Aerosmith is still together and about to set out on their Peace Out farewell tour, but things weren’t always so happy in the band. In fact, back in 2009, Aerosmith had a falling out with frontman Steven Tyler when he left to do American Idol, and the other members almost went on without him.
To do so, they needed someone to replace Tyler; rocker and former American Idol contestant Chris Daughtry says Aerosmith’s Joe Perry offered him the gig.
“I get this random call from Joe Perry,” Daughtry said on The Dave Rickards Podcast. “I thought it was a joke at first, but he didn’t even take time to, like, ‘How you doing?’ He just went into his reason for calling me.” Perry told him the band “wanted to work” despite Tyler not being interested, and then he asked, “How would you feel about hitting the road with us?”
Daughtry said the offer left him “speechless,” but he ultimately passed for many reasons. “First of all, I don’t consider myself any caliber of singer that Steven Tyler …He is irreplaceable, in my mind,” he said. “Furthermore, Steven Tyler’s alive. This whole fear of p****** off one of my heroes was just looming.”
While the idea of fronting Aerosmith was “a terrifying concept” to Daughtry, he’s still happy he was asked, sharing, “it is a story that I will hold near and dear for the rest of my life, for sure.”
As for Aerosmith, they eventually reunited with Tyler. Their Peace Out tour, with openers The Black Crowes, kicks off September 2 in Philadelphia. A complete list of dates can be found at aerosmith.com.
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