The Back-Burner: Aerosmith Outtakes & Demos

In late 1995, A&R legend John Kalodner heard Brother Cane’s “And Fools Shine On” — a #1 Mainstream Rock hit — and tracked down the songwriter. “He really loved the song and said, ‘Who wrote this song? I want to hook this guy up,'” Marti Frederiksen recalled during a 2020 Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp Masterclass. Kalodner initially considered pairing Frederiksen with Jackyl, then changed his mind within a week: “Because I want to get you in with Aerosmith.”

He also gave Frederiksen a warning: “You’re going to get in with those guys and they’ll jam, and they jam good. If you don’t take the reins and grab one of those ideas that comes out of the jam and really make something out of it, that’ll be it. You won’t get anything.”

Something’s Gotta Give: The Two-Day Audition

By early January 1996, Tyler and Perry had relocated to the Marlin Hotel in South Beach to begin work on the new album. Glen Ballard was already set up in a neighbouring room writing with Tyler, though he had not yet been formally confirmed as producer. As Perry wrote in Rocks: “At that point we didn’t even have a producer.”

Kalodner booked Frederiksen a two-day session with Tyler and Perry. Frederiksen arrived with a Linn 9000 drum machine — the device behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Perry described him in Rocks as “more than a good technician. He was a real hard rocker, a brilliant cat with whom I loved to jam.”

On day one, all three jammed, producing five different ideas. Tyler, deep in his routine with Ballard, left assuming nothing usable had come from it. “He was working with Glen Ballard at the time,” Frederiksen said.

That night, Frederiksen assembled one jam into a song — writing a bridge, waking at midnight with a verse melody, refining it the next morning. Perry walked in on day two: “Man, this is rocking.” He recorded guitar. Tyler called. Perry told him: “Man, you’ve got to come in. This thing’s a freight train.”

Tyler showed up, loved the verse melody, and laid down his own melodies. “We were all smiling,” Frederiksen recalled, “and by the end of the day I was asking for pictures because I thought, if I never see these guys again, at least I’ve got to get a picture.” Tyler confirmed in Metal Edge: “We wrote ‘Something’s Gotta Give’ with Marti Frederiksen, fucking great.”

Nine Lives: Born from AC/DC

On 21 January 1996, Tyler and Perry attended an AC/DC concert at Miami Arena. “I was in Miami, and me, Joe and Steven were in this little setup, very minimal,” Frederiksen recalled. “We started jamming ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ by AC/DC, and the next thing you know it turned into a song called ‘Nine Lives.'”

Brad Whitford confirmed the origin in Guitar World (April 1997): “That tune was kind of inspired by AC/DC. Joe and Steven went to see them live and said they were great. ‘We gotta do something like that,’ they said.” Whitford would later play all the solos on the finished track.

Attitude Adjustment and Falling Off

Two more Frederiksen co-writes made the album. “Attitude Adjustment” (Tyler/Perry/Frederiksen) appears on the South Beach reference tape dated 21 February 1996 as “Attitude,” placing its composition in January or early February — likely emerging from the same early Frederiksen sessions. An earlier demo tape reviewed by a private collector describes it as having “basically the same” structure and lyrics as the final song, with real-sounding guitars. Perry confirmed in Metal Edge that he flew the guitar solo directly from the demo to the final record.

“Falling Off” (Tyler/Perry/Frederiksen) was also written during this period. When Kevin Shirley later mixed it at Avatar Studios in New York, he spent less than five minutes on it — “only to document what we had for B-sides,” he recounted on Instagram. “When Steven heard it, he insisted it go on the album. Joe Perry was not a fan.” It became a bonus track on international editions of Nine Lives.

The Perry/Frederiksen Demos

Perry was sold on Frederiksen. “Maybe a month later I got a call,” Frederiksen recalled. “Joe Perry called me straight up and said, ‘Man, I really like working with you. We really love the jam we put together, and I want you to come out to put some more of those together.'”

In these intensive two-man sessions, Frederiksen was Perry’s entire band. “I was his bass player, drummer and singer, and he was the guitar player. He’d play something and I’d start throwing out stuff, and that’s it. It worked.” Perry wrote in Rocks: “When he came to the Boneyard, we’d have a blast building up a large catalogue of riffs.”

Five demos from these sessions survive on a DAT tape, now part of a broader unreleased archive documented at AerosmithBackBurner.com. Four of the five feature Frederiksen on vocals:

• Track 1 — “Do You Wonder Why?” The most polished track: fully developed sections, vocal harmonies, layered overdubs. Perry hoped Aerosmith would record it, but Tyler reportedly refused to write new lyrics — possibly because the words were written by Joe’s wife, Billie. It eventually resurfaced on Perry’s 2009 solo album.
• Track 2 — “Give It Away” / “Push” A rough, unfinished demo exploring a chaotic relationship shaped by drugs and crime, with mostly improvised lyrics and fragmented storytelling. The only demo featuring Tyler on lead vocals — most likely a Perry/Frederiksen bed with Tyler’s vocal added on top. Despite some interesting riffs and vocal ideas, it lacked strong melodies and cohesion, leading the band to abandon it early in the Nine Lives sessions.
• Track 3 — “Where the Sun Never Shines” An early demo of Where the Sun Never Shines featuring alternate scat vocals and chorus ideas by Marti Frederiksen, possibly referencing a working title like “Cheating Nights”, showcasing strong musical ideas but an evolving structure and identity. Blending playful, provocative lyrics with an Indian-tinged guitar sound, the track had clear potential, with Steven Tyler later replacing Marti’s parts with his own vocals, though Aerosmith almost certainly never recorded a full-band version and the song remained an unfinished outtake from the Nine Lives era.
• Track 4 — Untitled A semi-grunge sketch — energetic and very ’90s, not necessarily Aerosmith territory. Unfinished scat lyrics repeating “better” during the chorus; decent solos by Perry. Never developed further.
• Track 5 — “When the Monkey Comes” The roughest demo clearly features the opening riff and pre-chorus later heard in Angel’s Eye (released 2000), but with a completely different chorus in both chords and melody, and mostly scat vocals ending on the repeated word “disguise”. Likely brought in by Marti Frederiksen and developed with Joe Perry, a later South Beach demo with Tyler on vocals introduced nearly complete alternate lyrics, evolving the track into When the Monkey Comes and ultimately Angel’s Eye, though its lack of a traditional guitar solo divided fans despite its strong rock feel.

The Full Picture

From that first two-day audition, Frederiksen wrote nine or ten songs for the Nine Lives sessions, four of which made the album. “One of those songs from the Nine Lives period ended up being finished later, with the words rewritten for the first Charlie’s Angels movie” — this was “When the Monkey Comes,” reborn as “Angel’s Eye.”

Perry’s early advocacy proved decisive. “In the beginning, Steven didn’t want to work with Marti, who was just starting out,” he wrote in Rocks. “But I kept insisting that Marti come back, and ultimately I prevailed.”

Frederiksen’s total output with Aerosmith would eventually reach roughly forty songs and twenty-five album placements. His own reflection, from the Masterclass: “I miss working with Joe Perry. He took me under his wing. He liked where I came from.”

Aprox Timeline

• Mid-1995 → Brother Cane’s “And Fools Shine On” hits #1 Mainstream Rock
• Late 1995 → Kalodner discovers Frederiksen, decides to pair him with Aerosmith
• First week of Jan 1996 → Two-day session in Miami: “Something’s Gotta Give” written
• Mid-Jan 1996 → “Attitude Adjustment” and “Falling Off” likely written in same period
• 21-Jan-96 → Tyler and Perry see AC/DC at Miami Arena
• Shortly after 21 Jan → Frederiksen, Tyler, Perry jam “Whole Lotta Rosie” → “Nine Lives” born
• Late Jan – early Feb 1996 → Perry invites Frederiksen for intensive sessions; five DAT demos produced
• Before 21 Feb 1996 → Tyler replaces guide vocals on DAT tracks; “Attitude,” “Where the Sun Never Shines,” and “When the Monkey Comes” appear on South Beach reference tape
• Feb – May 1996 → Frederiksen continues writing during Miami sessions (Bridges are Burning); total output reaches 9–10 songs

Sources: Marti Frederiksen, Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp Masterclass (2020); Joe Perry, Rocks: My Life in and Out of Aerosmith (2014); Steven Tyler, Metal Edge (June 1997); Brad Whitford, Guitar World (April 1997); Kevin Shirley, Instagram; Discogs album credits; Private collector tape reviews; AerosmithBackBurner.com.