Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer sues band for keeping him from performing at Grammys
At the Grammys on Sunday, Aerosmith is being presented with the MusiCares Person Of The Year Award, with the band getting to do the usual career-spanning medley performance during the show. Apparently, though, one member of the band won’t be joining the rest of the group, with TMZ reporting that drummer Joey Kramer is actually suing Aerosmith for not letting him play at the Grammys. Kramer has apparently been on leave from the band since early last year after suffering some kind of injury that impacted his drumming, and while he says he was ready to get back to playing in the fall, the other Aerosmith members supposedly forced him to “audition” to get back in by playing along to a “click track” that they would listen to later—in other words, they wouldn’t even play with him in person.
Kramer eventually gave in and recorded his audition, but the band rejected him for not having enough “energy.” He says the other members are unfairly and purposefully keeping him out of major milestone events (like this Grammys performance) for some reason. Things have gone back and forth between the two sides since Kramer filed his lawsuit, with TMZ’s sources saying the timing of all of this is just about Kramer being mad that he won’t get money from being on TV, Kramer responding by saying that he cares more about being forced out of the band he’s been with for 50 years than he does about money, and then Aerosmith saying that it tried to find a way to get Kramer back in time but it ultimately didn’t have a choice but to move ahead without him.
Aerosmith also released a statement saying as much:
We would be doing a disservice to Joey, 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.