Aerosmith auditioning for new lead singer
Aerosmith auditioning for new lead singer
Friday, 22, Jan 2010 02:51
By Lewis Bazley.
US rock band Aerosmith have confirmed they will search for a new singer while frontman Steven Tyler is in rehab.
The Walk This Way singer was admitted to a rehabilitation clinic in December over an addiction to painkillers, having become dependent on medication following orthopaedic surgery.
Aerosmith had been forced to cancel a summer tour last year after Tyler fell off the stage during a performance in South Dakota, breaking his left shoulder.
With their frontman likely to be unable to return to live performing for an extended period of time, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry said the Pump band will hold auditions to find a new singer.
"We'll have found a new singer by the summer and Aerosmith will be able to go back out on the road," he told Canada's QMI news agency.
"It's kind of hard to get a straight answer about what's going on," Perry added.
"He [Tyler] has to have leg surgery and foot surgery and it's basically going to take him out of the picture for about a year, year and a half. So, in the meantime, the rest of the band wants to play.
"So the four of us are just making our plans. We're gonna [sic] find somebody to get in there and fill that spot."
Tyler, 61, had stressed in November he was not leaving the group, and Perry did not rule out a return for his longtime bandmate.
"I'm ready to write with him, to play on stage with him anytime he's physically ready and wants to do it," the guitarist commented.
"But it's really up to him. The last things he said to the press were that he wanted to work with the band and sing with the band, so we'll see."