IT’S AN AEROSMITH POWER STRUGGLE!

Oh, baby! There has been escalation in the volatile Aerosmith situation. Until this weekend, it was a case of a lead singer gone coconuts after too many spills and pills vs. his semi-hetero life partner/drug buddy and the other three guys. Since Steven Tyler seems kinda, um, relapsed and not into Aerosmith, the upper hand goes to Joe Perry, whose public support comes in return for promises of more touring and a real Aerosmith record.

Arms were twisted, so Aerosmith is on tour; then the fragile, contemptuous truce was rocked by Tyler’s recent threats to join American Idol‘s panel of insightless windbags. Perry, noticeably aggrieved, returned to the press to gripe and, frankly, his case is stronger than ever. It was four on one, yet the four were hostages. But that was until Monday when blam!!! The balance has shifted. It’s a power struggle!

Drummer Joey Kramer told Billboard.com: “We’ve been talking about it the last couple of days, and it’s made me come to realize what a positive impact it could have for [Aerosmith]. The possibilities are kind of infinite with something like that happening, us being exposed to a whole new generation of people. So we’ll see what happens. It should be interesting.”

I bet Perry was like, “The drummer went over to Steven’s side? That fuckin’ shank!” All the same, Kramer’s statement is meaningful; Tyler’s cross-generational marketing prowess — not Aerosmith music — is responsible for the band’s prolonged success. So I can see how Joey K. would trust him now, though Tyler is currently way batshit insaner than he was circa Get A Grip. Oh, and only a drummer could fail to notice that American Idol is not exactly the portal to the young wallet like hip-hop, MTV, and big soundtracks once were. I’m sure Tyler even knows that, which means Idol was his third or fourth choice after The Hills and Jersey Shore. Think about that shit.

-ADF