Aerosmith got its award Friday night, and the acceptance speech was, well, awkward, because the band’s wayward drummer was right there on stage with the boys, even though he wasn’t allowed to play with them.
Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton and Brad Whitford joined temporarily ousted drummer Joey Kramer on stage Friday night as they accepted the honor from MusiCares at an event at the L.A. Convention Center.
If you’ve been following our stories this week, you know Joey had temporarily taken a leave of absence from the group for personal reasons. When he said he was ready to come back, his bandmates made him audition, and they say he lacked energy so he couldn’t play the gig.
Joey went to court to get an order forcing the band to let him play, but the judge shot him down.
Aerosmith, which is celebrating its 50th year, performed “Big Ten Inch,” “Dream On” and “Sweet Emotion” … and Joey was nowhere to be seen because he left the stage.
The group’s entertainment lawyer, Dina LaPolt, put it best when she introduced the band … “They are brothers. They refer to each other as brothers and they even fight like brothers.”
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Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp also rocked the event … they play with Joe Perry in the rock group Hollywood Vampires.
And, there were other performances … Foo Fighters, the Jonas Brothers, Jessie J, Sammy Hagar, Kesha, John Legend, Cheap Trick and Gavin DeGraw. Legend got a standing O for his rendition of “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” While Kesha gave an emotional performance of “Janie’s Got a Gun.”
The event raised $6 million for health services to members of the music industry.
The event was hosted by Russell Brand. Speaking of Steven Tyler, Brand said, “It’s a miracle he’s still alive!” Russell called Steve “the sexiest septuagenarian in history.”