Oh my goodness, I know I said I wasn’t going to do this, but I can’t help it. First Steven Tyler said he wanted to work on his solo career (“Brand Tyler”), then Joe Perry was like, “Yeah, I guess he quit, so now we’re gonna find a new singer because I don’t know even the first thing about why people like Aerosmith.” Then Tyler joined the Joe Perry Project onstage here in New York on Tuesday night and was like, “I didn’t quit Aerosmith, motherfucker, and also I’m a rainbow.”
But now! Now Joe Perry’s telling Rolling Stone he had no idea what the whole thing was about the other night. He says he didn’t know Tyler was even in the building until they were about to do their encore (yes, the Joe Perry Project gets to play encores).
The cameo, says Perry, came as a surprise even to him. “There was all this commotion during our encore break and somebody said, ‘Steven is here.’ ” Perry says. “And I was like, ‘What?’ ” After exchanging pleasantries, Tyler asked to sit in with the group on the final encore of “Walk This Way.” “Being an acquaintance of 40 years, I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Perry says. “So he came up and sang and that was the last I saw of him.”
So it looks like we’re back to square one. Aerosmith might still be a band, but they also might not be. They might be looking for a new lead singer, but they also might not be. More updates to come, I assume.
Aerosmith wants to remain active. Steven Tyler wants to take some time off to write a book, gig with some other people and probably put out a solo album (he’s been talking about doing that for years).
What will likely happen is Aerosmith will tour with a stand-in lead singer, and it will probably not go over very well. Steven will do all the stuff he wants to but not approach anything near the success he would have gotten with Aerosmith. The group will reunite and somewhat reconcile their differences (Steven wanting to go more in the pop direction, Joe wanting to stick to hard rock roots) and they’ll probably get one, maybe two more albums out before they call it quits for good.
As for replacement singers, there are look- and sing-alikes out there, but I don’t really think that’s what the group needs. They should go for someone somewhat unknown that can handle the vocal parts and have a decent chemistry with the rest of the band. One name that comes to mind immediately is Eric Dover, who worked with Slash on his first Slash’s Snakepit album and in his own hard rock band, Imperial Drag. Search youtube for examples. Screamer voice, not too terribly much younger than the group, etc.
Going with celebrity stand-ins would be a disgrace–much more so than just filling the spot for the meantime.