Kid Rock Says Joining 'American Idol' Is 'The Stupidest Thing' Steven Tyler Has Ever Done

Reactions to Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler's decision to become an American Idol judge have definitely been mixed, but not many people have unloaded on Tyler quite as heavily as avowed Aerosmith fan Kid Rock.

"I think it's the stupidest thing he's ever done in his life," Kid told Entertainment Weekly . "He's a sacred American institution of rock and roll, and he just threw it all out the window — just stomped on it and set it on fire."

"I think whoever's advising him ... we should bring back the guillotine, or whatever they call that thing," Rock expanded. "And if it was himself, he needs some serious counseling. I love him to death, but I gotta speak the truth."

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Tyler, along with fellow judges Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson, has already started work on Idol , although the auditions won't air until January. Ellen DeGeneres and Kara DioGuardi , of course, left the show earlier this year.

"Was I nervous doing this? You bet your booty," Tyler said. "Season ten for American Idol is going to be over the top, so it's hard for us to say 'Nope, sorry, you don't cut it,' because they well up, they cry, they make me cry."

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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