The 2020 Grammy Awards will have its moment of rock ‘n’ roll when Aerosmith drop in for a performance.
Not everything is rolling smoothly in the veteran rockers’ camp, however, with drummer Joey Kramer reportedly launching legal action against his bandmates for not extending him an invite to play.
Aerosmith is set to be honored at the 2020 MusiCares Person of the Year tribute event later this week, and perform at the Grammys on Sunday. Kramer, who worked the kit with the Aerosmith for 50 years, won’t be behind the kit.
The band responded to the suit with a statement which is devoid of animosity.
It reads: “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.
“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.”
Kramer claims he’d recovered from several injuries suffered last spring, and that the band had unfairly blocked his return, counter to the terms of his contract.
“This is not about money,” Kramer comments in a statement. “I am being deprived of the opportunity to be recognized along with my peers for our collective lifetime contributions to the music industry. Neither the MusiCares’ Person of the Year Award nor the Grammys’ Lifetime Achievement honors can ever be repeated.”