{"id":803286,"date":"2020-01-21T14:13:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T21:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=940780"},"modified":"2020-01-21T14:13:57","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T21:13:57","slug":"aerosmith-drummer-files-lawsuit-against-band-for-excluding-him-ahead-of-grammys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/aerosmith-drummer-files-lawsuit-against-band-for-excluding-him-ahead-of-grammys\/","title":{"rendered":"Aerosmith Drummer Files Lawsuit Against Band for Excluding Him Ahead of Grammys"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Aerosmith<\/a> drummer Joey Kramer filed a lawsuit against the rest of the band, claiming they\u2019ve unfairly excluded him from rejoining the group ahead of their upcoming Grammys performance and the continuation of their Las Vegas residency.<\/p>\n

According to the suit, which was obtained by Rolling Stone<\/i>, Kramer suffered a few minor injuries last spring that sidelined him just as the band was set to launch their Deuces Are Wild Las Vegas residency<\/a>. By the fall, Kramer claims he was ready to rejoin the group, but the suit alleges he was rebuffed in ways that were inconsistent with the terms laid out in Aerosmith\u2019s inter-band contract. The lawsuit comes ahead of Aerosmith\u2019s scheduled performance at the 2020 Grammy Awards<\/a> this Sunday, January 26th, as well as a tribute show in their honor<\/a>, January 24th, as they accept<\/a> the MusiCares Person of the Year award.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about money,\u201d Kramer said in a statement. \u201cI 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\u2019 Person of the Year Award nor the Grammys\u2019 Lifetime Achievement honors can ever be repeated.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A representative for Aerosmith did not immediately return Rolling Stone<\/i>\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

According to Kramer, after he informed the band that he was ready to drum again last fall they essentially made him re-audition for the group \u2014 not by having him sit in with the band for a rehearsal, but by recording himself solo as he played along to a click track.<\/p>\n

Per the suit, Kramer was told he needed to demonstrate that he could \u201cplay at an appropriate level,\u201d even though such a standard had never been used in the band\u2019s history when other members had suffered injuries that kept them from the stage. Additionally, Kramer\u2019s suit notes that there\u2019s no provision in the band\u2019s contract requiring a member to \u201ctake any action to \u2018prove\u2019 or otherwise demonstrate his ability to perform after a period of temporary disability\u201d in order to rejoin the band.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to \u201cdefuse the situation,\u201d the suit says Kramer eventually relented and let his replacement, John Douglas, play the rest of the Deuces Are Wild shows for 2019. (Kramer was responsible for paying Douglas; per the band\u2019s contract, all members are entitled to their full share of live performance income even if they\u2019re sidelined, although the replacement\u2019s pay comes out of absent member\u2019s cut.)<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Kramer finally acquiesced and auditioned with the click track. While other band members reportedly told him he sounded \u201cgreat,\u201d Kramer claims that on January 15th, Aerosmith held an unprecedented vote on his future and ultimately decided against him rejoining the band.<\/p>\n

The suit claims that this decision wasn\u2019t based on the already \u201cmade-up \u2018play at an appropriate level\u2019 standard, the made-up \u2018play as well as the drum tech\u2019 standard or the made-up \u2018technically correct standard,\u2019 but a new and even more unreasonable and arbitrary and capricious standard: that Mr. Kramer did not have enough \u2018energy\u2019 in the recordings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that I would be asked to audition for my own job, demonstrate that I can play at \u2018an appropriate level\u2019 and play better than my temporary fill-in with a moving target of made-up standards is both insulting and upsetting,\u201d Kramer said in his statement. \u201cOther band members and their lawyers will likely attempt to disparage my playing and claim that I am unable to play the drums right now. Nothing could be further from the truth. I did everything they asked \u2014 jumped through hoops and made both a recording of playing along solo to a recent live recording of the band \u2014 one I had never heard before, and that process was videotaped. But I did it, and I did it well. In Aerosmith\u2019s 50-year history, no other band member has ever been subjected to this scrutiny let alone be asked to audition for his own job!\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with the MusiCares Person of the Year tribute and the 2020 Grammys performance, Aerosmith are set to resume their Las Vegas residency later this month, with additional shows scheduled in May and June. The band also plans to celebrate their 50th anniversary with a European tour this summer.<\/p>\n

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Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer filed a lawsuit against the rest of the band, claiming they\u2019ve unfairly excluded him from rejoining the group ahead of their upcoming Grammys performance and the continuation of their Las Vegas residency. According to the suit, which was obtained by Rolling Stone, Kramer suffered a few minor injuries last spring that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-803286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-25 03:47:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}