Rev Run Was A Bundle Of Nerves Before Aerosmith Reunion With Run-DMC

Rev Run explains how he was shook of getting on stage to perform his classic hit “Walk This Way” with DMC and Aerosmith.

(AllHipHop News) Run-DMC star Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons was “scared” about messing up the group’s live reunion with Aerosmith at the Grammy Awards because he had no control over the performance.

Simmons and his surviving bandmate Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels were invited to be a part of the rockers’ career-spanning set in January, joining forces with the MusiCares Person of the Year honorees to revisit their 1986 rap/rock classic, “Walk This Way.”

However, Simmons reveals he was panicking about the prime time gig right up until the moment they stepped onstage, because he feared he would be out of practice – but McDaniels brushed off his concerns and insisted they just “wing it.”

“I was shook to my core…!” Simmons confessed on U.S. daytime show Strahan, Sara and Keke.

“When I first got the phone call, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I haven’t worked with them in years.’ I was like, ‘D, what are we gonna do?’ He was like, ‘Ah, don’t worry, we’ll just go and wing it.’ I was like, ‘Wing it? I got two weeks!'”

Simmons, 55, ended up having to try and calm himself down over the special performance, but he only really felt at ease once RUN-DMC were back in action onstage with Aerosmith.

“I had to go to bed saying to myself over and over, ‘You’re not the only one gonna be on the stage…! You have one little part, you’re gonna be Run.’ But I couldn’t get that in my head that I couldn’t control everything, because I’m a control freak and a perfectionist.

“So I was scared up to the moment that I was out there with the mic and singing the song and I was like, ‘OK, you can relax now.’ But up to that moment, it was bad!”