Aerosmith 'seeking new frontman'

The band last played together in Abu Dhabi last week

Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler has left the band, but they hope to continue with a new frontman, guitarist Joe Perry is reported as saying.

"Steven quit as far as I can tell," Perry told the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, basing his information on an interview Tyler gave to Classic Rock magazine.

In the article, the singer said he planned to pursue a solo career, but stopped short of saying he had quit.

Perry later admitted on Twitter that he and Tyler had not spoken for months.

The frontman "hasn't called me in months", he wrote. "Last time I phoned him he hung up on me."

"In the meantime Aerosmith is positivly [sic] looking for a new singer to work with," he added.

"You just can't take 40 years of experience and throw it in the bin!"

'Sabbatical'

The band's troubles began in August when Tyler fell off stage, breaking his left shoulder, at a gig in South Dakota.

The rest of the tour was cancelled after doctors told the singer he needed time to recuperate from his fall.

However, they regrouped last week to play a show at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The band's hits include Dude Looks Like A Lady and Cryin'

The show was deemed a success by local media - with the Khaleej Times reporting that Tyler "dipped and dived on stage in a performance one might normally expect from a teenage boy band".

But, Perry said, none of the band had set eyes on the frontman before the show's opening number.

"He was off in his own dressing room," the guitarist told Boston radio station WZLX.

"He stayed in different hotels from the band and travelled on different planes. We never saw him until we walked on the stage."

Tyler and Perry, dubbed the "Toxic Twins" during their early, drink-and-drug-fuelled years, wrote such classic-rock staples as Walk this Way and Love in an Elevator together.

Their musical relationship has been likened to that of their role models, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.

But relations have soured in recent years. In September, Perry said he and Tyler "haven't written a song together alone in the same room in over 10 years".

He also said Tyler had declined to record vocals for the band's long-planned new album.

"He didn't do any singing at all for this record. I can't really understand that," he told WZLX.

"We had some pretty good stuff laid out. I thought it was going to be a slam dunk, but for some reason he just wasn't interested."

But the guitarist refused to rule out an eventual reconciliation.

"As long as we're still kicking, it's not over," he said.

"Maybe we'll get a telegram from him."

Representatives for the band were not immediately available to comment on the band's rather public spat when contacted by the BBC.