Steven Tyler’s opinion on The Beach Boys

Born in New York City back in 1948, Steven Tyler started his musical career at an early age, first playing the drums and then obviously becoming a singer. He helped to form Aerosmith back in 1970 and was a fundamental part of the band’s sound, not only for his voice but for his amazing stage presence which certainly makes him one of the best frontmen of all time.

Over the decades he had the chance to see and meet many of his heroes. He praised many bands and one of them is The Beach Boys. He first discovered that he was a musician after singing one of their songs and even had the chance to be their opening act before Aerosmith was formed.

Steven Tyler’s opinion on The Beach Boys

The first group that Steven Tyler was part of that allowed him to get a little taste of how the life of a Rock star was The Strangeurs, which would later be called Chain Reaction. That band was formed in 1964 and it was right before that he had realized that he could actually be a singer, when he tried to sing himself The Beach Boys track “In My Room”, which had been released one year before.

He recalled that in his autobiography “Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir”, released in 2004. “The Beach Boys! ‘In My Room.’ Oh, my god! All I can tell you is that my girlfriend got turned on just now hearing me say those words with such ecstatic glee. That song was the first time I got up from behind the drums and grabbed the microphone away from my bass player and said, ‘You know what? I’m singing that fucking song, pal!’ And then – abracadabra – I became a singer!” Steven Tyler said.

The band Steven Tyler was a member early on was The Beach Boys’ opening act in 1966

The Strangeurs were a really versatile band that accepted any gig, big or small. In 1966 they had the incredible opportunity of being The Beach Boys’ opening act. A really important detail, the show happened only one week after they had released some of the most famous tracks of their groundbreaking album “Pet Sounds”.

“The Strangeurs were the opening act for every kind of gig from the Fugs at the Café What? to the Lovin’ Spoonful at the Westchester County Center to an uptown New York discotheque like Cheetah. Then, on July 24, 1966, the Strangeurs opened for the Beach Boys at Iona College. ‘Pet Sounds’ had come out in May and blown everybody’s minds. It was sublime and subliminal and statured your brain. After you heard it you were in a different space.”

Steven Tyler continued:

“‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’, with ‘God Only Knows’ on the flip side, had been out only a week before our performance. It was all over the radio. They had a competition to choose the band that would be the opening act. We played ‘Paint It Black’ and sealed the deal. We got to hang out with The Beach Boys. Brian (Wilson), even in those days, was on another sphere, vibrating his Buddha vibe. I had my first out-of-body religious experience that day singing along with The Beach Boys. It was me and six thousand kids from Iona College, all singing ‘California Girls’,” Steven Tyler said in his autobiography.

The Strangeurs/Chain Reaction were active from 1964 to 1968. They also had the chance to be opening acts for bands like The Byrds and The Yardbirds. Curiously, at the time Steven still used his real name on stage, which is Steven Tallarico. One of their songs ‘When I Needed You’ appeared on Aerosmith’s 1991 compilation box set called ‘Pandora’s Box’.