Aerosmith will struggle to continue without frontman Steven Tyler, because guitarist Joe Perry can't imagine performing with anyone else.
The band has been rocked by the news of Tyler's shock departure - and Perry admits the remaining members have considered continuing with another frontman.
But he fears fans won't appreciate a stand-in.
He says, "We've talked about getting someone else to sing in the band... but it can't be Aerosmith; at least not the Aerosmith that we know. For it to be valid and have something real about it, it would have to be somebody that would bring something to the party.
"It would be the four guys that have been playing forever, and using that weapon with somebody that's got (something) to bring in. But I don't know yet. We've really just kind of got knocked back on our heels, and everybody is just kind of settling back and figuring out what's going on."
Perry reveals the band has an album's worth of new material, which just needs lyrics and a voice: "We have a bunch of stuff that's been left over from past records. Some of those (songs) we were gonna put on the (next) album... We had some pretty good stuff laid out."