With Aerosmith reportedly close to wrapping up their highly anticipated new album, inspiration and feedback has been coming from not only album producer Jack Douglas, but also ‘Edward Scissorhands,’ er, Johnny Depp, who knows a thing or three about a good riff.

Depp recently jammed with both Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and Alice Cooper at a party celebrating ‘Dark Shadows,’ the actor’s latest collaboration with Tim Burton, his longtime brother in creepy film work.

As Tyler tells Fox News, Aerosmith has actually been holed up in Burton’s old Swinghouse recording studio working on the new album and apparently, Depp still has a set of keys, because he drops by occasionally to check in on the band’s progress.

As Tyler explains, “When we are done recording, I go up to Johnny’s house and I play him stuff and I ask if it is any good. He gives me [honest feedback].” According to the singer, Depp has the goods and is qualified to weigh in on the subject. “Johnny is a great musician and many people don’t know that, he plays piano, guitar, he knows his music.”

One thing that Tyler is quite sure about, is that ‘Legendary Child,’ Aerosmith’s contribution to the upcoming ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ movie is awesome and the spirit of the film lines up quite well with the band’s own experiences.

”’G.I. Joe’ [is] about deep space and ‘let’s go fight the foe.’ And then I thought about where the band came from, and going [into] the music business. If there ever… was a foe, the music business was. So to be successful you had to learn how to climb ladders, jump through hoops and live through burning houses.”

Tyler says the band recently spent 12 hours filming a video for the song and he gives high praise to his longtime mate Perry, who he says was “on fire” when the band was recording the song.

Aerosmith will premiere an as yet undisclosed new song on the season finale of ‘American Idol.’

Following Thursday’s elimination show, the two judges shared their thoughts on Season 11’s Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips

After Thursday’s elimination episode of American Idol, judges Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson greeted reporters to share their thoughts on the final two as well as discuss the show’s impact and what the panel might look like next year.

Tyler marveled at the growth of 16-year-old Jessica Sanchez and 21-year-old Phillip Phillips, commenting that the latter brought the magic” with “one of the best songs in the history of music,” Bob Seger’s “We’ve Got Tonight,” while Jackson pointed out that, while there’s a girl in the finale (finally), Sanchez might be at a disadvantage without the “’cute boy vote.” His advice: pick a song that will wow the audience and not put them to sleep. “Just go for it,” he said.

The judges also talked about Joshua Ledet’s exit, calling the Louisiana native one of those rare “pure, emotional singers” who earned more standing ovations than anyone else in recent memory (17, by our count).

So why was he sent home? Watch the video (here) for the judges’ theories and also their reflections on the passing of disco queen Donna Summer.

Watch video:  (here).

Watch video:  (here).

In just a few short weeks, Fayetteville will be full of folks from all over the world visiting during the annual Walmart shareholders meeting on Friday, June 1.

As usual, the world’s largest retailer has booked a few concerts in the days leading up to the event, and Walmart spokesperson Dianna Gee confirmed that Carrie Underwood, Aerosmith and Cheap Trick will perform during the festivities at Bud Walton Arena this year.

Underwood and an unnamed “special guest” will perform at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 29, and Aerosmith and Cheap Trick will perform at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30.

Gee said tickets were made available to Walmart associates over the weekend, but that they are technically “sold out.”

“It’s our 50th year, so there’s been a lot of excitement by the associates around that,” she said.

If, for some reason, the Walmart shareholders don’t claim their tickets, Gee said the public would be admitted for the shows.

Behind Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer’s wild, turbo-charged act is coffee — specifically Sumatra and preferably his own roast.

“Since I was a kid I’ve drunk thousands of cups of coffee all over the world and became a connoisseur of good coffee,” said the man behind the new Rockin’ & Roastin’ brand. “So I put my favorite ones together.”

And rest assured, Joey’s Ethiopian and Sumatra roasts will be the only coffee served when the band heads out on tour June 16.

“There will be no other, not if I have my way,” laughed Kramer, who now lives in Austin with wife, Linda. “But everyone who drinks it, likes it. No negative feedback yet.”

Kramer said it took a year to brew up his Rockin’ and Roastin’ side gig. He had to come up with the Fair Trade, shade-grown, organic beans and find a roaster.

“I have somebody who finds beans for me and if I come across something I like, we’ll find out how it’s roasted and try to emulate it,” he said, adding that his coffee is roasted in Worcester.

Right now, four varieties of Rockin’’ & Roastin’ are available online at www.rockinandroastin.com. But Joey hopes to get it on the shelves at Whole Foods and other markets that sell organic beans.

“I am a supermarket guy,” he said. “ I never cared for Starbucks — it always tasted burnt to me, and Dunkin’ Donuts was OK. Now, I just drink my own.”

Joey thinks it’s healthy to have a side gig when he and the band aren’t on the road. Joe Perry has his hot sauce, Brad Whitford races cars and Steven Tyler has “American Idol.”

“But Aerosmith, for all of us, is always on the front burner,” he said.

“Mr. Tyler & ‘The Other’ Mr. Lennon, singing background vocals, on the Amazing New ‘Aerosmith’ Album last night…”

Photo:  (here).

“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help myself… A day in the life of Mr Steven Tyler… OMG… This was his dressing room, while they were shooting behind the scenes for American Idol. I just happened to be there…”

Photo:  (here).

Band’s new album is ‘really close’ to finished

…In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Joe Perry says that the group will appear on the show’s May 23rd season finale to perform their new single. We also spoke with the guitarist about Aerosmith’s new album, tour and ever-present backstage drama.

What’s the status of the new album at this point?
It’s really close. We’ve started to mix. We’ve mixed a couple of the songs already, but I guess this week we’re really kind of rolling into mix mode. We have a couple of tracks left to finish up, just to put some overdubs on, but we’re kind of going from the final, final recording tracks to mixing this week.

Nice. I’m sure that bringing producer Jack Douglas back into the studio was a nice boost for you guys.
Definitely. This was supposed to be the record that we did with him five years ago, but we ran out of time so we did the Honkin’ on Bobo blues record instead. We did that record kind of the same way we did this one, which is we all got in a room with Jack, as we used to back in the 1970s, and just hammered stuff out.

Fans are definitely ready to hear a new Aerosmith album. They’ve waited long enough.
I’ve been wanting this record to come out for years, but there’s a reason for everything and the timing for this is just right. The pressure for this to be what everyone hopes it’s going to be is enormous and I’m starting to feel a little bit of that heat. We’ve talked about doing a new record and it’s kind of like the boy crying wolf the last bunch of years…I just have to wipe out all the expectations that everybody has because we’ve always done every record on its own, taking its own place, not looking at it in the context of the last record or the next record or whatever is going on in the world or whatever. It’s just about getting in and trying to do what we do best and that’s it. I’m definitely feeling some of that weight. It’s really about keeping he doors locked and finishing this up without letting any of that get to us.

Tell me about the tour. How are you guys going to pick a setlist?
We’ll probably do it the way we always do it. We have new tunes this time, and there was a short time where we wouldn’t necessarily play much from our new records. We tried, but there were just so many songs that Aerosmith fans wanted to hear when they came to see us. When we played something new, something old had to come out.

But this time is going to be a little different. We’re releasing a new single in three or four weeks, and that is going to open the door. I would like to see us play three or four songs from the new record, kind of sprinkling them into the set as the tour rolls out. We’ve also been talking about bringing in some other songs that our old fans want to hear that we haven’t played in a long time. There are some songs from our early records that used to be the backbone of our set, and we’re gonna bring some of them back to the table, too. It’ll be a mixture of all of it.

Is there one deep cut in particular that you really want to bring back?
Yeah. I’ve always liked playing “Woman of the World” [from 1974's Get Your Wings.] I don’t know though. We’ll see.

How would you compare the sound of the new record to the last album, Just Push Play?
Let’s say they’re polar opposites. The whole attitude of making this record and the way that we went about it is so opposite. I mean, the band stayed in the room and everybody had riffs, songs. I can remember writing some of the riffs 20 years ago; they’ve been kind of bubbling under. Steven and I would look at each other and go, “We gotta use that one,” and they’d always end up somewhere. A lot of these riffs that we love, that are really part of our inner Aerosmith lexicon, are now songs, finally. So the whole process was different. The record’s gonna sound modern and hi-fi. We’re not sitting around going, “We’re gonna do Night in the Ruts again or Rocks again.” We want to make a modern sounding record, but the main thing is the energy that the early records had.

The press is always so focused on drama in the band, but you guys seem to actually be functioning relatively well at this point.
Well, we’re as dysfunctional as we’ve always been. Some of it gets out into the press when there’s nothing else to talk about. I think the band is doing pretty much what it usually does. I don’t know if it’s fair to call it dysfunctional. You have to have some really great highs, and you have to have some real deep lows. There’s always going to be that give and take in a band like this, and some of it gets thrust out into the public and some of it doesn’t.

You appeared on American Idol recently, so I assume you’ve softened your position a bit about that.
It wasn’t about the show – it was about how we found out about it. I was pissed off about that whole thing, but I’ve played on it before and the band is gonna play on it in the last episode of the season to debut the new single. So it’s not about the show, it’s about how we found out about it. It was a bit of a shock and it took us off balance.

You guys played Toys in the Attic straight though a few years ago. Are you thinking about doing more complete album shows in the future?
Well, there’s a lot of things we’ve been thinking about doing, and a lot of the ideas that we’ve had are going to start coming out. We’ve got a few good years left in us, so I think nothing’s out of the question.

Musician Steven Tyler; actress Jaime King

Watch video:  (here).