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Aerosmith Issues Statement Amid Rumors They’re Replacing Steve Tyler

By Lawrence Arboleda
Published on: 21:48 PST, May 20, 2016

Aerosmith fans can now rest easy as Joe Perry, the band’s guitarist, just issued a statement denying the rumor that front man Steven Tyler will be leaving the group, the Rolling Stone reports.

“Any rumor out there about us looking for another singer is completely untrue,” guitarist Joe Perry said. “All five of us were just on the phone together talking about how excited we are to go to South America and Mexico City.”

Aerosmith’s official Twitter account also posted a tweet to shut down claims that Steven Tyler is about to get fired.

“There’s absolutely no truth to a story circulating that Aerosmith is looking for a new singer,” the tweet went.

The rumor that Steven Tyler is about to get fired from the band started when guitarist Brad Whitford said in a Metal Rules interview that they had considered replacing Tyler back in 2009 on account of a disagreement between the vocalist and his bandmates.

Robert Cavuoto of Metal Rules asked Whitford whether Aerosmith has entertained the notion of going on a tour without Steven Tyler and going with a guest vocalist instead.

“Absolutely, we have considered it but whether it will happen I don’t know. I think it would be great,” replied Whitford.

Asked for a wish list of whom he’d prefer to front the band, Whitford said that it “would be a lot of fun” to have “everybody from Myles Kennedy to Axl [Rose].”

Brad admitted in the interview that Aerosmith has undergone a lot of turmoil and frustration, but he concluded that they are keeping things in stride and are still optimistic about the band’s future.

“There is still a lot of turmoil and can be frustrating. It should be easy. The whole thing started because of the music, if the focus was right there everything would be fine, but we don’t [laughing],” he said. “Let the drivers drive and let the music happen everything will fall into place. We get caught up into a lot of silly stuff.”

In an interview with The Rolling Stone earlier this month, Tyler said that he is open to the idea of doing a farewell tour with the band in 2017. The interview revealed that the idea of going into the studio to create another record with the band also sits fine with him.

“Whether we do a farewell tour or go into the studio and do another record, I’m just excited about it,” Steven said.

In a separate interview with Rolling Stone, Perry revealed that the band shares the same mindset as Tyler in regard to doing a farewell tour in 2017.

“A farewell tour is something we’ve talked about doing for years, let’s say roughly in the last five years,” Perry said.”It’s just something the band’s talked about at various times. At this point, the five of us have never sat down and said, ‘It’s time to do it.’ So ‘considering’ is an appropriate word for that statement. A farewell tour
is definitely not confirmed.”

Perry, a member of supergroup The Hollywood Vampires, alongside Johnny Depp and Alice Cooper, talked at length about Aerosmith’s future, particularly the options that will be put under consideration once they’ve concluded their Latin American tour.

“We’re talking about some different options at this point. Whether it’s to do some shorter tours like the last couple we’ve done or go into the studio and knock a few songs out and see how that feels, I’m not sure yet,” he said. “But right now we’re really taking time off from the band and everybody’s off doing their own thing.”

As to Steven Tyler, he is gearing up for the release of his upcoming country album and preparing for a tour this summer.

[Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]

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