STRAIGHT AERO
Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry didn’t want to miss a thing in revealing his side of the band’s ‘ craziness’
From its disastrous self- titled debut album in 1972, Aerosmith has weathered more than its share of storms, backstabbing, infighting and breakups. But more than four decades later, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer and Brad Whitford are still making music— together.
While other books have been written about the legendary band, including Tyler’s “Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? A Rock ’ n’ Roll Memoir,” and Joey Kramer’s “Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top,” Perry decided it was his turn to set the record straight, or at least tell the world what happened from his perspective.
“Rocks: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith” ( Simon & Schuster, $ 27.99) co- written with David Ritz (“Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye,” “Brother Ray: Ray Charles’ Own Story”) was released last week— just as Tyler announced via Twitter than he’s headed to Nashville to record a solo album. Was the timing of the news a reaction to Perry’s less- than- flattering literary portrayal of his bandmate? ( According to Perry’s writings, Tyler had a penchant for “stealing things.”)
“Rocks” is Perry’s account of life on and off the road with the band, the fierce and dysfunctional “Toxic Twins” relationship he shares to this day with Tyler, and all the sex, drugs and rock ’ n’ roll one would expect from a band that has aired so much of its dirty laundry in public for the past 40 years.
Perry, who’s in town Monday for two book signings, talked about revisiting the good, the bad and the ugly.
Q. To you, what was the book’s biggest revelation?
A. The amount of time we put up with all the craziness. That was perhaps one of the hardest things for me to face up to. I did a number of things for the betterment of the band even though it went against my grain. Also, I think fans will find it very interesting to know what it takes to keep a band together all these years. A lot of times the problems came from the outside, a lot of times it was ourselves.
Q. You write about so much turmoil in the band, and you point a lot of it in the direction of Steven Tyler and his “personality issues.” You write at one point: “When it came to telling people what he thought of them, he had no filter. When it came to hurting people’s feelings, he had no restraint.” Was it just the fact that you and he would never really see
eye to eye?
A. It takes two to tango. Certainly I felt like I had to put my foot down a bunch of times. I’m sure my ego was something to be dealt with. I think in any one of those situations that I wrote about, I would have to take some responsibility for it. I was supposedly the “quiet one,” but there was certain things between the two of us when it came to music, when it comes to music. That’s really what broke up the band in the late ’ 70s. The band just never looked at itself and said, “Let’s deal with this.” Instead it was always, “F--- you.” Unfortunately, that’s how it was. Now we just don’t take it home. I put up with his idiosyncracies, he puts up with mine.
Q. You write about all the outside influences as well: the managers, the producers, the girlfriends, the wives. Maybe the outside world was as much to blame as the five of you? Sometimes it seems like Elyssa Jerret ( the first Mrs. Joe Perry), for example, was your Yoko Ono.
A. I said a lot of times we should have taken a nice vacation and told everyone to f--- off like so many bands do, but we were all just too wrapped up in it at that point. Girlfriends and that whole scene, yeah, I suppose, but ultimately it falls down on the five guys. Nobody breaks up bands but the guys in the band. When people point fingers to people outside the band, I can tell you that’s not possible. It’s the band.
Q. Why was it important to write about getting sober, and are you still sober today?
A. I am still sober to this day. It’s no secret. But I’ve always felt it wasmy own business. We went out there and made it public because lot of it had to do with trying to rebuild all the bridges we had burned. Promoters wouldn’t hire us because so many gigs got canceled. So we had to put it out there, we had to get out there and say we’ve cleaned up our act and we’re ready to rock. We thought we’d lose our fans because we were “America’s party band.” But when it came down to it, we were either take us the way we are, clean and making music, or not clean and barely making music.
Q. Do concerts still excite
you?
A. I still get off on it. I know that’s why we still do it. I mean, some places are like second homes to us, how can you not get off on that? It’s just fun for the five of us to get together. It’s fulfilling a dream. We never thought it would go this far. Who knows how much farther we can take it?