Listening to Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry talk, one gets the impression if he heard Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' song The Waiting about now, he'd end up in tears.

The recent injuries sustained to lead singer Steven Tyler from his fall during an Aug. 5 show in Sturgis, South Dakota has put their current North American tour with ZZ Top on hold. And as of yesterday afternoon, Perry, Aerosmith and their management were still in a holding pattern as to the tour's status. The band was scheduled to play Toronto Sept. 3.

"We were supposed to hear something last night," Perry says during a Toronto promotional stop for his upcoming album Have Guitar, Will Travel. "Our manager is on the West Coast and doctors have weird hours. I think we were going to have a conference call either last night or today. As soon as they get going on the West Coast, we'll know what the status of the tour is."

Perry says the tour was truly starting to find its groove with ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons appearing during Aerosmith's set while Perry was planning "to sit in with them." As for the status of the remaining dates, including the Western Canadian stops that were postponed, much will depend on what doctors determine is best for Tyler.

"Without a doubt, this has been really frustrating because this is one of the most fun tours that we've done in a long time but also one of the most frustrating ones," Perry says. "What can you do?

"A long time ago after the band got back together we had to cancel a tour early on. I remember after that I just said I'm going to play every night like it's the last one because you just don't know. It's like life. You have to keep an eye on it because you just can't waste any days. It can go away in an instant."

Perhaps the only solace Perry takes from Tyler's fall is that it wasn't worse.

"It's a drag, he really got banged up bad," he says. "It's a good thing, from everything I heard, nothing was internal like a busted spleen or punctured lung."