Steven Tyler ‘Out on a Limb’ the Rocker Has Gone Country
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Steven Tyler ‘Out on a Limb’ The rocker has gone country. BY MELONIE MAGRUDER PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEY CARMAN Steven Tyler put together a 19-date tour for his new country album, “We’re All Somebody From Somewhere.” FALL 2016 | 49 Tyler and his band, Loving Mary, played the Dolby Theatre in LA, where MTM had exclusive access, and showcased the classics along with the new. 50 | MALIBU TIMES MAGAZINE | #MALIBUTIMESMAG hen Steven Tyler decided to call the 19-date tour “Out on a Limb” to promote his latest album, he might have thought he needed to offer a caveat to explain his new disc, “We’re All Somebody From Somewhere.” The great rock idol, AKA the bad Wboy with the screaming range of four powerful octaves and Aerosmith anthems that fans for the last two generations know just from hearing the first three chords, has gone country. But like any consummate musical pro, Tyler—with producers such as T Bone Burnett, complete with fiddles, banjos, ukuleles and a swinging new band called Loving Mary— slid right into a Nashville vibe like he’d been born with a washboard in one hand and the keys to a pickup in the other. At a concert at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood in July where MTM had exclusive access, the audience, however, quickly learned that it wasn’t going to be all cowboy love songs. “Going to Nashville was like following the star to Bethlehem for me,” Tyler said. “Going to Nashville, musicians there, the vibe there … so much good s**t there.” And he started to write songs. When he introduced his new song, “My Own Worst Enemy,” to the Dolby crowd, he growled to the audience as he explained how the song came to be, that he sat down and thought to himself, “In life, what have I done this far, what haven’t I done? Mostly, what have I done. So, we came up with the title “My Own Worst Enemy” … When you come up with a title like that, you gotta fill in the blanks.” yler has lived a lot of musical history. His first band, TAerosmith, topped that special set of über-rock groups that came out of Boston in the early ’70s—including the epony- mously named Boston and the J Geils Band. The way he explained it, the band seems like it all just fell into place. At Woodstock, he “met Joey Kramer on the walk … so, a year after that, every band I was in went down the sh***er, so I went back [home] … and I was mowing the lawn, like I did for 18 years before that, and a lil’ Jeep pulls up and it’s Joe Perry—my brother—and he says, ‘You know my band is playing at the barn, why don’t you come over and see it? It’s called the Joe Perry Jam Band.’ I said, ‘Well, alright, as long as I can take VENUE: DOLBY THEATRE, LOS ANGELES your girlfriend.’ He said, ‘No f***in’ way.’ I said, ‘I’m coming any- DOLBYTHEATRE.COM way.’ But I love him to death and I went over and saw the band WITH VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO: KAREN “RODSKEE” and it was good.” CARMAN AT JOEY CARMAN PHOTOGRAPHY AND Guess the rest is rock-‘n’-roll history. JENNIFER VESSIO AT M2M CONSTRUCTION Some of the biggest tunes in the annals of rock—like “Dream FALL 2016 | 51 PHOTO BY ROSS HALFIN BY PHOTO Aerosmith has been together for more than 46 years and has released some of the biggest tunes in the annals of rock— like “Dream On,” “Sweet Emotion” and “Walk This Way.” On,” “Sweet Emotion” and “Walk This Way”—all came out lications. “I managed to put together 15, 16 songs that ... of that first, productive, decade of Aerosmith-dom, before came out much better than I ever expected. There’s still drugs and excess sidelined the bandmates for a bit. The ’90s, a big soul beating here, whereas in a lot of other places, however, saw a resurgence of their star power and Tyler it’s kind of dead because business took over. Here, it’s hasn’t really stopped since. still alive, and the passion fuels that, and I’m right stuck Whether touring, recording, featured appearances in in the middle of it.” gamers’ favorite Guitar Hero, movies or reality TV judging The Dolby Theatre concert showcased a lot of those (“American Idol”), Tyler has remained one of the most reliably songs, from the thumping rhythms and country harmo- dynamic rock-‘n’-roll icons. And with the new country-tinged nies of “Love Is Your Name,” to the love ballad “Only album, he’s clearly far from finished. Heaven,” to the unabashedly patriotic “Red, White and “I’m in such a high place right now because You.” And while it was clear that this audience relished the Nashville’s been so good to me in the last year,” Tyler multi instrumental orchestration (from musicians onstage said in a phone interview with a number of music pub- who could almost have been Tyler’s grandchildren), the 52 | MALIBU TIMES MAGAZINE | #MALIBUTIMESMAG PHOTO BY FREDERICK M. BROWN | GETTY IMAGES ENTERTAINMENT | GETTY FREDERICK M. BROWN IMAGES BY PHOTO Tyler served as a judge on “American Idol” alongside Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson for seasons 10 and 11. audience of 16- to 60-year-olds was there to seize on the credit his good luck in partnerships. rock anthems of 40 years ago. “I’m nothing without Aerosmith, and I’m nothing A dark version of “Janie’s Got a Gun?” Check. A call- without my sobriety, and I’m nothing without a lot of and-response for “Walk This Way?” Check. A bluesy rock things,” Tyler said. “So this whole damn thing is a ‘we’ version of “Rattlesnake Shake” (Could there be a better thing. I think when I came to Nashville, I took a chance. name for a blues ballad?)? Check. I just wanted a record that, as they said in the old days, There was even a Beatles medley, showing, with his is like four or five deep, which means there’s possibly, vocal attack on “Oh, Darling,” that Tyler has not lost a speck possibly four or five singles.” of his raw, soaring tenor in 60-something years. With “We’re All Somebody from Somewhere,” Tyler seems to have found a new playlist. n he rock star seems to delight in collaborating with Tsome of the great names in music production—Dan Instagram/Twitter: @iamstevent, @lovingmaryband; Huff and T Bone Burnett, for starters. He is generous to Facebook: @steventyler, @lovingmarybandmusic FALL 2016 | 53 .