Joe Perry Says Aerosmith Will Not Play On ‘American Idol’ Finale

Weeks of swirling questions and rumors about whether or not Aerosmith would perform on the season finale of ‘American Idol’ next week have seemingly been officially squashed by band guitarist Joe Perry.

With singer Steven Tyler accepting a seat as judge on the program this season, it was widely assumed that the band would probably appear at some point. In fact, Tyler himself has alluded to just such an event in several interviews.

However, the whole Tyler / 'Idol' thing has seemingly never sat well with Perry. Despite that fact that he's been on the show twice himself -- here and here --  Perry has been highly critical of Tyler accepting a role on the show he called "one step above '[Teenage Mutant] Ninja Turltes'," without consulting with the band first.

Writing via his Facebook page, Perry says that the band was never actually asked to play the show and that the date clashes logistically with guitarist Brad Whitford’s schedule. Whitford is currently touring as a band member with the nationally acclaimed ‘Experience Hendrix’ tribute tour and will be performing on that night.

Perry added that “Aerosmith's looking forward to playing 'American Idol' next season when our new CD is out and we can prepare for a kick ass show.” He also said that Aerosmith hopes to tour the U.S. next summer after the untitled, unscheduled and as far as we know, largely unrecorded new album is released.

Dispelling the usual rumors of conflict between himself and Steven Tyler, Perry said “There is no peace pipe to smoke because I have no problem with anything Steven is doing. It's all media driven. In case ya didn't get that one.”

Aerosmith will return to the stage this fall, with dates already scheduled in South America and Japan. Fans can get a bit of a scoop prior to that when drummer Joey Kramer partakes in two online chats with the Aerosmith fanbase, set for Thursday at 1pm and 7pm ET. You can participate in the chat via Twitter and ask Joey your questions by using the hash tag #JoeyKramerHitHard.

Watch Aerosmith Performing 'Same Old Song and Dance'