John Douglas reflected on Aerosmith's decision to make him fill in Joey Kramer's position after the drummer suffered an injury that left him unable to perform.
In April 2019, Kramer took a break after suffering a shoulder injury. When he finally recuperated and expressed his desire to join the band for its Grammy Week MusiCares tribute show, Aerosmith did not welcome him back not until they began its Las Vegas show.
His drum tech, however, filled in for him despite not being ready to do so.
John Douglas Was Not Prepared To Perform With Aerosmith
Speaking in his interview on the "Jeremy White Show" podcast, Douglas said he was not prepared when he had to replace Kramer amid Aerosmith's Deuces Are Wild Las Vegas residency.
"I never enter into a job like that thinking that that's going to happen," he said. "So I don't purposely learn the show or anything. Now, the nature of the gig is you're sitting back observing. And I am a drummer first, so it's just kind of by osmosis that I learned the show without really intending on learning the show."
According to the drum tech, he did not have an official soundcheck when he needed to fill in as soon as possible. However, he had a few hours to listen to the setlist to connect himself with the band.
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Still, he insisted he was unprepared for the gig although he has been working as Kramer's guitar tech for a long time.
On the other hand, Joe Perry quipped that it was crazy that Douglas agreed to them and accepted the offer without time to prepare. The guitar tech hit back and told the guitarist he did not know who was crazier: him for doing the gig or the band members for letting him.
He sued the band in 2020 and claimed that Aerosmith was blocking him from performing with them at the Grammys, adding that he was unfairly asked to audition for bandmates following his minor injuries. A source soon clarified that the bandmates wanted to reevaluate his position after listening to his demo.
In March 2022, Aerosmith released another statement that Kramer would not be part of its Las Vegas residency so he could focus on his family.
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