AEROSMITH Guitarist Joe Perry - "Looking Back, I Do Wish We Had Spent Less Time On The Road And More In The Studio, Particularly After Toys In The Attic And Rocks"
October 7, 2014, 10 years ago
Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry is featured in a new interview with Robert Cavuoto for Guitar International, discussing his new book Rocks: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith. An excerpt is available below:
Robert: Looking back, do you think all the drugs and alcohol helped foster writing hit songs or did it hinder the band from writing more hits?
Joe Perry: "I think in the early years, it helped. It’s part of the creative story with any artists who experiment with that.
In a lot of the arts some of the most creative people used chemicals to get the short cut to creativity and when it stops working they either figure their way around it or suffer the consequences.
In a perfect world, I think we would have gotten more done in the way of studio records if we weren’t messed up. I look back on our career and wish we had been able to do more at the time. I think growing up during that time; it was very conducive for that party lifestyle.
In the ’70s, we were successful and when the money was rolling in, we weren’t thinking about getting back in the studio.
Looking back, I do wish we had spent less time on the road and more in the studio, particularly after Toys in the Attic and Rocks, because we were really hitting our musical stride.
At the same time we were selling out everywhere and making a lot of money for a lot of people. They had no interest in us taking time off to be in the studio. We would sell every ticket and people were making money. The cards were stacked against us from getting back in the studio and completing records in a shorter period of time.
I know for myself that as soon as things started to fall apart with the band, I kept writing. I put out five solo records compared to the band’s 15. There is something to be said about that."
Click here for the complete interview.
Perry releases Rocks: My Life In And Out Of Aerosmith today (October 7th) via Simon & Schuster. He worked with author David Ritz on the memoir.
In the tradition of the mega-bestseller Life by Keith Richards, Joe Perry opens up for the first time about the wild, inside story of his life in the legendary band he cofounded in 1970 - which is still going strong today.
Joe will embark on a 14-stop book tour beginning Tuesday, October 7th in New York, in conjunction with the release of his new memoir. After New York, the book tour continues with stops throughout the US, including a mid-tour stop at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH. Full list of dates are below.
In Rocks, Joe Perry exposes his unrepentant, unbridled life as the lead guitarist of Aerosmith. He delves deep into his volatile, profound, and enduring relationship with singer Steve Tyler and reveals the real people behind the larger-than-life rock-gods on stage. The nearly five-decade saga of Aerosmith is epic, at once a study in brotherhood and solitude that plays out on the killing fields of rock and roll.
With record-making hits and colossal album sales, Aerosmith has earned their place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But theirs is ultimately a story of endurance, and it starts almost half a century ago with young Perry, the rebel whose loving parents wanted him to assimilate, but who quits school because he doesn’t want to cut his hair. He meets Tyler in a restaurant in New Hampshire, sways him from pop music to rock-and-roll, and it doesn’t take long for the “Toxic Twins” to skyrocket into a world of fame and utter excess.
From the mega-successful song and music video with Run DMC, “Walk This Way”, to the realization that he can’t pay his room service bill, Perry takes a personal look into the human stories behind Aerosmith, the people who enabled them, the ones who controlled them, and the ones who changed them. In his own words, Rocks is the whole story: “the loner’s story, the band’s story, the recovery story, the cult story, the love story, the success story, the failure story, the rebirth story, the re-destruction story, the post-destructive rebirth story.”
Joe Perry has announced the following signing sessions:
October
8 - Ridgewood, NJ - Bookends
9 - Brookline, MA - Brookline Booksmith @ The Coolidge Corner Theatre
10 - Boston, MA - Guitar Center - Boylston Street
11 - Boston, MA - The Paper Store @ Framingham
13 - Chicago, IL - The Standard Club Of Chicago
13 - Arlington Heights, IL - Guitar Center - Arlington Heights
14 - Cleveland, OH - The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame
15 - Los Angeles, CA - Barnes & Noble @ The Grove
16 - San Francisco, CA - Guitar Center - San Francisco Proper
17 - San Francisco, CA - Book Passage @ The San Francisco Ferry Building
18 - Phoenix, AZ- Changing Hands Bookstore
19 - Scottsdale, AZ - Guitar Center - Scottsdale
20 - Los Angeles, CA - Book Soup
