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GIVE THE DRUMMER SOME? AEROSMITH SAYS NO (UPDATE)

A Massachusetts court has sided with Aerosmith in their dispute with drummer Joey Kramer, allowing Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton and Brad Whitford to perform at the MusiCares Person of the Year gala and the Grammy Awards with a substitute drummer.

The court ruled to deny his petition, stating that the band’s 30-year-old employment agreement is not specific in dealing with temporary illnesses. Kramer is allowed to join the band on the red carpet at both events.

Kramer sued the band for excluding him from the MusiCares Person of the Year and a performance on the awards telecast.

“This is not about money,” Kramer said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “I am being deprived of the opportunity to be recognized along with my peers for our collective lifetime contributions to the music industry.”

Kramer, a founding member of the band, suffered an injury last spring that forced him to drop out of the band and hire a replacement. When he felt healed, the band asked that he audition to rejoin the band for the Grammy events and the continuation of their Las Vegas residency.

Kramer recorded himself playing along to a click track and on 1/15, the other members of Aerosmith voted against him rejoining the band.

“Other band members and their lawyers will likely attempt to disparage my playing and claim that I am unable to play the drums right now,” Kramer said in his statement. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I did everything they asked—jumped through hoops and made both a recording of playing along solo to a recent live recording of the band—one I had never heard before, and that process was videotaped. But I did it, and I did it well. In Aerosmith’s 50-year history, no other band member has ever been subjected to this scrutiny let alone be asked to audition for his own job.”

Aerosmith countered by saying “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.”

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