DEVIL’S GOT A NEW DISGUISE: How a 1988 Aerosmith Riff Survived to 2006

Steven Tyler remembers the day vividly in his autobiography: being introduced to Diane Warren by John Kalodner, and soon sitting in her Malibu house facing a piano that looked out over the ocean. “She played me a couple things, mostly ballady and it wasn’t working. That’s when I sat down and carved out that beginning piano live and voilà! ‘Devil’s Got a New Disguise’ started to take shape.”

But the roots of the song stretch further back. During the Pump sessions (1988–89), Aerosmith worked up a rough demo under the working title “Susie Q.” It was little more than Steven mumbling melodic scraps — “Sweet Susie Q” among them — over a loose groove. The idea lingered unfinished until the Get a Grip sessions in 1992, when Tyler, Joe Perry, and Diane Warren developed it into a proper song. A lyric sheet from that period shows the bones essentially in place: verses built around the cheeky “If you see Kay” pun, a chorus warning that “my soul’s been taken by a devil with a new disguise,” and a bridge about a wild girl from the wrong side of town.

Inventory notes from January 1993, compiled during the Get a Grip era, show how the song traveled with the band through different studios and under shifting names. The title Suzie Q appears on a reel logged at Studio F on June 18, 1991. By early 1992, reels from A&M Studios — dated January 4 and January 17 — already list the track as Devil’s Got a New Disguise, indicating that the idea was being reshaped under a new title. A February 19, 1992 reel from A&M includes a “Devil” test mix, and another A&M reel dated March 13, 1992 again notes the song. Yet by October 3, 1992, a reel from Courtland Studios still carried the Suzie Q title, suggesting the band may have continued referring to the piece by both names as they experimented with mixes, overdubs, or lyrical changes.

A review from the 13 March 1992 A&M Studios unreleased mix tape confirms that a more complete version existed then, with much of the arrangement — including a Joe Perry solo that sounds nearly identical to what was later released — already locked in. The third verse featured a raw, unfinished “weekday roll call” section (“Monday night she’s Tuesday wild… Friday night… she’s the devil, yes I do, in disguise, honey”), harsher and more confrontational than what would follow. Perhaps wary of Kalodner’s earlier criticisms that some Get a Grip lyrics were too mean and lacked Aerosmith’s trademark humour, the band shelved it.

By 2006, however, Aerosmith found themselves under pressure. Columbia/Sony wanted a new studio record, they started tracking in the bands Boston “Pandora’s Box” studio, but Tyler then had to recover from throat surgery and Tom Hamilton was battling cancer, making a full album impossible. As a stopgap, the band delivered a single-disc compilation with two reworked outtakes: “Sedona Sunrise” and “Devil’s Got a New Disguise.” The latter kept much of the 1992 track’s structure and Perry’s solo intact but replaced the entire rhythm section and re-recorded Tyler’s vocals.

Lyrically, the chorus shifted: gone was “Ain’t no mistakin’, my body’s shakin’, my soul’s been taken by a devil with a new disguise,” replaced by “I’m on a mission, a proposition, it’s intuition, ’cause the Devil’s got a new disguise.” Even the Friday night line changed — the earlier snarling “she’s the devil, yes I do, in disguise, honey” was softened into “you gotta give me all of your love, honey,” a more playful but less biting payoff. The bridge was reimagined too, with a tougher but more generic string of rhymes like “Got nothing to lose when you’re upside’s down” and “we got a heel gonna smash your face.”

The finished track, co-produced by Tyler, Perry, Jack Douglas, and Marti Frederiksen, was mixed by Frederiksen, Brian Paturalski, and Tyler, then mastered by Bob Ludwig. Released to rock radio in October 2006, it climbed to #15 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart and gave the compilation its title.

Live, “Devil’s Got a New Disguise” debuted on 11 October 2006 in Clarkston, Michigan, during the Route of All Evil tour with Mötley Crüe. It was played 21 times that year before vanishing from later setlists.

In the end, “Devil’s Got a New Disguise” stands as a unique example of Aerosmith’s long creative churn. From a half-finished Pump-era jam, to a sharper but shelved Get a Grip lyric sheet in 1992, to a patched-up 2006 release with re-recorded parts over Perry’s original solo, it’s a song that survived by changing skins. Its tonal shift — from biting menace to a more tongue-in-cheek swagger — hints at the band responding to past critiques of being “too mean” lyrically, even if that smoothing over cost it some of the raw edge that might have kept it off earlier albums.

1992 version:
Verse 1:
If you see Kay, you got to revel
No angel wings more like the devil
She was so hot, so cool and nasty
Believe it or not here’s what she asked me…
‘If you need love with no condition
Let’s Do the Do, honey, I’m on a mission’,

Chorus:
Ain’t no mistakin’, my body’s shakin’,
My soul’s been taken, by a Devil with a New Disguise
The girl’s so witchin’, my backbone’s twitchin’,
Cuse down in Hell’s kitchen, the Devil’s got a New Disguise…

Verse 2:
If you see Kay, tell her I love her,
She did me in, but I’ll recover,
She said love, was her desire,
All that she touched, she set on fire,
She was so diss, I couldn’t slay her,
She blew a kiss, I threw the dagger,

Bridge:
She came from the wrong side of town,
Everytime she gets up, she’ll get knocked back down,
She’s Heaven materialized,
She’s givin’ me hell with them angel eyes,
But now on the side of the track,
We got laid in the shade of an old smoke stack ,
She’s Heaven materialized,
She’s givin’ me hell but…

Verse 3:
It ain’t no surprise,
With your big ol’ silver eyes,
Got me feelin’ tranquilized,
When she does wrong with her time,
‘Cause Monday night,
She’s never prowls,
On Wednesday night,
I got to crawl..
But Friday night, night, night, night, night, night, night,
She’s the devil, yes I do, in disguise, honey!

Bridge 2:
She came from the wrong side of town,
Everytime she gets up, she’ll get knocked back down,
She’s Heaven materialized,
She’s givin’ me hell with them angel eyes,
But now on the side of the track,
We got laid in the shade of an old smoke stack ,
She’s Heaven materialized…

2006 version:
Verse 1:
Sweet Susie Q, she was a rebel,
No angel wings, born like the devil,
She was so hot, so cool and nasty,
Believe it or not, here’s what she asked me,
‘If you need love with no condition,
Let’s do the Do, honey, I’m on a mission’,

Chorus:
The girl’s so bitchin’, my backbone’s twitchin’,
Cause down in Hell’s kitchen, the Devil’s Got a New Disguise,
I’m on a mission, a proposition,
It’s intuition, ’cause the Devil’s Got a New Disguise…

Verse 2:
If you see Kay tell her I love her,
She did me in, but I’ll recover,
She said LOVE was her desire,
All that she touched, she set on fire,
She was so diss, I couldn’t slake her,
She blew a kiss, I threw the dagger,

Bridge:
We came from the wrong side of town,
Got nothing to lose when you’re upside’s down,
We gotta get outta this place,
Or we got a heel gonna smash your face,
We came from the wrong side a town,
Got nothing to lose when you’re upside’s down,
We gotta get outta this place Got nothing to lose ’cause…

Verse 3:
It ain’t no surprise,
When your big ol’ silver eyes,
Got me feelin’ tranquilized,
When she lets me have her prize,
‘Cause Monday night,
She’s Tuesday wild,
On Wednesday night,
She’s Thursday’s child,
But Friday night, night, night, night, night, night, night,
You gotta give me all of your love, honey…

Bridge 2:
We came from the wrong side of town,
Got nothin’ to lose when you’re upside down,
We lived on the side of the tracks,
Got laid in the shed of an old smokestack,
We gotta get outta this place,
Or we got a heel gonna smash your face,
We came from the wrong side of town,

The Back-Burner: Aerosmith Outtakes & Demos

Information about Aerosmith unreleased songs, outtakes, demos and rare recordings, including lyrics, chords and every possible bit available on the net throughout the years.