Did you have any concerns about joining AMERICAN IDOL?
Steven Tyler: None whatsoever. I got such an identity with this band and for all the videos that I’ve done I figured it’d be a shoe in. The part that’s a little difficult is judging young kids that I think they all have a voice, but actually being honest and open. It took me a couple of minutes to get into the role of that, but I’ve grown accustomed to it and it’s fun, and I get to sit next to J. Lo and Randy taking the you know what out of everybody, and it’s been good. I don’t take whatever happened to me this morning or last night or with the band or with exes, I don’t take that into judging kids like some other people might have. I kind of take what I’ve grown up with, which is being a very harsh judge of myself—my own vocals, my own band—and kind of laid that across the talent that comes across my view.
Have you said anything so far as to any of the contestants during the auditions that you’ve regretted immediately afterwards?
Yes. I made some harsh comments the first week, and they snapped back and said, “What do you mean?” But I only did two of those. There were only two of those because I didn’t want that to happen again. I couldn’t say that you were no good without substantiating why, and a couple times that I said, “You know you just don’t have it,” they did ask me why, and I couldn’t tell them why. I just heard—It’s like I’m looking for that certain something. Well I heard that certain something in a negative way. I didn’t see the star. I didn’t see this and I didn’t have the … to tell them that. I hadn’t ever really watched the show, and I wasn’t really versed in that type of judging. I’ve got three daughters, so it’s hard for me. Those two times after that I was ready to go and I jumped back in both feet.