AEROSMITH Bandmates Fear STEVEN TYLER Is 'Struggling Very Badly'

The Pulse of Radio reports: The AEROSMITH drama continues as the rest of the band considers potentially moving forward without frontman Steven Tyler, amid rumors that the singer has gone back to the bad habits that nearly derailed him and the band in their early days. AEROSMITH guitarist Brad Whitford doesn't count out the possibility that Tyler has lapsed back into using drugs, as he told The Pulse of Radio. "This guy has a tremendous history of drug abuse, and you have to be suspicious that this is something that is probably going on with him," he said. "I think that that's got to be a part of this irrational behavior, you know. You're supposed to — people in recovery and stuff, if you're really doing it, it takes a lot of work. Historically or statistically, the majority of people in that situation don't make it. I have a feeling we might be looking at, you know, someone who's just really struggling very badly with this."

Tyler has been estranged from the band since August, when he fell from a stage in South Dakota and forced the group to cancel the rest of its summer tour.

The other members have revealed that Tyler has his own management, and that none of them have had any contact with him in months.

The singer told Classic Rock magazine several weeks ago that he wants to take two years off to work on "Brand Tyler."

Drummer Joey Kramer admits that the rest of the band aren't sure how to proceed, but says they all want to keep playing together: "You know, getting someone else is one of the questions. We all know that there's really no way to replace Steven, but we want to continue touring together. We even have a 40-year anniversary coming up and it's a milestone. We want to be able to celebrate it together and there's millions of fans out there that are dedicated to us."

Tyler joined guitarist Joe Perry onstage in New York last week while the latter was touring with his JOE PERRY PROJECT solo band, telling the crowd that he wasn't quitting AEROSMITH. Perry, however, said after the show that the band's problems were far from over.

Both Perry and Kramer specifically declined to discuss the rumors about Tyler's drug use, although Kramer told The Pulse of Radio he hopes his bandmate "gets some help."