Why Chris Daughtry Declined Joe Perry’s Offer to Front Aerosmith

The thought of Aerosmith operating with any singer besides Steven Tyler may seem unfathomable, but the Boston rockers famously considered replacing the Demon of Screamin' during a highly publicized rough patch in the late '00s. The band reportedly considered a host of high-profile singers including Lenny Kravitz, Paul Rodgers, Chris Cornell, Sammy Hagar — and, apparently, Chris Daughtry.

The namesake Daughtry frontman and American Idol alum discussed the head-spinning offer he received from guitarist Joe Perry in a recent interview with The Dave Rickards Podcast. "I get this random call from Joe Perry," he said. "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," he continued. "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 [say] like, 'How are 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," Daughtry said. "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 them. 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.'"

Daughtry admitted that Perry's offer "was a terrifying concept the moment the words left his mouth," but called it "a story that I will hold near and dear for the rest of my life."

Both parties ultimately did just fine on their own. Daughtry's 2006 self-titled debut album went six times platinum in the United States; its 2009 follow-up, Leave This Town, topped the chart and sold more than a million copies, and 2011's Break the Spell went gold. Aerosmith, meanwhile, kissed and made up with Tyler, released Music From Another Dimension! in 2012 and continued touring for the next decade. The band will embark on their Peace Out farewell tour with Black Crowes next month.