Joe Perry Says Aerosmith Almost Replaced Steven Tyler With Sammy Hagar

• Joe Perry is recalling how Aerosmith almost replaced Steven Tyler with Sammy Hagar.
• In a new interview, the guitarist talked about Tyler’s stint on American Idol explaining, “I just knew he had to do something like that, and doing that solo record that he did. So the band wasn’t that tight, there was talk and there were so many people involved, lawyers, different managers. I thought Steven wants maybe to take four years off, do what he wants to do. And so the whole looking around for another lead singer thing, just as soon as that happened, that raised its head.”
• Perry said the band put together a shortlist that included Lenny Kravitz, Chris Cornell, Paul Rodgers, Billy Idol and Sammy, who was the frontrunner.
• Things eventually worked themselves out and Perry explained, “Things went the way they did, everybody got out of the system what they wanted to, and then we slowly glued back together.”

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