Joe Perry
Joe Perry
Anthony Joseph Pereira, better known by his stage name Joe Perry, is the lead guitarist, backing and occasional lead vocalist, and contributing songwriter for the American rock band Aerosmith. He was ranked 84th in Rolling Stone's list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. In 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of Aerosmith, and in 2013, Perry and his songwriting partner Steven Tyler were recipients of the ASCAP Founders Award and...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth10 September 1950
CountryUnited States of America
This time it wasn't like I had some deadline or any agenda or was even thinking like that. This was an absolutely no-pressure situation, just an at-home project, totally different from any kind of record I've made before.
Every time I get in front of an audience, I do the best I can. I really don't look at it like, you know, 'This is gonna be this crowd, or that crowd.' If anything, I think about the demographics only because of what songs will entertain more than others.
That's what I love about music. It's immediate. There's a connection whether you are playing at Hyde Park or Chicago, and it's been happening since the beginning of time and the troubadours.
For years I've wanted to find some guys that I could work with, because I realized a long time ago that I can do a lot of things other than Aerosmith.
I don't spend much time listening to the records when they're done. Usually I let go of it. Especially in the Eighties and Nineties - they were like product, almost.
I really didn't like 'Done With Mirrors.' I really didn't like 'Just Push Play.' Then there are other records I really think were good for their time, like 'Toys and Rocks.'
People spend their careers trying to figure out what makes a hit single. But I learned a long time ago that you can't anticipate what people want, because it's always going to change.
I'm glad that I never ended up killing myself, though I came close more times than I would like to admit.
Whenever I hear somebody cover a song, I don't like to hear it stray too far from the original. I like to hear some of the new energy that a band will put into it, but you kind of want to hear some of the basic parts of the song. I mean, that's what makes it the song that you like.
Y'know, I don't like jazz much. I'll put it on once in a while and listen, and I'll appreciate it.
We went back to the beginning of the band's career for some of these songs. We had fun knocking the dust off them but it was a little nerve-racking too, because we hadn't played some of the songs in a while. I think we've only played 'No More No More' live a total of 20 times in our entire career. We were going on muscle memory for some of these, which gave our performance an edge.
There are a lot of other kinds of acts and other things people can spend their money on now.
Maybe you could put it out there that I don't have a built-in dislike of ballads. That was kind of the reputation I had back in the Seventies. But I've come around. Ballads have become something of an acquired taste.
One of the best films made by Tim Burton.