Credit: Zack WhitfordAerosmith has issued a statement in response to a lawsuit filed by drummer Joey Kramer against the other four members of the band, which claims they won’t allow him to perform with them.
The message confirms that Aerosmith plans to play sans Kramer for Friday’s MusiCares Person of the Year gala honoring the band at Sunday’s Grammy Award ceremony. Although, the group is inviting Joey to attend both events.
“Joey Kramer is our brother; his wellbeing is of paramount importance to us,” the statement begins. “However he has not been emotionally and physically able to perform with the band, by his own admission, for the last 6 months. We have missed him and have encouraged him to rejoin us to play many times but apparently he has not felt ready to do so.”
The message continues, “Joey has now waited until the last moment to accept our invitation, when we unfortunately have no time for necessary rehearsals during Grammys week. We would be doing a disservice to him, to ourselves and to our fans to have him play without adequate time to prepare and rehearse.”
The note then references the lawsuit, maintaining that Kramer “chose to file [it] on the Friday night of the holiday weekend preceding the Grammys with total disregard for what is our limited window to prepare to perform these important events.”
The statement concludes, “Given his decisions he is unfortunately unable to perform but of course we have invited him to be with us for both the Grammys and our MusiCares honor. We are bonded together by much more than our time on stage.”
According to Rolling Stone, Kramer’s lawsuit alleges that Aerosmith’s other members unfairly asked him to audition to show his drumming was adequate before they’d allow him to play with them again.
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