By Michael Leonard
As a bona fide guitar legend and Gibson freak, Joe Perry is well known to this neighborhood. You probably already know his first name is really Anthony, and that he owns upwards of 600 guitars. And that he collects knives and has pet tarantluas. But what else is there to know about the guitar-half of Aerosmith’s ‘toxic twins’?
1. The paternal side of Perry’s family are from Madeira, the Portugese archipelago. His grandfather changed the family’s name from Pereira to Perry upon arriving in the U.S.A. His maternal family are from Napoli, Italy.
2. Perry’s childhood ambition was to be a marine biologist. But as a teen, Perry worked as a janitor in a Boston synagogue, as well as in a New Hampshire ice cream parlor called The Anchorage. Steven Tyler was a regular customer (at the ice cream parlor, not the synagogue).
3. Like B.B. King, Glenn Frey, Noel Gallagher, Duane Allman and Rik Emmett, Perry is left-handed but plays right-handed. He learned to play around the age of six. He told Premier Guitar: “I had an uncle who owned a homemade four-string instrument that looked like a ukulele. He would probably get mad if I called it a ukulele, but that’s what it looked like. During the holidays, he would play Portuguese folk songs and then let me play with it. I begged my parents for an acoustic guitar, which came with a 45-rpm record that taught you how to tune, how to strum…. This must have been around 1961 or 1962 - definitely before The Beatles came out. I bought a fake book and learned chords from that. I never took lessons.”
4. In Aerosmith’s early days, their fans earned the nickname “The Blue Army” due to the prevalence of denim jackets and jeans.
5. Aerosmith’s 1977 tour for Draw The Line was marred by fan violence: a cherry bomb was thrown onstage in Philadelphia at The Spectrum, injuring both Perry and Tyler.
6. In 1979, Aerosmith were huge. They headlined over Van Halen, Ted Nugent, AC/DC and Foreigner during the World Music Festival concerts. But a backstage argument in Cleveland saw Perry’s then-wife throwing a glass of milk at bassist Tom Hamilton’s wife. Perry subsequently quit the band. The songs Perry took with him formed the basis of his first spin-off album, under the Joe Perry Project name, Let The Music Do The Talking (1980).
7. Let The Music Do The Talking sold 250,000 copies domestically. But follow-ups I’ve Got The Rock ’n’ Rolls Again (1981) and Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker (1983) didn’t sell as well. Perry rejoined Aerosmith in 1984, yet due to this hiaitus, he is actually the shortest-serving member of Aerosmith.
8. Perry has a penchant for 6-string basses and baritone guitars. Aerosmith’s “Back In the Saddle,” “Combination” and “Draw the Line” are all on 6-string basses; Perry used a Gibson EB-6 for the bass solo on “King of the Kings” on the Joe Perry Project’s Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker. Of “Back in the Saddle,” Perry said: “I had heard [original Fleetwood Mac guitarist] Peter Green playing a 6-string bass, although he never really played it as part of a song. He would sort of jam with it. But that’s how I knew they existed. I figured it would be a cool instrument to play live. It sounded great, and I didn’t know anyone else who was doing it. I wrote “Back in the Saddle” so that I would have excuse to play it on-stage.”
9. Perry’s love of Les Pauls largely came from witnessing “British Invasion” guitarists Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton (The Yardbirds) and Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac) at the Tea Party, a ’60s Boston rock club. Although he’s a huge fan of Green, Perry still regards Jeff Beck as “the best guitar player in the world.” In 2007 he told Ultimate Guitar how he’d recently witnessed Beck from “about 30 feet away and he was astounding in his commanding of the instrument and his sound. I’ve been lucky enough to meet him over the years. Apart from one tour, I’ve seen him on every tour since the first Jeff Beck Group. He’s constantly pushing the edge.”
10. Joe Perry loves his Gibson Les Pauls. He has used many types of LPs since the ‘70s, including Juniors, Standards and Customs. In the 1990s, Gibson issued a Joe Perry signature Les Paul with an active mid-boost control, black chrome hardware, and a translucent black finish. In 2004, the Joe Perry Boneyard Les Paul arrived. It carried a “Boneyard” logo on the headstock and a maple top with a green tiger finish. Epiphone make a model that carries the same Burstbucker pickups as the Gibson model. “I didn’t change much, really,” Perry said on the signature’s launch. “”I think a Les Paul is just about as close to perfect as you can get anyway. Gibson already designed the great guitar.” Perry has used his Boneyards to play “Dream On.”
11. Did we just mention Boneyard? Perry launched his own hot sauce called Boneyard Brew in the noughties. Now, his Rock Your World brand of hot sauces is a major sideline business. Perry has appeared on chef TV programs and loves to talk spicy food. Want to know Joe Perry’s favorite recipe? Of course you do!
Joe Perry’s chicken quesadilla: served at the Hard Rock Cafes in Boston and Dublin, Ireland.
Grilled chicken breast, diced
2/3 cup pineapple, grilled and diced
4 tablespoons Joe Perry’s Mango Peach Tango Hot Sauce
2 teaspoons olive oil
8 10-inch flour tortillas
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 cups Monterey jack cheese, shredded
In a small container, combine chicken, grilled pineapple and hot sauce. Stir until chicken and pineapple are coated with sauce. Brush olive oil on one side of each tortilla and place oiled side down in large skillet. Lightly sprinkle tortilla with chili powder and sprinkle 1/8th cup of cheese over half the tortilla. Place chicken-pineapple mixture on top of the cheese. Cover mixture with another 1/8th cup of cheese. Fold the tortilla and flatten with spatula. Let bottom brown slightly, then flip to brown other side. Drizzle top of tortilla with more hot sauce. Repeat until all 8 tortillas are done. Garnish with guacamole, sour cream and pineapple salsa. Serves 4.
12. Of Perry’s near-600 guitars, his favorite is his “Billie” Gibson Lucille. A Gibson Custom Shop Lucille in white, it is also adorned with a portrait of Joe’s wife, Billie. Perry told Musicradar.com, “It’s unusual because not only does it look great but it also sounds great and is a real workhorse. I use it in the studio and I use it live. It’s also the most unique guitar because there is only one of them in the whole world. She’s gorgeous, the guitar is gorgeous - how can I not look good playing it?”
13. Perry was the first non-member to play onstage with KISS. He wore a pair of Paul Stanley’s boots when guesting on “Strutter” in December 2003 in Oklahoma City. Perry previously played on Gene Simmons’ 1978 self-titled solo album.
14. Many Aerosmith fans might have griped at Eminem’s “Sing for the Moment” (2002), which heavily sampled the Aerosmith classic “Dream On.” But guess what? Perry loved Eminem’s idea and joined in: it’s Joe playing the outro guitar solo. Said Perry: “It’s great. The song lives again in another form.”
15. He found his latest Joe Perry Project singer, Hagen, when wife Billie browsed a YouTube upload of the German hopeful. On his wife’s recommendation, Joe phoned Hagen while Aerosmith were backstage at a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony – a week later, Perry had a new singer and Hagen was a star in waiting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzH_zTz_2tA&feature=related
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