It was the moment American Idol viewers and rock fans had been waiting for all season: Steven Tyler finally took the Idol stage to perform.
Dressed all in white, Tyler pulled out the Aerosmith classic, "Dream On," for the biggest show of the season.
After playing judge and mentor all year, Tyler finally had a chance to shine, and while he was unable to convince his bandmates to join him, Steven did bring brothers Robert and Dean DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots along to get the job done.
It was an abbreviated version of "Dream On," which begs the question: what were the Idol producers thinking? They cut short a classic of the rock era in favor of brutal medleys by the Top 13 contestants – the bulk of who were not popular enough to make it to the finale – and appearances by everyone from Lady Gaga to Carrie Underwood to Beyonce (did she really need to do two songs?).
Those annoyances aside, the producers did schedule Tyler’s performance in the right spot in the show – moments before the winner was announced – which only managed to further the anticipation among viewers and, likely, those at L.A.’s Nokia Theatre.
Sucks that they cut the song in half, but maybe it was because he's not in the shape he'd need to be to tour? Glad to see he can still nail that awesome scream, though.
Lady Gaga and Beyonce were incredible. Underwood ripped the second place contestant a new ******* too.
However, great point raised. Beyonce didn't need two songs. Dream On should have been longer. The "top 13" guys and girls performances really weren't that good, but alas, from what I know it's a common tradition for the show to have something like that. So I wouldn't have gotten rid of them, as awkward as they were. But Beyonce didn't need two songs.
Can't believe anyone would decide to condense this classic song, its not like anyone watching was thinking 'God I hope this Aerosmith guy doesn't drag on...'
Still give me goosebumps when he jumps into the mega-high scream though! Great to see he's still got it!
