AEROSMITH singer Steven Tyler spoke with Nekesa Mumbi Moody from AP recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

AP: What has it been like to play with the band after the tumultuous last year?

Tyler: It's been a great tour. You know it's a little hard for me. Being in Aerosmith is like living on the tail of a comet. I've had a lot of injuries over the last couple of the years. I had ACL reconstruction on my knee ... operations on my feet, my mom passed away. A lot of things came to play that made it easy for me to abuse some things. ... Even though some of the people in the band were going public with some of the stuff which turned very ugly, I managed to pull it all back together again and say, 'Look, let's just get out there and be the band that we know we are and not argue about this crap anymore.'"

AP: How easy was that after the ugliness?

Tyler: "I realize that certain people that decide to go in the press with dirty laundry, I just have to look the other way and realize I need to keep my side of the street clean, and they do what they do. It's really unfortunate that certain people were Twittering and going to the press. It got really ugly, but you know, again, I just went back to them and I said ... "More than anything, I really want to play with this band. I really love this band and I love who I've become because of the band." ... Everyone's got their problems and their demons, but when we get onstage and play as five, that really all goes away, and that's really all I look at now."

AP: Is a new Aerosmith album coming?

Tyler: "The truth is I've never stopped writing. I've got 12 songs I'm sitting on right now for a solo record. Aerosmith has to finish a studio album; we're gonna do that first."

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