Steven Tyler On American Idol Could Be ‘Positive’ For Aerosmith, Says Drummer
Steven Tyler On American Idol Could Be ‘Positive’ For Aerosmith, Says Drummer
August 7, 2010
Gary Graff of Billboard.com reports: Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer is, for one, behind the idea of frontman Steven Tyler taking a seat on the “American Idol” judges panel next season.
“It could be a very positive thing,” Kramer — whose 2009 memoir “Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top,” has just been published in paperback — tells Billboard.com. “We’ve been talking about it the last couple of days, and it’s made me come to realize what a positive impact it could have for [Aerosmith]. The possibilities are kind of infinite with something like that happening, us being exposed to a whole new generation of people. So we’ll see what happens. It should be interesting.”
Tyler’s involvement with “Idol,” replacing either the departed Ellen DeGeneres or the rumored-to-be-leaving Kara DioGuardi, has not yet been confirmed, though the singer did tell TMZ and a syndicated radio show that he had been approached and was in negotiations. Neither Tyler’s representatives nor the “Idol” camp have commented further.
Meanwhile, Kramer says, Aerosmith soldiers on. Since patching up a nasty public feud with Tyler earlier this year, the group has taken its Cocked, Locked And Ready to Rock tour to South America and Europe and is now in North America, where an Aug. 14 show at Boston’s iconic Fenway Park with fellow Beantown rockers the J. Geils Band looms.
Kramer reports that “everybody’s getting along great and enjoying themselves…Everybody has realized what we have together is a great thing. We have a great band — why not enjoy it? Why not enjoy the power that we have and what it is we do instead of all the nonsense and drama that’s gone on? I just think everybody’s got to the point where they get that now.”
Aerosmith is slated to be on the road until Sept. 16, after which Kramer says the group will take a short break before getting back to work on the album it started making in late 2008 with producer Brendan O’Brien. “We’re long overdue for a record,” Kramer says of the set, which will be Aerosmith’s first studio release since 2004’s “Honkin’ On Bobo.” “I know we’re going into it very positively, all five of us, and I think we’re going to do it the same as an old school Aerosmith record, where everybody partakes. I think it’s gonna be a really good one.”
Alongside group plans, Kramer has also been promoting the paperback edition of “Hit Hard” with signings on show nights, and he has other plans for the fall that he’ll announce soon. He’s also launched a Joey Kramer Hit Hard iPhone app, which fans can use to play along to his drumbeats.
“I’m kind of into a new frame of mind,” he explains. “I used to be a certain way and not relate to my fans a whole lot, and in the last couple of years I’ve realized that these people are the people that make it happen. I wrote my book a lot for the fans and for people that suffered from the same [substance abuse] that I did, to show them you can get through it and survive and come out better. If I can help just a couple people by writing that book and doing that App, then my goal has been accomplished.”
Courtesy of www.sleazeroxx.com and www.billboard.com