Why Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” Makes the Woman Who Wrote It “Cringe”

Aerosmith’s power ballad, “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing”, has been synonymous with rock ‘n’ roll romance since its 1998 release as a single from the soundtrack to the sci-fi tearjerker Armageddon. It’s been a staple of weddings and school dances ever since—this writer can personally attest to “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” being the closing song of every dance, formal, and prom she attended.

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And while it’s safe to assume that the school-hired DJ from southern Indiana just really, really liked Aerosmith, there’s a reason the song became so popular that Columbia Records promoted it from a radio-only single to a full-on Aerosmith release. From its initial debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 to its subsequent staying power, listeners love the passion that Steven Tyler evokes as he sings lines like, “I could stay awake just to hear you breathing.”

But for Diane Warren, the songwriting mastermind behind this late 1990s rock hit, the lyrics evoke a different reaction entirely. Despite writing one of the most well-known love songs in rock ‘n’ roll history, she revealed in a 2026 interview with The Telegraph that those ultra-gushy sentiments make her “cringe.”

“I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” Songwriter Winces at Her Own Hit

Diane Warren has built her prolific songwriting career on larger-than-life ballads about love, yearning, and other sappy matters of the heart. In addition to Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing”, Warren wrote Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” and Toni Braxton’s “Un-Break My Heart”. However, her 2026 interview with The Telegraph hardly paints the picture of a hopeless romantic who turned to songwriting as an emotional outlet. Instead, Warren describes herself as a method actor with no real-life interest in love.

Speaking of her 1998 hit with Aerosmith, Warren scoffed at the lyrics she wrote. “I don’t want anybody kissing my eyes. I don’t want anybody staying up all night to hear me breathe. What the f*** are you kissing my eyes for? I don’t think I’m fearful of love; I’m just not the most trusting person. You know? I just don’t want to wake up with someone or sleep with anybody or answer to anybody.” Songs like “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing”, she argued, were merely byproducts of a “good imagination.”

The sentiment that makes up the basis of Aerosmith’s power ballad came from an interview Warren watched of James Brolin and Barbra Streisand. Brolin was trying to describe how much he loved Streisand by saying he missed his partner even while she was asleep. Warren turned his offhand, “I don’t want to miss a thing,” comment into the song’s foundation.

Even if she didn’t really believe in that kind of love, the public didn’t seem to care. “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” topped charts worldwide and remains a beloved classic today—especially if you ask the guy who Mt. Vernon Senior High School hired as their prom DJ.

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