Classic rock legends Aerosmith have parted company with lead singer Steven Tyler.
"Steven [has] quit as far as I can tell," guitarist Joe Perry told US newspaper The Las Vegas Sun. "I don't know any more than you do about it. I got off the plane and saw online that Steven said he was leaving. I don't know for how long."
Relations in the Aerosmith camp became strained when the band were forced to cancel an number of their summer US tour dates after Tyler, 61, accidentally stepped backwards off a catwalk and broke his shoulder at a concert in Sturgis, South Dakota on August 5.
"Frankly, the last few months I've been wanting not to rock the boat," added Perry. "We didn't want to call him out and get him any more pissed off. We didn't want him cancelling any more gigs - we really wanted to do these last four. So we just let things lie.
"He has no contact with me or the other band members," Perry continued. "That's one thing I've learned to live with and I try to overlook it."
Perry went on to say that the band might consider hiring a replacement for Tyler: "You can't disregard 40 years of four guys who play together as well as they do. It's not about replacing Steve - it's four guys who play extremely well together, and I'm not going to see that go to waste. I don't know what path it's going to take at this point, but we'll probably find someone to sing where we need a singer, and then we'll be able to move the vibe up a notch."