According to TMZ, a judge has ruled against Joey Kramer rejoining AEROSMITH for its upcoming Grammy Awards performance. The Massachusetts judge said the drummer didn't make a convincing enough case for playing with his bandmates when they take the stage for Sunday's award show, as well as for Friday night's MusiCares gala. In his ruling, the judge said: "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." Earlier this week, Kramer sued his bandmates, claiming he is being blocked from playing at the Grammys. An original member of the legendary rock group, Kramer last performed with AEROSMITH in April 2019 before suffering what was described at the tume as a "shoulder injury." Other reports have indicated that he also injured an ankle. For the past eight months, AEROSMITH has been performing with a stand-in drummer, Kramer's drum tech John Douglas. In his 16-page complaint filed in Massachusetts state court, Kramer said the disability he suffered last year was minor, and insisted he was ready to return to the group's "lucrative" Las Vegas residency at the MGM Resorts a few months later, as well as its slate of "50th anniversary activities." Kramer asked for an injunction to reinstate his membership in the band immediately. "As it stands, the attempted freeze-out of Mr. Kramer is almost complete, and will result in irreparable harm to him if not remedied by this court," the complaint said. After TMZ reported on Tuesday that Kramer had filed a lawsuit against his bandmates, the drummer issued a statement, saying that being "removed from his "rightful place on stage to celebrate" AEROSMITH's success "is just plain wrong." AEROSMITH members Steven Tyler (vocals), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (bass) and Brad Whitford (guitar) later responded to Kramer's suit in a statement to People, saying Joey "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. 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." A source close to the band confirmed to People that Kramer had to "test" for AEROSMITH's performances this week, but says it was a result of the drummer failing to attend multiple planned rehearsals. "They had been inviting him to come back for the last six months since he's been away for whatever medical situation he's been dealing with," the source says. "He said, 'Yes, I'll come and rehearse' and kept not showing up. On the eve of the Grammys and MusiCares, he wanted to be back." According to the source, the band felt Kramer "wasn't capable" of performing at a level their fans were used to after listening to his demo.
Continue reading...
Continue reading...
