BIG News from Aerosmith camp.
As reported by TMZ, founding AEROSMITH drummer Joey Kramer has filed a lawsuit against his bandmates.
Joey claims that they are not allowing him to return to the group after a temporary disability.
Now the rest of the members have responded to his lawsuit.
The statement has been given to People, saying:
“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.”
The statement 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. 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.”
Kramer claims he was subjected to a brand new band policy he did not approve of, where he would have to audition to prove he was “able to play at an appropriate level” in order to regain his drummer role.
According to Kramer, the band asked him to perform a series of solo rehearsals against a “click-track” as his audition, after which they would listen to the recordings to decide whether he would be allowed to come back to the group.
In the meantime, Kramer has covered the cost of a replacement drummer at a rate of $20,000 a week for performances and $10,000 a week for rehearsals. (According to Rolling Stone, AEROSMITH‘s contract states that all members are entitled to their full share of live performance income even if they’re sidelined, although the replacement’s pay comes out of absent member’s cut.)
Kramer says he finally and begrudgingly auditioned with the “click track” in early January, but was prohibited from rejoining because, as he was told, he “did not have enough energy” in the recordings.
He wants the court to order him back in the band to avoid “irreparable harm” to him.