Aerosmith is explaining why Joey Kramer is being excluded from the Grammy’s performance. The statement comes after Joey filed a lawsuit against the band.
“Joey Kramer is our brother; his wellbeing is of paramount importance to us. However, he has not been emotionally and physically able to perform with the band, by his own admission, for the last 6 months. We have missed him and have encouraged him to rejoin us to play many times, but apparently, he has not felt ready to do so,” a representative from the band shared with People magazine.
Days ahead of what is supposed to be a milestone weekend for Aerosmith, the band is full of drama. Last week, Joey filed a lawsuit that accuses his bandmates Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, and Brad Whitford of blocking him from performing with the group at the 2020 Grammy Awards.
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According to court documents obtained by Rolling Stone, Joey suffered a few minor injuries last spring that prevented him from playing a few shows with the band. He claims to have been fully recovered by the fall. However, instead of being welcomed back into the group, Joey was told he needed to audition to be Aerosmith’s drummer.
The suit alleged the stress of having to fight for a job that should have been rightfully his, caused Joey to end up in the hospital in November. Joey’s health issue forced the audition to be delayed.
He was eventually able to play for the guys but was told he did not have enough energy to join Aerosmith at the Grammy’s or their Las Vegas residency.
“Joey has now waited until the last moment to accept our invitation when we, unfortunately, have no time for necessary rehearsals during Grammys week. We would be doing a disservice to him, 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,” the statement from Steven, Joe Brad, and Tom further explained.
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Aerosmith – What it takes pic.twitter.com/WIXpWztduW— ★ Flávia §vein ★ ℒℴѵℯ (@FlaviaSveinA) January 22, 2020
Grammy weekend is supposed to be a celebration of Aerosmith. The rock band is being honored with a 2020 MusiCares Person of the Year tribute. Part of the honor includes the guys taking the stage during the Awards ceremony on Sunday.
However, instead of enjoying the honor, Aerosmith is explaining why Joey Kramer’s injury got his excluded from the 2020 Grammy Awards performance. The band felt the need to make a public statement after Joey filed a lawsuit against them.