When legendary guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter released his debut solo album Speed of Heat in 2022, he reimagined a few tunes from his time with Steely Dan, including a remake Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler almost sang on but ultimately turned down.
Just under five decades after Steely Dan first released the track in October 1973, Baxter said he wanted his new version to have some “muscle” behind it, but the Aerosmith singer was of the mind that the track already had plenty.
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Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler Almost Sang on This Track
Speed of Heat might have been Jeff “Skunk” Baxter’s debut solo album, but it’s hardly his first record. Having played with Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, and Spirit, Baxter had a wealth of experience and catalogs to lean on for his solo endeavor, including “My Old School,” a track Steely Dan keyboardist and lead vocalist Donald Fagen suggested Baxter sing lead on.
“The more we played it, the more energetic it got,” Baxter said in an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock. “It reached the point where it was really rocking. I thought, ‘Someday, I’d really like to explore just how far I could take this’ in terms of energy. This version is pretty thermonuclear, I’d say.”
Wanting to add even more rock and roll energy to his solo version of the track, Baxter tried to get Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler to sing lead. “Steve’s one of the best rock singers I know. I thought it would be a great addition to the performance and to the energy level that I was looking for for the song. He’s an old friend, so I thought I’d ask and see if he wanted to do it.”
Why The Rock Vocalist Declined Baxter’s Offer
While we don’t doubt Aerosmith’s impressive lead vocalist Steven Tyler could have delivered an amazing rendition of “My Old School,” the rock singer ultimately said no. Jeff Baxter told Guitar Player that when he first sent a demo of the track with his scratch vocal on it to Tyler, the Aerosmith’s frontman’s first question was, ‘Who’s singing it? It sounds pretty cool.’
“I told him it was me and that it was just a scratch,” Baxter recalled. “He said, ‘What’s the matter with you? Why don’t you sing it?’ I told him, ‘But I’m not a singer.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, you are.’ So I said, ‘Well, you know more about this stuff than I do, so I trust your judgment. I’ll take a shot at it.’” The guitarist praised Tyler for his willingness to look at a song objectively instead of allowing his ego to take over. “That’s a sign of a great musician,” Baxter told Ultimate Classic Rock.
As Baxter’s driving rock track would show, Tyler was right—the song has plenty of musical muscle with Baxter at the helm. “I always thought the song could rock,” Baxter told Guitar Player. “It’s an idea I had for a while. Some songs are sacrosanct, I guess, but not many. There’s always a new way to approach a song.” Even, it would seem, a song titled “My Old School.”
Photo by Rob Latour/Shutterstock
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