After announcing her departure from the American Idol judges' table last week, Jennifer Lopez revealed in an interview with ABC News that her exit was partly influenced by the decision of fellow judge and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler to leave the singing competition as well.
"We had magic," Lopez said during the interview. "I don't know, with him gone, it might be a different formula."
In a statement announcing his departure, Tyler said "it's time for me to let go of my mistress, American Idol, before she boils my rabbit" and return to his "first love," Aerosmith. The band is currently out on tour and prepping for the release of their new album, Music From Another Dimension.
Both Lopez and Tyler joined Idol in 2011, and both decided to call it a day after just two seasons. This currently leaves Randy Jackson – who has worked on the show since it started in 2002 – as the sole Idol judge, though it's been rumored he may be looking to become more of a mentor on the show rather than a judge.
With spaces at the judges' table to be filled, Lopez offered her own suggestions: "I think like Bono or Bon Jovi or Mick Jagger," she said. "You know me, I think big."
Lopez also revealed that she did leave open the opportunity to return to the show in the future, perhaps for a some sort of collaboration.
"I love them and they love me, and it’s hard when I feel like I should move on," she said. "I don’t know that it’s even done yet. I don’t know. I feel like I’m moving on."
Lopez's decision to leave Idol came last Friday when the singer called into host Ryan Seacrest's radio show to discuss her future on the show.
"Something had to give, and that's, I think, where I am right now," Lopez told Seacrest. "I honestly feel that the time has come, that I have to get back to doing the other things that I do that I've put kind of on hold."
Always busy, Lopez is currently on tour with Enrique Iglesias and lent her voice to the animated flick Ice Age: Continental Drift, which just opened.
"It got me back in touch with who I was, watching the contestants and singers,” Lopez recalled of Idol during her ABC interview. "That’s why it’s hard to walk away."
