Steven Tyler’s Influence From The Yardbirds

Steven Tyler said that Aerosmith‘s riff was inspired by The Yardbirds.

Known to many, the Yardbirds has inspired and even kickstarted the careers of the biggest rockstars in the industry. Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck are a few of the most influential guitarists that were discovered by being a part of The Yardbirds.

Many of them even cited the Yardbirds as their “prime influence” in the rock and roll world. Most recently, Tyler said that Aerosmith’s riff was inspired by the Yardbirds and credited the band for they have greatly influenced his group back in 2010.

According to him, Aerosmith was lucky enough to come across the band before. He even stated that the Yardbirds are a band that everyone needs to see because they can get inspired by just listening to their music. He added that without them, he wouldn’t have created a powerful riff in their hit song, “Walk This Way.”

Tyler said that his band studied and experimented with the Yardbirds’ music in 2010. He was then inspired and was able to create the riff of “Walk This Way.” Together with Tyler, Joe Perry co-wrote the lyrics of this song which actually contributed a lot to the band’s career. It gave them commercial success and the song became an international hit. The singer said:

“The shame is, I know how great the Yardbirds were. But I don’t think everyone else knows it. The Yardbirds’ music is a gold mine waiting to be stumbled upon. Aerosmith did because we grew up in that era. The riff in ‘Walk This Way’ is just us trying to explore the blues in the Yardbirds model. What the Yardbirds did is something you don’t hear in today’s blue-plate-special, cookie-cutter music. Everything is so canned and sliced up now. This was back when a band was a band. You had all those personalities, and they were all truly playing together. And I don’t hear that today. The day of those bands, that wild stepping out is gone.”