Steven Tyler quits Aerosmith

According to guitarist Joe Perry, that is.

Perry said in a recent interview that Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has quit the band. Perry told the Las Vegas Sun "Steven quit, as far as I can tell."

Has Steven Tyler quit Aerosmith for real? The qualified nature of Joe Perry's statement makes it sound like he is simply trying to send a wakeup call to Tyler and scare him into returning.

Perry was responding to comments Tyler made in Classic Rock Magazine, when Tyler said, "I don’t know what I’m doing yet, but it’s definitely going to be something Steven Tyler: working on the brand of myself – Brand Tyler."

In any case, it's hard to imagine Aerosmith without Steven Tyler. The flamboyant frontman has been the face of the group since the 1970s, for all of their memorable hit singles, from "Walk This Way" to "Janie's Got a Gun" to their only #1 song, the power ballad "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing."

Joe Perry floated the possibility of finding a new singer, but that never goes well - just ask Van Halen and INXS. Hopefully these guys can get together and patch things up.

Aerosmith had planned to do a massive summer tour, but that was scrapped after Tyler fell off the stage during a show and the rest of the tour was canceled. We'll keep an eye open for a response from Tyler, to find out for sure whether Steven Tyler has in fact quit Aerosmith.