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An Aersomith without Steven Tyler?! That was almost a reality, according to Joe Perry.
This was a consideration about a decade ago. Why? It seemed as though Tyler was distancing himself from the band, between his new role as a judge on "American Idol" as well as other non-band related activities he was participating in.
Who would replace Tyler? Chris Cornell, Paul Rodgers, Lenny Kravitz, Bill Idol, and Sammy Hagar were just some of the names being mentioned at the time. Hagar came close to accepting the role but as we all know, Tyler has not gone anywhere.
Perry elaborated on the situation, saying, “It was really another one of those times, you don’t keep a band together without a lot of bumps...So the band wasn’t that tight, there was talk and there were so many people involved — lawyers, different managers." He adds, "I thought Steven wants maybe to take four years off, do what he wants to do. And so the whole looking around for another lead singer thing, just as soon as that happened, that raised its head.”
In terms of Hagar as the replacement, Perry went on to say, “I’m not sure how it got out there, but Sam I know as a really mellow guy, easy to get along with. And he definitely had the pipes — so I can see why that idea had been floated." He adds, "But we also had a shortlist at that point. Things went the way they did, everybody got out of the system what they wanted to, and then we slowly glued back together.”
Source: Ultimate Classic Rock
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