TMZ caught up with Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer last night (January 23rd) at a pre-Grammy Awards party in West Hollywood.
The cameraman asked him if he will be attending tonight’s (January 24th) MusiCares benefit honoring the band.
Kramer responded, “I’ll be there tomorrow night to spread the love. ‘Cause that’s what it’s about.” See the video, here.
As previously reported, Kramer lost his court case against his old bandmates, requesting that he be allowed to re-join the band. TMZ also obtained footage of drummer being turned away by security as he tried to attend a band rehearsal.
Aerosmith’s official statement regarding Kramer’s lawsuit stated, “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.”
It continues, “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 for his part responded to TMZ by saying, “Being prohibited from playing with a band that I have given 50 years of my life to supporting, is beyond devastating. This is not about money. I am being deprived of the opportunity to be recognized along with my peers, for our collective, lifetime contributions to the music industry. Neither the MusiCares’ Person of the Year Award nor the Grammys’ Lifetime Achievement honors can ever be repeated.”
He continues, “I hope our fans can understand that all I’m trying to do is get back to playing with the band that they love – and that’s Aerosmith with all five original members. The greatest magic and success of Aerosmith happens when all the band’s founding members are together in the house.”
Finally, Joey says, “To be removed from my rightful place on stage to celebrate our success – a success that acknowledges my own life’s work, is just plain wrong.”
Regarding losing his lawsuit, Kramer stated, “Although I’m extremely disappointed by the Judge’s ruling…I respect it. I knew filing a lawsuit was a bit of an uphill battle considering that the corporate documents don’t reference any process for a band member returning from an injury or illness…I want to thank my fans for the incredible outpouring of support and for sharing my goal of taking my place on stage as one of the five founding members of Aerosmith and continuing to play the music I love.” Read Kramer’s entire statement, here.
3 Responses
Even after being treated like sh-t, the Kramedog shows what a class act he truly is, unlike his band “mates.”
Joey is taking the high road while the rest of the band crawl trough the mud and slime of the very lowest road possible- I know the music business is a business but, this could be the worst slime and sh__t move I think I’ve ever heard about, I think worse than Frehley firing Scarlett right after his wife passed away-this Is really upsetting to me, I hate this kind of behavior, he should show up and calmly walk up behind his kit and get ready to play at these shows and make them block him again on camera- I’m so done with these scumbags – if I could say anything to joey it would be .. you have nothing more to prove you are an incredible drummer and have more than made your mark, you don’t need this drama in your life and you don’t need to play nice with these fake friends at these awards shows , you should wash your hands of these idiots , {because unless they pull their heads out of their asses and give you a sincere and heartfelt apology and allow you to play } they will continue to hurt you –
Unbelievable! How can they even say that he wasn’t playing to standards. Tyler can never remember a single lyric and his screams now sound like a cat in pain. Joe Perry is THE sloppiest guitar player ever. I don’t understand the credit he gets. He is absolutely horrible and hasn’t improved in playing since 1971. The music knowledge of the rest of the band resides in 4/4 timing of a high school band. Kramer has been the only reliable person in the band. His drumming has stayed consistent throughout their career. I can’t believe this is coming from a band that would basically perform drunk and high through their heyday, and now says they have a standard to live up to. To be honest they played and sounded the best when they were messed up. The unpredictability produced some unique traits that carried on over years and became part of their routine. Listen to Live Bootleg for examples. This is just a huge joke. Kramer deserves the respect and what the rest of them have done is horrible. Just call it quits. They’ve been a joke of a band and a disservice to them selves ever since Permanent Vacation was released. Not a single album since then is worth anything. Kramer deserves justice. Damn, he even came up with the name for the band.