In what seemed to be an ordinary studio day at the iconic Abbey Road, George Harrison put his coat on and, calmly but surely, walked out of mid-recording sessions to never walk in as a Beatle again. His bandmate and former LSD buddy, John Lennon, didn’t bother to go after him as he had uttered a few words about getting Eric Clapton to play in for George’s parts because he was as talented and less trouble.
You see, Harrison’s decision to walk away from all the glory of the Beatles wasn’t just spontaneous, as it had indeed been a while since the guitarist had recognized who his former bandmates were. For the guitarist, Paul would only care about his songs and parts, and John, who used to be the closest to Harrison, was not the friend he used to be.
So, all this might sound familiar to you, not because you probably know all about George’s now-famous decision to depart from his beloved band, but because you probably have that one friend you didn’t recognize who they turned into after a while. Well, people might change over time, and that’s alright because we all change over the years but sometimes, it is not that pleasant to see your friends become unrecognizable.
Well, at least there was this moment when Joe Perry struggled to recognize his friend of long, long decades, Steven Tyler, when the singer, on what seemed to be an ordinary day, announced that he would appear as a judge on American Idol. All this might sound to you as just another rocker making a few bucks by judging people’s performances on TV. Still, to Perry, it was a move that made his bandmate unrecognizable when he commented to the Calgary Herald in 2010 on the matter.
“It’s a reality show designed to get people to watch that station and sell advertising,” said the guitarist as he discussed American Idol and what the popular show meant to him, and well, it didn’t mean much. “It’s one step above [Teenage Mutant] ‘Ninja Turtles.’”
He then continued by noting how he couldn’t understand Steven’s move to take on the offer while also saying that Aerosmith would have nothing to do with it. Joe Perry explained, “I’ll tell you one thing when we put this band together; this is not something that [Steven] would do. It’s his business, but I don’t want Aerosmith’s name involved with it. We have nothing to do with it.”
Thus, Perry uttered some humiliating words about his bandmate when Tyler accepted the offer to appear in a singing competition. Pery’s bold statements reflected his dislike of the show and Steven’s involvement in it. Joe wanted it to be known that Aerosmith had nothing to do with Tyler’s unexpected career move.
