Aerosmith Divorce? Steven Tyler Says Not Leaving

Overnight update: Steven Tyler showed up at Irving Plaza Tuesday night for Joe Perry’s show, announced he wasn’t leaving Aerosmith, and joined in on “Walk This Way.”’ So there.

From Tuesday afternoon: The war of words among Aerosmith’s members is going to get a little stranger.

This morning, Joe Perry declared that Steven Tyler, the band’s leader and songwriter, had quit. Perry suggested that the band would find a new lead singer and go on. This, after 39 years.

However, I am now told that Tyler is about to make an announcement saying he never quit, doesn’t intend to quit and wants to go back to work. It might be true. Or it might be like in any divorce. The husband is always advised not to exit the domicile.

In any case, sources say the division in the band has less to do with Tyler’s massive personal problems than with disagreements over the band’s management and future.

Tyler, now managed by UEG’s John Greenberg and Jason Flom, doesn’t want to work with the band’s present manager, Howard Kaufman. Perry and the other Aerosmith guys do. That’s a problem. The two sides also have different lawyers.

Tyler, it’s said, is also being advised by his own Yoko Ono, girlfriend Erin Brady. She’s an unpopular addition to Tyler’s life both personally and professionally. “Erin thinks Steven is going to be the biggest solo artist of all time,” former tour manager Henry Smith told me today. He added: “It’s not going to happen.”

Add to all this the fact that legally Aerosmith probably cannot just replace Tyler. And then there’s that question of whether Tyler really has a solo career at age 61. Like Mick Jagger, he is forever branded with his band’s name.

Stay with us here, because before anyone walks this way, more will happen. And I don’t want to miss a thing!