CHRIS DAUGHTRY Says He Was Once Approached By JOE PERRY About Singing For AEROSMITH

Chris Daughtry says that he was one of the singers who were approached about singing for AEROSMITH when the rest of the band fell out with Tyler in 2009 after a canceled tour and Tyler's stated intention to work for two years on a solo project. Tyler subsequently entered rehab for an addiction to painkillers.

Both sides maintained that Tyler never officially left AEROSMITH, and his management and attorneys threatened legal action if the band went forward with finding a new singer for touring purposes.

The former "American Idol" contestant discussed his near-collaboration with AEROSMITH during an appearance on the latest episode of "The Dave Rickards Podcast". He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I get this random call from [AEROSMITH guitarist] Joe Perry. Joe Perry and Steven were apparently at odds with each other. It was all in the news; this isn't private information. I think this was right when Steven Tyler was going on 'American Idol' and they weren't touring together. I think it was like a public breakup sort of thing. Joe Perry calls me. I'm, like, 'First of all, I didn't know Joe Perry had my number. This is incredible.' I thought it was a joke at first, but he didn't even take time to, like, 'How're you doing?' He just went into his reason for calling me. 'And I don't know what Steven's doing, but we wanna work. How would you feel about hitting the road with us? You've got some cool songs we could play too.' And I was, like, 'Uh…' I was speechless. First of all, I don't consider myself any caliber of singer that Steven Tyler is as far as I would not be able to tackle those songs the way Steven Tyler tackles him. He is irreplaceable, in my mind. Furthermore, Steven Tyler's alive. This whole fear of pissing off one of my heroes was just looming, and I was, like, 'There's no way I can do this, Joe.'"

Chris went on to say that singing for AEROSMITH "was a terrifying concept, the moment the words left [Joe's] mouth." But he conceded that "it is a story that I will hold near and dear for the rest of my life, for sure."

Asked if he can sing AEROSMITH's classic power ballad "Dream On", Daughtry said: "On a good day, where I'm not beat up, I can nail that high part at the end, but that is like one out of every five times. And then there's other times where I would just bail."

Classic Rock magazine reported a few years ago that Perry had also approached Paul Rodgers, Chris Cornell and Billy Idol about singing with the band, while representatives for Sammy Hagar denied that he had been offered the gig.

Despite threats by Perry and the other members of the group in 2009 to find another vocalist while Tyler pursued an announced solo career, Perry later said that Tyler "didn't really leave the band ... The press kind of twisted it around to sell papers but you know the bottom line is I just knew things were just going to work themselves out."

Perry added that Tyler "made it very clear" that he had no intention of leaving AEROSMITH while working on a solo project.

Daughtry rose to fame in 2006 as a contestant on the fifth season of "American Idol", ultimately finishing fourth. He and his band DAUGHTRY released their debut album on RCA Records later that year. The LP sold more than one million copies after just five weeks of release, becoming the fastest-selling debut rock album of all time. The song "It's Not Over" is the band's top-charting single, reaching No. 4 in 2007. Other hits include "Home", "No Surprise" and "What About Now".