Now keep in mind, that's allowed today. What kind of world do we live in? Nine year olds are singing about bikini bottoms. Geez, and here I am thinking I'm the only one that loves that part.
Question: Can you talk about your androgynous sense of fashion?
ST: Well, okay, everybody thinks that Mick Jagger and I have so much in common. Yes, I loved him. I loved him to death. I couldn't believe he's the baddest boy on the block when the Stones came out. Nobody did anything like that. But there was somebody here in America that was doing it at the same time—that was Janis Joplin, and I loved Janis Joplin to death.
I have never been afraid to show my androgynous side because I live through music. It's interesting—you can hear a rock song that might sound feminine. I think music is very feminine. In fact, being a male, I've got 70-percent feminine in me that I live through, you know. I've got three daughters and a beautiful son and I live through female through my fashions, my hair, and the way I dress.
It just goes along with the music—the Aerosmith music. It always has. So I dress to fit the vibe and "sting like a bee," did he say, and "fly like a butterfly" and all that great stuff. So I'm proud to say that I can do that and I live by it and I love it and all of that.
Tyler rocks it at The Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St.,on Saturday, Aug. 13, at 8 p.m. Tickets can be found at StevenTyler.com and TheChicagoTheatre.com .
