I think it's cool just as long as you admit it, we all have influences and we sometimes really like a song or riff or something, also it's a way of paying tribute to the legends, little example: in one of my band songs I use almost the same break (couldn't do it exactly due to time issues) as Neil Peart's Digital Man, 'cause I like it so bad.
If you listen to Dream Theater - Learning to live ending keybord "ambience"
you'll find it's exactly the same chord progression as Rush- Analog Kid.
Banzai