Aerosmith Guitarist Joe Perry Releasing Memoir
Guitarist Joe Perry is hoping to capitalize on America’s wont for rocker tales with his new book, Rocks: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith.
“It was time to lay all this stuff out,” Perry told The Boston Globe. “I was overwhelmed by the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll story being retold and retold with not a lot of depth behind it. Not that I wanted to write that kind of book anyway, but it just reinforced my feelings about the story I wanted to tell.”
“I just felt like I had to let all the walls down, and then make decisions after it was put out there. I didn’t want to edit it in my head and keep some kind of false pride, or project a certain image going into it. I wanted to lay it all out there and then edit it; otherwise, I felt like I would be doing the book a disservice. I felt like I had to be as vulnerable as I could be, and then figure out what was important.”
Working with Steven Tyler over several decades obviously drums up some wacky stuff, and Perry’s relationship with the singer has been classified as “rocky” at various times.
“I’m sure that Steven’s been from here to there on what could be in there, because I keep telling him, ‘I’m just telling the truth,’ Perry said. “And we kind of joke about it. There’ll be times where we’ll be doing an interview and we’re on the verge of an argument, and I’ll say, ‘Hey, remember, I’m writing my book.’ Then as the summer would go on, I’d say, ‘Hey, I’m going through the pictures now, so watch what you say.’ It’s kind of funny: We’ve had a laugh, but underneath there’s a little bit of tension there, and I can tell if anybody is going to be worried, it’s going to be him. Certainly our relationship has been the most talked about and very often misinterpreted.”
After recounting a story about losing his guitar and then coming up with the “Walk This Way” riff on its replacement, Perry acknowledged he’s pretty happy with the way things have worked out.
“You can’t really change anything, because you never know what lies in store,” he said. “Because if you changed one thing, that meant you’d be thinking a different way, and maybe that wouldn’t have served other decisions. You’ve got to look back at it and say, I had to make those mistakes to get to here.”