By Jeb
Wright
The rock
world was smiling ear-to-ear when it was announced that ZZ Top
and Aerosmith would be touring this summer. There are very few
tours that can claim they are more classic than these two
bands. Both feature all original members who are all inducted
in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Oddly enough, however, the
focus of the tour, thus far, has been on injuries, sickness and
accidents instead of music. ZZ has had it easy; they play, hang
out and go back to the hotel. They have remained safe.
Aerosmith, on the other hand, has seen knee infections after
surgery, shoulder injuries requiring surgery, pneumonia, a leg
injury, a bonk on the head from a car door and, as I type these
words, news has just come in that Steven Tyler fell off the
stage last night in North Dakota.
The
following interview took place backstage on July 31st in Tulsa,
Oklahoma at the beautiful, new BOK Center. On this night no one
fell off a stage, or hit themselves in the head with the door of
their Ferrari. It was simply a rock concert. Joe and I didn’t
have too much time as he had to get ready for the gig. As we
walked into his dressing room, Joe was jamming away on his
guitar. His room was huge and had a nice coffee table, couches,
plants, a rug and a large piece of furniture that had several
lit candles burning. I saw some killer cigars on the table, but
as I have been tobacco free for six months now, I refrained from
asking Joe if I could burn one.
We spent
about fifteen minutes talking about the tour and the upcoming
Joe Perry Project CD, Have Guitar Will Travel. The rest
of the hour, we listen to a track from the upcoming CD and
talked about life in general. Just so you know, Joe is still
making his Boneyard Brew Hot Sauce, though I told him he needed
to make it hotter. He is also getting ready to come out with
his own brand of macaroni and cheese. When I asked Joe how he
decided to compete with Kraft, he replied, “My kids and I were
talking about what they used to eat when they were little. It
was decided that all they ever ate was macaroni and cheese. I
was the guitar player for Aerosmith but the kids were still
eating mac and cheese. We figured why not make our own.”
Jeb:
This has been the cursed tour from hell.
Joe: I am a
big believer in all things metaphysical, and in karma. I look
back through the years, even in the 70's, and can count on one
hand the total times we had to cancel shows. Right after we got
back together, we had to cancel two shows, once because the
stage collapsed. For the last couple of years, we have had some
bad luck. There has been a lot of physical stuff happening to
us. If you average it out over the course of twenty-five years,
then we haven’t done so bad. It is kind of rough, getting it
all once, but what can I say. We are here now.
Jeb: And
now everyone, other than Tom, is healthy, and he is on the
mend. And you are back on the road with ZZ Top. I think that
is a great pairing.
Joe: Every
tour there is always a short list of bands that want to go out
and tour with us. A lot of younger bands, that are actually
capable of holding down this type of show, would rather headline
a club show than open for us in an arena. It has always been
really hard to pick a band to open for us. We were looking at
the short list and trying to figure out what we could do. The
phone rings and management says, “What about ZZ Top?” I go,
“Did you even have to make the phone call?” ZZ Top, are you
kidding? This is like a dream come true. This is a show that I
would go to see.
Jeb: How
have they been to hang with?
Joe: They
are perfect gentlemen clear down the line. They have a couple
of years on us but they have always been the same band, with the
same members, and they have continued touring and putting out
records. I just hope that we have as much class as they do as
we go across the nation. They are a class act.
Jeb: Didn’t
you open for ZZ back in the day?
Joe: The
Joe Perry Project must have opened ten or twenty shows with them
back in the day. I remember that in Little Rock, which is very
famous for the backstage rock n’ roll lifestyle, I had to ask
them if I could borrow their bus for a little while. They said,
“Help yourself.” They were great, even back then. I have given
up those days now, and I even have my own tour bus.
Jeb: Is
your upcoming album going to be a Joe Perry solo album?
Joe: No, it
is going to be The Joe Perry Project. David Hull, who played on
the first two Joe Perry Project albums, is going to be on this
one. He is playing with us right now, filling in for Tom. We
went online and my wife found a singer in Germany. We brought
him over, auditioned him, and he is singing half of the songs.
The drummer is from my son’s band, TAB. I call him the
Percussion Prodigy. Our keyboard player is a local guy, who
also helped do all the demo work.
Jeb: When
we last talked you were not totally comfortable being a lead
singer. Has that changed?
Joe: I am
quite comfortable with it, but I don’t know how comfortable the
rest of the world is with it. I love singing. On this record,
the songs are strong. I wanted the vocals to match up with the
quality of the songs. There was one song that I wanted to sing
lead on but, at the end of the day, I didn’t feel I could
deliver strong enough. I was not going to be as good as our new
singer, Hagen. After listening to my version, and listening to
what he did, I said, “You take it.” He just did better. Every
thing fits better. All of the songs really kind of fit together
and work.
Jeb: I glad
to see you return to the moniker “The Joe Perry Project.”
Joe: Over
the years, we have changed members because of everybody’s
schedules and stuff. What I envision is that it will be an
ongoing thing. When we go on the road, I think the people who
are on this record will be the ones touring with me. I know
Hagen will be with us a while and I hope David will stick
around. I am already working on the next one. It is a project,
which means it will be an ongoing work of art.
Jeb: Isn’t
it nice to do The Joe Perry Project for music’s sake instead of
because of animosity, drugs and arguing with Aerosmith?
Joe: There
was a lot of bullshit going on back then. It was just that
everyone needed to realize that having my own thing going on was
not going to infringe upon Aerosmith. It will not conflict with
working on the next Aerosmith album or any tours we have going
on. There is a lot of downtime around Aerosmith and I am going
to fill it up with being able to play–that is what I do. I work
in the studio all the time and I am able to give Aerosmith a lot
of material to play that is appropriate for that band. I am
able to save stuff for my band that is also appropriate. When
you have been working together with five guys in the same band
for forty years, you have to sublimate certain parts of your
vision for the betterment of the whole. When you have your own
project then you can run the show.
Jeb: I am a
big Jeff Beck fan. Have you considered doing an instrumental
album like Jeff did in the Seventies?
Joe: There
was an instrumental on the last record that was actually
nominated for a Grammy, which was really out of the blue. I was
up against guys like Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson. My song had
been written ten years before and I was honored to be considered
alongside those guys. I knew I was going to lose because Les
Paul was in the hospital with pneumonia. I would have voted for
him if I could have voted. We all owe so much to him. Just
being nominated was enough for me. The new CD will have an
instrumental song as well, so we will see.
Jeb: You
were going to do all of Toys in the Attic but now, with
all the issues this tour has had, that has been put on the back
burner.
Joe: We
were doing that for most of the tour but we had such a slow
start . . . We had to book the tour with several days in-between
because Steven was not up to par, due to recovering from
pneumonia. We got off to a slow start and then he hurt himself
and we had to cancel more shows. It is only the past week that
the band has started to get rolling. We had to adjust the set
because of his leg. It was actually affecting other parts of
his body, including his diaphragm. We changed the set and
started playing some songs that will be new to a lot of fans.
We may do Toys in the Attic and we may do other albums,
which was the original idea. But with Tom getting sick, and
others getting sick, and my knee getting infected, it made it
hard to get any momentum going.
Sometimes
you make plans and you do the best you can to make them happen
and sometimes you have to adjust. Would you like to hear a song
from the upcoming Joe Perry Project CD?
Jeb: Of
course I would. Last one: I know you need to go get ready but I
have to ask . . . Did your replacement in Aerosmith, Rick Duffay,
really say that he should be out of the band and you should be
back in?
Joe: I have
heard that he did say to Tom and the other guys, “Look this is
crazy. You guys should put the old band back together.” A lot
of people take credit for putting Aerosmith back together, but I
know for a fact that he said that. I have to take my hat off to
him because it was basically knocking him out of the box for a
gig. He knew it was better for the band to be back together,
and he was right, we needed to be back together.
