Joe Perry (2014)

Well, when we were in Europe, I was playing "Freedom Fighter" and because of what's going on in the world, we basically made a decision not to get into politics (the band, as a whole) because we all have different attitudes about that, but that particular song, I had to write the lyrics, and I really wanted to put it in the show, and so when we were in Europe, I played it right through to the end, and then actually some of the shows in the States, that was important for me to play the song because of the message, but from a guitar point of view, I love playing "Rats in the Cellar" because it has such a great jam at the end and it's different every night.

I think that overall, when we first started to make it, when we first started to realize that people were listening to our records, and weren't listening to the critics, and weren't listening to all the naysayers and whatever, and were just taking us for what we were, and we started having fans that were really listening to us - and I think that was the most exciting time. I think it's the most exciting time for ANY band that is fortunate enough to make it. That period of time when you go from calling all your friends to show up at the club to having more people trying to get in than can fit - that is a moment that never feels the same. There's NOTHING you can do in your career that feels more exciting than that.

The book tour. No, seriously! Doing the book tour was - there were a lot of parallels between doing a book and doing a record, but doing the book tour was really intense. But the other thing - I mean, that just comes with the territory. The thing that was the hardest was re-living some of the parts of my life that I would just as soon forget. I'd figured I'd dealt with that stuff and put it away in a shoebox never to be opened again, but I had to deal with that stuff, sometimes multiple times, and it was really hard to cut open that part of my soul and my heart, to let people into that, because in order for this book to be what it is, I had to let that stuff out.

Wow.

Well, thanks for the support, for all the years, and for the - just, I wouldn't be here doing this if it wasn't for you and people like you! I'm a fan first, and I feel like every time I do something, I think about how the fans are gonna like it, or perceive it, or enjoy it or not, and I gotta say thanks for that.

But that's an interesting question, because very often, when I'm in the middle of working, there are times when I feel really inspired and I can go down and riffs come flying off. And there are other times I'm sitting there going "look, i wrote some of the best rock songs i ever wrote, what else is there to say?"

But if I look back in history, I'm sure Leiber and Stoller, the great songwriting team that wrote so many great songs for Elvis like "Hound Dog", I'm sure there were times they felt like they'd written the best stuff they could ever write and look at all the songs that have been written SINCE then, not just by them! So there's an infinite number of riffs out there, of melodies - It's about tapping into that creative place, and pretending you've never written a song before, and then things start to flow. But I've had that feeling a few times, more times than I can count, frankly.

I really can't comment on "Walk this Way." That book was so out of our hands, I can't even comment on some of those things because they were edited, the book was edited beyond our control, if you read my book, you'll see how far out of our hands so many things were. And because of the slow process of that happening, it was hard for us to see what the big picture was, but that book, to me, is like kind of... it's cute, at the least. And so I really can't answer that question because I really don't know, I mean, I'm finding out things that were in that book even now that were so wrong, I was glad to have the opportunity to set the record straight with MY book.

Well, there's one time - we were playing someplace, and a fan, I mean, they were up and they are excited and they are standing and that's part of the fun of being up onstage, you get to see the kids cut loose, I mean, that's what we do, we're the fire that people dance around. Well this one fan had a prosthetic leg, and he had taken it off and was waving it around in the air, and then he threw it up onstage... of course, it was his way to get back to meet the band, and we were stunned - we'd had sneakers thrown up there, or pieces of clothing, you know, everything from bras to socks, but a prosthetic leg, that was a little over the top. And it was basically his way - he came around backstage after the show and said "Can I meet the band, I need to get my leg back" and so of course we met him, and it was pretty different.

Let's just put it that way.

Well, it's kind of a really - it's an amazing thing, to have that. I mean it's one of those things you never kind of expect when you're playing in clubs around Boston just trying to make it and get people to listen to your music. It's probably one of those things where if somebody said "In 30 years, you're gonna have a rollercoaster at DisneyWorld" - it's just so unexpected! But the thing is - they let us design the music for it, I wrote it side-by-side with Steven almost 50 times just to get the music right. But it's also a good analogy for the band's career, because it's... when they count down and you take off, that rush is like, incredible - that's like the rest of the ride is great, but that first rush is like when you play in a club and the place is packed, and then everything after that, you go through, you know, traveling, through cities and you know, almost upside down, and it's kind of like a 3 minute analogy to our career.

It's kind of funny.

Well, I think that we've been so busy touring and just doing studio albums and... with the day to day, keeping the band, we're always thinking about tomorrow. This band is a real band in the sense that it's a way of life, it's not something that we just do for six months, do a record, do a tour, and then don't see each other for 5 years, this band is always in the middle of something, and we are always looking for the next thing, and it's just the kind of thing that - we have a stockpile of shows, and then we videotape each show, we have some amazing shows that we want to release, it's just getting around to doing the work of picking out the best ones and then releasing them. I think that fulfilling our Sony contract will give us a whole new list of opportunities that we couldn't do - I mean, that contract was basically written 20 years ago, so there are a lot of things in there that are archaic and in some ways, held us back artistically, so from that point of view, aside from our affection for being on Columbia or Sony from the start, and then being on Geffen and then back to Sony, being free agents like so many other artists now, I think you'll start to see a lot more of that kind of material surfacing because we have piles and piles of it and we just can't wait to get it out there.

Oh, um, well I used to go to the gym a lot. When I first got sober, I kind of- we got into going to the gym, it was also a great way to get out of the hotel and just to get out and see a little bit of the town. Because back then, not a lot of hotels have a gym, now every hotel has one. But more importantly, I learned a lot more about fitness. I was always aware of it - my mom was a Phys Ed teacher - I was always aware of fitness and that kind of thing, but in the 1970s, it kind of fell by the wayside, but when we changed our lifestyle so to speak and the band got back together, it became like a hobby and kind of a sport - I mean, it's one of the few sports you can do all year round, doesn't matter if it's raining out, and it just... anyway it just worked out that when I was in my late 30's I worked out quite a bit, but then I adjusted things and learned how to take care of the ol' body, you know, in a way that was less stressful, and I really - right now, my boys are really into fitness, and I learn a lot from them. Other than that, it's just been a matter of trying to eat as good as I can. And again, eat as well as I can? I don't know what the best english is there, but i believe so many of the health problems that people have can be attributed to what they eat. I don't think I've eaten a french fry in 30 years. It's just one of those things. And when I'm on the road, being onstage for 2hours, that's all the exercise I need!

Haha! Well, thanks for that. I don't know if we'll physically have the time to make it there, I was just talking with my road manager about if we could just go out on a bus for 2 months and hit every city that we've played, and it's just physically impossible, so we are doing the best we can...

But as far as what's next? After this last run of 4 years from Steven doing American Idol to me writing this book, and doing this book tour, and everything in between, all this time we've also been touring - we toured South America and Australia and Europe and the States as well as all the other things - and I also managed to do some soundtrack work while I was out in LA, so we've been really busy. We want to take some time off, and I know our management are laying out some different options for the next few years.

Once we get our feet on the ground and get rested up, we'll get together and figure out what's next.

Probably, after i saw Jeff Beck play live, I would say that he was and still is my favorite guitarist. But Jimi Hendrix - even though he only put out 3 studio albums that he was there for - he was just on a whole 'nother level. And to this day, there is no one who can equal him.

If I set my mind to it, I can. In fact, that's where I draw a lot of inspiration for new material. I actually listen to classical music in the sense of Wagner or Ravel, just to hear, sometimes you can hear a musical line in there and it can inspire you to kind of push the edge. So once in a while, I'll sit down and figure out one of those musical pieces and strip it down to its essence, and it can be amazingly inspiring.

Well, actually, the first time I saw him, I didn't meet him. I mean I was working in the place, and his band - they used to come up from New York, whatever band it was, and spend 2 or 3 weeks up there and play around at the local clubs or parties or whatever, and they came in one afternoon and spent 2-3hours, and basically just made a big mess that i had to clean up. But I didn't really meet him then, but that was the first time I saw him.

It was actually a little while later that summer that I actually met him.

I haven't made a french fry since then.

I think one of the most exciting things we did was we went out to the desert, it was me and Billie and Steven and a couple of his friends, and we went paragliding, where you get towed by a truck in the desert and you end up about 4,000 feet in the air, and then you pull the cord and are hanging by a parachute, we went up in tandem with guys who knew what they were doing, and they started doing acrobatics, and it was really, really thrilling. Billie was right there, she did it as well, I mean, she's a tomboy at heart, so it was really a great day.

Yeah, because you usually want them now! No, it gave me an experience that experimenting with it, of it, I know it damaged our careers, but it also forced us to take a look at the big picture, about what we had and what the band had - if I hadn't left the band, and we had let things go the way they went, after going through that period of time when we were letting the partying take over, I don't think we would be the band we are now. Because we came to a new appreciation for the magic that we have and had at that time, because I think we were taking it for granted, frankly. And without that period of time, of us standing back and being able to look at our personal lives and then look at our professional lives, we wouldn't be where we are today.

Aside from that? I'm just glad that we never got so close that - I'm glad that i never got so close that I ended up killing myself, though I came close more oftentimes than I would like to admit.

Ha. More than I'd like to admit to.

Probably... I dunno, maybe 15 or 20 on purpose. And then there's a few that just accidentally ended up in more than one piece too.

But sometimes there will be a point when I can't control the energy, and the guitar ends up in pieces on the ground, but I love the instrument too much to make it a part of my stage performance.

I think that the excitement of the live concert, you know, with the latest pop stars will always be there, whether it's the kind of rock & roll that I think you're talking about, I can't say.

But just when you think that music has gone sideways, then something else will come along.

So I don't think anything will replace the excitement of a live concert. But certainly the recording industry and the way that the fans get their music (other than live) - that's going to constantly change, and I think that's going to affect how artists release new music, and I think we're seeing the end of an era, but it's also the start of a new era. And I think that's really important to keep in mind. I mean, there's a lot of great music out there right now. And it still sounds like rock & roll to me.

I would say: practice with a metronome, or some kind of drum machine, all the time.

No matter whatever kind of practicing you do, because you naturally will play the things that are the easiest and at a tempo, at a speed that is at your comfort level. It just happens that way. But if you always play, it can be a shock the first time you do it, because you think you've got all these riffs down, but to actually play them in time with a metronome or a drum machine, that's another whole animal. And if you do it all the time, that can put you ahead of the game faster than anything else i can think of.

Well, that's the payoff. I mean, I hate to say it, but playing in a band, it's kind of a selfish thing. We love hearing that applause come back, and it just - but then, that's what makes for a good rock n' roll show, I know this is true of all the guys in the band, when we hear the applause, the adrenaline starts to flow even more, we keep trying to drive it more, we play with more intensity. So that's what makes a great rock and roll show - it's about the response you get from the audience, then it goes to the band, it's like a give and take and that can be - without the audience to give you that feedback, it would be flat. And it just wouldn't have that intensity. And that's why I can play "Dream on" every night, because when i hear the audience's response, or "Back in the Saddle" or "Walk this Way" or "Sweet Emotion," when i hear the audience respond, then we're the same guys that started the band back in 1970.

I know it sounds cliche, but that's the truth.

I don't know, probably. But nothing that stands out in my mind. I think that in fact, some of the gigs in the States that we did near the end of the tour were some of the best playing that we've done in 20 years. We were like actually like blowing each other's minds, because we would text each other after the gig, and we'd be leaving the show, and we'd be texting each other going "AMAZING" especially with Joey having his heart problem - we didn't know what was going to happen with that, it was a scary time, but he was back up on the drums, and I think we missed one gig, there were 2 gigs his son played, and then he's back on the stage, I could not believe it, because basically he's a really healthy guy, works out all the time, and on top of playing the drums. But I guess it was a genetic thing, and they have ways to fix that pretty quick and because he is so healthy, I think he bounced back really fast. And man, he played like it was 10 years ago, it was great.

I'm not sure what our setlist is gonna look like in the future, I'm not sure even when we're gonna tour again. I know we will, but that's definitely one of the songs that I know the band likes to play, it's just one of those songs that isn't on the A-list as far as requests, and we listen to the fans, and that dictates a lot of how we put the set together. I mean, though I know when we go out again we will re-vamp the setlist, and that song will definitely be a contender.

Well, I would say that the biggest difference is Steven basically - it's kind of like being in the room with him for a couple of hours, and listening to him talk. And that can be, you know, he can be all over the place, he can talk about one thing and then suddenly shift to something else, so that's the kind of person he is, it kind of represents how he is to be around.

But I wrote, I guess you would call it, a little bit more of a traditional autobiography, by someone who's had a very unusual life. I don't think you have to be a rock & roller or an Aerosmith fan to read my book and not get something out of it, because I dug down past that level of just the cliche "sex, drugs and rock and roll" type book that seem to be the majority of these kind of autobiographies, and I wanted to write about the why and the wherefore and the how, and my feelings about it. And really get down to some of the stuff that everybody can relate to. I know that - back in the 60's, for example, a LOT of people had trouble in school but there was no name for it back then, they just thought it was a discipline thing and you weren't working hard enough, those kind of things, so everybody can relate to that who had trouble in school. SO that's just one example. I wanted to not only talk about my time with Aerosmith and how hard it is to keep a band together for as long as we've kept it together, but how to balance that with having a family, and raising a family, you know, and having 4 amazing kids, and raising them and just totally breaking that kind of cliche of what people think of a "rock star," you know?

It certainly wasn't a normal - it's not like we retreated to the suburbs and everything's all "coat and tie." We're a band of gypsies, and fortunately the boys loved being on the road, and we've all grown up and one of 'em's a lawyer, one runs my food company, one is an engineer and a producer, and another one just graduated from BU this year, and he's a DJ in Boston and he has a following and he goes out and plays at clubs and he's right on top of it, and he studied to be in communications, so I have the feeling he's gonna end up doing a lot of work with electronic sound and in that field. But anyway, the fact is, we still were out there, on the road, and it was a really different way to raise kids but the main thing was that Billie and I - my wife - we felt the most important thing was to keep the family together.

And that's how we did it.

Again - there have been some high points that I never would have thought could have occurred, whether it was inducting Led Zeppelin into the rock & roll hall of fame, to playing with some of the upcoming stars at the Super Bowl - I mean, some of those events are just, you know, they were way beyond anything I could have imagined when I first started.

But i have to say that that kind of goes parallel with the question that was asked earlier, about that feeling like when I felt like the fans were there because they were really listening to us, and they weren't reading what the critics were saying, and we came back to Boston after being on a road trip, and suddenly every gig we played was full, there were riots outside, and at that moment - you realize that you've gotten over that hump, and that was probably one of the things about having Guns & Roses open for us, because i was really excited for them, to see them go through that - they started off at the beginning of the tour as an opening act, and by the end of the act, they were a full-blown headlong act, and that period of time, to watch them go through that change, I felt so happy for them, and it just reminded me of the time when that happened to us.

So it's a very rare thing that happens in show business, or in any art, when all of a sudden you kind of get over that hump and people recognize what you're doing, and that's it. Nothing else can equal that.

Well, I think that there are some real high points on that record. And I think that the attitude was "let's get together with Jack and make the record the way we used to" and that meant everybody throw in an idea or a song, but there was also- part of it was Steven wanted to have a lot of ballads on the record, and produced by Marty, and I think that kind of, you know, because we've always been the precedent that was set early on that the ballads were usually what would make it on the radio, the record company just went to the ballads, and frankly I don't think they were up to the standard of what the band could do. I think if Steven sat down and wrote the ballad on his own, and we just had one good one, it would have been better than 4 that just didn't make it on the radio.

I think that after that path for the first couple of singles, the album just went away, and people disregarded some of the rock stuff that I think were great and just got overlooked. And it never got promoted the way it should've been, but overall it was just too much, considering the music business the way it is today. I think we could have left a lot of songs off it, but that was the record we decided to make. I think we learned a lot doing the record. I think there were some high points to it, but there was also stuff that went on the record just to be on there, and they weren't as good as they could be.

Well, a few. When I have time, I like to tinker with my motorcycles. When we have the time and we're up at our farm, I like to help with some of the farm work around the place, whatever i can do. And that's - there are a number of things. I like (of all things) I like remote-control planes, and when I have time, I like to build them and fly them. But I don't get much time to do that, as you can imagine, and it's not something you can bring on the road with ya! But it's like horses, you have to have time for, and we just haven't had much time in the last 4 years.

Hehe! Oh god, that's one I've been asked a few times. And I just, um, I don't know man. That's a bit of a stretch for me. I dunno. There have been SO many rock & roll movies that have just not hit the mark. There have been some comedy ones that were great. I Love Spinal Tap. But also, I have to say The Doors movie was like outstanding, and Oliver Stone really nailed it. But other than that, most of them leave out a lot of the soul, the why and wherefore - it's kind of like this book, I didn't want to write a cliche with the partying, and that's the be-all and end-all of being a rockstar when it's not, there's so much more in our career. I mean, some of the most insane stuff we lived through happened AFTER we got sober, and I think the fans would be surprised by that! I think that a lot of those movies come out very cliche, and the producers don't get it - they really don't get the whole backstory, so to speak. I don't know, I haven't seen any that knock me out. I'd have to see a scrip that really knocked me out before I even thought about that.

20 years ago?

Oh god... let me see...

I don't know, not much. I mean I think that everything that we've done has always led to something else that has been in some way or another, some new plateau or something that has moved our career forward or done something on a personal basis that was positive, so really have trouble thinking about changing anything. It's just too - everything is too intertwined to wanna mess with it. So I don't know. I suppose I could change this, but then that would change that, then that would change that, and then whaddya got? I don't know... Not everything in the past has been great, but some of those low points lead to the high points, so it's all about balance, and even some of the things where I could give myself some good advice, I have to say it may not be the best thing in the greater picture.

I think that the bass solo in "My Generation" - that one stands out, because it's like, they used to call him "The Ox" because his bass sound was so heavy, and the solo in that is just... just beyond belief. ANYWAY, because it's so unusual, you know? I can name 5 guitar solos that are great, and any guitar player that's into it will have their favorites, and it will probably be the same list as mine, but when John played that stuff, I mean.. it was like he set the bar pretty high.

Oh man, it's just important to make sure your spouse is your best friend - or your girlfriend, or partner, make sure they are your best friend, you know? You gotta be best friends first. All the rest comes in order. But as long as you have that connection.

Well, I tend to like - I like playing, it's an amazing experience to play a stadium but very often it's not the best sound and you have to put up with a lot of things like weather. But it makes it an event, which is pretty cool. But i have to say that the places that come the best are the smaller ones- there's one place in particular, in Germany, that only holds about 6,000 people, but it was built by Hitler during the war, and it was designed to sound good. It's based on an ancient Greek ampitheatre, and it just sounds incredible. I can't think of a place that sounds as good as that, even some of the most modern acoustically built places made for rock & roll, this place can't be beat, and there's not a bad seat in the house. The seats are so steep that even the people way up on the seats that are farthest away from the stage, you still feel like you're close to the stage based on the way they designed it, from before they had electricity and before it was just the sound of someone's voice. So that's probably my favorite place to play, but certainly there's an intensity of playing a club that holds like 300-500 people that's also very exciting. It may not sound the best, but boy, the energy in a place like that, that's rock n' roll.

I don't know, I've had my pants split - not knowing it, that's embarrassing. Sometimes when they split and you know it, you can throw some gaffer's tape on it, but if you don't know, that can be embarrassing. But I don't really care that much, I've taken my pants off at shows sometimes, just because it can be so hot. So that's not a big deal. But I think that would probably be as close to being embarrassed - it's hard to be embarrassed by anything I do onstage because as far as I'm concerned it's all part of the show, it's all rock and roll.

Well, I wouldn't say Bieber anyway. But I am amazed at his talent and all that. And I have a lot of respect for that, but it's not my cup of tea as they say in England... I don't think any of them would be unexpected. I like the old stuff so much, it's hard to say.

Boneyard brew. It is when I put it on there. (It's my table sauce from my food company, and it works great on pizza).

Apocalypse Now, Inglorious Bastards, Anchorman 1, and Talladaga Nights, and... The Longest Day.

As a matter of fact, we do. We put enough stories and enough anecdotes in the book to kind of represent certain phases of our lives, and we felt that anymore would have taken the focus away from the stories we wanted to get across. So it was a decision that - for every story, and everything that's in the book, there are 5 right behind it, and we had to make decisions constantly along the way, which ones carried their weight and really represented the bigger picture what we were trying to say with the book. So unfortunately we weren't able to get into some of those side things or some of those things that we love. That's why we put the appendix the way we did, because I felt that - because I've been asked so many times about guitars, and equipment, and all that, if we put it IN the book, I would have had to put it in such an abbreviated way, it wouldn't be giving you enough information, and if I made it any longer, then it would have taken away from the overall story of the book, so we decided to put it all in a bunch at the end with some of the pictures of old guitars and some of the old pictures of my guitar techs and the interviews with some of them about how it was to work with us, and that way if people are interested in the guitars or amps or foot pedals or just to see the amps we played through in 1978, it's all there but at the end so you can immerse yourself in that. Or not. You know? You can just read the body of the book, and that's really the story, I mean, I don't think everybody wants to know what kind of fuzz tone i used on "Rocks." It's just one of those things, if you want to read that stuff and get into it (or not). I wanted to give those people a chance to see that.

I was always "Joe," everybody called me that, I think because Joseph was my Portuguese grandfather's name, and I think that my dad called - I was always being called Joe, so it's always been that.

Well, I really don't play video games. I don't really watch much TV. I mean, I watch movies, i like the fact that there are so many of the TV shows that are like - they used to call them "Miniseries" years ago when they would take place over the course of a few episodes, and now with cable there are so many options. But other than that, I don't really have time. I would rather play my guitar than a video game. Frankly, I think that except for playing it once in a while, i think they're a waste of time.

Well, when I first moved out to LA 3 years ago, I wanted to get into doing more soundtrack work because I was hearing so much really inventive rock music being used on TV shows and in a way, sometimes I was hearing heavier stuff than I would hear on the radio! It's become a great outlet for that kind of music, I mean, it's amazing how mainstream that kind of music has become. And also, it shows the effect that it has on people when they use it in the right way, it's really fascinating how all the different arts are kind of melding together - where you have great actors doing a car commercial, and you can't tell if it's a movie or not, and then there's also great music going on! so it's really tough to find that kind of work in Boston, but i wanted to get into it when we moved to LA, and I just haven't had enough time - between writing the book and touring and finishing the Aerosmith record to really dig into it. Between doing my solo stuff, and trying to re-gain some kind of relation with reality after all this running around, i would also like to get into doing more soundtrack work.

Heh! Oh, I don't know...

I can't remember! Haha!

Whatever i have at hand. Sometimes I use, uh, you know, like a body oil or something like that. It just ends up looking the way it looks, you know from "use" so to speak.

Well, it took about 2 years. Once we settled on a a co-writer, as someone to help really assemble it and make it a piece of literature, because I didn't want to do like a journal type of book, I wanted it to be as outstanding as possible, and I knew that I didn't have the chops to do that, other than just to tell stories, and I knew it would take somebody to help assemble it. And between Billie (who helped immensely to organize my notes and thoughts) and working closely with David, it took two years. I think it took awhile for him to get that this wasn't going to be another "Sex, drugs, and rock & roll" books, and there would be some deep stories to go in there. But there were a few months where we had to go out and tour. But that kind of helped, because when we'd come back to it, it gave us a new perspective and some distance from it. But it was definitely something that took a long while.

Oh god. Oh man. That's a big one.

I mean, he's pulled some - there's a few in the book, so I won't give those away, but... I'm at a loss. I have to say that he comes up with some really original stuff. But I'm at a loss right this minute. Maybe I will think of something as we go along here. But he's pulled some good ones.

But then, so have we all, so I don't know. But he definitely has a good sense of humor.