JOE PERRY On STEVEN TYLER's Possible 'Idol' Gig: 'It's Like Getting Hit Over The Head'

AEROSMITH guitarist Joe Perry was interviewed on yesterday's (Wednesday, August 4) edition of "The Cowhead Show", the American radio program hosted by Mike "Cowhead" Calta and broadcast live Monday through Friday on WHPT in Tampa Bay, Florida and re-broadcast on Rock105 (WFYV) in Jacksonville, Florida. Perry spoke about AEROSMITH's current tour, his health and the rumors of AEROSMITH singer Steven Tyler becoming a judge on Fox's "American Idol".

You can now stream the entire 24-minute interview using the audio player below.

Regarding the reports that Tyler has supposedly agreed to appear on the new season of "American Idol", Perry told Cowhead, "I had just finished doing a ton of interviews with [Steven], I would have thought he would have said something. . .

"I was taken totally by surprise.

"First of all, why would he wanna do that instead of cruise on with AEROSMITH? We've got an album that we wanna do, we wanna do another tour, we wanna go back to South America, we wanna do Japan... We've got so many things lined up, and then this happens.

"So many things go through your head.

"I've been with the guy for 40 years, and he couldn't even... He said, 'Well, they told me not to tell anybody.'

"I've been your partner for 40 years and you can't tell me?! What do you think — I'm gonna call the paper up immediately? Besides, who cares?! It's all over the Internet. The rumors always get out there and people start to believe it.

"Again, the four of us were in shock. It was a replay of last year, except this time he had a job.

"We [Steven and I] used to take vacations together at the same place with our kids — when our kids were 6, 7, 8, 9 years old, we'd go off with the whole family and the nannies and go places for two weeks. We'd go to Maui, we'd go to the Carribean. We'd do stuff together, and we still would. We'd go air gliding, whatever they call that.

"Over the last couple of years, it's just been getting stranger and stranger.

"If that's what you really have to do, let's talk about it, let's plan it out, you know what I mean?! We've all got families, we've all got different things going on, we've all got different things we could do.

"It's like getting hit over the head."

The relationship between Tyler and the rest of AEROSMITH has been a strained one of late, and earlier this year there were rumors that the rest of the band was looking for a new vocalist.