Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has revealed he turned down the chance to join Led Zeppelin due to loyalty to his current band.
According to Hennemusic, Tyler told Howard Stern he accepted an invitation to play with Jimmy Page after Robert Plant had ruled out a longer return to Led Zeppelin, but refused the legendary guitarist’s offer of joining the band on a more permanent basis.
“I went over and played with Led Zeppelin,” he is quoted as saying. “I spoke to Jimmy Page’s manager, Peter Mench, who’s been a good friend of mine for ever. He said Robert wouldn’t play with them again, and would I want to come over and jam with the guys? I went, ‘Hello?’ I went over and played. So not only have I sung to Paul McCartney, but I’ve played with Led Zeppelin. I’m in heaven.”
However, Tyler explained how his commitment to Aerosmith made any hook-up impossible. “I looked Jimmy in the eyes and it came time for him to say, ‘You want to write a record with me?’ I went, ‘No.’ I’m in Aerosmith,” he claimed. “He’s in the biggest band in the world and I’m in a band like that. I have such an allegiance to my band and I love it so much.”
Steven Tyler recently put Aerosmith’s future in doubt once again by telling Rolling Stone he has been having trouble getting in touch with bandmate Joe Perry.
Note that this account contradicts the previously disclosed narrative about this scenario. One year ago, Joe Perry said it had been Jimmy Page who turned down Steven Tyler after an audition deemed “shambolic.” Said Perry, “Page felt really awkward about the audition, but ultimately it was a group decision.” There’s another insider account in Mick Wall’s “When Giants Walked the Earth” that supports the idea it was Page’s decision to fly Tyler home as soon as possible after he sang with them and talked about his vision for songwriting.
Thank god for that if “Live Bootleg” is anything to go by Tyler can’t “shout coal down the passage” it would have destroyed the Zeppelin legacy
The Zep “legacy” has already been destroyed. What once was on level with “mythical” and “otherworldly” has been reduced to a smoldering rubble of a bygone era of music that was heavy and the performers were anything but the guy down the street who put his socks on the same way the public does. Now we have Plant revealing himself as an all too real geezer who never got over losing an all too real pub crawling drummer friend years ago, Page who shows us what happens when modern medicine keeps alive former “Crowley” types who are way way left of center even after rehab, and Jones who is, in the end, all too dignified a professional to come across as anything but – err – a – ummmm – a professional! So you see my friends in the common ground of Zeppland, the legacy is all about a fancifull history story with no legacy left to ponder. And that’s the name of that tune. With or without that mongrel Tyler in the pic.
You go keep !
Give the guy a break! He likes to keep busy, so he does what he enjoys…. kind of like the old guys you see bagging groceries at the market instead of just hanging out and just chillin’ yo….. only the guys bagging groceries probably need the money and can’t afford to just hang out and chill yo…. it’s like I know a guy who’s about 90, has all the money he needs, but can’t stand the marbles clanging around in his head so he still goes out to work everyday just to keep his sanity. I can’t fathom it, but that’s the way it is for people like Plant. The Silver Rider….