“Idol” Judge Not Quitting Aerosmith

(Reuters)

 Veteran rocker Steven Tyler on Tuesday denied that his new role as a judge on 'American Idol" meant the death of his band Aerosmith, and said he wanted to start work on a much-delayed new album later this month.

"We are just on a break. We are still rocking big time," Tyler, 62, told television journalists, while promoting the new season of "American Idol".

Aerosmith has not recorded a studio album since 2001 and a 2009 feud between Tyler and his bandmates threatened to break up the group known as the "bad boys of Boston".

But Tyler said Aerosmith would start working on a new album at the end of January, and had a tour of Japan and South America lined up starting in November 2011.

"It's not dead. It couldn't be dead," he said of the 40 year-old rock band that has sold more than 150 million albums since forming in 1970.