Steven Tyler saw Mick Jagger's impression of him on "Saturday Night Live," and though Tyler isn't exactly fuming, he wasn't too impressed.
"I thought he got the hair right," Tyler told HuffPost Entertainment, "but the rest of me wrong. He forgot that I'm his bastard son. He could have at least made some comments about that."
The affable frontman was winking at the persistent rock-snob knock on Aerosmith -- that he and the band are mere imitators of Jagger and the Rolling Stones. (The former came together a little less than a decade after Mick and Keith Richards struck up their band.)
But these days, the 64-year-old isn't just a rock icon; he's a judge on "American Idol," which crowned a new winner Wednesday night. Aerosmith debuted "Legendary Child" on the show, a new single which will be featured in "G.I. Joe: Retaliation." The track is the lead effort on Music From Another Dimension, the band's upcoming album (due out August 28).
Earlier this week, HuffPost spoke with Tyler and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry about whether America chose the right finalists, whether Jennifer Lopez will be leaving the show, what it's like to make music after decades of on-and-off rifts within the band.
HuffPost Entertainment: Steven, do you have any word on our friend Jennifer Lopez?
Steven Tyler: I don't know. It's none of my business and I don't know. I actually didn't even hear anything about that, that was all something that came up in the press. No comment, honest to God I don't know, but you won't believe that.
And do you think America picked the right two? Is it interesting to see how the nation's taste plays out?
Tyler: It's a television show, and it's premised on the last one standing, so in that sense the rules of the show are that you pick -- out of 100,000 kids -- 700 of them, and then they go through this process and you pick out the good ones. These two were definitely some of the best singers out of the top 12 anyway, but we always say (Randy, Jennifer and I), that we miss the other guys. Could they have been stars? Yeah! But in this day and age, no one writes their own music anymore. All these pop stars have people writing for them. If you had people writing for Jessica and Phillip or some of the top 12, they'd have hits as well. It's the song that's on the radio that makes you go, "Wow, what's that?" No one knew who Aerosmith was, but when they heard "Dream On" or "Walkin the Dog" -- it's these songs that catapulted us on the radio.
But America is the one that decided. We say what we say during the four months, and then America gets to vote, so its out of our hands. I don't know where Jessica got her voice from, and Phillip Phillips is the wild card. He reminds me of someone who doesn't sing great, he doesn't do this and that great, but he has great presence and style and makes people believe in themselves because he believes in himself. Every time he sings, he sings better -- it was like Aerosmith playing in the clubs. You know, after four or five years, we came out the wormhole. These kids do it in four months.
Joe Perry: And by the way, we're very excited to be playing Dallas Stadium to all the soldiers and their families. Just thought I'd throw that in there.
Joe, has your friend Steven changed at all since entering the TV business?
Perry: Not really. I think that it's actually been good, because now he has an outlet for all his extra energy.
And how are you guys getting along nowadays? Is it a bit weird to be back in the studio and making music since everyone knows your history?
Perry: The press has its own life. It doesn't really affect us, what we do is what we've been doing. The band has been touring constantly, we've been in and out of the studio for years, working on stuff. You know, we did Honkin' On Bobo [Aerosmith's 2004 album]. We started working on this album three or four years ago, so we've been working.
Tyler: Joe did a solo record, I did stuff. The band has been working, but we've definitely taken a hiatus from what the commercial world sees of Aerosmith as a tour band, album band, tour band, album band. We went off in separate directions for a while, but it's not like we weren't working.
Perry: And we just did two months in South America and Japan last fall, so it's pretty much the same as usual ... whatever that is.
Can you tell us anything about rumors that Julian Lennon was involved in the new album?
Perry: Damn. He just stayed at the same hotel as us. It's like, some of the stuff that I've heard about this album is just amazing. Tell me more.
There were reports that he came and sang for you guys in the studio.
Perry: Well he was down in the studio with us, to visit.
Your song is going to be in "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," and "Battleship" recently used an AC/DC track on its soundtrack. Is it nice to see that rock and roll is still the language of American vitality?
Perry: Ever since it started, it has been and will always be. As far as the media goes and the press, it's going to fall in and out of favor, but it's the backbone of what people listen to. They call it different things from generation to generation, but it's still the same thing. People love it.