The classic rock band who “offended” Steven Tyler with their music
Of all the words describing Steven Tyler, quiet is not one of them. Although he may have secured his start in the blues scene off the back of the British Invasion, Tyler became one of the biggest frontmen in the world, working with Aerosmith, bringing relentless energy to his stage shows, working off Joe Perry. While Tyler may have carved out a unique niche in rock history, he didn’t think one of his contemporaries earned their rock star spurs.
It’s not unusual for a rock band to find something wrong with another group. For the most part, there are few bands that have avoided such controversies. Keith Richards, the Gallagher brothers and just about every member of the Sex Pistols seemed to revel in the verbal takedowns of their contemporaries.
Then again, Tyler wasn’t immune to his fair share of criticism back in the early days of Aerosmith. When working on their first handful of albums, the Boston band originally got slighted by every music critic that came their way, thinking that the band had a bit too much in common with what The Rolling Stones had brought to the table.
Upon further listening, though, Aerosmith took the basis of what The Rolling Stones had done and infused it with the power of Led Zeppelin. By adding a trademark sense of bluesy boogie back into their sound, albums like Rocks would become pivotal in shaping the modern music landscape, becoming favourites among bands like Metallica and Guns N’ Roses.
At the same time Tyler was making his signature moves across the stage, Kiss were making their inroads to success. While never great musicians, the band coated themselves in horrifying makeup, creating one of the biggest stage shows in the world that brought rock and roll to the level of circus performance.
Although Kiss and Aerosmith would cross paths over the years, things got heated when they booked bills together initially. During one infamous gig, one of the members of Aerosmith’s crew had a knife pulled on them by one of Kiss’ employees if they didn’t conform to what the shock rockers wanted.
When discussing the difference in each band’s style, though, Tyler thought that Kiss were nowhere near what rock and roll was supposed to be, recalling, “It’s different. A Kiss lick and a Joe Perry lick – two different worlds. I sometimes, depending on the time of day, get offended. I go, ‘It’s alright, but do they really mean it? What’s this all about?”.
It is part of the dichotomy of Kiss that most rock fans deliberate. Unless you were a kid during those heady days, there’s a good chance you will see their work, their shows and their demeanour and think that Kiss were as constructed for marketing as The Monkees. But is that missing the point?
While Kiss may have used their stage show as a way to get their audience to watch them play rock and roll, Tyler preferred to let the music do the talking whenever the band went onstage. When going to an Aerosmith show, Tyler is electric from the moment he hits the stage, becoming one of the most charismatic frontmen of all time while singing tunes that would put most singers through a physical endurance test.
Despite his harsh words at the time, the feud wouldn’t last much longer. Even with the bitter snipes at each other, Perry would go so far as to perform with Kiss, being one of the few to join them onstage playing the song ‘Strutter’, all while wearing a pair of Gene Simmons’s enlarged dragon boots. Regardless of where the hard rock icons ended up in their career, Tyler preferred the music over any kind of theatricality.
