I really don't care much about who is chosen this year's new American Idol. In fact, I couldn't tell you the names of the finalists, but I know who the winner is. The viewing public.
Not because of a plethora of talent by the contestants, not because of great production values or any of that, but because of Steven Tyler.
He's engaging, quick, funny, charismaic, daring -- all those things the "Idol" producers were looking for when they signed him to do the show.
The first time I saw Tyler perform was in 1974 when Aerosmith opened a show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, followed by the New York Dolls and Mott The Hoople.
There was little in the way of props and costuming. Still, Aerosmith blew the doors off the house when Tyler exploded onto the stage dressed from head to toe in black.
The critics were harsh, calling him a "poor man's Mick Jagger." I've seen Jagger perform at least eight times and I never once saw him as animated as Tyler. Sorry, old-school rockers, I love The Stones and really enjoy Jagger's work, but I was always more interested in watching and listening to Keith Richards than Jagger whenever I saw The Stones, and, given the choice of seeing Tyler or Jagger perform live, I'd go see Tyler.
As a result, the band was often unfairly slammed by the critics. I never understood why. It's a tight little outfit that always rocked to the max with steady rhythm and nice guitar lines by Joe Perry backing up Tyler's aerobatic vocals.
That's why getting an interview with Tyler was one of the most difficult things I did as a rock critic for the Herald-Examiner.
My friend, Peter Starr, was a publicist for The Gibson Group, associated with Rogers & Cowan, the biggest, most powerful, best PR firm in the world.
Bob Gibson was a legend in his own right from his days as partner with Gibson & Stromberg, a pretty well-known PR firm from the golden days. His stories of doing tour press for The Stones were incredible, outrageous, funny, sad.
His company was handling Aerosmith, which had just come off making the film "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with The BeeGees and Peter Frampton, who was getting carved up by the media as a "sell-out" for becoming a bit too much of a pop star -- the death knell was when he co-hosted an awards show with Olivia Neutron Bomb and pundits joked that they couldn't tell one fluff head from the other. But, more on that at another time.
While mainstream press was doing a pretty good hatchet job on Aerosmith the band was selling out concert halls and record stores could not keep the album on the shelves.
I wanted to do the interview. Starr wanted me to do the interview. The band? "No press," the manager said.
The band members had taken a position that if mainstream media was going to snub them, they would snub the media. No interviews was the policy. Period.
I told Peter that was fine, but that I really liked the band, had seen it a couple times already and understood.
Unknown to me, he worked on it for a couple months behind the scenes, sending letters back and forth, making telephone calls.
The band was in the middle of a pretty big tour, had done its bit for the "Sgt. Pepper" film and was on a roll. The crowds were good, the music tight and, somehow, I got my interview. I'm not sure how, but it happened other than Peter's long, hard work.
"You're the first newspaper guy they'll talk to in years," Peter told me.
I got to the arena, picked up my backstage pass and was taken directly to the band's dressing room. The door was shut behind me and sitting, in a row on a couch, was Aerosmith. Five sets of eyeballs looked me over silently and there was an awkward moment or two before Tyler finally smiled and said, "Have a seat," motioning to a nearby chair.
The entire band was there, but it was Tyler who was up-front and animated. The other guys, to be honest, were pretty dull and uninteresting. Tyler? Well, as we talked, and he realized I wasn't going to waste time on comparisons with Jagger, he opened up.
We talked about the road, music and, by the time we got around to talking about the film, he was in full-tilt mode, standing up, gesturing wildly, eyes wide.
"Man...it was sooooo cool," he said. "We got to off Peter Frampton," he said at one point. He was talking about scenes, doing stunt stuff -- he did a somersault on the dressing room floor -- and lit up as much baskstage as he would a few moments later on stage. Formerly a drummer himself, Tyler exuded a natural rhythm in his speech and movement that struck me. He was perpetual motion once he warmed up to the interview, gave great quotes and was genuinely friendly.
The other band members? Not so much. All the while, Perry, Joey Kramer, Tom Hamilton and Brad Whitford sat rather sullenly, barely responding when a question was directed at them. It really didn't matter, I got what I needed from Tyler.
I saw the band several times after -- once when they headlined a concert called California Jam before 250,000 fans at the Ontario Motor Speeway. They rocked the joint.
I remember seeing Tyler do a duet with Willie Nelson on a hidden gem called "Once Is Enough," a very cool country rocker. He's got some great musical chops.
Aerosmith has broken up and reformed a couple of times over the years, each time threatening to replace Tyler with another frontman.
It would be a huge mistake. Without Tyler, Aerosmith would be little more than a second-rate bar band.
