Rolling Stone has an in-depth interview with Joe Perry, Joey Kramer, Brad Whitford and, former A&R guy, John Kalodner about the ongoing Steven Tyler mess. The most interesting quote (I thought) came from Kalodner…
I was talking to Marty Frederickson the other night about this just artistically because he co-wrote “Jaded” and worked with them for the last 10 years or so. We were talking about how no one can replace Steven Tyler, but the only person he said and I agreed with that could even make Aerosmith anything would be Lenny Kravitz — which was a unique idea Marty had.
You know, you got bands like Journey, Boston and Yes that find clones on YouTube but, that won’t really work for acts like Zep or Aerosmith, right?
And you got the Queen deal with Paul Rodgers and, that may work on some levels but…I don’t think it takes things to a new level.
But, I could picture Lenny Kravitz singing the Aerosmith catalog and even giving it a little kick in the ass. And…I could also envision some interesting writing and some mutual pushing of thresholds.
I know this; I think LennySmith has a lot more upside than a Steven Tyler solo project,
I suppose the Aerosmith singer chair can be a rotating spot the way that Sabbath’s singer has been for the last 30, or the Van Halen spot has been for 20. But it makes me sad. In fact, I can say that, if it isn’t both Joe Perry and Steve Tyler, it isn’t Aerosmith. I thought they worked this out around Done With Mirrors.
I see the Lennysmith point you have, but beyond that, I fail to see what’s in it for him.
.-= Sans Direction´s last blog ..New Guitar In The House =-.
The guys in the band are pretty candid in that they want to play and Tyler wants to pursue a solo career instead of working with them. Steve pissed them off by going with separate management. Also, implications that Tyler is off whatever wagon.
Who knows, Lenny could possibly see this as an opportunity to work with a skilled outfit that has 40 years of working together, increased exposure (it would be huge news considering how much press the whole fiasco has garnered already}, increasing his fan base…but, it’s all conjecture.
It would be pretty interesting to see what the rhythm section could do with some of Lenny’s catalog too.
If I comment here, it will look, as usual, like me talking with myself… so I will just say something like… the name AeroSmith has always reminded me of the Houston Hockey Team, the AEROS.
Lenny Kravitz has always reminded me of vintage Rock, like Allman Bros…
As mentioned somewhere before, somehow I missed the last twenty years of rock roll in the last century. 80′s through 2000 seem like acension time of female rock, coporate takeovers.. and power ballads… but Lenny K will make an exceptional front man for AS.
Once an artist hits that solo\buddha\frown-of-a-clown stage in their art career, you just have to let ‘em go… tough love, Tyler. The ones who gave you birth, now givin’ ya’ wings.