Aerosmith bassist not ready to rejoin band yet

Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton is coming along as he recovers from cancer, but he's not all the way back yet. It was initially hoped that he'd be back on the road with the group by now, but he needs more time. In a message on the aeroforceone.com fan club website, Hamilton wrote, "I've been finished with the radiation treatment for a couple of months. I was hoping to be close to being out on the road with the band by now, but it's still too soon. The radiation burns the hell out of your mouth and throat, and the healing process can take a while... I'm getting close and I'm chomping at the bit but the real decisions are up to the doctors and the healing process." There's no timetable on when Hamilton will rejoin Aerosmith. Until he does, an old friend of the band's named David Hull is manning the low end. The Route Of All Evil tour with Motley Crue resumes next Thursday (November 2nd) in Mountain View, California.

Last week, Aerosmith released a new greatest-hits collection titled Devil's Got A New Disguise, and listening to it was a moving experience for Hamilton. He wrote, "After a couple of songs went by, I went into a state where I felt really close to the band, and really far away at the same time. In my head, I was connected and isolated all at once. Another part of me was in the time period of each song, with movies of those times playing in my head. I don't really sit down and listen to our albums that way very often, and it had a lot of emotion for me. I have to say the emotion was good and a little sad, but mostly good."

Devil's Got A New Disguise debuted at Number 33 on the Billboard album chart this week, on initial sales of almost 23,000 copies.
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