Despite every part of my that know it's wrong, I miss the days when Steven Tyler spewed his nonsensical musings on American Idol (and something about the way Jennifer Lopez was dancing to Tyler's music tells me she might too — even just a little bit). As such, it was pretty cool to see Steven Tyler perform with Jax on American Idol for the finale. Homegirl may have been eliminated unexpectedly and the Idol cameraman may have spoiled her entrance about a thousand times by showing her before she hopped up on stage, but had to all be worth it for the moment she shared with the Aerosmith singer. Pairing Jax and Steven Tyler for the classic "Piece of My Heart" could not have been more perfect, and it woke up a ceremony that largely felt like a trip back to the year 2000... and even a trip back to the mid '80s once or twice.
Sure, the performance was messy. It felt like more of a party than a straight performance: Jax and Tyler were smushed up together, almost cordially duelling over the mic. It wasn't clean. It didn't make sense. Jax was wearing a top that didn't not resemble R2-D2. So yeah, it was pretty great.
Of course, the coup de grâce for any Jax detractors out there came when she and Tyler turned the judges' table into their own personal performance space (Ryan Seacrest says "mosh pit" but I'm not entirely sure he's ever been in one of those). The performance closed with Jennifer Lopez dancing her heart out, Keith Urban dad-dancing it up right next to her, and Harry Connick Jr. doing something I couldn't really notice with the visual of Steven Tyler and Jax laying on the judges' table and dancing like free-spirit versions of Britney Spears in the "Oops I Did It Again" video.
It was, in a word, "glorious."
Image: Michael Becker/Fox
