Exactly. Iommi was just a substitute for that one Tull gig because their guitarist Mick Abrahams had just quit (or was pushed out by Ian, depending on whom you'd like to believe).
They did a couple of shows with her. Apparently it was awful. Billy Gould says there is footage, but they won’t show it to the world out of respect for CL. I guess there will be some shady images somewhere on the internet.
Mike Rutherford auditioned bassist Alphonso Johnson in 1977 for Genesis' touring band but eventually decided that a guitarist who could double on bass was a better choice than vice versa (enter Daryl Stuermer). Billy Sheehan was tried out as a replacement for Max Webster bassist Mike Tilka. As the already had a lead guitarist in Kim Mitchell they chose a more "normal style" bassist Dave Myles. Sheehan later sold a Moog Taurus bass pedal synth to them.
Brad Wilk (Rage Against The Machine) auditioned for Pearl Jam in 1991 right after they recorded Ten to replace Dave Krusen. "Long story short, I go there, and I just don't click musically, mostly with Jeff [Ament], who is an incredible bass player, awesome guy … It doesn’t matter how good you are, chemistry is everything. It just wasn't clicking … I just wasn't the guy."
I read a Michael Schenker interview yonks ago where he mentioned turning up to audition for Aerosmith. In the interview he mentioned that jokes about WWII and Nazis were thrown around, so he left. I wasn't sure whether to believe him at the time because he had, and still does, have a bit of a reputation for exaggerating things at times. I just did a search and found this below from :When Rock Star Wives Fight: How Aerosmith Broke Up Over Spilled Milk And Room Service Bills 'Aerosmith auditioned for a new guitarist. Former UFO man Michael Schenker might have joined them. He came to an audition dressed in black leather jacket and black leather trousers. He was greeted by English producer Gary Lyons who proved not to be cut out for the Diplomatic Service. Lyons said “Just for a laugh I stopped the tape and said to him, “Who do you think you are goose-stepping in here wearing your Nazi uniform? Who won the war anyway? Go on – get outta here!” It was like that Fawlty Towers episode right? But Schenker didn’t find it funny, so he walked out”.' However on this site Schenker tells this story:Michael Schenker denies trying to take over Aerosmith | Louder 'Michael Schenker has denied attempting to “take over” Aerosmith, the iconic US rock group who play at this evening’s Calling Festival on London’s Clapham Common. The German guitarist auditioned to replace Joe Perry back in 1979, but he claims that both parties were too spaced out to make anything of the liaison. Schenker, who months earlier had walked out on the Scorpions during a tour for their 1979 album Lovedrive, had been advised by his manager Peter Mensch to try out as a replacement for guitarist Perry who’d quit the drug-addled band following the release of their sixth album, that same year’s Night In The Ruts (though singer Steven Tyler has since claimed that he fired Perry from the band). According to Tyler in the official Aerosmith book Walk This Way, Schenker strolled into the rehearsal room and greeted himself, guitarist Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer with the immortal announcement: “Hello, I’m taking over. Before I join your band, I want it clear I’m taking over right now. Here – my jacket – take and hang up.” “No, no, no… it wasn’t like that at all,” he protests. “I wasn’t trying to take over their band. How could I do that? This is Aerosmith. They have Walk This Way, it’s an all-time great rock song. They’re fantastic. “What happened was that Peter [Mensch] flew me to New York. Steven wasn’t doing so good at the time, and I wasn’t in the best shape either. I ended up sat in my hotel room for five days waiting for something to happen. And when it did… it was worthless. Nobody was in a fit state to make it work. “But later, when I started the Michael Schenker Group [in 1980], Joey Kramer and Tom Hamilton wanted to be my rhythm section,” he continues. “We did some rehearsals but then just as we were getting somewhere Steven got better, so they went back to Aerosmith.”
They couldn't afford him to play a session for them. What he would have charged for a day they would've had to live off for a month. And if they wanted to exploit having Joyce on drums, they would have actually exploited it rather than chosen not to release the track.
Exactly. He played on one side of their (scrapped) single Be My God/Art, but declined to join because it was mutually agreed that they'd just end up being 'The Band Mike Joyce Was In After The Smiths' rather than Suede. And it's not like Mike Joyce was an in-demand sessions drummer with loads of work on.
Apparently Iommi did a few weeks in Tull and things didn't work out, then was called back for the Stones show when the band didn't have a guitarist. Of course a non-guitarist could have done that gig just as easily.
It blows my mind a little that as late as 93 they would have let Stu Cooke in the door for a Stones gig. Someone involved must have had a LOT of residual love and respect for CCR. (Not to say he isn't a fine player, tho honestly he never stood out. Just....pretty "out of time" by then especially for hipster Mick.)
To add to the list of guitar players who auditioned for the Stones - Wayne Perkins who appeared on Black And Blue. In fact Keith Richards gave an interview to Sounds magazine where he more or less said Perkins would be Mick Taylor's replacement. He also said the next album was going to be called Cockroaches. Obviously both statements turned out to be false.
Alex Chilton (The Box Tops, later Big Star) was considered as a replacement for Al Kooper in Blood, Sweat & Tears, but the band chose David Clayton-Thomas.
Michael Giles auditioned for King Crimson - a band he founded and left in 1969 - as second drummer in the mid-90s. He failed.
What's the source for this? I've never heard anything about it -- and knowing Gene, I would expect him to namedrop this tidbit into every interview.
