Last month, Aerosmith announced they’d be retiring from touring after vocalist Steven Tyler sustained an injury while on stage that he’s not expected to fully recover from.
At the time of the injury during a gig in September 2023, the US rock icons were readying themselves to complete their farewell tour, which had to be postponed after Tyler fractured his larynx.
Though Tyler managed to finish the show after falling throat-first on a railing during only the third song, it has since been decided that a rigorous tour of 20-plus-song setlists was no longer feasible.
However, just because the band have pulled the curtain down on their live days, it doesn’t mean Aerosmith is finished altogether – at least, that’s according to their OG bass guitar player Tom Hamilton, who refuses to believe the band is truly “over”.
Speaking in a new interview with Guitar World, Hamilton discusses the end of Aerosmith, which, he says, might not actually be the end after all.
“I refuse to consider it over,” he asserts. “There are a lot of things we could do in the future. We'll just have to see once we get out of reaction mode and back to creative mode.”
Hamilton is keen to stress that, although Aerosmith may never tour again, that’s not to say they won’t work on some other music project at some point down the line.
“I find it hard to believe that we'll never play again," Hamilton goes on to admit. "I've been surprised by things that have happened with this band too many times to think that the future is closed.
“It was a punch in the gut finding out that our touring days are over. Maybe someday we can do something again, but it won't be a tour.”
News of Aerosmith’s retirement from touring took Hamilton by surprise as much as it did the fans. After all, he hadn’t seen Tyler injure himself, and had felt that the September show had been a roaring success.
"I felt like we were on our way to a great tour,” he reflects. “I didn't know what had happened to Steven until a couple of days later when our manager called and told me. I was completely shocked because it had been a great show. I still don't know how Steven managed to finish the show with a fractured larynx."
The full Guitar World interview with Tom Hamilton will be published later this month.
