AEROSMITH Bassist Issues Update

AEROSMITH debuted the latest game in the burgeoning Guitar Hero franchise, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, with a press conference late last month at the Hard Rock Café in Times Square, New York City. The group's bassist, Tom Hamilton, has since issued the following update:

"Whoa, just getting to the point where I can look back at the launch of the game last weekend. We met up in New York, after weeks and months of conference calls, faxes, emails, telegrams and carrier pigeons, and all got in the same room. Everybody looks great considering some of the wounds we're still healing. Joe's [Perry, guitar] eyes are deep and the fires are burning. His leg is sore but you can feel his ship is plowing through the breakers. Sorry, didn't want to get all literary there. It just felt good to join in the energy.

"I've been seeing a lot of awesome bands lately. Saturday night we went to the PEARL JAM show at Comcast. It used to be the Tweeter Center nee Great Woods. It's impossible to keep up with the naming rights activity at these places. Almost every place we play on tour has had three or four names by now. What's next? Preparation H Center for the Performing Arts? Tampax Arena? Imagine the iconic branding graphics! Hey, we should make a corporate naming rights deal! We could be KRAFT MACARONI AEROSMITH for a tour! Think of the cash flow!

"So I was talking about the PEARL JAM show. Those guys are the real deal. They run on inspiration. Mike and Jeff came out and said 'Hi' before they went on. A few minutes later they were blasting it out there. Terry and I saw two songs from the side of the stage and then went out to the mix position for the rest. A lot of people like to stay on the side to get the close-up view but you just can't hear what's going on. If you want to see and hear everything you have to go out front. Backstage is overrated."

Read more of Tom's update at this location.

AEROSMITH frontman Steven Tyler admitted to the Associated Press on June 27 that he checked into a California rehab facility in May to fight off a dependency on pain and sleep medication. Tyler initially stated that he had gone into the facility to speed his recovery from foot surgery. But as he explained at the press conference, "To have your feet done, to have your leg done, you have to be on narcotics. You have to be on sleep aids at night...I was off and running and I didn't like the me that was me." Tyler added, "This was a month ago, so I just put the brakes on and checked into detox and just pulled the plug on all of it."

Tyler first said in late May that he had checked into the rehab center to find a "safe environment" in which to recuperate from several foot surgeries and physical therapy. The procedures were meant to correct longstanding injuries resulting from his more than three decades of performing onstage.

The 60-year-old Tyler was a poster child for drug and alcohol abuse in the '70s, but got clean and sober more than 20 years ago as AEROSMITH experienced a career renaissance.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith allows players to progress through the band's entire career, which spans nearly 40 years, playing a number of AEROSMITH classics as well as songs by associated artists like RUN DMC and JOAN JETT.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is available on all three major game platforms, Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 and 3.