Steven Tyler defies Aerosmith by taking on “American Idol”

In the interview, the rocker revealed that he joined the American Idol competition to defy his estranged bandmates.

“Did I take this job to show the band? F—, yeah,” he said in a cover story for Rolling Stone magazine. “Not to show them, but that I can’t be held hostage anymore. I will be my own hostage. The band can’t throw me out.”

Relations between Tyler and his bandmates deteriorated in 2009 after he fell off the stage in a middle of a song and broke his shoulder, forcing their tour to be canceled.

His bandmates threatened to find another singer. Tyler, in turn, ended up on “Idol” after beating about 40 other contenders, including The Who rocker Roger Daltrey, for the job.

Producers reportedly passed on Daltrey because they thought he was “Very formal, his hair was cut, he looked like a regular guy. He had lost that sort of rock & roll charm.”

Tyler also confesses to going on a drug binge with Joe Perry as an attempt to write a new album in 2008.

“Joe [Perry] was high and he couldn’t play,” says Tyler. “I couldn’t sing, really, because I was snorting everything, and it [messes] up your throat. It was the wrong time.”