Steven Tyler Reportedly Tried Out For Led Zeppelin

Things have been nothing if not fractious for the members of Aerosmith the last six months, which has led Joe Perry, out promoting his own side project, to really open up about the band's current situation with estranged frontman Steven Tyler, who is still undergoing rehabilitation for painkillers. This week, Perry, in his public campaign to smite Tyler's name amongst Aerosmith fans, revealed that Tyler wanted to front Led Zeppelin.

According to Perry, Tyler tried out for Led Zep soon after Robert Plant passed on reuniting with the band in 2008. Perry claims, for a while there in 2008, Tyler could not be reached. He soon learned that Tyler had flown to London, to try "out for Led Zeppelin. It's something I've never talked about before. It's a kind of window into how hard it's been to keep the partnership together. It's not the first time things like this have happened- that's the downside of our relationship."

Perry says he spoke to Zep's Jimmy Page after the audition, and said the rehearsals were "shambolic," and that Tyler was unfamiliar with the Zeppelin catalogue. He was under the impression the band would be working on new material. "Page felt really awkward about the audition," says Perry, but "ultimately it was a group decision [to pass on Tyler]."

In recent weeks, Perry has admitted that Aerosmith considered asking Paul Rodgers to take over for Tyler, and that he plans to record some solo tracks with Rodgers in the future. Perry also added that he'd be open to having a female singer step in. "No one in the band's brought that up, but sometimes ... You've gotta think out of the box. Oddly enough, a lot of the bands I was in before I had Aerosmith, I had female singers in the band and it was really good -- a lot of great songs. So that's definitely a possibility."