AEROSMITH‘s official web site has launched a countdown clock that is scheduled to hit zero on Monday, May 1 at 7:00 a.m. PST. While there are no hints whatsoever on what fans can expect when the countdown ends, it is widely believed that it will coincide with an announcement of the first details of the group’s upcoming tour.

Last week,  AEROSMITH guitarist Joe Perry told The Boston Globe that the band will kick off a 40-plus-date U.S. tour in September that will stretch into 2024. The official announcement is expected to come when the Rock And Roll Hall Of Famers make an appearance on Howard Stern‘s SiriusXM show.

Earlier this month, Perry told Joe Rock of Long Island, New York’s 102.3 WBAB radio station that it’s unlikely AEROSMITH‘s upcoming tour will feature the return of drummer Joey Kramer, who announced in March 2022 that he would sit out the band’s concerts last year so he could “focus his full attention on his family during these uncertain times.” Perry said: “That’s probably one of the hardest things. I’ve gotta say drumming is probably one of the most athletic parts of playing in a band. So it’s really hard. It’s been mostly because he just physically has been just beating himself up over the last 50 years. So I don’t know. I mean, he’s still officially a member of the band, but I don’t think he’s gonna be sitting behind the drums, at least for this next run. Other than that, I really can’t say.”

Elsewhere in the 102.3 WBAB chat, Joe talked about the likelihood of new music from AEROSMITH. The legendary Boston rockers haven’t released a new studio album since 2012’s “Music From Another Dimension!” That effort was released when AEROSMITH‘s label, Columbia Records, was reportedly going through a leadership change, and it ended up becoming a commercial disappointment.

“At this point, I can’t say,” Joe said about the prospect of a new AEROSMITH song or album. “I really don’t know. But I know that we have a pile of material that hasn’t been released. So I think we’re focusing on that right now. But the main thing is just getting this tour up and running.”

For the past year, AEROSMITH‘s longtime drum tech John Douglas has been filling in on drums for Kramer, whose wife, Linda Gail Kramer, died last June at the age of 55. No cause of death has been revealed.

AEROSMITH played its first concert in more than two and a half years on September 4, 2022 in Bangor, Maine.

Prior to the show at Maine Savings Amphitheater, the band’s last live performance took place in February 2020 in Las Vegas as part of AEROSMITH‘s “Deuces Are Wild” residency.

In May 2022, AEROSMITH announced that singer Steven Tyler had entered a treatment program following a relapse, prompting the band to put their Las Vegas residency on a temporary hold.

Tyler had been struggling with drug and alcohol addiction since the mid-1980s. Over the course of the last four decades, he had relapsed several times, including in the early 2000s and 2009.

Joey has had his own health difficulties in recent years. Kramer suffered a health scare back in 2014, which was initially reported to be “heart-related complications”.