Steven Tyler: 'American Idol' "Sucks"

The Idol judge reveals what he thought of the show before he signed on -- but is man enough to admit he was "wrong"

 

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Sounds like Steven Tyler was a much harsher judge before he signed on to American Idol! During a press conference following Tuesday night's show, Tyler came right out and told everyone what he really thought of the hit reality competition -- and he didn't mince words.

"I never wanted to do American Idol," said the Aerosmith rocker. "I turned around and said, 'The show sucks. How can kids be (an) American idol? They haven't played clubs, they haven't paid their dues, that haven't done what we did.'"

Obviously, Tyler changed his tune after sitting through a couple hundred auditions.

"I was wrong," he says now. "They are out there, we just have to wade through a bunch of them."

With the winner of season 10 being announced tonight (the two-hour finale airs at 8 p.m. ET on Fox), the quirky judge is standing by his original choice of Lauren Aliana.

"She doesn't try to hit the notes, the words just go to that place," he explains. "Everybody else is trying to hit the notes, and she's never had that problem with pitch... I circled her months ago and said 'American idol.' Her and and about six or seven others, but I heard her first. I mean how does a 15-year-old sing like that? How does that happen? That's magic, that's the gift, and that's what we're looking for."

Alaina's fight with laryngitis made for a nail-biting song battle on Tuesday night's penultimate episode. But despite her passion (and Tyler's support), most media outlets seem to be betting on front-runner Scotty McCreery for the win. We'll be interested to see if Tyler returns for season 11 -- or if he'll go back to thinking that Idol "sucks" if Aliana doesn't take home the record contract.

Either way, we'll be watching the finale tonight; to quote Tyler's band, we don't want to miss a thing.

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