Joe Perry Says Steven Tyler has Left Aerosmith

The puns pretty much write themselves on this one (“Steven Tyler Refuses to Walk Aerosmith’s Way,” “Will Aerosmith Forge Ahead? Dream On, Says Joe Perry,” etc.), we’ll cut straight to the chase here: Guitarist Perry told the Las Vegas Sun on Friday that legendary frontman Steven Tyler has quit the band.

“Steve quit as far as I can tell,” Perry told the Sun. “I got off the plane two nights ago. I saw online that Steven said that he was going to leave the band…indefinitely or whatever.”

The apparent departure isn’t out of the blue, however. Aerosmith’s most recent tour was fraught with trouble; during a show in South Dakota, Tyler fell offstage and injured his shoulder, thereby causing him to cancel dates throughout the remaining summer trek. The accident seems to have caused a serious rift between Tyler and the rest of the band, made apparent by Perry’s quotes in the Sun.

“I like to pick my battles. Frankly, the last few months I’ve been wanting not to rock the boat. I don’t want him canceling any more gigs,” Perry said. "We really wanted to do these last four. We just kind of didn’t want to call him out or anything and get him anymore pissed off, for whatever reason. So we just let things lie. So we did the gigs and, like I said, I got off the plane and saw this online. That’s how I know about it.”

Perry’s interview comes after Tyler told British magazine Classic Rock, “I don’t know what I’m doing yet, but it’s definitely going to be something Steven Tyler: working on the brand of myself—Brand Tyler.” Can a Steven Tyler Snuggie be far behind?

So while this probably isn’t the official death knell of the very band that pushed Run-DMC to the suburban masses and changed the name Janie forever, things aren’t looking good.

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