Beatweek.com recently caught up with Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry to discuss his new memoir, Rocks: My Life In And Out Of Aerosmith. An excerpt from the interview is available below:

Q: In a lot of these stories, the traditional parents are the villains. But your parents, despite your disagreements with them, end up being the heroes of the story.

Perry: "There are certain things that are stereotypical of the rock band story, but I wanted to dig down a little deeper. The book almost starts with a question: how did I end up there? I came from a very non-musical family. I had to really go digging to find this pop music and then of course rock and roll. And at the same time, having some natural affinity for playing the guitar. Then as time went on, those years that every kid goes through, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, you’re wondering what you’re going to do with yourself. I think that a lot of people can relate to that. You don’t have to be a rock and roll fan or an Aerosmith fan to get something from the book, because there’s a lot of common human nature, dealing with egos in different families and things like that which are common in life. I wanted to point that out.

I was lucky enough to have really nice parents, and I really wanted to be happy with what I was doing. I just wasn’t designed that way. I had a learning disability that they really didn’t have a name for at that point. It really held me back from doing what they wanted me to do. But I also felt like the life that they had set out and planned for me wasn’t what I saw myself doing. I was too much of a rebel, too much of a loner, too much of an outsider. I never saw myself putting on a tie and going to work every day. I just didn’t

There were times apparently when my father went to see the band play, and he never told me that he went. I found this out from my uncle, who has long since passed away. He said ‘Your dad was real proud of you, we used to go shows together and we would’ tell you.’ Fortunately I was able to show him the gold record before he passed away, so he knew at least I had a source of income. That made me really happy. Yeah, it was important for me to put that in there."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

In a recent interview with longtime broadcaster Larry King, Perry discussed Rocks: My Life In And Out Of Aerosmith, playing with Paul McCartney, friction with singer Steven Tyler and his craziest groupie moment.

“We had a lot of trouble separating our musical differences from our personal lives,” says Perry about his relationship with Tyler. “We still have our rough spots, but I accept the way he is, just the way he accepts the way I am. I have to take as much responsibility for the bumps on the road as he does.”