Joe Perry Says Aerosmith Considered Replacing Steven Tyler with Sammy Hagar: 'Every Band Has Ups and Downs'

Aerosmith almost looked (and sounded) completely different, according to Joe Perry.

Speaking with Ultimate Classic Rock, the band's guitarist said Sammy Hagar was once considered to replace its original singer Steven Tyler. "It was really another one of those times, you don't keep a band together without a lot of bumps ... You know every band has its ups and downs," Perry said.

The rocker recalled the time, a decade ago, when Tyler signed on to judge the 10th season of American Idol alongside Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson.

"Over the years, everybody has to bust out and do what they want. And I remember Steven doing that TV show, I thought that was great. I just knew he had to do something like that, and doing that solo record that he did. So the band wasn't that tight, there was talk and there were so many people involved, like I said, lawyers, different managers," Perry recalled.

"I thought Steven wants maybe to take four years off, do what he wants to do. And so the whole looking around for another lead singer thing, just as soon as that raised its head," he continued.

Eventually, Tyler left the Fox iteration of the reality TV singing competition after two seasons to return to the band.

"I'm not sure how it got out there, but Sam I know as a really mellow guy, easy to get along with. And he definitely had the pipes so I can see why that idea had been floated," Perry shared of Hagar. "But we also had a shortlist at that point. Things went the way they did, everybody got out of the system what they wanted to, and then we slowly glued back together."

Among the names once rumored to be on the "shortlist" were Lenny Kravitz, Paul Rodgers, Billy Idol and the late Chris Cornell.

Perry's interview with Ultimate Classic Rock about Aerosmith's change in its lead singer comes a month after Hagar told the outlet that he "almost did" sign on as the band's new vocalist.

"I think if I would have done both those things [joining Van Halen and Aerosmith], I would have been the guy that replaced the guy," Hagar explained in July, referencing how he stepped in for David Lee Roth as the lead singer of Van Halen in 1985.

"You know, always the guy replacing the guy, and that's a strange legacy for a guy like me, you know what I mean?" Hagar added.