Kramer returns following a lawsuit
Joey Kramer returned to Aerosmith last night (Mon, Feb 10th) during their Deuces Are Wild residency at the Park Theater in Las Vegas. Kramer returned following a lawsuit against Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton and Brad Whitford last month after a “freeze out” wouldn’t allow him to perform with his longtime bandmates during GRAMMY Week.
The show kicked off with the usual short film that sums up the band’s 50 year career as the band rises at the back of the stage. Kramer was the first one to take the stage as Steven Tyler says, “On the drums, Mr. Joey Kramer” to loud applause. The show opened with “Let The Music Do The Talking.”
The show presumably marks the end of a dispute between Kramer and the group that required him to audition to rejoin his bandmates on stage. Kramer suffered injuries in spring 2019, but states he was ready for the band’s Vegas residency in fall 2019. However, the drummer suggests he was subjected to a new band policy where he had to audition to prove he was “able to play at an appropriate level” to rejoin.
Kramer also claims he was asked to perform a series of solo rehearsals where he had to play with a “click track” at his audition, and the other four members would listen and evaluate his performance. Kramer says he begrudgingly auditioned with the click track in January, but wasn’t allowed back in because the band says he “did not have enough ‘energy’ in the recordings.”
The “freeze out” had required Kramer to cover the salary of a replacement drummer at $10k a week for rehearsals and $20k a week for performances.
Aerosmith responded to the lawsuit stating, “Joey Kramer is our brother; his wellbeing is of paramount importance to us. 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.”
They continue, “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. Compounding this, he chose to file a lawsuit 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. 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.”
