Aerosmith, aka The Bad Boys of Boston, makes its Salinas debut.

Aerosmith has sold more than 65 million records in the U.S. alone, more than The Doors and Frank Sinatra combined. In addition to 18 platinum and 12 multi-platinum albums, the group’s 25 gold records are the most by an American rock group, in any era, trumping outfits like AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen and the Grateful Dead. Lead singer Steven Tyler estimates the The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers spent more than $20 million just on cocaine, or about the same amount it cost to construct Dodger Stadium, which Aerosmith has sold out repeatedly. (See sidebar, p. 19.) That contributed to famous periods of train-wreck disbandment, including a 1979 backstage argument that led to lead guitarist Joe Perry quitting the band for half a decade, drug rehab hiatuses and enough 12 steps to complete a Big Sur Marathon. But after more than 40 years, with boomerang predictability, the same five guys came back to each other, and the machine known as Aerosmith rumbles on, somehow getting better as its does.

The fame and resulting infamy start with a superhuman ability to hook listeners after just a few seconds. With songs like “Livin’ on the Edge” and “Love in an Elevator,” only one note is needed to identify the song – something that can be said about few songs. Very few groups – The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and Led Zeppelin among them – craft such songs, or find a way to define an entire generation as seamlessly as does “Sweet Emotion,” which famously opens with guitarist Joe Perry speaking the song title through a talkbox.

The four-time Grammy Award winners are flush with tunes that resonate in similar ways. The piano chords of “Dream On” are recognizable before the first two measures are played, well before the 1973 rock power ballad and its grand symphony of strings builds to its orchestral peak. At that three-minute marker, Tyler’s voice transforms so drastically it sounds like a different singer takes over, as he edges closer to his iconic James Brown-like falsetto that opened the floodgates for every metal singer who followed.

Drummer Joey Kramer’s minimal two-measure beat precedes Perry’s famous “Walk This Way” riff. Bassist Tom Hamilton and rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford join Perry on the 1975 hard rock staple.

And there are dozens of others, including “Dude Looks Like A Lady,” “Janie’s Got a Gun” and “Cryin’.”

The Weekly recently caught up with Hamilton while he was relaxing at his house in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In a couple weeks, he’ll be hitting the road with Aerosmith for their Blue Army Tour 2015 that stops in Salinas this Friday night, July 10.

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Weekly: What goes into preparation for a tour?

Hamilton: We have a group of songs that we always play, and we try to, as a band, come up with a list of songs that we haven’t played in a long time that are deeper cuts from various years. We’re very fortunate that we’ve been together for so long and we’ve accumulated a lot of songs, so we can put together a broad range of songs that Aerosmith fans love to hear and send everyone home happy.

Joe Perry said to expect some more obscure tunes on this tour.

We did some rehearsing a couple weeks ago and came up with a list of about six to 10. (See Aerosmith’s Top 10 Deep Cuts sidebar.) A lot of times we put a [deeper cut] in a set because it’s so much fun for us. If we get a medium good reaction from the crowd we’ll keep doing it. We’re not going out there and trying to have every song be a slam dunk hit, though it’s hard to resist doing that. We need to inspire the audience, but we need to inspire ourselves too.

Steven Tyler said that 1987’s Permanent Vacation was the first record the band made completely sober. What does that album mean to you?

It’s something that I’m very proud of, but it also makes me reflect and have a lot of gratitude because we had just come out of a period when the band had been broken up for years. We were fortunate that a guy came along and became our manager. He was probably the only manager in the music business that was willing to take a group of guys who were into the bad behavior and get us to go to places we didn’t like. We were presented with a situation: Do we want to get high or do we want our band? At that point in time we had to make that choice, and we made the choice to all get sober. It’s tough for a rock band because a lot of your fans and a lot of your friends don’t really want you to [get sober]. They think you’re going to do nothing but try to get them to eat oatmeal cookies or something – but we got an album out of that: Permanent Vacation. And we felt like we were so rewarded for our efforts that we knew we were on the right track.

During that period we learned a lot about how to keep the band together. A lot of the reasons why the band is still together now is because of that period.

We did a lot to understand why people say certain things at certain times and what stuff is important to be pissed off about and what stuff is just stupid. It’s still hard. There’s still a voice asking, “Do you want to have your resentment about what happened yesterday or do you want to have your band?” Everyone just has to make the right decision, and we’ve been able to do that.

Did you guys all go through a drug treatment program together?

No, we didn’t all go through rehab. We did some really intensive group stuff that took place at a rehab, but the band was already clean and sober at the time. We were just having a lot of other stupid issues that we had to deal with to keep the band together and keep the relationship with our management and everybody going forward. We learned a lot during that period. We don’t have that type of activity anymore. It’s been drilled into us. We know what the consequences are. That’s true with every band out there. Pick up a magazine or go to any bookstore and you see all these tell-all books about rock stars who burnt out, went to rehab and went back out.

That’s sort of a subsection of our career that I don’t like it being what we’re all about. There’s a much bigger story.

Aerosmith’s Top 10 Deep Cuts

How have you been able to bounce back so well?

We’ve seen all these new things come along: MTV, digital recording technology, Walt Disney Company wanted a rollercoaster. All this amazing shit, and we started thinking, “Wow, how much would it suck to miss these things?”

I remember a time in the early ’80s when the band was on the verge of being permanently finished, and then MTV happened.

That’s really a big part of our comebacks: We don’t want to blow it and miss out on something interesting that we can be a part of.

Since 2001, Aerosmith has toured every year except one. And after 45 years of performing, you guys have a ton of awards and you’ve sold millions. I don’t think you need to keep going for financial reasons, so why do you continue in your 60s?

There’s nothing else I’d rather do. Being in front of an audience is something I’ve always wanted since I was 12 years old.

I was part of the generation that got blitzed by the whole Beatles thing and the British invasion. I couldn’t imagine any other life would be better than to play that kind of music in front of people yelling and screaming.

I used to dream about performing for large crowds. It wasn’t from the point of view of being on stage; it was from the point of view of watching myself on stage from the audience. It was important for me to be a performer of some kind. I was going to go to drama school before I put that aside to be in the band.

I always wanted to get reactions out of an audience.

I love comedy, and one of the things I love doing when we play is doing the little gestures that crack people up in the front row that nobody else really sees. I can goof on people and make fun of them in a loving way. It’s a blast.

You guys are notorious for highly theatrical live performances, but those sitting close get to see a little extra?

There’s even stuff that happens up [on stage] that the audience doesn’t know about.

Steven has this funny habit of replacing lyrics with something dirty that most of the audience doesn’t notice.

He’s a very funny guy, which started to become more apparent to people when he was on American Idol. He could really go for a dirty laugh.

In the ’70s, Aerosmith fans were called the Blue Army because you guys saw a lot of denim when you looked out in the audience at your shows. These days, what do you see when you look out into the audience?

A lot of people holding up iPhones instead of lighters. A lot of beautiful girls. It’s nice to finally have girls in our audience. We went a lot of years when there were just drunk shirtless males at our concerts. Now it’s more of a 50-50 ratio, whereas it was 80-20 back then.

AEROSMITH (Living Colour opens.) 8pm; 6pm gates. Friday, July 10. Salinas Sports Complex, N. Main St., Salinas. $45-$300. 775-3100, www.tickets.com