In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun, guitarist Joe Perry says that Steven Tyler has quit Aerosmith, supporting recent rumors that the band has been considering replacing its lead singer.

"Steven quit as far as I can tell," Perry told the Sun, speaking from his home in Boston following the band's recent return from a performance in Abu Dhabi. "I don't know anymore than you do about it. I got off the plane two nights ago. I saw online that Steven said that he was going to leave the band. I don't know for how long, indefinitely or whatever. Other than that, I don't know."

He added that Tyler does not return his phone calls.

Tyler has suffered illness and injury this year, most notably pulling a leg muscle and, in a separate incident, falling off stage during a concert in South Dakota in August, which resulted in a broken shoulder. Both mishaps forced the band to cancel several summer tour dates.

Joe Perry was vocally frustrated about the situation, taking to the media and his Twitter account.

"I was pretty (upset)," he told the Associated Press in September, "because right before [the accident], he had pulled a muscle in his leg. And we had to take two weeks off and we missed probably seven dates." He added that he hadn't talked to Tyler in over five weeks. "All I know is he's got to get his act together. I mean, he and I haven't written a song together alone in the same room in over 10 years, so there's been some changes in paradigm of what Aerosmith is."

Last year, Tyler checked himself into a rehab facility for drug dependency and what he called the side effects of foot surgery. "I just put the brakes on and checked into detox and just pulled the plug on all of it," he said in an June 2008 interview.

2009 was looking up for the band, with a lengthy world tour scheduled, but Tyler wasn't the only one with health issues: guitarist Brad Whitford suffered a burst blood vessel, and surgery forced him to sit out some of the summer's U.S. dates.

Following the eventful summer, Tyler declared he would not be leaving the band, though Perry suggested the move has been a long time coming. Last week, after the concert in Abu Dhabi, the singer suggested he would be focusing more on a solo career in the future.

"I don't know what I'm doing yet, but it's definitely going to be something Steven Tyler: working on the brand of myself -- Brand Tyler," he told Classic Rock magazine.

Meanwhile, Perry says he wants to keep Aerosmith alive. "Aerosmith is such a powerful band, I mean it's like a steam locomotive. You just can't disregard 40 years of four guys who play together as well as they do. We're just trying to -- at least I am -- trying to figure out what direction the band should take," he told the Sun.

On replacing Tyler, Perry said it's "not just about that, it's also four guys that play extremely well together, and I'm not going to see that go to waste ... we'll probably find somebody else that will sing in those spots where we need a singer and then we'll be able to move the Aerosmith up a notch, move the vibe up a notch."

Perry later admitted the he won't appreciate a Steven Tyler stand-in. "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." Revealing that the band has an album's worth of material they have yet to record, Perry continues, "I don't know ... 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."