Aerosmith's Joe Perry a closet country fan
Aerosmith's Joe Perry a closet country fan
*JOHN GEROME*
*Associated Press*
*NASHVILLE, Tenn. - *Everybody knows Joe Perry rocks as lead guitarist of
Aerosmith, and even the casual listener can hear the blues influence in his
playing. But it turns out Perry is also a closet country fan who credits
Nashville pickers with getting him to turn down the distortion on his
guitar.
With Aerosmith taking a break this summer, Perry is promoting a new solo
album, his fourth, called simply "Joe Perry." He spoke with the AP recently
from his home near Boston.
AP: I hear you listen to quite a bit of country music.
Perry: There are guys in country music who are wizards on the guitar. If
you're a country fan, you're used to it. But as a rock guitar player, you
listen.
AP: Anything else about country songs that appeal to you?
Perry: Loud snare drum, simple melodies and great lyrics. The really pop
country stuff can sound a little bland because they put in strings and horns
and all of that. Some of the older, esoteric country I listen to a lot. With
satellite radio you can hear it. I think the "Oh Brother, (Where Art Thou?)"
stuff is kind of the best of that genre.
AP: Any favorite performers?
Perry: I've gone to see Toby Keith play a couple of times and really liked
it. The last one I heard that blew me away was the Biscuit Burners (a
bluegrass group from Asheville, N.C.). I've always liked that guy who plays
the double guitar (Junior Brown).
AP: You recorded a song with Willie Nelson several years ago.
Perry: Yeah, we had decided we were going to do a rock version of the song
and a slow country thing. I was anxious to do the country thing and he was
anxious to hear the rock stuff.
AP: Do you think your appreciation for country music shows in your records?
Perry: It's probably listening to country music that got me to start playing
a lot cleaner, not as distorted. I've been getting down with a Telecaster
and turning the amp up just enough to get that little crunch. I think some
of the lyrics on my solo album are influenced by the way country singers use
words, more matter-of-fact than metaphors. It's a more simplistic approach.
I don't say that in a demeaning way; it's just a different way to express
yourself.
AP: I know you're a big fan of blues music. Do you get to Memphis often?
Perry: I spend as much time in Memphis as I can. I travel by bus most of the
time now, and whenever Memphis is within 500 miles I go even if we're not
doing a gig there. I've got friends there, and I go to Graceland and to Sun
Studio. My dream is to record at Sun.
AP: Aerosmith has blended different styles of music into its songs better
than most rock bands - "Ragdoll" has jazz elements, "Crazy" a country feel,
"Big Ten Inch Record" swing. Do you think that gets overlooked?
Perry: A lot of people don't listen to the albums. They just listen to the
singles. So it's easy sometimes to dismiss us as a power ballad band. But
that's kind of like calling Led Zeppelin a heavy metal band.
AP: You wrote all the tracks on your new solo album except a cover of The
Doors' "Crystal Ship" and Woody Guthrie's "Vigilante Man," plus you sang and
played most of the instruments. Was it hard not having a co-writer this
time?
Perry: I had to step up to the plate on the lyric end of things a lot more
than usual. Usually I leave that up to Steven (Tyler) and toss him a line
every now and then.
AP: Your three previous solo albums were released after you had left
Aerosmith in 1979. Why put out a solo record now?
Perry: This one was done for totally different reasons. I have no intention
of leaving Aerosmith or anything like that. There was such a surplus of
tunes lying around. I was getting tired of hearing them. It got to the point
that I thought "When is this stuff ever going to come out? Will it become a
box set for my kids to put out?" I had a year off, and I just decided to do
it.
AP: Do you think it's harder today for a young rock band than it was in the
early 1970s?
Perry: I would have to say it was easier then because that kind of music was
more in vogue. If you were in a rock band there were clubs everywhere where
you could play rock music. Now the big money is in hip-hop, and there's that
kind of really polished, homogenized music. Even the so called "rock bands"
have a very homogenized kind of sound to them.
AP: Any advice for new bands?
Perry: Get good live and get a following because that's what people notice.
You can always pound out demos and send them to record companies, but most
of the successful bands I've seen are the ones that can sustain themselves.
*JOHN GEROME*
*Associated Press*
*NASHVILLE, Tenn. - *Everybody knows Joe Perry rocks as lead guitarist of
Aerosmith, and even the casual listener can hear the blues influence in his
playing. But it turns out Perry is also a closet country fan who credits
Nashville pickers with getting him to turn down the distortion on his
guitar.
With Aerosmith taking a break this summer, Perry is promoting a new solo
album, his fourth, called simply "Joe Perry." He spoke with the AP recently
from his home near Boston.
AP: I hear you listen to quite a bit of country music.
Perry: There are guys in country music who are wizards on the guitar. If
you're a country fan, you're used to it. But as a rock guitar player, you
listen.
AP: Anything else about country songs that appeal to you?
Perry: Loud snare drum, simple melodies and great lyrics. The really pop
country stuff can sound a little bland because they put in strings and horns
and all of that. Some of the older, esoteric country I listen to a lot. With
satellite radio you can hear it. I think the "Oh Brother, (Where Art Thou?)"
stuff is kind of the best of that genre.
AP: Any favorite performers?
Perry: I've gone to see Toby Keith play a couple of times and really liked
it. The last one I heard that blew me away was the Biscuit Burners (a
bluegrass group from Asheville, N.C.). I've always liked that guy who plays
the double guitar (Junior Brown).
AP: You recorded a song with Willie Nelson several years ago.
Perry: Yeah, we had decided we were going to do a rock version of the song
and a slow country thing. I was anxious to do the country thing and he was
anxious to hear the rock stuff.
AP: Do you think your appreciation for country music shows in your records?
Perry: It's probably listening to country music that got me to start playing
a lot cleaner, not as distorted. I've been getting down with a Telecaster
and turning the amp up just enough to get that little crunch. I think some
of the lyrics on my solo album are influenced by the way country singers use
words, more matter-of-fact than metaphors. It's a more simplistic approach.
I don't say that in a demeaning way; it's just a different way to express
yourself.
AP: I know you're a big fan of blues music. Do you get to Memphis often?
Perry: I spend as much time in Memphis as I can. I travel by bus most of the
time now, and whenever Memphis is within 500 miles I go even if we're not
doing a gig there. I've got friends there, and I go to Graceland and to Sun
Studio. My dream is to record at Sun.
AP: Aerosmith has blended different styles of music into its songs better
than most rock bands - "Ragdoll" has jazz elements, "Crazy" a country feel,
"Big Ten Inch Record" swing. Do you think that gets overlooked?
Perry: A lot of people don't listen to the albums. They just listen to the
singles. So it's easy sometimes to dismiss us as a power ballad band. But
that's kind of like calling Led Zeppelin a heavy metal band.
AP: You wrote all the tracks on your new solo album except a cover of The
Doors' "Crystal Ship" and Woody Guthrie's "Vigilante Man," plus you sang and
played most of the instruments. Was it hard not having a co-writer this
time?
Perry: I had to step up to the plate on the lyric end of things a lot more
than usual. Usually I leave that up to Steven (Tyler) and toss him a line
every now and then.
AP: Your three previous solo albums were released after you had left
Aerosmith in 1979. Why put out a solo record now?
Perry: This one was done for totally different reasons. I have no intention
of leaving Aerosmith or anything like that. There was such a surplus of
tunes lying around. I was getting tired of hearing them. It got to the point
that I thought "When is this stuff ever going to come out? Will it become a
box set for my kids to put out?" I had a year off, and I just decided to do
it.
AP: Do you think it's harder today for a young rock band than it was in the
early 1970s?
Perry: I would have to say it was easier then because that kind of music was
more in vogue. If you were in a rock band there were clubs everywhere where
you could play rock music. Now the big money is in hip-hop, and there's that
kind of really polished, homogenized music. Even the so called "rock bands"
have a very homogenized kind of sound to them.
AP: Any advice for new bands?
Perry: Get good live and get a following because that's what people notice.
You can always pound out demos and send them to record companies, but most
of the successful bands I've seen are the ones that can sustain themselves.
| Permalink | E-mail this post 
