How AEROSMITH's Drum Tech Ended Up Filling In For JOEY KRAMER During 'Deuces Are Wild' Residency

AEROSMITH's drum tech John Douglas spoke to Rock Titan about how he landed the gig this past summer as Joey Kramer's temporary replacement. He said (see video below): "I'm a working drum tech, so I am teching for AEROSMITH, who, for most of this year, has been doing a [Las] Vegas residency at the Park MGM. And Joey Kramer, the drummer from AEROSMITH, who everybody knows, got injured, and so I got the call to jump in and play drums at the 11th hour. So I played a few shows with AEROSMITH, which is unexpected and exciting."

Asked if there was any reservation or reluctance on his part to take on the job when he was first approached about it, Douglas said: "Actually, I'm not even sure they even asked me — I think they told me. It's kind of a blur. It was a show day, and I was in the building. Obviously, the band doesn't do soundcheck typically, so the crew does — we do a crew soundcheck, a crew jam. So we had just started that when I got the phone call from Steven [Tyler, vocals], saying that Joey couldn't play. Yeah, I don't remember actually being asked. And I would have said 'yes.' Maybe I was [asked] — I don't know. I've done this before with other bands a couple of times, but it had been a while. And it's always, obviously, unexpected. So, it was just a matter of, 'Okay. Yeah.'"

Kramer reportedly twisted his ankle during rehearsal, forcing him to sit out AEROSMITH's "Deuces Are Wild" tour dates.

This is not the first time AEROSMITH performed without Kramer. Last April, AEROSMITH played two shows in Las Vegas, Nevada without Joey after the drummer had a "minor accident" that resulted in a shoulder injury.

Back in August 2014, AEROSMITH canceled a California concert because Kramer was dealing with "heart complications" that required immediate surgery. The musician later revealed that he had an angioplasty, explaining that it was "just strictly a hereditary thing. There's a family history, and I was the victim. But no more."

Kramer missed a week's worth of AEROSMITH shows after his 2014 surgery — his son Jesse filled in on drums — before getting back to work.

"It wasn't my time," Kramer said at the time. "It wasn't time for my ticket to be punched. And so I got fixed, and I'm back 150 percent, and everything is as good as it can possibly be."

AEROSMITH is scheduled to play nine more shows in Las Vegas before the end of the year —seven in November, and two in December.

In 2017, AEROSMITH announced a run of dates called "Aero-Vederci Baby!", but stopped short of calling it a final tour.

AEROSMITH hasn't released a new studio album since 2012's "Music From Another Dimension!"