Aerosmith Drummer Loses Last-Minute Legal Bid To Play With Band At Grammys

Bruce Haring

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Music’s biggest night is turning into music’s most litigious night.

Joey Kramer, the longtime drummer for Aerosmith, lost Wednesday in his efforts to have a judge rule that he can participate with the band in weekend activities.

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Kramer, who has played with the band for 50 years and came up with its name, was recovering from a spring injury. When he wanted to return, the band insisted he audition for them, and then decided his skills were not up to par.

Aerosmith is scheduled to perform at this weekend’s Grammys. The 69-year-old Kramer sued the band in Massachusetts, claiming they breached his contract by denying him the opportunity to perform.

The judge agreed with the band’s contention that there was no time left to work him in, “given that Kramer has not played with the band in 6 months and the dearth of available rehearsal time before the upcoming performances, Kramer has not shown a realistic alternative course of action sufficient to protect the band’s business interests.”

Aerosmith used a replacement drummer for its Las Vegas residence, but then wouldn’t let Kramer rejoin when he claimed to be ready to resume his duties in November. Kramer said in the legal papers that he “announced his desire to return and formally made himself available to rehearse with the band and to attend the shows,” but that the rest of the band insisted he had to demonstrate that he was “able to play at an appropriate level.”

“I am being deprived of the opportunity to be recognized along with my peers for our collective lifetime contributions to the music industry,” Kramer said in a statement. “Neither the MusiCares’ Person of the Year Award nor the Grammys’ Lifetime Achievement honors can ever be repeated.”

The band told People in a statement that Kramer is the one who rejected their overtures.

“Joey Kramer is our brother; his wellbeing is of paramount importance to us,” the group said in a statement. “However he has not been emotionally and physically able to perform with the band, by his own admission, for the last six 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.”

They claimed he waited too long to respond regarding the Grammy weekend performances, and they made alternate plans.

“Joey has now waited until the last moment to accept our invitation, when we unfortunately have no time for necessary rehearsals during Grammys week,” the group said. “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.”

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