Interview with Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith

Interview with Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith

First published in The Santa Barbara Sentinel, 2015. All photos by Megan Waldrep cannot be copied or bad things will happen. Legal stuff.

Tom Hamilton, the bassist for Aerosmith, is a founding father of what is said to be one of the hardest working bands in the history of rock ‘n roll. He sits down with the Sentinel for a chat and gives a peek into the psyche of a rockstar, four-decades deep. The Santa Barbara Bowl hosted Aerosmith’s Blue Army tour on July 7th, 2015.

5 Minutes w/ Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith

Q: So you’ve never been to Santa Barbara?

TH: Um, no. Well, we may have gone there sometime in the last…decades but I can’t remember. I’m looking forward to finally seeing what it’s like.

You’ll have a view of the ocean while you play. It’s sick!

Ah, Nice!

Guitarist, Joe Perry says, “The name Blue Army came from the fact that ‘everyone’ in our audience from the ’70s was wearing blue denim and it looked like a sea of blue, thus The Blue Army.” Right now I have my Blue Army Tour gear on. All denim, so I’m ready to go.

Great! Yeah, I thought it would be pretty neat if people wore denim to the shows. That would be really cool.

I’m rambling a bit. My apologies…

It’s cool.

Thanks, Mr. Hamilton. What would you like our readers to know about Aerosmith?

I’d like your readers to know that we’re a band that has been playing for four decades and we know how to put on a rock show.

I hate to sound like a bragging salesperson, but you know, we’re gonna play a show that people are really gonna like.

I remember being a kid and imagining what certain bands would be like (in concert).

And I was often disappointed.

Even when I saw Led Zepplin or Cream.

We’re not like that.

We really work hard to play our songs in a way to makes people really feel like they’ve heard it done right.

It’s a simple tool, but that is it.

Hey, it works. Everyone wins!

(Laughing) Yeah! 🎸

Update: Here’s a video from the Santa Barbara Show:

If you liked this, you’d love 5 Minutes with David Crosby, Dolly Parton, or and Q&A with Johnathan Cain of Journey and how he wrote THE song.