The Back-Burner: Aerosmith Outtakes & Demos

Aerosmith’s Tom Hamilton participated in the Rock N’ Roll Fantasy camp program with a virtual Master Class via Zoom on 2020/06/28, where he interacted with +25 fans from around the world answering questions and playing bass for an hour.

During the event, Tom revealed having worked on a potential solo album, an autobiography, and the bands current intent to release a new box-set including previously unreleased material from the vault.

The key questions were asked by one of the admins/contributors of the Aerosmith BackBurner. Tom sounded amazed by someone asking about his solo record and 1981 of the Renegade band. As he was asked about the release of Aerosmith Outtakes, he smiled and nodded while pointing to the camera like saying “yes, exactly, happy you ask that“, to which he answered:

“At one time we did a cover of “Highway Star”, you know that song by Deep Purple? We do have a bunch of stuff, and we are in the process of working on a box set, but we are just getting started, so I can’t even begin to think of what we are going to put on there that are unreleased tracks, but we do have some good stuff that just never got finished. Well, that’s the thing, we are just starting, so, I wish I could tell you more.”

Tom Hamilton @ Rock N’ Roll Fantasy’s MasterClass virtual series via Zoom 2020/06/28

The rumour of Aerosmith recording a cover of Deep Purple’s “Highway Star” originally leaked online in 2006, when the band was still in the studio sessions for the “Devil’s Got a New Disguise” album. which at that point was supposed to include only re-worked/re-recorded versions of old outtakes. When “Devil’s” was released, the companion making-off video ended in a title saying that a new album of full songs would be released by 2007, but we know that they never finished recording those as they were interrupted by the re-recording of the first album fro the Guitar Hero game in 2008.

We still don’t have a date for Aerosmith to release the album seeing that they are just starting the process or reviewing and selecting old tracks from the vault to include in a box set with unreleased material. Note that Tom said he doesn’t know how many or witch outtakes would be included, so this leads to the speculation, that this might not be an “outtake only” box-set, and perhaps will be a new compilation album with a couple of released tracks.

Earlier in the conversation Tom also alluded to having been writing solo songs for a while but, as he had never done any projects away from Aerosmith, he was not really sure what to do with them. Still, it’s good to know that he’s kept on writing and that fans during the call showed support by asking about it.

Some of the other highlights from his answers and the event itself were:

• Sweet Emotion base line was an arrangement Tom showed the band on 1 final day of studio time, and that Steven completed over night.
• His credit as playing the Chapman’s stick bass on the Nine Lives album was mostly due to him taking lessons to learn how to play it, rather than him actually playing it on a song. Renato from Rocktiliano asked this question.
• He would love to play on stage with Roger Daltrey from The Who. Rock N’ Roll Fantasy Camp would arrange an introduction the following day.
• He has been writing his memories for quiet some time now.
• Joey didn’t play with the band in 2019 because of a problem with his ankle, and then they didn’t had time to rehearse with him.
• He likes his Grammy’s and Mtv Awards, but the one that means the most to him is the Hall of Fame award.
• He wants his tour bus to end up on the Hall of Fame after the Vegas residency.
• His favourite venue is “what ever venue they are playing that night”, Japan and Las Vegas.
• He does not feel stage fright. The most he has felt nervous was in 1998 during the Academy Awards.
• His involvement with Thin Lizzie was during their reunion, he felt nervous as he had never performed with another band, and he used a pick to play the songs.
• First he learns the chords for each new song, and after a while he starts figuring out his special arrangements.
• He really enjoys playing Living on the Edge, Dude looks like a Lady, and Kings and Queens. He would love to play “Sick as a Dog” again soon, just as they did it when they recorded it.
• Janie’s Got a Gun developed from a song idea Tom presented the band and Steven used his chord progression to write Janie’s.
• He played a stand up bass on Sedona Sunrise, wife got it for him, but it was difficult so that is the only time he has used it.
• He showed the difference ways he plays the verses of Sweet Emotion.
• He played a new bass riff he had been working on in the Em key (similar to a riff in the Nine Lives era outtake with the working title “Give it Away/ Push“).
• Tom’s advise for new bands is to play live as much as they can.
• Steven never paid Tom the $10,000 for “putting the banana and plumbs on his pants”.
• Tom’s favourite bass player is Tracy Ann Wormworth from The Waitresses, specially during a song called Christmas Wrapping.

These are great news to hear from Tom. The fan community should continue to engage with the band via social media asking them to release specific songs, to secure their inclusion in the upcoming box-set.

Watch most of the MasterClass here: