Last year, Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer was put on temporary disability leave from the band in 2019.
Unfortunately, that leave appears to have extended, as Kramer as just filed a lawsuit for his right to rejoin the band for their upcoming Grammys performance.
Kramer alleges that he was told that he would have to “audition” to rejoin the band after not performing with the group for several months at the end of last year, a time in which he was required to pay his replacement out of his own pocket. According to the lawsuit, Kramer says there nothing in the band’s contract requiring them to “take any action to ‘prove’ or otherwise demonstrate his ability to perform after a period of temporary disability.”
Kramer’s “audition” involved him playing along to a click-track, a customized metronome program that keeps time changes consistent throughout songs, without the rest of the band present. After his audition, Kramer says he was told his playing was devoid of the requisite “energy,” and that his performance wasn’t “technically correct,” and failed to “demonstrate he is able to perform as well as John Douglas,” his replacement and drum tech. Kramer, a founding member of the band, told Rolling Stone, “The fact that I would be asked to audition for my own job, demonstrate that I can play at ‘an appropriate level’ and play better than my temporary fill-in with a moving target of made-up standards is both insulting and upsetting. Other band members and their lawyers will likely attempt to disparage my playing and claim that I am unable to play the drums right now. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Aerosmith released a statement about the situation when asked to comment:
Via Page Six