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Creativity Quote by Steven Tyler

"I quit my band in New York City in 1969 and I got really angry at them. I got angry at one of my guitar players and I dove over the drum set and we got into a fight"

About this Quote

It lands like rock history told with the volume still turned up: not a neat anecdote, but a snapshot of ego, velocity, and the kind of conflict that doubles as rehearsal for myth. Steven Tyler isn’t describing a disagreement; he’s staging a moment where the body becomes the argument. “I dove over the drum set” is pure performance language, even when it’s allegedly offstage. The detail is cinematic because it’s supposed to be. In late-60s New York, a band isn’t just a workplace; it’s a small, unstable nation-state powered by ambition, drugs, and the promise that the next gig might be the one that changes everything.

The intent reads two ways: a confession and a credential. Tyler frames anger as proof of investment, as if volatility is the price of artistic seriousness. The subtext is control. “My guitar players” slips in a hierarchy; he’s not merely a member of a group, he’s already narrating himself as the axis the others orbit. Quitting isn’t retreat so much as a power move, an attempt to reset the terms of belonging. If the band won’t bend, he’ll break the scene.

Context matters: 1969 is peak counterculture, but this isn’t peace-and-love; it’s the competitive grind of a music economy where charisma and dominance often masquerade as authenticity. Tyler’s memory packages violence into legend, converting a messy rupture into origin-story fuel. The fight becomes a kind of proof-of-life for rock: if it didn’t hurt, did it even happen?

Quote Details

TopicMusic
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Tyler, Steven. (2026, January 18). I quit my band in New York City in 1969 and I got really angry at them. I got angry at one of my guitar players and I dove over the drum set and we got into a fight. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-quit-my-band-in-new-york-city-in-1969-and-i-got-1917/

Chicago Style
Tyler, Steven. "I quit my band in New York City in 1969 and I got really angry at them. I got angry at one of my guitar players and I dove over the drum set and we got into a fight." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-quit-my-band-in-new-york-city-in-1969-and-i-got-1917/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I quit my band in New York City in 1969 and I got really angry at them. I got angry at one of my guitar players and I dove over the drum set and we got into a fight." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-quit-my-band-in-new-york-city-in-1969-and-i-got-1917/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.

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Steven Tyler (born March 26, 1948) is a Musician from USA.

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