Happy birthday to Aerosmith's co-founder and lead guitarist, Joe Perry, who turns 70-years-old today (September 10th). Perry, who in recent years has also been performing with his side band Hollywood Vampires with Alice Cooper and actor Johnny Depp, is responsible for co-writing with Steven Tyler such timeless Aerosmith classics as “Same Old Song And Dance,” “Walk This Way,” “Toys In The Attic,” “Back In The Saddle,” “Draw The Line,” “Dude (Looks Like A Lady),” “Rag Doll,” “Love In An Elevator,” “What It Takes,” “Crazy,” and “Livin' On The Edge,” among others.
Joe Perry recently explained to us that he realized early on that Aerosmith provided a very specific thing for rock fans: “I always felt after the first generation went around and we started seein' the audience change from being our age to the next, I realized that we had to stick to our guns and it wasn't gonna be any, like, I mean all of a sudden punk is there, or disco, or whatever. Does that mean we gotta change our whole thing? It was kinda, like, 'We're gonna do our stuff.' I mean the first time was saw Kiss, we saw Kiss go down in the most amazing way. The audience loved 'em. So, we just stuck to our guns and kept writing songs and turned the guitars up.”
Back in 2015 upon the formation of the Vampires side-project, Joe Perry told us that was looking forward to the band growing into a solid working live outfit: “I’m an East Coast guy, y’know? I mean everybody else is kinda like, West Coast, or. . . So, to spend all the time in L.A. and to be part of this, it’s a real gas. And I know it’s something that Johnny’s wanted to do for a long time, actually have a band, y’know? And, y’know, we’re gonna put a lot of time into the rehearsals, so it won’t take anything but bring your guitar and show up.”
Joe Perry told us that — plain and simple — his love and appreciation for Steven Tyler is a constant in his life: “God, I mean, we raised our kids together, we took vacations together. He's done some pretty amazing things. He's also an amazing singer. So, like I said in my book, I know he's gonna be a handful, but I really wanna be in a band with this guy.”
