Why Steven Tyler Hated Being Compared to This Iconic Frontman: “The Cheapest, Easiest Shot”

Every artist wants to be their own person. They want to be unique, identifiable, and totally and utterly themselves. However, in this world, everyone likes to make comparisons, and in the music business, comparisons are inevitable. People compared Billy Joel to Elton John, Mariah Carey to Whitney Houston, and Jimmy Page to Jimi Hendrix. Again, it’s inevitable, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting any less for the artist in question, and one person who was deeply offended by such comparisons was Steven Tyler.

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Steven Tyler certainly has many qualities that make him a standalone act. However, he also has a lot of similarities that put him in the same category as Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, and Mick Jagger. Early on in his career, Tyler and Aerosmith were compared to Jagger and The Rolling Stones quite frequently. While one might find this comparison quite complimentary, Steven Tyler did not. As a matter of fact, he seemingly detested it.

Steven Tyler and Aerosmith Were Called a “Cheap Imitation of The Rolling Stones”

There are certainly some fairly overt similarities between The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith, but at the same time, a lot of differences. Regardless, Steven Tyler couldn’t stand the comparisons he and the band received early in their career.

Regarding the comparisons, Tyler told Rolling Stone, “They feel really good. But we’ve always just played our music and haven’t given a s—. Still, the ‘Cheap imitation of the Rolling Stones’ criticism was constant. And it hurt for the first couple of years.”

“It was constantly Mick Jagger this and Mick Jagger that – that I copied him, and Janis Joplin too. Mick was the cheapest, easiest shot. ‘Well, he looks like him, so let’s write about that.’” Joe Perry added, “You could tell that they weren’t listening, because we definitely weren’t sounding like the Stones… We steal from everybody, amateurs copy and pros steal, and we’re professionals. We make no bones about the fact that we took from the people that came before us.”

So, did Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Aerosmith maybe lift a little from The Rolling Stones? Well, it sounds like they did, but what rock ‘n’ roll band doesn’t do this? Regardless, Steven Tyler was not a fan of the comparison, even though it was a comparison that put him in the same air as arguably the greatest frontman in rock ‘n’ roll history, Mick Jagger.

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