“Holy f**k, this kid is me”: Steven Tyler says working with Yungblud is like “looking in a mirror”
Undaunted by the backlash to their Ozzy Osbourne tribute at the VMAS, las week saw Yungblud and Aerosmith working together ‘One More Time’ on a full collaborative EP. The mighty, 20-minute-long ode to classic rock and roll serves up some of Aerosmith’s finest tracks in years – and it wouldn’t have been possible without the mouthy rascal from Doncaster.
Love it or hate it, Yungblud (AKA Dom Harrison) and Aerosmith get on like a house on fire. While One More Time is a testament to that, with Harrison perfectly slotting into the band’s sound, frontman Steven Tyler has also gone on record sharing his love for the young rocker. “I fucking fell in love with him, first sight,” he tells Rolling Stone in a new cover story.
READ MORE: “They used a lot of the old tricks that we all kind of did”: Aerosmith recall being ‘annoyed’ by Van Halen at first
Confronted with Harrison, Tyler instantly deemed him a “brother from another mother” – a sentiment he admits is clichéd, but true. “It was like looking at myself in the mirror,” he emphasises. “Like: ‘Wait, where have I seen this fucking guy before?’”
“The camaraderie was sick,” he adds. “I looked at him, and I thought, ‘Holy fuck, this kid is me.’ I mean, I hate but I love to say that because I know what he’s going to be… and I know where he’s heading.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Harrison explains that the feeling is entirely mutual. “Me and Steven, I think we’re just from the same fucking planet,” he says. “We’re crazy, we’re full of energy.”
Just as Tyler insists, Harrison also described the bond as instant. “I walked up the stairs past this kitchen, and Joe Perry stood there, and Steven’s on the piano. He looks at me, and I look at him, and I’m like: ‘All right?’ and he mimics my accent and goes, ‘All right?’”
“It was just like: ‘We’re going to be mates. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to write a song together, but we’re going to be fucking mates.’”
He goes on to note that this bond allowed them to let loose in the studio – and there was a healthy air of competition, trying to pushed each other in the recording booth. “There’s this beautiful, friendly competition between us in the studio,” Harrison says.
While Aerosmith’s future has been unclear following frontman Tyler’s vocal injuries in 2023, Harrison was seemingly the spark they needed to get Tyler belting out high notes again. When Harrison was hitting top C sharps, Tyler felt compelled to step up to the place yet again. “He’s hitting these notes again by not thinking about it, after his injury,” Harrison recalls, bewildered.
Aerosmith’s Joe Perry even admits that Harrison really had a positive impact on Tyler, noting that “working with Dom, it pushed him a little”. On the flip side, Perry explains that Harrison was also impacted by the rock and roll legend: “Doing the duets where they would actually be standing side by side, singing into the mic, I could see [Dom] was getting inspired.”
One More Time is out now.
The post “Holy f**k, this kid is me”: Steven Tyler says working with Yungblud is like “looking in a mirror” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
