Aerosmith have stepped back in time almost 40 years.

Bass player Joe Perry - who was ranked 48th in 'Rolling Stone's' list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time - revealed despite the band going through plenty of ups and downs in the past, they are now playing as well as in the height of their success in the early 70s.

He explained: "Steve Tyler is singing better than I've heard in a long time and the shows have just gotten better and better. It feels like 1971 again. We've had a lot of ups and downs in the past, and we're up-ing right now."

However, the 59-year-old rocker admitted over the past four years, relations between the group haven't been the best.

He said: "Our whole rhythm just got thrown off over the last three or four years. We ended up touring without new albums a couple of times and it just didn't work out. It felt off-kilter and the tension was pretty high."

Earlier in the year, frontman Steve Tyler revealed he wanted to take a long break from Aerosmith to work on "Brand Tyler", while his bandmates threatened to bring a new singer on board.

Joe explained after Tyler - who has battled against drugs for many years - came out of rehab a few months ago, the group's members managed to sort their tempestuous relationships.

He told Rolling Stone: "Basically I just said one or two things to Steven and he said one or two things to me. Being as close as we are, that's all we needed to do. Then we just looked at each other and knew it was time to get the band back together."