At "Guitar Hero" Launch, Aerosmith Say They're Headed to the Studio

Aerosmith took the stage at New York's Hard Rock Café on Friday, not to play music, but to announce the launch of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, the latest installment of the massively popular game and the first to be built around a single band. "It feels weird to be up here without a guitar," quipped guitarist Joe Perry, who later posed with the small plastic axe that comes with the game. Guests at the Hard Rock got a chance to try out the new edition, which includes hits like "Love in an Elevator" and "Dream On," as well as more obscure tracks like "Combination" and songs by artists Aerosmith has played with, including Run DMC and Joan Jett.

After the press conference, band members told Rolling Stone how they spent weeks performing their songs in motion-detecting suits so that the game could recreate the real experience of an Aerosmith show. "I did six, seven hours a day for two weeks," says frontman Steven Tyler, who attended the event three days after leaving a rehab facility where he was treated for addiction to sleeping pills. "I managed to pull all the moves that we do all night, with Joe and my arm around him so they could get those things that are really what Aerosmith is." The band also had to re-record several of the songs, since their labels, Geffen and Columbia, couldn't locate the master tapes. "The record companies play games — it's sad," says Tyler. "It just goes on and on. We're looking forward to the new millennium."

The band also talked about returning to the studio to work on their first album since 2004's Honkin' on Bobo. "I'm interested to get back in the studio — I feel rejuvenated," says Perry, who is recovering from a leg injury. "Some time in the late summer, early fall we'll get back in there and start putting it together." And maybe release it on a future version of Guitar Hero? "Why not? That's a great way to do it."

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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