Over the years, Joe Perry has put together a seriously impressive guitar collection that, at one point, was recorded as 600 electric guitars and acoustic guitars. However, there is one particular guitar that he let go many years ago that he still wishes was in his possession.

In an interview with Guitarist, the Aerosmith guitarist was quizzed over whether he’d ever sold a guitar that he now particularly regrets parting ways with.

The story involves an unassuming red Hofner Stratocaster clone that was purchased on the road, which Perry used back in the 1990s to serenade the Lake Sunapee locals on 4th of July each year with a rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner.

“I did that for a couple of years with that particular guitar, and as the years went on the guitar ended up getting back with my main collection,” Perry reflects. “I was kinda in one of those moods at the end of the tour, and I had like 400 of these guitars that I never played.

“I said, ‘I gotta get rid of some of these things. It’s time to clean house a little bit.’ I earmarked a few guitars to go and somehow that guitar got on the list.

“And like three or four months later, I found out that it was gone and was like, ‘Next time, I gotta pay more attention to this. I’m not getting rid of anything else for a while.’

However, Perry would cross paths with the Hofner S-type again a few years later – when it was presented to him at a train station by the fan who got their hands on the six-string.

“A couple of years later, we’re on the bullet train in Japan, and as the bullet train is pulling out 30 or 40 people follow us up there. As the train was moving along, I saw a kid holding that guitar out for me to sign it.

“But the train was already moving, slowly pulling out, and the kid was holding it out with a Magic Marker. I’m thinking, ‘Man, I gotta get the kid’s number to see if I could buy it back or trade it for something else,’ because it did have some sentimental value, you know?

“But we were off to the next city, and at that point I didn’t have any ideas about how to get in touch with the guy. I suppose I could have tracked him down through the fan club and tried to figure out who it was, but it was lost.”

Perry hopes the story will have a happy ending, though, and is holding out hope that he may be reunited with the Hofner at some point in the future.

“I’ll buy it back. I’ll trade it for something else, you know? It would be fun to get that back. And again, that was one of those off-the-wall, not exactly the hippest guitar of the month.

“But it sounded pretty cool and it had a really good neck. It was more about the sentimental things. I regret having lost that.”

This is just one example of Perry letting go of a guitar he later wished he kept hold of. Speaking to Total Guitar, he revealed the golden-era Aerosmith guitar he misses the most.

Joe Perry loves guitars. But not just Les Pauls, Strats, and Teles; he loves weird, interesting, custom jobs, too.

This leads us to Dazzle Guitars, an independent guitar maker with whom Perry has hooked up over the last few years to, well, dazzling results.

True to their name, Dazzle’s axes are undeniably eye-catching. What’s more, according to Perry, they sound pretty great, too.

They’re the sort of guitars that remind you of many different things, but you can’t quite put your finger on it, which seems to be working just fine for Perry, who uses the guitars on stage and in the studio.

As for the rest, we’ll let Joe take it away.

What’s the story with the custom guitars you’ve recently built with Dazzle?

I’ve got a couple. I was introduced to a guy named Cody Henderson, who builds guitars and owns Dazzle.

If you’ve seen any of the shows Aerosmith did in Las Vegas or at Fenway Park in Boston, I played a guitar that basically looked like plexiglass but was milky in color, and it lit up with what looked like Christmas lights on the inside of it wherever there was space on the face of the body.

That one was opaque plastic, and the lights were powered by a battery pack and a transformer. With all that shit taped to the guitar, it would last only a few minutes, so I would only use it for one song.

But Cody also had regular ones without all that, and those look really cool. They’ve got a double cutaway, so it’s a different look. It doesn’t look like a Les Paul or a Strat – but it doesn’t look too wacky, either.

How do they play?

They play great! You can get to every fret, so it’s like an SG in that way, and he put the Vega-Trem vibrato on there. Since we’ve stopped touring, I’ve had a chance to play them, and I’m really impressed with the build quality.

Cody is a player and has his own band, so he knows what it’s like to have an electric guitar in his hands. He knows what it’s like to stand in front of an audience and that you need to make sure everything works. They’re just really cool guitars.

Is there an off-the-beaten-path guitar you’ve always thought was underrated?

I’m not a guitar snob. I don’t care if it just came off the bench yesterday. If it feels right, sounds right and checks the boxes, I’ll play it. But I’ve always liked Vox teardrop [Mark series] guitars because they're cool-looking.

I remember pictures of Brian Jones playing one back when Vox was handing out equipment left and right, when they started out. I’ve played a couple, and they’re not hot, output-wise, but they definitely have their own sound.

I’ve got a couple of them, but I’m not gonna take a ’60s Vox and start cutting it up; you can’t do that. [Laughs] There were people in the ’70s, me included, who were doing pretty stupid things like that.

Can you reveal some of those atrocities?

Things like getting a goldtop and scraping off the gold, only to find a very plain piece of maple underneath. If we had thought it through, we would have realized, “Well, they know this is gonna get painted over, so why would they put a beautiful maple top on this?”

But you hear these stories of someone scraping off the gold, and there was a great piece of maple underneath, although I don’t personally know of anyone who had that happen. And we’d change pickups out a lot – things like taking out a PAF and putting in a hotter Seymour Duncan.

In your defence, these guitars weren’t considered halcyon in the way they are now. Time has done that.

Looking back, it’s one thing to do that with a “parts” guitar; that’s why I like having the Rat guitar, the Burned Strat. If the Dremel slips and I put a gouge in it, it’s no big deal. But you’re not gonna take a ’57 Strat and start mucking around with it and then totally wreck it, you know?

I guess if you’re not gonna play it, and something is holding it up, you can change it. You don’t know how much that’ll knock off the value of the guitar, but you’ll get to play it, so maybe it’s worth doing. It’s one of those conundrums.

But I got a Vox teardrop reissue for maybe $500, and I tore everything out and off except for the neck. Me and Cody put a Vega-Trem vibrato arm and trem on it and some P-Rail pickups, and we experimented by putting a boost on it — built-in. It didn’t work out well. [Laughs]

Why is that?

We were losing too much tone, so we decided against it. It actually plays really well, but since Aerosmith has stopped touring, my opportunities to pull out that guitar and play it are few and far between, so it’s sitting in my studio.

I play it quite a bit, and if you didn’t know any better, you’d think it was an average Vox teardrop guitar. But the whammy bar does everything I want it to do, and it sounds great.

If you didn’t have any of your noteworthy guitars and just picked up something random, would that inherent knowhow guide you?

I’m not a technique guy. I play guitar to play the song. That’s it. That’s why the guitar really exploded, you know? It was a lot of fun to go into mom-and-pop guitar stores and find them in every city. If you had a family shop that had been around for decades for a generation or two, there was always something in the back, some weird thing.

God knows there’s enough custom stuff out there, but sometimes you’ll see something you haven’t seen before. Those are the kinds of things I look for. There might be that guitar or amp you find, and you might use it on a track when you’re looking for a particular sound. You just never know!

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If you’ve seen Joe Perry do his thing with his Project, The Hollywood Vampires, or Aerosmith over the last few decades, then there’s more than a fair chance you’ve seen him playing a mouth-wateringly beautiful black Gibson Les Paul Junior with hard-to-miss mother-of-pearl inlay.

Of course, the guitar didn’t ship that way from Gibson's factory back in the ‘50s, nor was it that way when Perry got hold of it in the late ‘70s. In fact, Perry never intended it to be that way at all, but after he busted the headstock during an Aerosmith show – and after Steven Tyler nearly fed its remains to the ravenous audience – Perry was forced to pivot.

This leads to the Junior’s revival, and its current state. As for the details, we’ll leave those for Joe to reveal below.

What’s the story behind your black Gibson Junior double-cutaway with the hard-to-miss pearl inlay?

I’m pretty sure it’s a ’56. It’s one of those Juniors that started off with cherry stain, but it wasn’t a burst – it was just a cherry stain. It’s got one P-90. I actually had two of them in the mid-’70s, like the ones Johnny Thunders and Leslie West played. They’re killer guitars. It’s just volume, tone and a P90, and it screams. I was lucky enough to get two of them.

You broke one of those guitars while on stage, correct?

Yeah. We were doing a show at a festival and I threw this thing up in the air at the end of a song. This was before wireless, so it went to the end of the patch cord and came down on the neck – and the headstock snapped off.

I remember thinking as it was going up in the air, “Wow, I can’t believe it. That looks so cool.” And then, on the way down, I was thinking, “Holy shit, what did I do?” [Laughs]

After it came down and was broken, Steven grabbed it and wanted to throw it out into the audience, so I had to wrestle him for it. [Laughs] I knew we could fix it, you know? I got it back and gave the pieces to my guy, and the show went on.

Did you add the pearl inlay after you repaired the headstock?

I had some marble gargoyles in the backyard of the house I was living in, and I took some Polaroid photos of them and sent them to Gruhn Guitars in Nashville to see if we could incorporate them. A lot of people think the picture on there is a decal, but it’s all mother-of-pearl inlay work, and it’s still a killer guitar. It sounds great, and it’s one that comes to the studio with me as well as on the road.

I still have its brother, and that one is all original except for the chrome Grovers that pretty much everybody put on their ’50s and ’60s Gibsons if the tuning pegs started to rot, which they did quite a bit.

You’ve got hundreds of guitars. Given your love for tinkering and open-mindedness regarding tones, do you think you’ll ever find one guitar to rule them all?

My rat guitar, the Burned Strat, pretty much checks all of the boxes. It takes a guitar a while to settle in because they’re not designed to play with really light strings. I’m making generalizations here, but Strats and Les Pauls were designed to have heavier-gauge strings. I bet when you took a Tele out of the box in the ’50s, it had flatwound strings on it. [Laughs]

I’m sure Joe Bonamassa could tell you more about that than I could, but they were designed to have heavier strings – and not really roundwound. But over the years, we’ve managed to adapt and deal with that, so it takes a while if you’re gonna use the vibrato bar, and not just to divebomb. It takes a while for the guitar to settle in.

Have you found that since you’ve gone to lighter strings and the Vega-Trem that the Burned Strat has come into its own?

Yeah. The lighter the strings, the harder it is to get that to work. When you get a Strat-style guitar with that type of bridge, it takes a while for things to settle in. I don’t know… maybe that’s part of the voodoo, if you want to put it that way. So, with that guitar, if I’m doing a show, I can do things where I can trust it and count on it.

I know it’s gonna stay in tune. Of course, you never know if you’re gonna break a string, and with a floating bridge, when that happens, you’re fucked. [Laughs] It’s a roll of the dice, but I trust that guitar. I would use that one, even when I have access to all of my stuff.

At the end of the day, when it comes to “desert island guitars,” it’s a matter of taste. It’s not one-size-fits-all.

Right. It’s about what you’re looking for as far as the song. I’m driven by the song, you know?

I have a couple of hardcore rules, like when you’re playing live, you follow the singer. And if the song starts to sound like a trainwreck because somebody fucked up, just follow the singer and it’ll be less noticeable.

Hopefully, there’s a certain amount of charm to having a trainwreck onstage. [Laughs] If anything, it proves we’re not playing to a tape. The other thing is, like I said before, there are no wrong sounds. There might be a wrong sound for a particular song, but you keep searching until you find the right one. I have guitars that I paid $100 for, and they’re on some of our biggest hits. They worked in that particular situation.

Has anything new, gear-wise, caught your ear or eye?

I get guitar magazines all the time. I get Guitar World, and I look at the back pages for new pedals and whatever else, just messing around with different speakers and things. They all go down in the book, you know, in the back of my mind. I’m not organized enough to actually have everything in files on a computer, but I know where to get a particular sound or feel. It’s all built around what works for the song.

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The ’80s were a period of pointy excess when it came to guitars. Guitarists of all shapes and sizes were slinging sharp-edged axes over their shoulders and shredding to glory.

No-one could escape it, nor did they want to. Not even an old-school rocker like Joe Perry could resist, which is why when it came time for Aerosmith to show its mettle to a new generation of rock – and hip-hop – loving fans, he chose the Guild X-100 Blade Runner.

You may remember this electric guitar from the music video for the rebooted version of Walk This Way, in which Aerosmith teamed up with Run-DMC. And since then, while it’s not Perry's main squeeze, he does break it out during his solo shows, and continues to show affection for it when he looks back, which he does below.

I’ve always wondered about the Guild X-100 Blade Runner, which you used in the Walk This Way video with Run-D.M.C. in 1986.

That one falls under the category of, “Holy shit, this is too cool-looking to believe.” [Laughs] It has EMG pickups; I’m not a big fan of those, but I get the philosophy behind them, and they are really cool. That’s just what came in there, and even though I’m not into EMGs, there isn’t a piece of equipment I can put down, because you just never know.

Your philosophy of “there are no wrong tones” comes to mind.

There are no wrong sounds. Even if you put a patch cord in and it’s crackling, you never know! That crackling sound could turn into a rhythm track, so my philosophy, as you said, is that there are no wrong sounds or tones. And with the X-100, I played it because it sounded cool, and there was just something about it.

And for certain sounds, man, those EMGs are great. I can get a great heavy sound out of them, and I tried different versions of them, and for what they are, they’re great.

How did you get the Guild, and what led you to use it in the Run-D.M.C. video?

We were doing Done with Mirrors [1985] when we were getting back together, and Guild was trying to make a comeback. The Guild rep would come by our rehearsal space and show me a few pieces.

And as soon as I saw the Blade Runner, I said, “That’s mine. I gotta have that.” I mean, it’s too cool. It’s the ultimate pointy guitar. [Laughs] That’s why I used it in the video. It’s an iconic shape, and it’s kind of light. They cut the wood all away, and it’s full of holes, so it’s comfortable to play.

I was actually trying to find a spare, but when I looked around, I couldn’t find another original one, so I had a company build me an exact copy of mine. I wanted one I could bring on the road and not be afraid of getting it stolen. That’s another one that checks all the boxes. For certain sounds and songs, you can’t beat it, and for looks, it’s amazing.

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Are you bored with typical Sun and Tobacco Burst Les Pauls? Joe Perry sure was by the ‘90s, which is why he hooked up with Gibson’s Custom Shop around the release of Aerosmith's Get a Grip, and created what would be dubbed the “Black Burst.”

The result was a guitar with a neck and weight that felt like a ‘50s Les Paul, but with a body featuring no binding and a slick finish inspired by a rare breed of horse. Beyond that, the curio had a battery-powered onboard wah effect triggered via a push/pull and pickups wound to Perry’s spec.

This led to a partnership with Gibson in 1996 and ’97, during which the Black Burst received a wide release as Perry’s first signature guitar. Since then, Perry has teamed up with Gibson a few more times, but the model remains one of the more distinct Gibsons in the Aerosmith man's enviable collection. Dig in while Joe tells GW about the guitar.

A guitar you played a lot around the Get a Grip and Nine Lives eras – but that doesn’t get talked about much these days – is your Black Burst, which started out as a Custom Shop build and later inspired your first signature guitar.

That’s right. After I’d had the guitar, Gibson approached me to do a signature since there were a fair amount of pictures of me playing a black Les Paul.

I had some horses at a farm in Vermont, and I fell in love with this breed called a Friesian, which are solid black, from Holland. They’re pretty rare. I’d go to horse shows, and I managed to find a farm that had one or two, but what stood out about them was that they have long manes, and the manes are curly and just look beautiful. I wanted to kind of get that look on a guitar, which called for a really good maple top and a relatively light burst.

What’s noteworthy about your signature Les Paul is that it felt classic but looked very modern, complete with some interesting onboard effects.

Jimmy Page had put out a signature Les Paul, and he had it wired up with some different wiring, and I figured, “What’s the point of putting out just another plain old Les Paul?”

I came across this company called Chandler Guitars in San Francisco; they were known for collecting linoleum, oyster shells from Europe, and even tortoise shells with amazing colors and patterns.

This stuff was incredible. But another thing they’d perfected was a push/pull knob for the tone control, where you’d be able to put on a wah effect when it was popped out. You could set it and hold the note, and then bend up and pop that thing on and get the wah-wah effect when it was time to cut a solo. It was just another taste, really.

Were there challenges in making that work?

I told Gibson I wanted one of those on my signature model, and they said, “Okay, we’ll look at the one Chandler has, and then we’ll reverse-engineer it and put our version on it.” But a couple of months later, they came back and said, “We really can’t get it right,” though I’m not sure they put enough time into it.

But who knows? They said, “We really can’t reproduce it the way Chandler does,” so they went to Chandler and bought all of the ones they had in stock, which I’ve heard was anywhere from 100 to 250.

So the first run of those guitars have that in it. If you can get one that has that, which they call the Tonex, the push/pull knob for the wah, that’s gold.

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If you’re looking for the perfect guitar for slide, then, as per Joe Perry, look no further than an Ampeg-era Dan Armstrong.

According to Perry, the guitar’s composition, fit, and finish make it the pick for when he needs to get dirty, gritty, bluesy, and slide tones.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that said guitar – which is also a favorite of the Rolling Stones – is a stunner. Its unique see-through looks make it a six-string like no other.

It’s for these reasons and more that Perry chose it back in the day and still goes to it now.

Your see-through Dan Armstrong is pretty rare. They’re going for big bucks these days.

I think they reissued those. Well, maybe they’re bootleg Chinese ones, because I see them pop up every now and then. I figured somebody had to be out there making them, but they didn’t make many in the beginning.

What led you to pick up that guitar?

I remember being in a music store in, like, 1971, and because the Rolling Stones were using all Ampeg stuff, and I’d seen pictures of Keith Richards playing it, I figured I’d try one out. As it turned out, it’s solid as a rock.

The neck doesn’t move, and it stays in tune, so it’s been a really good slide guitar for me. It’s actually my go-to for slide.

Did you modify it?

With the clear-body one, if you could get the right pickup in there – because some of the pickups they came with weren’t great – it was good. I had somebody build a little thing so I could put a Seymour Duncan in there, but now it’s straight-up original with the original pickups, which sound really good.

I use that guitar when I play in open A or open G. They have a great feel and a flatter neck radius, which really lends itself to slide. They are great, cool-looking guitars, so it checks both boxes.

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We all have ways of letting our significant others know we love them. Some of us err toward flowers, while others bestow jewelry. Hell, a nice dinner will usually suffice, right? All that is fine and dandy, but Joe Perry has a different way of showing his wife Billie his affection – a guitar with her face painted across it, of course.

Enter the “Billie Guitar,” a Gibson B.B. King model, which, back in the day, and with the help of Gibson, Perry had torn down and built back up to his favored specs – and with his wife’s face painted on as a cherry on top. If this sounds at all intriguing, then dig in as Perry tells Guitar World the story of the “Billie Guitar.”

There’s also the one you’ve dubbed the “Billie Guitar” because it has a picture of your wife, Billie, on the body.

I got that in the Nineties. The main reason for that guitar is that I love history, and I was looking back and fascinated by what they call “nose art.” Pilots would have artwork on the nose of their planes in World Wars I and II, and it would be pictures of their favorite movie starlet or their wife, and they’d name the plane after them.

I thought, “Why not do that with my guitar?” That was the main reason I picked that body style – the B.B. King Lucille body. It doesn’t have F-holes; I wanted something with plenty of room for the artwork.

Who did the artwork?

[Aerosmith drummer] Joey Kramer’s drum tech, John Douglas. He’s also a painter, and his artwork is online, so you can look it up. I took some pictures of Billie with a Polaroid and got the guitar from Gibson, who were in on the plot. I had them paint it pearl white but without the final touches so that John could paint it.

There’s a picture on the front of the guitar and on the back, and I picked white because I thought the artwork would stand out. Again, I was driven by the visuals. [Laughs] After John painted it, it went back to Gibson, and they put the neck and their touches on it and finished it with the electronics and this and that. That happened in Nashville, where I got to go to the factory and check out the stuff at the Custom Shop.

What did Billie think of it when she saw it?

She had no idea this was going on. [Laughs] Billie just stood there for a second, and they came out with this guitar case and said, “Close your eyes.” We opened it up, and she turned beet red. Long story short, she wouldn’t come out when I’d put the guitar on; she’d kind of leave the side of the stage because she was so embarrassed about it.

She’s not somebody who looks for the spotlight, but she got used to it. Sometimes I would stand out at the end of the ramp, and the girls in the crowd would point to the picture on the guitar and want to know who it was. I’d point to my wedding ring, and they would melt. [Laughs] They thought it was so romantic!

It’s become a staple of your arsenal when you play Cryin’, so it must be solid.

It turned out that the guitar sounded great. Having the minimum amount of electronics in there, and the pickups, which are hot‑rodded Seymour Duncan JBs, really worked. There’s just something about it; that guitar has some magic to it. It’s one of my top touring guitars, and I’ve used it in the studio a lot, too.

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Joe Perry has shown us his electric guitars. The 10-string B.C. Rich Supreme, “the Rat” Strat he put in the freezer, the ’59 Les Paul Standard and the rest of them. He has shown us his guitar amps, giving GW a decade-by-decade guide to his backline choices.

Now it’s time for the floor show, as the Aerosmith guitarists talks all thinks stompbox, reveals what he typically keeps on his pedalboard – and what he can’t live without.

What pedals are you using these days?

It’s really just my pedals strung together on the floor, but you’ll get the idea of what my show ’board is like. The show ’board is packed away with all the touring gear. But whenever I can get doubles, I do.

Obviously, this isn't possible with the old stuff. For instance, I have an old Electro-Harmonix Queen Triggered Wah – a unique-sounding pedal. It took me years to find a second one.

Do you have all your vintage pedals at home?

Most of my vintage pedals are up at the Aerosmith warehouse. I mostly use that stuff in the studio because very few have direct bypass, though some pieces have been updated with that feature. I’m able to find relatively new stuff that can do the job.

I have a pristine Echoplex, but Fulltone makes a copy [Custom Shop Tube Tape Echo] that can't be beat. It’s the best tape echo out there. They even interchange the tape cartridges with Echoplexes. I have five of them!

Why do you feel the Fulltone comes closest?

The Fulltone’s preamp acts like a boost pedal but also adds true tape warmth. Set it with one repeat and almost no delay, and it thickens your sound and adds a little “it”! For that style of playing, it’s a killer setup.

What mistakes do you see other players make with pedals?

There’s a big difference between a distortion and a boost pedal. If your amp doesn’t have a master volume and gain control, you might need a boost pedal to get some hair on the sound.

Most pedals are a combination of boost/distortion, so you can add distortion as an effect and just a boost. But most modern amps distort if you turn them up. If they have a master volume, you should be able to get your basic sound without help from a pedal – and certainly not from a boost pedal.

Why is that?

The boost is meant to kick the amp’s preamp into distortion. If you’re looking for a saturated sound, a la Eddie Van Halen and the shredders, you might use a couple of pedals to get that sound.

But that’s what you need to accommodate that style of playing. For that, the actual tone of the guitar doesn't matter. You could use a ’59 PAF, a new Seymour Duncan JB, or anything in between.

What if you don't want that?

If you really want to hear the tone of your guitar – your Strat, Tele, Les Paul Junior with P-90s – you set your amp to a really “right on the edge of breakup,” cleanish sound, so that you hear your guitar tone. Then add a pedal for your “more” sound. Too many people use too many drive/distortion pedals and wonder, “Where’s my tone?”

How do you control that with minimal pedals?

You should be able to use your guitar's volume knob to control your sound rather than having the volume knob all the way up. Because as soon as you drop it a bit, your sound goes away. You should be able to drop the guitar’s volume and get a real usable, tone-rich sound.

Of course, that’s assuming you have a high-quality volume knob; I've had volume knobs that act almost like an on/off switch, which is junk. [Laughs] In my world, less is more as far as boost and distortion pedals, but it’s up to you [in terms of] what works for you.

Do you have a personal methodology in terms of setting up your pedalboard?

I don’t know what the general rule on this is, but I like to put reverb and delay pedals closest to the amp. In terms of my “always on” pedals, like compression, my guitar goes there first. The rest is trial and error. You might find that when you use a fuzz, it works better after your flanger. It might add harmonics and sustain that turns the flanger into a different beast.

So, aside from the compressor first and the reverb and delay, I try different orders. But I recently got a replica of an old British fuzz; it was recommended [to be placed] before a compressor. I tried it, but it didn’t work for me. Something to think about.

Is there another pedal you always have on your board?

A Warm Audio Jet Phaser. It has a flange and a fuzz built in, but it also needs a volume boost. When it’s on, the volume drops, so – depending on the song – I might put a clean boost right after it. I might hit the boost pedal when I hit the Jet Phaser.

Do you have any other staple, “gotta have it” pedals?

I have an original Klon – three or four of them – and I can’t go anywhere without it. I’ve got a Fulltone [MDV-3 Deja] Vibe. It’s kind of like the original. I have an original, but I like having them both. And getting to what I “have to have,” there’s the Fulltone version of the Echoplex. I had it tweaked by the guys at Fulltone, and it sounds as good as or better than the original – without all the fuss.

I’ve also got a Prescription Electronics Experience fuzz/octave. It’s kind of like the Jimi Hendrix thing. I’ve also got a modified EHX POG [Polyphonic Octave Generator] with an expression pedal that I use to bring it from bass to treble with my foot.

I have a real Tone Bender fuzz, but I’ve been using the Warm Audio Warm Bender Fuzz with true bypass. I’ve also got an Xotic Effects XW-1 Wah modified with a short throw, so it goes from bass to treble. It's just a great-sounding wah.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

When you think of Joe Perry, images of his ’59 Les Paul, Rich Bich, or “Billie Guitar” come to mind. But if you were to ask Perry which guitar he turns to most often whilst recording and live, that would be the mongrel Strat that he’s dubbed the “Rat Guitar.”

You might also know this guitar as the “Burned Strat,” or the “Tele Rat,” names which seem contradictory, but as you’ll hear from the man himself, if you look back on the well-worn guitar’s history, it will all make sense.

You seem to be especially attached to a mongrel dubbed the “Burned Strat.” It’s been altered a lot over the years.

It’s kind of a work in progress. The inspiration for putting it together was when I left the band, I put most of my Aerosmith guitars aside and basically put this guitar together out of Warmoth parts.

I was going back to playing clubs and theaters, just cruising the country in a van with a band and playing. In a way, that guitar fit in with my philosophy of leaving the Aerosmith thing to the side and playing this one guitar that I’d put together. You can tell it was played a lot because I did a lot of shows back then, and there’s just a sound and a feel to it.

It had a left-handed neck and body, and it was my go-to guitar for those three years. When it was time to start going back on the road with Aerosmith, I thought, “Well, I’ll pull that one out” because it symbolized so much of me; it had a sound and felt really comfortable.

That guitar was the inspiration for the current Burned Strat, right?

Yeah. I didn’t want to take a chance on the original guitar being lost, so somewhere around 2001, me and my tech put another one together with the same philosophy – just bits and pieces, you know?

What does that guitar actually consist of?

It’s the same guitar as far as the Fender body and Warmoth neck. It’s kind of a relic; I’ve changed the pickups, the vibrato bar and the bridge. I carved off more of the body to make it comfortable, and I even put it in the freezer overnight and then took a blowtorch to it so the finish would crackle, which gave it a jump-start to the way it would look over the years.

I’ve taken a Dremel to it for different reasons, just to make it a little more of this or that. [Laughs] There’s a company called Vega-Trem, which did the tremolo; it’s basically a refined version of the bridge Leo Fender designed, but it’s machined a little better. So I can divebomb on it and use it as another musical tool – but I also can get the classic vibrato sound.

Based on a few photos, it appears you swapped the pickups fairly recently for a pair of Seymour Duncan P-Rails. How do you like them?

They’re great. Each one has a P90 and a Strat-style pickup in it; those two sit in a humbucker slot [Seymour Duncan’s website describes P-Rails as "versatile humbucker pickups that combine a Hot Rails coil with a Vintage P90"].

We went from three pickups to two, but with those pickups, there are really four positions, and you can switch them with the microswitches we added. I can have the pickups separate or together, and the toggle lets me pick which one I want and when. I can pretty much do anything on that guitar.

You played that guitar at the MTV Video Music Awards with Steven Tyler and Yungblud last year. Did you also use it on the recent One More Time EP?

Absolutely. On the EP we did with Yungblud, everything you hear I did with that guitar and just a few foot pedals. I think that shows the variety of tones you can get out of it.

It’s got fat frets, and I use a hybrid set of strings with it because it has that vibrato; it’s like a light set of .09’s on the top, and then a set of .08’s on the bottom. That way, I can bend notes the way I want, and it also saves my hands because the arthritis is starting to kick in, but it’s nothing I can’t play through. At this point, it is and will continue to be my “desert island guitar,” but you never know. [Laughs]

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Joe Perry has opened up on how he’s had to change his gear picks as he battles the impact of early arthritis on his playing style.

The 75-year-old Aerosmith electric guitar legend has been slinging a six-string for a fair amount of time now, and he’s now at the point where his age is starting to rear its head. And, like most players who are battling certain ailments that come with age, Perry is beginning to feel the effects of arthritis.

Arthritis is a common condition that comes with age, resulting in pain, inflammation and stiffness in joints. It can lead to reduced motion, swelling, discomfort, and – for guitar players – an increased difficulty to move around the fretboard.

Of course, Perry isn’t alone with this struggle. Keith Richards has been open about his own struggles, recently telling Guitar World how he’s had to refine his guitar setup in order to prolong his playing days.

In a soon-to-be-published interview with Guitar World, Perry discusses how his own arthritis struggle is informing his playing style, revealing he’s pivoted to new strings to compensate for his diminishing pliability.

When asked about his Fender/Warmoth “Burned Strat” – aka the “Rat Strat”, which featured during his MTV VMA Awards performance with Yungblud – Perry says, “On the EP we did with Yungblud, everything you hear I did with that guitar and just a few foot pedals. I think that shows the variety of tones you can get out of it.

“It’s got fat frets, and I use a hybrid set of strings with it because it has that vibrato; it’s like a light set of .09’s on the top, and then a set of .08’s on the bottom.

“That way, I can bend notes the way I want, and it also saves my hands because the arthritis is starting to kick in, but it’s nothing I can’t play through. At this point, it is and will continue to be my “desert island guitar,” but you never know.”

Guitar World's full interview with Joe Perry will be published this coming Monday (April 6).

In the late ’70s, B.C. Rich, with all its pointy and wacky-shaped guitars, was giving out guitars like weary-eyed parents to children on Halloween. Aerosmith’s Joe Perry was given one such guitar, a bright red B.C. Rich 10 Supreme.

The guitar has become wholly associated with Perry, though by his own admission, he hardly played it with Aerosmith. Yet he was shown with the guitar slung over his shoulder on the cover of Aerosmith’s Live Bootleg record.

These days, Perry always takes it on the road with him, as he too understands the guitar’s connection to his persona. It’s with that in mind that Perry dialed in with Guitar World to look back on his relationship with his Rich Bich.

What’s the story behind your 10-string B.C. Rich?

When I started my relationship with B.C. Rich, they were different-looking guitars, but you could tell they were built really well. The neck went all the way through the body, and they had all these touches, and it sounded incredible.

I thought B.C. Rich was definitely top-notch as far as workmanship. The only thing that bothered me about them was that they had all these switches and, like, three boosts, which was kind of overkill because they had some pretty good PAF reproductions in there.

You didn’t need three boosts, so there was a lot going on. After one of mine was stolen, I didn’t have time to go to the factory and talk to them, so they just kind of handed me the next guitar, which was this 10-string.

What did you think of it?

I guessed the theory was that if you set it up with the right strings, you could play it with more attitude than a regular guitar. You could get vibrato off the strings and do things you normally wouldn’t do – and experiment.

It really worked for some things because as soon as you bend the strings, they don’t bend in tune, so there are certain places where it works and others where it doesn’t.

Did you eventually get comfortable with the onboard electronics?

There was a period where I unhooked all the electronics except for the volume and one tone knob. I kept hitting all the other switches and knocking the boost on when I already had a fuzz pedal on, so I thought, “Maybe I’ll cut that stuff out and the guitar will breathe a little more.”

But I eventually put it back to the original specs. Also, for a short period of time, I took off the extra four strings and played it like a normal six-string, but that kinda defeated the purpose.

You used it with Aerosmith, but it was one of your main guitars after you launched the Joe Perry Project in the ’80s.

I played it on a few Aerosmith songs in the studio when I first got it, and I played it live a bit. But it was kind of near the end before I left, so it was funny that it ended up in the photo on the Live! Bootleg album.

I was surprised, considering how [infrequently] I played that guitar, but it became one of the top three guitars associated with me. [Laughs] I still work it into a couple of songs in the set because nothing else sounds like it.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Some guitar greats are historically associated with one guitar and one amp. But Joe Perry is not one of them. This guy plugs a host of iconic guitars into all sorts of amps; well, let’s make that all sorts of tube amps. Beyond that, he likes to play the field.

“I’m not an amp snob,” he says. “I won’t say I can’t use this or that amp. I’m gonna give everything a try. You never know what you’re gonna discover. Some of the oddest guitars and amps I have are ones I’ve used on some of my favorite songs. You just don’t know.”

It’s that philosophy that has kept Perry merrily bouncing from amp to amp. Be it Ampeg, Music Man, Fender or Alessandro, he has tried – and loved (to varying degrees) – them all. Still, as amp-curious as he is, he always seems to come home to Marshall.

“You can put Marshall down for every decade,” he says, foreshadowing the list below. “There’d be times in the studio or for a one-off gig, and you’d have to rent something, and it was usually a Marshall. Back in the day, it’d be a roll of the dice because you didn’t know if they were taken care of. But if you were lucky, and you got a good one, they were great.”

It’s with that in mind that we turn it over to Perry to guide us through his amp choices throughout the decades.

1970s

For the first Aerosmith album [1973’s Aerosmith], I used an Ampeg V4. I probably used that for the first couple of tours, too. I didn’t want to sound like everybody else, and everyone was using Gibson Les Pauls and Fender Strats with Marshalls, so I used the Ampeg because you were pretty much in the same range, but it sounded a little different. But it really comes down to how you play.

Everybody sounds a little different, and the go-to amps for the kind of music we were playing were [meant] to give you a little more, to reference This Is Spinal Tap, “11”! [Laughs] But I always liked that early rig because it wasn’t too distorted or too loud. When that happens, you lose the tone of the guitar.

We had Marshalls, too, but in the late ’70s, the longest-tenured amps we had for touring were some of the first Music Mans. Leo Fender had basically sold Fender, and he started Music Man. He put out an amp that was about the size of a [Fender] Twin, and it was a 100-watt head.

We got lucky and had a couple of the first ones, and they were pretty loud. For at least a year’s worth of touring, we were pretty much using only those Music Man amps and heads [HD-130 heads customized by Andy Topeka].

We had them made with LED lights – a string of them – so the harder you’d hit the amp, the more the lights would light up. It was kind of cool. And we had the Aerosmith logo on them; we still have a couple of them around.

1980s

I often had vintage Marshalls, like 100-watt plexis and Super Leads. Everyone was tweaking them, just trying to get a little bit more out of them to get what they were looking for. So my go-to studio amps were always some sort of Marshall or Fender.

Then Fender started reissuing older stuff, and I got some of that, which I still use. When we started playing bigger places, I was really surprised by how loud the audience was. In some buildings, the audience would be cheering – and sometimes it was louder than the band! [Laughs]

It was kind of about a balance of finding the right sound on stage and needing to hear the vocals, and everybody had a different way of dealing with it. But just about everybody was using Marshalls in hard-rock land.

I was trying everything. Someone would come out with something new, and I’d get one and try it – especially in the studio. You never know when you’re gonna come across some kind of sound that would fit.

For example, there was a song called The Movie on Permanent Vacation [1987], and I found a sound on the Roland synth you can hear on the song. It sounds like bubbles coming up in the instrumental.

1990s

Again, I tried just about everything, including transistor amps. Whenever they would come out with something, I’d give it a try. In the early ’90s, Fender put out these dark gray amps with red knobs. I know guys who worked with them, and they made it work, but I never liked them.

Some of that stuff with transistors, as soon as you turned them up, they started to sound like aluminum foil. [Laughs] So I tried a lot of this stuff but would never use it. I still have some of it because you never know if there’s a sound you can get out of it; there might be a place for it on a recording.

We’d go off to record an album, and we’d bring a little bit of everything back then, because you just didn’t know what you were gonna use. But the bottom line is, if I was doing basic tracks, chances are I’d be using a Fender or a Marshall – something high-wattage.

2000s–present

The choices are pretty much infinite now. People used to think that to make a record sound big, you had to have a full-on stack. But it’s really hard to do a record like that because of the volume; you’ll blow out the microphones. So I like to try a lot of boutique amps. One of the standouts is Alessandro.

George Alessandro consistently hits the nail on the head. Someone told me that they were backstage checking out David Gilmour’s latest rig, and Gilmour had an Alessandro amp; it was kind of the core of his rig! Boutique amps are great because you can find something that gives you a different tone or feel, and it’s refreshing.

You wanna keep changing things up because you can get bored, but then you swing back around to the old standards, which is mostly some vintage Fender stuff – Vibroverbs, Twins and [Band] Masters – and Marshalls, like the JCM800, which is at the top of the list.

And then, with modeling, I know guys who swear by it. There’s a lot going for it, and you can get a lot of different sounds, and they’re easy to transport, but I don’t know. I guess if I were in a jam and had to do a gig, I’d figure out how to make one work, but if I had the choice, I’m gonna use my tube stuff.

Anyway, here’s an example of me following my ear. A while ago, my guitar tech sent me a Fender Champ-size speaker cab with an old Jensen 10” and an Orange Terror Stamp pedal-size amp. It has 12AX7 tubes and transistor power.

It’s a great low-volume practice amp. Since all my bigger “choice, vintage studio stuff” is up in Boston, I've been messing with small Alessandro, Supro and Zinky boutique stuff with vintage speakers. But the Orange was sounding pretty cool, so I used it on the first Aerosmith/Yungblud stuff.

Also, because my backline gear was in a truck going from gig to gig and I couldn’t get to my Alessandro and other stuff, one thing led to another. During the last four months, jumping from studio to studio, I just brought the Terror Stamp with me and used whatever 10” speaker cab I could plug into. By the time we were finished, I had used the Orange on every track on the new Aerosmith/Yungblud EP, One More Time.

I used that along with – say, at Johnny Depp’s studio – one of his vintage Fender amps. And at NRG Studios [Los Angeles], it was just the Orange. For the [2025] Video Music Awards, I used a Fender Vibroverb and the Orange. I used the same rig for the Bad Company induction ceremony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November. Who knew?

Back when Aerosmith would pack all our “good stuff” to send to the studio at the start of a record, we’d still rehearse but with some of the “not so A-list” gear. After a week of playing through that stuff, I’d be nailing some great sounds out of the “B list.”

It was good stuff to the point of saying, “I’ve gotta bring this, too,” and that would end up being the startup rig when the tape started rolling. If it sounds good, that’s all that matters – no matter what the logo says. That’s probably why it was so hard to give a simple answer to what amps I use, decade by decade!

This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Few single cuts hold as much cache as Joe Perry’s ’59 Gibson Les Paul. After all, not only did Perry brandish it during Aerosmith’s late ‘70s run to glory, but after hocking it in the early ‘80s in a period of guitar purging, Guns N’ Roses’ own six-string maestro, Slash, came upon it.

This led to Slash slinging the beloved ‘burst well into the ‘90s, before – but not after his and Perry's friendship suffered over the guitar – Slash gifted it back to Perry for his 50th birthday.

Below, Perry checks in with Guitar World to recount how he came upon the Les Paul and the story of his separation from and later reunion with it.

Let’s start off with this iconic guitar.

I bought that guitar… I guess it had been around Boston. Different people had it and sold it, and then I came across it – and for a good price! I can’t remember what I paid for it, but it was around $2,500.

It was your main Les Paul in the Seventies, but you sold it after you left Aerosmith in 1979.

Yeah – I had a few extras, but I wasn’t really into collecting guitars. If I needed a guitar, I’d just go down to the music store and buy one, usually a new one. After I left Aerosmith, I needed money for Christmas, and I remember selling it for $4,500.

Do you remember who you sold it to?

I’m not sure, but once it left my hands, I lost track of it. That had to be 1980 or so.

At some point, you tried to track it down but had trouble finding it.

After Aerosmith got back together [in 1984], we owed the record company a lot of money and had to buy our way out of our old record deal. That’s how low we’d sunk as far as the business end of things. It wasn’t until we signed to Geffen Records that we started to have a little money, and I thought, “It would be great if I could track down some of the guitars I lost.”

I started making calls and talking to some of my techs, and it seemed like every six months, the dollar signs in front of those ’59s were going up. But I really wanted to try and get back some of the guitars I’d had, and I remember calling everybody.

It was Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford who told you that Slash had it, right?

Yes. I told Brad, and he said, “I know where it is.” I said, “Really? Where?” He opened up Guitar Player, I think, and there was a spread of Slash’s guitar collection, and right in the middle of it was my ’59 Les Paul – right there in the magazine.

Is it true that Slash wasn’t really into selling you the guitar?

Right. We’d gotten to be friends, and when I asked him, he went, “Oh, man… don’t ask me that.” I said, “I’ll buy it back and pay whatever you want.” But he said, “Don’t ask me, please!” He didn’t want to let go of it, but I’d call him every once in a while and say, “What do you think? Have you changed your mind?”

It got to the point where he wouldn’t take my calls because he knew I was gonna ask him. He hated saying no, and I realized I was potentially losing a friend over this thing. I finally said, “Listen, I’m not gonna ask you again. It’s not even an issue. It’s your guitar. This is fucking up our friendship, so no more.”

Slash did end up giving you the guitar back, years later.

A few years went by, and word got to him that it was my 50th birthday and we were having a huge blowout. My wife, Billie, was throwing this incredible party for me, which I’m not usually big on, but I figured, “Why not? I’m 50!” I asked Cheap Trick if they’d come and play and I’d sit in on a set.

When we were getting ready to go up and do the set at a restaurant that Steven [Tyler] and I owned in South Boston near the Cape, where we all lived, I got up on stage, and my guitar tech goes, “Slash wanted me to give you this,” and it was the ’59. It was dead silent in the room. I was just blown away. But that was it – I got it back.

Aside from it being a highly desirable burst, what makes it so special?

That guitar – in my hands – is special. It’s kind of an oddball, because the serial number actually says it’s a 1960, but everything about the guitar that the experts can deduce – as far as the finish, and the way the neck meets the body – says it was built in 1959.

It was probably made with parts left over from 1959, but it has a 1960 serial number. It doesn’t matter – it is what it is. It’s got the PAFs, and if ’59 or ’60 affects the value, I’m not really concerned with that. Maybe it’s an issue for the insurance company, but whatever. [Laughs]

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Seattle rock outfit Candlebox might never have hit the dizzying heights of Metallica and Aerosmith, but when they toured with the two bands in 1994, Peter Klett's guitar talents converted a number of his peers into admirers.

Candlebox's self-titled debut album, released the year before, shifted four million copies, breaking into the Billboard Top 200 top 10 in August 1994. Soon, they found themselves on the road with two of America’s biggest bands.

“Aerosmith was a short two-week run, which was great, and they were super cool,” Klett recalls while in conversation with Guitar World. “But we didn’t really spend a whole lot of time with them.

“Metallica, on the other hand, was on a long tour. We got to hang out, and they were super cool.”

However, the Shit Hits the Sheds tour, which also featured Suicidal Tendencies and future Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo on the bill, wasn't without its challenges.

“It was quite a challenge with their audience,” Klett admits. “But by the end of our set, the audience went from giving us the finger and throwing things at us to giving us the metal sign and letting us know that we rocked.

“One of the coolest things about that whole tour was that all of the guys in Metallica, individually at separate times, except for the guitar player, told me what a great guitar player I was.”

One would guess, then, that it was Kirk Hammett who failed to extend his compliments to Klett, but he at least received praise from James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Jason Newsted. That’s not a bad innings.

Guitar World's full interview with Pete Klett will be published online in the coming weeks.

In related news, System of a Down’s Daron Malakian recently recalled his impromptu stint as a stand-in for Hetfield in Metallica, while the band has teamed up with EMG to help celebrate its 50th anniversary in style.

Punky Meadows earned his status as a quality player in the ‘70s. After bouncing from The Cherry People to Bux, then forming Angel, he was asked to join Aerosmith and Kiss – but passed, retreating into obscurity with a “sour taste” in his mouth regarding the music biz.

Now he’s back, enjoying his second act with Angel; and he’s certain that if he could do it over again, he wouldn’t change a thing.

“It doesn’t do any good to regret anything,” he says. “But before social media I figured I was forgotten, and people didn’t care about me anymore.”

Now that Meadows knows he was wrong, his focus has shifted toward expanding his profile beyond licks.

“I’m gonna go down as a rock guitar player,” he says. “But I wanna be known as a songwriter too. And I hate when people try to put me in the heavy metal category.

“I’ve never been a heavy metal guy. I’m a rock and blues player, with some R&B and country. I can write heavy stuff. I never liked Black Sabbath. The heaviest I ever got was Zeppelin. But I never wanted to be in a box where you can’t expand.”

Angel are planning a two-year farewell tour, a documentary, and a studio album. While all that is underway, Meadows will keep “woodshedding.” He explains: “The Beatles taught me about melody and different chord progressions. The beauty of guitar is in the chords. That’s real. It’s not just flashy riffs and high-powered stuff.”

What are your earliest memories of music?

The first song that affected me as a kid was Big John by Jimmy Dean. It was about this coal miner who gets killed when a beam that holds up the mine crashes down. It affected me so much. That’s where my love for storytelling comes from.

Who inspired you to pick up the guitar?

Elvis Presley turned me on to rock ‘n’ roll, and then The Beatles came out, and the guitar playing from George Harrison and John Lennon inspired me. But it was mainly the British blues guys like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Gary Moore, David Gilmour, and Jimi Hendrix. I put it all in a pot.

Early on, you were in The Cherry People and Bux. Would you say you were pretty polished by the time you formed Angel?

Before Angel I was always in bands with two guitar players, and I played rhythm and lead. When we formed Angel I had my sound down. The first song we wrote was Tower – I had this little riff and we just started writing. Angel kind of became Led Zeppelin meets Yes!

Put us in the studio while you were laying down Tower.

We knew we had something powerful and cool. I had an SVT amp that I’d shipped from DC to California. I had my Strat that I put together from two different ones – it was a ’57 body and a ’60 neck. I had a friend who worked at a body shop paint it white.

Back then we’d do any many takes as we needed. It coulda been 12 or 13 takes before you finally got it right. And I had very few effects; if you listen to the first album it’s just overdrive, some reverb, and sounds straight from the amp.

It seems you were making your own Super Strats before it became commonplace in the ‘80s.

I don’t know if it influenced anyone, or if anyone even knew I put my guitars together. But I started because there were things on guitars I liked that weren’t there. Like the guitar I have now – the only thing that’s actually a Strat is the body.

It’s got a Carvin neck, a Sophia tremolo, a Jeff Beck humbucker in the back and single coils in the middle. I’ve always loved single coils, especially for chords and stuff. The tone of a Strat just cuts through and has that twang.

Is it true that before Angel broke up, you were asked to join Aerosmith?

David Krebs, who managed them, became a good friend when I was with Bux, and Jack Douglas, who produced Aerosmith, produced that Bux album. I also met Steven Tyler, who came to the studio.

I’d seen those guys in Boston playing around. Tyler was kind of a fan of mine. He’d always say, “You’re hot shit!”

When he came to the studio he brought the tapes of Train Kept a Rollin’. When I heard it I said, “Fuck, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford have gotten really good!” The guitars in that song were really incredible.

After Tyler left, Jack Douglas said, “Don’t say anything, but that’s not Brad and Joe – it’s Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner.” I said, “That explains it!” because I knew Joe couldn’t play like that.

Brad and I were friends. We lived in the same apartment building in Framingham, Massachusetts. We used to get together in my apartment, smoke joints, and play guitar. So they were friends of mine.

So Joe and Brad quit Aerosmith, and David Krebs – who wanted to manage Angel when we first started – called me and said, “We know you’d be a great fit.” But Angel were still kind of together at the time, so I said, “Let me get back to you.” I never did. They ended up getting Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay, and that was that.

Legend has it you were also offered a gig with Kiss by Paul and Gene personally after Ace Frehley left.

Angel were broken up, and Gregg Giuffria and I had a band called Legend. Barry Levine, the photographer who did all the Casablanca stuff and the Kiss and Angel photos, called and said, “Kiss are looking for a guitar player. I’m at The Record Plant right now with Gene and Paul. I mentioned your name and Gene said, ‘That’s a great idea!’” I said, “Well, have Gene call me.”

Gene calls me up and goes, “Hey, we’d like you to come down and sit in with us. Learn one side of Alive! – we don’t care which.” I probably learned the first side, went down to their rehearsal space and Gene, Paul, and Eric Carr were there, playing Zeppelin’s Communication Breakdown.

I walked in, plugged up, played, and it sounded really great. Everybody was really happy. I sat down on the drum riser with Gene, and he said, “You got the gig. Let’s talk.” I go, “Well, Gregg and I are shopping a deal. I have to talk to Gregg – I gotta let him know.”

As soon as I said that, Gene got up and said, “Come on, Paul, let’s go.” They stormed outta there, and left me sitting on the drum riser, talking to Eric for about a half hour or so. When I got home Barry called and said, “Punky, what did you do? Gene and Paul came back to the studio with their jaws on the floor. Gene said, ‘No one has ever turned down Kiss.’”

I said, “Barry, I didn’t turn them down. I just said I had to let Gregg know.” But I guess I insulted Gene so much by not just saying yes right away. Barry said, “They were going to offer you $200,000 a year plus points.” And at the time, I was broke! Gene and I never talked about it.

But [Angel guitarist] Danny Farrow and Gene talked about it not that long ago. Danny told me that Gene said, “I remember that. Yeah, Punky had the best hair in rock!” Gene would say something like that!

Not long after that, you left the music business. But guitarists throughout the ‘80s cited you as an influence. Were you aware?

I didn’t know or care, to tell you the truth. It wasn’t until later on, after I left LA and moved to North Carolina to start my own business, then retired and got on Facebook, when I saw that. I figured nobody really remembered much about Angel or me. But then I saw all these pages about how much people loved Angel.

Was that hard to process, given that you’d left it behind?

I had sour grapes. I wasn’t very happy with the whole Angel thing. That’s why I left music. It just left a sour taste in my mouth. But I started seeing pictures of us, and all of a sudden I started digging it again. I kind of became a fan of Angel!

It was apparent that people had never stopped talking about us, even though we were never a household name. Andy Timmons said, “Thank you for being a part of my musical DNA.” And Paul Gilbert from Mr. Big, was a big fan – there’s pictures of him dressed in white, holding up two Angel albums.

Marty Friedman was a fan too. When we played in Japan he was backstage, and we talked about how he’d had Angel posters on the wall. He asked me how to play certain things, like, “How do you do that little thing with your fingers there?” It was just really cool.

Since your return in 2016, you’ve released a solo album and two more Angel albums. The band are working on another album and then a final tour. Why stop now?

It’s gonna be a two-year thing through this year and next. But it’s not like Angel are gonna break up – we’re still gonna record, and we’ll play some one-off shows, that sort of thing. We’ll have the chance to do some other things.

We have a documentary that we’re filming, and hopefully it’ll come out soon. But I really didn’t want to do that “final tour” thing, to tell you the truth. The other guys thought it would be a good idea and business move. But me, I’m the kind of guy who wants to die with his boots on.

• Catch Angel on tour throughout the year.

Looking back at the then-improbable collaboration between Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C. on a rock/hip-hop reboot of Walk This Way, guitarist Joe Perry says, “It was a lot of fun and definitely a high point of our career.” His second point cannot be overstated.

By 1985, Aerosmith were experiencing a commercial stasis, and their ballyhooed comeback album, Done with Mirrors, stalled on the charts. The revamped version of Walk This Way blasted them back into the mainstream while also introducing Run-D.M.C. to a wider audience.

Unbeknownst to Perry, Run-D.M.C. (Joseph “Run” Simmons, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and DJ Jam Master Jay) were fans of the original track. At the same time, Perry was just getting into hip-hop.

So it was kismet when Rick Rubin brought the guitarist and singer Steven Tyler together with the pioneering Queens-based hip-hoppers to create one of music’s most celebrated crossover hits. (In 1975, Aerosmith’s original Walk This Way reached Number 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Run-D.M.C.’s remake hit the top five, and its video was a smash.)

What did you think of hip-hop when you first heard it?

My son, who was 11 or 12, was blasting it in his room. I dug the groove. It was really basic music; it’s all about rhythm and guys standing on a street corner with a boombox. The lyrics reflected how they were living.

By the ’80s, a lot of people were calling Walk This Way proto-hip-hop.

The lyrics were a story, and there was a rhythm in hip-hop, so to me it was a natural progression from the blues. But to think that Walk This Way was proto-rap, that’s another story. I guess that’s a discussion – or an argument. And even if it’s an argument, which it shouldn’t be, it’s just a point of view; nobody’s right or wrong.

Were you into the idea of collaborating with Run-D.M.C.?

Rick Rubin heard something. He had to convince those guys [because] they were kind of tentative. But Aerosmith was up for anything. That’s why our music goes from hard rock to almost heavy metal to blues to ballads. We thought, “Let’s try it!”

Aerosmith were touring at the time. What was the recording process like?

We were, I think, in North Carolina. They sent us plane tickets, and me and Steven went to Queens. I brought my guitar, and there was Rick, an engineer and the guys from Run-D.M.C., and one was late because they had towed his rental car. [Laughs]

He was flipping out because he didn’t know what he was gonna do about it, but Rick kept saying, “Listen, you’ve got Aerosmith here. Focus. We’ll take care of the car later. Don’t worry about it.” After that, everybody settled down.

What was the recording process like?

We got the drum beat down, which was the common ground for the song – from our version and theirs. I think Rick said, “You’re using the drums to rap to anyway; you might as well take it all the way. Let’s try it.”

Is it true you also played bass guitar on the updated track?

There were these three kids in the studio sitting on the couch. We were introduced to them, and I didn’t know who they were, but they were cool guys and a little younger. We were listening to the mixdown, and Rick said, “I think we need to put a bass on it.” We looked around the studio, and there were no basses, but one of the kids said, “My apartment ain’t too far, I got a bass there.”

Who were the three kids?

The Beastie Boys! [Laughs] He went to his apartment and was back in 15 minutes with a P-Bass or a Jazz. Anyway, I played the bass.

The track kicked off your second run to glory. How do you look back on its importance?

It was definitely a leg-up. We’re just proud to say it was a meeting of two styles of music. And the video speaks for itself. We got Black rappers on MTV. The only Black cat on MTV at that point was Michael Jackson; at least, that’s what we heard. I’m proud of that.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Joe Perry has recalled the time he saved a decapitated electric guitar from being unceremoniously discarded by Steven Tyler – in the middle of an Aerosmith gig.

In the new issue of Guitar World, Perry takes readers through his guitar gear history, shining the spotlight on a few of his favorite instruments.

One of the guitars that gets an honorable mention is his Gibson Les Paul Junior DC from the mid 1950s. Specifically, the one with the insane pearl fretboard inlay and eye-popping body artwork.

As Perry explains, he actually had two LP Juniors – one of which almost met a grisly end at the hands of Tyler, after a rather gruesome injury that led to the “killer” guitar going sans headstock.

“I actually had two of them in the mid-’70s, like the ones Johnny Thunders and Leslie West played. They’re killer guitars,” Perry says. “It’s just volume, tone and a P-90, and it screams. I was lucky enough to get two of them.

“We were doing a show at a festival and I threw this thing up in the air at the end of a song,” he continues. “This was before wireless, so it went to the end of the patch cord and came down on the neck – and the headstock snapped off.

“I remember thinking as it was going up in the air, ‘Wow, I can’t believe it. That looks so cool.’ And then, on the way down, I was thinking, ‘Holy shit, what did I do?’

“After it came down and was broken, Steven grabbed it and wanted to throw it out into the audience, so I had to wrestle him for it. [Laughs] I knew we could fix it, you know? I got it back and gave the pieces to my guy, and the show went on.”

Despite Tyler’s attempts to discard the injured Les Paul Junior, Perry’s rescue mission was a success, and the guitar made a full recovery. In fact, it came out the other end with some fancy new additions – and he still uses it to this day.

“I had some marble gargoyles in the backyard of the house I was living in, and I took some Polaroid photos of them and sent them to Gruhn Guitars in Nashville to see if we could incorporate them,” Perry remembers.

“A lot of people think the picture on there is a decal, but it’s all mother-of-pearl inlay work, and it’s still a killer guitar. It sounds great, and it’s one that comes to the studio with me as well as on the road.”

Elsewhere in his Guitar World interview, Perry looks back on the painful memory of selling his ’Burst – and why he’ll never forget the moment it came back to him… via Slash.

For more from Perry, plus new interviews with Alter Bridge’s Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy, and a tribute to the legendary Bob Weir, pick up issue 602 of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.

Throughout his multi-decade career, Joe Perry of Aerosmith has also developed quite a reputation as a guitar collector. His arsenal includes everything from highly sought-after ’59 ’bursts to a Gibson B.B. King Lucille Custom (featuring his wife Billie’s face), the Guild X-100 Blade Runner made famous by the Walk This Way music video, and even a couple of guitars he’s built himself.

The jewel of his collection, however, is a storied 1959 Gibson Les Paul that was Perry's main guitar in the ’70s, before it famously ended up in Slash's hands. Now, in the new issue of Guitar World, Perry discusses his collection, and details the guitar’s journey.

“Different people had it and sold it,” he explains. “And then I came across it – and for a good price! I can’t remember what I paid for it, but it was around $2,500.”

Sadly, Perry was forced to sell it after he left Aerosmith in 1979 – partway through the recording of Night in the Ruts – due to intense internal disputes.

Leaving Aerosmith also meant leaving behind the guitar that had accompanied him through the best part of a decade. “I needed money for Christmas,” says Perry. “And I remember selling it for $4,500.”

However, after the band got back together in 1984 – and signed a new (and more advantageous) deal with Geffen Records – Perry thought it was the right time to track down his long-lost ’59 Les Paul. However, by that time, the prices of Gibsons from the era had already started to skyrocket...

“I started making calls and talking to some of my techs, and it seemed like every six months, the dollar signs in front of those ’59s were going up. But I really wanted to try and get back some of the guitars I’d had, and I remember calling everybody.”

As it turned out, he didn't have to search too far – his own bandmate, Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford, had the answer.

“[Brad] said, ‘I know where it is.’” remembers Perry. “I said, ‘Really? Where?’ He opened up Guitar Player, I think, and there was a spread of Slash’s guitar collection, and right in the middle of it was my ’59 Les Paul – right there in the magazine.”

Owning such a desirable guitar meant that Slash wasn’t so keen to part ways with it – even if that meant returning it to its original owner.

“We’d gotten to be friends, and when I asked him, he went, ‘Oh, man… don’t ask me that.’ I said, ‘I’ll buy it back and pay whatever you want.’ But he said, ‘Don’t ask me, please!’

“It got to the point where he wouldn’t take my calls because he knew I was gonna ask him,” Perry admits. “He hated saying no, and I realized I was potentially losing a friend over this thing. I finally said, ‘Listen, I’m not gonna ask you again. It’s not even an issue. It’s your guitar. This is fucking up our friendship, so no more.’”

However, a few years went by, and right around the time Perry was about to turn 50 – marked by a huge birthday blowout – the Aerosmith guitarist got the surprise of a lifetime, or rather, one that he had been waiting decades for.

“I asked Cheap Trick if they’d come and play [at my birthday party] and I’d sit in on a set,” he recalls.

“When we were getting ready to go up and do the set at a restaurant that Steven [Tyler] and I owned in South Boston near the Cape, where we all lived, I got up on stage, and my guitar tech goes, ‘Slash wanted me to give you this,’ and it was the ’59. It was dead silent in the room. I was just blown away. But that was it – I got it back.”

And, speaking of Perry’s exploits, the guitarist recently gave Guitar World more insight into why Aerosmith decided to link up with Yungblud on an EP – and the gear he used during the recording process.

For more from Perry, plus new interviews with Alter Bridge’s Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy, and a tribute to the legendary Bob Weir, pick up issue 602 of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.

Mention Sting to us bassists and several hallmarks come to mind: his sparse basslines with the Police. His ability to sing while playing independent bass parts. And his jazz-infused, post-Police explorations, which further cemented his status as a favorite among fellow musicians without affecting his gift for selling millions of records to the general public.

His restless musical soul and inherent curiosity have led him down many different avenues over the years, including the time he hit the stage of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to rock the 2011 iHeartRadio festival alongside Jeff Beck and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler.

Joining Tyler to kick off the second night with Aerosmith's Sweet Emotion, Sting took on Tom Hamilton’s iconic opening bass lick – but he hadn’t quite got it right, as bassist Tal Wilkenfeld was quick to point out.

Speaking to Bass Player in 2017 Sting said, “With Tal it was very funny; we were doing an event in Las Vegas, and we were playing an Aerosmith song and it was kind of a complicated bassline. And Tal came over and said, ‘Sting, it doesn’t quite go the way you’re playing it!’

“I really respected her courage to come up to me and teach me the right way to play the part, and I was very grateful. She's an amazing bassist with great ears.”

Wilkenfeld’s long-standing Beck association had previously seen her take up bass duties with Sting at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th Anniversary Concerts, as Sting delivered a rendition of People Get Ready with Beck’s band, which also included Jason Rebello on keyboards, and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums.

“Vinnie is an extraordinary musician,” said Sting. “The only thing I'll tease him about is the double bass drum. I'll say, ‘Hey, where am I in this equation?’ And he'll crack up laughing, but we have a great relationship and I appreciate all that he adds to my music. Let's face it, a band is only as good as the drummer.”

While Sting would make a conspicuous return to playing bass onstage in 2011, billing his live shows as his “Back to Bass” tour, on record he's frequently enlisted other bass players, rather than handling bass duties himself.

“It's great to have a holiday so I can just sing! Will Lee, Christian McBride, Ira Coleman or Nathan East will often come to my aid and give me that holiday. I do listen, though, and if I don't agree with something, then I’ll let them know.”

Asked if any other bassists had caught his ear these days, Sting explained: “I love Metallica's Robert Trujillo. He's not only a great bass player, it's the drama of how he plays, and he's a showman, which I think is fantastic.

“I’m also impressed with the emergence of excellent female bassists. I've played with both Tal and Esperanza Spalding. And Esperanza, my god, she's a triple threat – she writes, she's a fantastic singer, and she's an incredible bass player.”

Jared James Nichols got the shock of a lifetime when rock royalty gatecrashed his band’s jam session – and ended up with him hanging out with Aerosmith.

The blues rock guitar ace doesn’t specify when this happened exactly, but after one of rock’s most iconic frontmen came to watch his band jam, he found himself welcomed into Aerosmith’s ranks.

“My band is jamming, and the door cracks open, and I hear, ‘Who the hell are you, man?’” Nichols tells the Playback Podcast. “And Steven Tyler walks in. He's like, ‘Play that again.’ And he starts getting all crazy, and the band's jamming.

“I was like, ‘Whoa, this is insane.’ Steven goes, ‘Hey, man, you kick ass. We're making a record in the back. Why don't you come hang out?’ So I walked back there. Joe Perry's back there. All these guys are back there. And I'm like, ‘Holy smokes, this is happening.’”

Perhaps buoyed by Tyler’s compliments, Nichols didn’t need a second invitation, and he quickly discovered how the other half live.

“They had a spread of food back there,” he adds, a little flabbergasted. “He's like, ‘Grab some food, man. Grab a beer.’”

His hosts were more than welcoming, and when Tyler told him, “We're gonna be here for a while. Come back whenever you want,” he did exactly that.

“The next day, I went back,” Nichols admits. “And then the next day I went back. It got to the point where I was hanging out so much, Steven would be like, ‘JJ, what do you think of this mix? Let's go listen to it in your car.’

“He would burn a CD, and we'd go into my friend’s Subaru Outback and listen to it, drive around, and he'd be singing along.”

It's unclear whether this was when Aerosmith were recording their last album, 2012's Music From Another Dimension!, or their surprise EP with Yungblud. Either way, it paints a fantastic image – and gave Nichols a lasting memory.

Nichols – who is also a GW columnist – recently explained why playing in a trio can improve your guitar solos and how to express yourself with your bends.

Joe Perry has revealed how an iconic rap trio came to the rescue of Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C.’s landmark rap-rock crossover hit, Walk This Way, after the production hit a snafu.

There they were at Chung King Studios, where LL Cool J tracked Radio, just as the first wave of hip-hop was just about to crest – this great pop-cultural tidal wave coming out of the block party to sweep away all before it.

Run-DMC were working on Raising Hell, album number three, following King of Rock, with an album that really would break down the wall. And in one corner, you had Perry and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, two kings of rock in need of a change of fortunes. Electric guitars? This was not something that Run-D.M.C. had lying around. This was why this crossover sound would work. Overseeing it all was the gnomic Rick Rubin, arguably in the hottest streak of his career.

Perry had laid down his guitar. Tyler had done his thing. But listening back, Rubin wasn’t happy. Speaking to Guitar World, Perry said it needed something extra.

“We were listening to the mixdown, and Rick said, ‘I think we need to put a bass on it,” recalls Perry. Trouble is, hip-hop was a sampling sport, drum machines and microphones. They were not prepared for this. They didn't just have bass guitars lying around. Luckily, help was at hand.

“There were these three kids in the studio sitting on the couch,” continues Perry. “We were introduced to them, and I didn’t know who they were, but they were cool guys and a little younger. We looked around the studio, and there were no basses, but one of the kids said, ‘My apartment ain’t too far, I got a bass there.’”

Those kids were going to make a record there at Chung King, too, also under Rubin’s watch, and they were going to be big – and notorious – within a few months. That kid was one of Run-D.M.C.'s label mates from the Beastie Boys.

“He went to his apartment and was back in 15 minutes with a P-Bass or a Jazz,” laughs Perry. “Anyway, I played the bass.”

And Walk This Way became Run-D.M.C.’s biggest hit, charting higher than the original, reviving Aerosmith’s fortunes in the process. But Perry says it was more important than that.

“It was definitely a leg-up,” he says. “We’re just proud to say it was a meeting of two styles of music. And the video speaks for itself. We got Black rappers on MTV. The only Black cat on MTV at that point was Michael Jackson; at least, that’s what we heard. I’m proud of that.”

2025 was indeed the year Yungblud fully announced himself to the rock scene. His album, Idols, served as a musical love letter to his rock heroes – only for him to find himself performing alongside them.

His rendition of Ozzy Osbourne’s Changes at the Prince of Darkness' final concert, Back to the Beginning, converted even many of the staunchest of old-school rock fans to the idea that, yes, Yungblud is one of the artists leading the charge for rock’s new vanguard.

And, with that nod of approval from Ozzy came a string of collaborations with the likes of Aerosmith and the Smashing Pumpkins. However, despite these projects, Yungblud claims he's far from being coaxed into joining a band.

“No! Fuck no!” he says matter-of-factly in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I am not made to compromise. In the past, when I’ve listened to opinions and almost met someone in the middle, my art’s been shit.

“Watching Steven Tyler and Joe Perry together, the compromise is the fucking magic. But for me, it doesn’t work. It just makes me mad. People don’t realize I’m in control of everything. One of the biggest misconceptions about me is that I had everything handed to me by the industry. The industry has told me to fuck myself at every single turn.”

As for the advice he received from the music legends he’s had the chance to work with, he asserts, “It’s funny – it’s all the same advice. Everyone’s like, ‘We were hated. People thought we were posing.’ Aerosmith went through it. After Ozzy left Sabbath, people were like, ‘He’s a pop star.’ He had to really stay true to his fucking self.”

In more Yungblud news, Billy Corgan recently revealed why he decided to collaborate with rock’s hottest ticket.

Best of 2025: Over the holiday season, GW is shining the spotlight on some of its biggest stories of the year.

Joe Perry and Brad Whitford have recalled the time when Rory Gallagher served as a support for Aerosmith during a festival in the 1970s – and ended up proving such a hit with fans that he stole the band's thunder.

The two Aerosmith icons sat down with Rick Beato for a career-sprawling interview, and a particularly memorable show starring the late Irish guitar hero cropped up during the conversation.

“I don't wanna hear about that,” Perry quips as Whitford begins to spin the tale, which took place when Aerosmith was set to headline the Schaefer Music Festival in 1974 in Central Park.

“It was before we were accepted in New York at all. Rory Gallagher probably had one of the most stunning shows of his entire career,” Whitford recalls. Perry puts it more bluntly: “He kicked our ass. We headlined. He went on first, and he kicked our ass.”

“He went off stage, they made him come out for an encore,” Whitford continues. “He did this encore. Went off. They made him come out again. Another encore. They wouldn't stop. He came out for three encores. Oh my god.

“And then we got on the stage, and I just remember watching people walk away before we even started playing.”

That sinking feeling must have been horrific. The band were on the upswing at that point. Their third album, Toys in the Attic, had saved the band from getting axed by their label and reversed the fortunes of their career. But Gallagher was an unstoppable force that day.

“It was like the show's over, and who are these guys? They didn't care,” Whitford adds. “I swear, it had to be one of his best concerts.”

That Gallagher made such an impression shouldn't come as a surprise. The late Irish guitar great is widely considered to be one of the most influential blues-rock guitar players of all time and a true guitar one-off who inspired the likes of Brian May and Jimi Hendrix.

In fact, it's oft-reported that Hendrix was once asked how it felt to be the greatest guitar player in the world, to which supposedly responded: “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Rory Gallagher.”

Gallagher was revered for his distinct blues-rock style and famed for his heavily relic'd 1961 Stratocaster – believed to be the first to reach Irish soil – which sold at auction for almost $1,000,000 last year.

You might think that after Aerosmith hung it up in 2024, Joe Perry would be kicking back. But he’s been working behind the scenes on a range of Aero-related activities, touring with the Joe Perry Project, and teaming up with Steven Tyler and Yungblud for an unexpected EP.

One More Time is the result of the veteran bandmates befriending the younger musician – real name Dom Harrison – last year. “It’s been three months of insanity,” Perry says.

“It was something we really hadn’t planned on. Then after it was done we had promotion, photoshoots and rehearsals morning to night.”

He adds: “The songs are inspired by him working with us, and us being inspired by working with him. There’s a lot of great guitar players and bands out there, but Yungblud really has the stuff, so we thought we’d throw our lot in.”

The EP has led fans to wonder if there’s more to come from Aerosmith. “I can’t really say,” Perry responds. “If this is the last thing that we do, it’s great. But I’m not retired yet. Steven doesn’t think he’s retired. Who knows? We’ve still got some juice left!”

What was your rig for the Joe Perry Project shows?

The couple of stacks that I have are the ones I was gonna use on the last Aerosmith tour. I’ve got gear in LA, Vegas and Boston, and this stuff was stashed in one place. They’re the ones with the old script lettering on them.

I had a Fender Vibroverb which was custom-made for me way back. I love those amps. For the studio I had a stack of three Vibroverbs, and two Marshall stacks, and a 5150 Iconic.

Another thing I used was the Terror Stamp by Orange. It’s a solid-state power amp the size of a big pedal; you can put it through a 10- or 12-inch speaker. I’ve been using it in my studio to practice, and I get all kinds of great sounds out of it.

Is that the same gear you used while recording the EP with Yungblud?

I ended up doing almost all of the five songs with that setup. A couple of times we were working at Johnny Depp’s studio, where I had a really nice old Supro. But it was basically the Orange because those things sound fucking great; and after that it was the usual foot pedals.

How did you first meet Yungblud?

Our manager’s son thought it would be a cool idea to get Aerosmith and Yungblud together, and he mentioned it to his dad, Larry Rudolph. They started talking to Yungblud’s manager. Then Dom and I got on the phone, and he ended up coming down to Florida last year.

He said, “Let’s work on some stuff for my next record,” Mainly it was just to get to know him, but when I heard his stuff I was like, “Holy shit, this guy’s got the pipes!” I watched some of his live stuff and I thought, “He’s got it, man!”

Dom went off on the road and I told Steven, “It would be great if we got together with him.” We went in a bunch of different studios – two down here in Florida and three in LA. We were all bouncing around, depending on who was doing what. When we got three songs done we were like, “Holy shit, we’re really locking into something!”

What led to the cover of Back in the Saddle?

The record company said, “You guys gotta write two more songs so you put an EP out. That’s how we’re setting up to release stuff now.” We had six days before I started rehearsals with my band, and we wrote another song.

I was thinking, “If we can’t come up with anything else, we can always do a blues song.” But then my wife, Billie, said, “Why don’t you cover an Aerosmith song?” The light goes on in my head, so we covered Back in the Saddle, and it was a lot of fun. We’re gonna do a dance mix of it and all that.

What led you, Steven, and Yungblud to hook up at the VMAs?

Steven and Yungblud played at the Ozzy thing in Birmingham, and somebody there said, “Why don’t you guys do this for the VMAs?”

You just played at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Bad Company.

It turned into a really big deal because it was the first time it was going to be broadcast that way. I remember when it used to be a couple of thousand people showing up, and it was really loose. This time there must have been 7,500 people there. The fans could get in; it was a lot bigger of a deal.

You were playing the role of Mick Ralphs. What was that like?

It was kind of sad because Mick passed away recently. I’d always thought how much fun it would be to play with Bad Company – but I didn’t wanna do it that way, you know? I did everything I could do to honor him.

Chris Robinson ended up filling in for Paul Rodgers. Seeing as you’ve been touring with him with the Project, that must have been a comfortable transition.

Paul had another health scare and his doctor said, “You can’t fly; you can’t travel.” We found out two days before the show, so Bryan Adams came on, and then Chris was able to do it, which was great. We all did the best we could do to pay homage to Bad Company.

You used a gorgeous vintage Gibson Black Beauty that we’ve not seen you play much.

Mick’s style was basic yet really soulful. He was a Les Paul guy, so I pulled out my ’58 Black Beauty, and I fell back in love with it, you know? I’ll be using it again a lot more. As much as I love the Strat, it was great playing that.

And on the other end of the spectrum, you used a Les Paul Junior.

There was one song with an open tuning, and the guitar that seemed to work best was the Junior with one P-90. It really was both ends of the spectrum – I had arguably the fanciest Les Paul they ever did with the three pickups, the binding, and all that; and then I had what they say is the beginner’s guitar!

But I’ll tell you it was tough to say which sounded better, because those P-90s, man, with the dog ears, they’re just phenomenal-sounding. It was great to be able to play the two of them.

With the EP out, I’m sure you and Steven want to play some of this stuff live. Are there plans for one final Aerosmith show – or a few one-offs with Yungblud?

There’s stuff flying around; you know, ideas. The latest thing is that we’ve been talking about doing at least one show, somehow, some way, in conjunction with a documentary that tells the band’s story.

We’re still talking. Steven’s bouncing back and forth from New England to LA; I’m in Florida; and Yungblud’s on the road in Europe. So, it’s been a lot of Zoom calls!

If the last Aerosmith record is already done, are you comfortable putting a period on everything?

I don’t think about it like that – I think about it like I don’t know what’s gonna happen next. For the last 20 years I’ve looked at every show and played it like it’s the last show. You really don’t know what’s gonna happen.

• Aerosmith + Yungblud’s One More Time EP is out now.

Joe Perry and his Aerosmith peers recently went into the studio with Yungblud to lay down their newly released EP – and it turns out the electric guitar hero ended up relying on an affordable pedal amp for most of his parts.

Aerosmith and Yungblud’s collaborative EP, One More Time, was released off the back of the pair’s headline-making VMAs ceremony Ozzy Osbourne tribute. It drew plaudits from some, and derision from others – Justin and Dan Hawkins included.

Still, Yungblud and Aerosmith have proved a potent pairing, and Perry himself has been especially gushing of his new collaborator, calling him the real deal in a new interview with the Guitar World.

In that same interview, to be published later this week, Perry reflected on the One More Time sessions, and revealed some intriguing insights into his gear setup for the experience.

One More Time was pieced together over a number of sessions across four or five separate studios, but one mainstay of Perry’s recording rig, which ended up displacing his Marshall stacks and Fender combos in some cases, was an Orange Terror Stamp – a humble pedal amp that costs just $219.

“Another thing that I used was called the Terror Stamp by Orange,” Perry explains. “It’s like a solid-state power amp, and it’s the size of a big foot pedal that you can put through a 10 or 12-inch speaker.

“I’ve been using it in my studio to practice, and I get all kinds of great sounds out of it, no matter what I plug into it. So, I ended up doing almost all of the guitars on those songs with that setup.”

There were exceptions to that, naturally, and while in a studio owned by a big-name Hollywood actor, Perry did dabble with an old Supro. Still, the Terror Stamp seemed to stand out above the rest.

“We were working at Johnny Depp’s studio, where I had a really nice old Supro, but it was basically the Orange Terror because those things sound fucking great, you know?” he says.

It’s the latest ringing endorsement for affordable gear, and yet another reminder that you needn’t fork out big money for top-tier tones. Prince, Eddie Van Halen, Kirk Hammett, St. Vincent and Dolly Parton are just some of the artists who have played cheap guitar over the years.

Mike Rutherford of Genesis has also played Squier Bullet Strats onstage, and guitarists have even been known to play $40 Harley Bentons every night of a 113-date arena tour.

Elsewhere in his new interview with Guitar World, Perry recalled how Aerosmith's surprising collaboration with Yungblud came about.

Fresh off his trio of Grammy nominations, Yungblud is gearing up for the release of the One More Time EP with rock luminaries Aerosmith.

Marking their first new material in over a decade, the five-track EP ushers in a new era for the band after they announced their retirement from touring last year. It's one that honors their legacy and embraces the next generation of rock stars, while, at the same time, firmly asserting that Aerosmith are far from passé.

“I’m really looking forward to this,” Joe Perry says in an upcoming Guitar World interview. “All the songs are inspired by him working with us, and us inspired by working with him.

“I hear a lot of music, and there’s a lot of great guitar players and bands out there – but Yungblud really had the stuff, you know? So, we thought we’d throw our lot in. The first single worked out, so we’ll see how it goes.”

As for how the band decided to collaborate with Yungblud, Perry states the collaboration made sense from the get-go.

“It was just one of those things, you know? Our manager’s son mentioned something about Yungblud, and how it would be a cool idea to get Aerosmith and Yungblud together, and he mentioned it to his dad.”

He continues, “They started talking to Yungblud’s manager, and I guess they thought it would be a great idea. And then, Dom [Yungblud] and I got on the phone and talked for a while, and he ended up coming down here to Florida last year, and we hung out for a couple of days. He said, ‘Let’s work on some stuff for my next record…’”

One thing led to another, and Yungblud, Perry, and Steven Tyler ended up bouncing around different studios until fully-fledged song ideas started to emerge.

“We got three songs done, and were like, ‘Holy shit, we’re really locking into something,’ and we were really excited about it.

“The record company said, ‘Well, you guys gotta write two more songs so you can put an EP out. That’s how we’re setting up to release stuff now…’ We said, ‘Okay,’ and we had six days right before I had to start rehearsing with my band, and we wrote another song.”

As for whether Aerosmith fans can expect at least a couple of one-off shows to celebrate the release, Perry remains cryptic.

“There’s stuff flying around, you know, ideas. I’m not sure, but I have to think… I mean… the latest thing is that we’ve been talking about doing at least one show, somehow, some way, in conjunction with a documentary about the band that tells the band’s story. We’re still talking… that’s maybe next.”

Joe Perry's full interview with Guitar World will be published in the coming weeks.

Recently, Perry and Tyler joined Yungblud and Nuno Bettencourt on stage at the VMAs for a fresh mash-up of Ozzy Osbourne classics.

Yungblud has responded to criticism that was levelled against his Ozzy tribute at the MTV VMAs, saying that he “welcomes” those challenging his authenticity.

At the event, the Epiphone signature artist had teamed up with Nuno Bettencourt, Aerosmith duo Joe Perry and Steven Tyler, and Black Sabbath keyboardist Adam Wakeman for a three-song medley that paid homage to the Prince of Darkness.

However, the Darkness’ Dan and Justin Hawkins posted unfiltered criticism at the spot on social media. Dan had kicked off first, deeming it “cynical, nauseating, and more importantly; shit,” while suggesting that Yungblud was using Ozzy's legacy for his own gain.

During the event, Yungblud had worn a necklace gifted to him by Ozzy, who was a fervent supporter of the singer, and Justin Hawkins picked up on that as he posted on YouTube to support his brother’s comments.

“Yungblud seems to have positioned himself as a natural heir to the Ozzy legacy,” he posited. “Then you kind of think, ‘What the fuck does all those decades of having this incredible legacy have to do with Yungblud?’”

Speaking on Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast, Yungblud was happy to address the fallout from the performance and field questions about those who don’t see his rockstar schtick as authentic. He sees a generational divide at play.

“Sometimes people don’t believe me, and I welcome that challenge,” he says. “It was so interesting when I spoke to Ozzy about this. He said that you cannot take that on. It's hard to understand someone who is trying to do rock music in a new way because, of course, I'm referencing the past; we all were.

“Yungblud as a name, it almost has a negative connotation around it like, ‘Oh, I can't like that, it's for the kids,’” he says. “It was segregating the demographic. But what was beautiful about Back to the Beginning was that it was the first time an older generation of rock fans and I shared something in common, and that was our mutual adoration for our genre.”

Yungblud’s cover of Changes on the day received plaudits from a score of metalheads and showed just why Ozzy had been so passionately supportive of him. Months later, he wanted the VMAs show to embody his love for the singer.

“Amongst all the bubblegum and pizzazz, we were probably one of the only acts singing live there,” he believes.

“To have us just play live and it be the most viewed video on the internet the day afterwards, you can feel that rock music is all about truth, passion, and humanity,” he expands. “Pop music is the caricatured version of life; rock is about being in the mud.”

Yungblud adds that he was practically raised in his dad's guitar shop, with bands like “T-Rex, Bowie, The Sex Pistols, The Clash truly in my blood,” in a bid to shoot down those who see his actions as solely performative.

The fact he has a collaborative EP with Aerosmith on the way – which he says was in motion long before Back to the Beginning raised his stock and cemented his ties with Ozzy – furthers his case.

“This guy’s got the juice,” Perry recently said of Yungblud's talents. “[After] four days in the studio, I called Steven and told him, ‘You have to hear this guy Yungblud, he’s the real deal.’ Fast forward to May, and we’re in the studio with Steven recording new music. Let the music do the talking.”

Aerosmith and Yungblud have followed their controversial MTV VMAs performance with a brand new song, My Only Angel – and a five-track EP is set to follow.

One More Time is set for release on November 19 and features four brand-new songs on which Tyler and Yungblud share vocal duties. There will also be a 2025 remix of Rocks banger, Back in the Saddle. It's been produced by Matt Schwarz.

It marks the first new music from Aerosmith since 2012’s Music from Another Dimension!. The surprise collaboration had been teased after the band partnered with Yungblud for an all-star Ozzy Osbourne tribute, which was met with derision from Dan Hawkins. His brother, Justin, followed closely behind in criticizing the spot.

Aerosmith was forced to retire from touring last year in light of vocalist Steven Tyler’s health issues, but he’s been on quite the comeback trail since. He linked up with Nuno Bettencourt to play some classics in February before reportedly reuniting with Joe Perry at a benefit show in May. He then took part in Ozzy's farewell show, Back to the Beginning, proving his pipes still pack plenty of power.

So, Aerosmith's first trip to the studio in 13 years will be music to fans' ears, and yet further confirmation that their premature end to touring wasn’t the end, full stop.

As for the new single, after some huge vocal harmonies, Joe Perry’s grooving, slightly off-kilter work is immediately recognizable. Yungblud supplies backing vocals until the second verse, delivering the same snarling attitude with which he stunned fans during his Changes cover at Back to the Beginning. Its bridge section is oozing with Pump-era swagger.

The song – and the project on the whole – will be met with cynicism from some, but with Aerosmith off the road, many others will be thrilled to wrap their ears around new riffs.

“A year ago, I got a call that Yungblud wanted to come to Sarasota to work with me and write some songs and said, ‘Hell yeah, this guy’s got the juice,’” Perry recalls. “[After] four days in the studio, I called Steven and told him, ‘You have to hear this guy Yungblud, he’s the real deal.’ Fast forward to May, and we’re in the studio with Steven recording new music. The result turned out to be an amazing collaboration between Aerosmith and Yungblud. Let the music do the talking.”

“It was like plugging into pure electricity,” adds Tyler. “For Joe and me, it was another cosmic collision to find ourselves in the studio with this outrageously talented and positively wild animal.

“Here’s this kid that lives his life out loud. [He] grew up on our records and the British invasion, and now we’re in the studio together creating something that bridges generations.

“Yungblud wants this next chapter in rock history and asked us to be a part of it. The vibe in the room was epic from the start. We had a blast and were truly honored to write with him.”

“Aerosmith have been such a staple of rock and roll and showmanship for me, so I’ve been ready for this my whole life,” Yungblud returns. “As soon as we entered the studio, the chemistry exploded and the songs just poured out of us. It’s the kind of collaboration that young me wouldn’t even dream of; it is truly blowing my mind.

“Steven and Joe are at the top of their game, and working with them is a huge fucking honor. I’m making records with my heroes.”

Meanwhile, Joe Perry says he hopes Aerosmith will get to play at least one more show together. He’s currently on the road with the Joe Perry Project, having enlisted members of the Black Crowes and Stone Temple Pilots for the cause.

Harrison Whitford isn’t chained to his dad Brad Whitford’s sound or aesthetic. Evidence of the younger musician’s distance from Aerosmith is clear in Best of Kings, the debut release by his latest project, Attention Bird Utopia.

“I’m looking for sounds which excite me,” Whitford says. “it’s somewhat subversive, and the means of getting there changes with every song.”

He continues: “I find it’s the responsibility of an artist to at least aspire to pull from as many sources as one can. So inspiration, for me, is about keeping your ears and eyes open to the fullest possible extent.”

Some of that approach could be attributed to Whitford’s time beside Phoebe Bridgers. “Playing with her taught me how it feels to situate oneself within great songs. If they’re truly great – as Phoebe’s are – they’ll tell you what needs to be there and what doesn’t. She’s a fantastic rhythm guitar player and I’ve always attempted to complement that.”

He confirms that his dad is an inspirational figure. “He instilled in me a strong work ethic when it came to practicing early on, and to have a strong grasp of the fretboard and the location of every note.”

He says of their musical divergence: “I don’t know how conscious or unconscious it was, but I’m sure it’s a mixture. I knew on some level that I wanted to carve my own path and have my own voice.”

What sort of player do you identify as?

“I don’t know that I identify as any one kind of player – I’ve always felt nebulously between genres and styles. I plan on making more music and art, and hopefully getting to play on more records and songs that I love.”

What are the origins of Attention Bird Utopia?

“Eli Hirsch and I met on a project he was producing, that I’d been hired to play guitar on. I think we were drawn together by a shared love of songwriting – we began to help each other finish each other’s songs, and recording them was the natural next step.”

Do you have a shared philosophy on guitars?

“If we do, it’s that we’re both attracted to the attitude and sonic characteristics a guitar can provide to the landscape of a song. Tonally, we lean in the direction of drier, more direct-sounding guitars that feature some level of texture – which can often just be the result of overdriving a preamp.”

How about songwriting?

“I’d say we have complementary approaches. Eli has a strong grasp of songform and structure, and how to make something effective both formally and lyrically. I tend to fixate on the expressionistic quality of a song and lyric, finding the line between abstract and plain language. We both value clarity in songwriting – there shouldn’t be much to push past to experience the power of a great song.”

What type of gear tends to find itself into your hands?

“I gravitate towards instruments which produce an even and balanced tone. I like guitars to have body and clarity across the frequency spectrum.”

Which songs from Best of Kings came about first?

“The first one was Best of Kings itself, which Eli had started writing and shared with me. It already felt nearly fully-formed. We recorded it the same day that it was finished, and it’s one of my favorite captures on the album, particularly Eli’s vocal and the guitar tones.

“The electric guitar is one track throughout the song, and the solo sound is just a byproduct of riding the volume knob at that section while feeding into an overdriven tape machine preamp.”

Do you ever get into alternate tunings or weird gear?

“I often write and play in alternate tunings, primarily open D. I gravitate towards voicings that are more naturally at one’s disposal in open chord tunings. It’s so much easier to place a nine on a chord in the middle register and start accessing all the different chordal and melodic opportunities there.

“It’s a great method for breaking up your usual physical habits on the guitar and return to using your ears as guideposts – which is everything, after all.

“I tend not to gravitate towards weird gear as much. Perhaps I’ll pick up a different guitar or sit down at the piano if I’m feeling stuck. I’m not an outright purist, but I lean somewhere in the middle. I prefer a guitar plugged directly into an amp, or to grab an acoustic, than using effects for inspiration.”

How does your tone preference affect your gear choices?

“I like tones which are either very dry and direct, or distant and obscured. I like the sound of an electric guitar amp with some distance on a mic, or a blend of that and a more direct signal. In sessions, tones which obscure the attack of the instrument can be quite useful.”

Are you precious about gear and the songs that you create?

“I’m not precious about gear, really. I’m precious about the instruments I own that I cherish – but any instrument is usable in most circumstances. I try to approach everything from the perspective of what will serve the song.

“I try not to be precious about songs either. If there’s anything I get truly precious about, it’s more often performances.”

How much of an inspiration is your dad, Brad Whitford?

“The aspects of his playing that inspire me most are his sense of rhythm, his use of vibrato, and the emotion in his playing – all of which are uniquely his own. I think he’s written some of the heaviest, greatest rock riffs of all time, and laid down some of the most inspired and creatively fortified leads. That’s served me tremendously.

“When I was beginning to write and record my own songs, he was a helpful listener and a strong advocate for performance when it came to a recording – the fluidity of a performance is paramount.”

• Best of Kings is on sale now.

As the search goes on to reunite Michael J. Fox with the Back to the Future ES-345, which hasn’t been seen since the film wrapped shooting 40 years ago, the actor’s guitar chops have come to light thanks to an Instagram post from Aerosmith.

The film’s iconic school dance scene inspired the likes of John Mayer, Mark Agnesi, and Coldplay’s Chris Martin to pick up the electric guitar, along with so many others. Speaking of the scene, Fox says he used the spot to reference a host of legendary guitar players because, as a guitarist himself, he wanted to do things right.

When Coldplay headlined Glastonbury in 2024, they invited Fox on stage to play with them as a way of thanking the actor for sowing the seeds of the band, but it turns out it isn’t the only time he’s graced the stage with rock greats.

Aerosmith have lifted footage from their fault that shows Fox teaming up with vocalist Steven Tyler to play Johnny B. Goode – the song he plays in the film – at a small club venue. It’s unclear when the clip was filmed, but it’s further proof that his guitar chops are far more real – sadly – than the Delorian.

Not only that, he's playing an appropriate Gibson ES model. He's behind Tyler for much of the clip, but we do get a glimpse of the sunburst guitar's Varitone switch and split fretboard inlays. Going off that own alone, it looks to be an ES-345 – the same model (albeit in a different finish without the Bigsby) from the movie.

“Jamming Johnny B. Goode with none other than Marty McFly himself - Michael J. Fox,” reads the caption. Fire emojis in the comments section are plentiful.

Speaking to Empire in 2020, Fox says he told Back to the Future writer Bob Gale that he was going to play the song while filming, rather than just miming for the camera.

“I had a great guitar teacher who taught me how to play,” he explains. “I said to Bob, ‘When I do this scene, I play guitar, so you can finger-sync me. Feel free to cut to my hands any time you want.’ Having said that, it put pressure on me to get it right.”

Meanwhile, Gibson has revealed a key feature of the missing ES-345 that will help identify it properly. The firm says it has been inundated with submissions for its search, which coincides with the film’s 40th anniversary, and has turned to the big guns to help find it.

It has hired the two investigative journalists who helped uncover Paul McCartney’s Höfner violin bass 50 years after it went missing. The ES-345 was loaned from Norman’s Rare Guitars after a last-minute switch (and faux pas) from the props department. It hasn’t been seen since.

The Joe Perry Project has performed its first shows, with the Aerosmith guitarist’s all-star solo project fronted by Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes and featuring Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots on bass guitar.

Flanked by his fellow Aerosmith alumni – Brad Whitford on guitar, keyboardist Buck Johnson – with Jason Sutter completing the lineup on drums, Perry performed a set classics over two nights in Florida.

There was some STP – Interstate Love Song, Vasoline – as well as some Black Crowes; Twice As Hard, Jealous Again. There was a lot of Aerosmith, with the band opening with Let the Music Do the Talking and closing it out with Walk This Way – Joe Perry rocking his leftie Stratocaster. They covered Led Zeppelin, too.

With Perry out and about, he has been sharing some thoughts on the future of Aerosmith, which, as of right now, is over as a touring entity, the venerable US rock institution grounded by frontman Steven Tyler’s injured larynx.

And yet, watching Tyler hold Villa Park in the palm of his hand at Back to the Beginning as he performed Train Kept A-Rollin’, Walk This Way and Whole Lotta Love, many people – Perry included – might be forgiven for harboring thoughts that A) Tyler has still got, and B) there is no good reason why Aerosmith couldn’t pull together, at least for one last hurrah.

Speaking to WBUR, Perry did not rule out the possibility that the band would take flight once more – which would be fitting given they had to cancel the remaining dates on their farewell tour.

“I would bet that there’s an Aerosmith show left,” said Perry. “There’s been talk about doing a documentary, that might be part of it.”

An Aerosmith documentary is long overdue. The Making of Pump was a vital snapshot of the band in 1990, working under the auspices of Bruce Fairbairn. The only career-spanning doc we have is a VH1 Behind the Music episode that aired in 2002, and a lot has happened since. What won’t happen, sadly, is a tour. Whatever repair Tyler’s larynx is in, it is not fit for 40 nights in the world’s enormodomes.

“I’ve been spending a lot of time with Steven,” continued Perry, “and he just doesn’t want to tour and he can’t tour. It’s tough. I’m not sure I would want to go out and book another 40-city tour. It’s a long way to the top and staying there takes it out of you, especially an Aerosmith tour.”

For the foreseeable, if you want to hear classics lifted from the Aerosmith catalog, try and catch the Joe Perry Project.

Perry announced this new lineup and tour in May. Stone Temple Pilots drummer Eric Kretz was meant to be joining them but had to sit it out following a family emergency. Perry plays Toronto tomorrow night. See Joe Perry for full dates and ticket details.

Joe Perry and Brad Whitford have recalled the time when Rory Gallagher served as a support for Aerosmith during a festival in the 1970s – and ended up proving such a hit with fans that he stole the band's thunder.

The two Aerosmith icons recently sat down with Rick Beato for a career-sprawling interview, and a particularly memorable show starring the late Irish guitar hero cropped up during the conversation.

“I don't wanna hear about that,” Perry quips as Whitford begins to spin the tale, which took place when Aerosmith was set to headline the Schaefer Music Festival in 1974 in Central Park.

“It was before we were accepted in New York at all. Rory Gallagher probably had one of the most stunning shows of his entire career,” Whitford recalls. Perry puts it more bluntly: “He kicked our ass. We headlined. He went on first, and he kicked our ass.”

“He went off stage, they made him come out for an encore,” Whitford continues. “He did this encore. Went off. They made him come out again. Another encore. They wouldn't stop. He came out for three encores. Oh my god.

“And then we got on the stage, and I just remember watching people walk away before we even started playing.”

That sinking feeling must have been horrific. The band were on the upswing at that point. Their third album, Toys in the Attic, had saved the band from getting axed by their label and reversed the fortunes of their career. But Gallagher was an unstoppable force that day.

“It was like the show's over, and who are these guys? They didn't care,” Whitford adds. “I swear, it had to be one of his best concerts.”

That Gallagher made such an impression shouldn't come as a surprise. The late Irish guitar great is widely considered to be one of the most influential blues-rock guitar players of all time and a true guitar one-off who inspired the likes of Brian May and Jimi Hendrix.

In fact, it's oft-reported that Hendrix was once asked how it felt to be the greatest guitar player in the world, to which supposedly responded: “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Rory Gallagher.”

Gallagher was revered for his distinct blues-rock style and famed for his heavily relic'd 1961 Stratocaster – believed to be the first to reach Irish soil – which sold at auction for almost $1,000,000 last year.

He was also a hero of Joe Bonamassa, who spoke at length about the influence that Gallagher had on the guitar scene – before embarking on a run of Rory Gallagher tribute concerts earlier this year.

With Aerosmith’s gigging days now behind them – although Perry reveals there has been talk of at least one more show – the pair are about to head out on the road as The Joe Perry Project.

Meanwhile, Perry has spoken about his new favorite piece of gear. He’s also revealed that he planned to take Jeff Beck's Strat on tour with Aerosmith, but found it wasn't half as good in his hands.

The most anticipated heavy metal event of all time, Back to the Beginning, took place last weekend (July 5), and as expected, the nine-hour affair proved to be the perfect send off for Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath.

To bring the curtain down on Ozzy and Sabbath’s epic live careers, the legendary band were joined by a who’s who of guitar royalty, with the likes of Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Halestorm, Lamb of God all making up the lineup.

Throughout the evening, these guitar heroes and special guests were arranged across a stacked itinerary, with some playing 15 minute sets (Ozzy and Sabbath covers included) and others joining forces for special one-off supergroups.

Billy Corgan’s ‘metal yardbirds’ were arguably the most hyped supergroup of the night, but they were given a run for their money when Steven Tyler made a triumphant return to the stage with a three-song set that also featured Ronnie Wood, Nuno Bettencourt, Tom Morello and Andrew Watt.

Tyler, whose high-profile vocal injury forced Aerosmith to retire from touring last year, showed absolutely zero signs of a musician whose powers were apparently waning, instead putting in a strong case for ‘vocalist of the evening’ as he confidently and robustly belted through The Train Kept A-Rollin’, Aerosmith’s Walk This Way and Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love.

The supporting cast of guest guitar heroes played their part, too. Wood, fresh from his Glastonbury 2025 appearance alongside Rod Stewart, sauntered through the sleazy, untethered bends and riffs of that first song, before giving up the stage to Nuno, Watt and Morello for the rest of Tyler’s set.

Watt – longtime Ozzy collaborator and super-producer to rock’s elite – donned an SG for the occasion, while Morello and his Arm the Homeless Superstrat helped hold down the classic Aerosmith and Zeppelin riffs.

And then there was Nuno, whose contributions to the evening cannot be overstated. A foundational presence throughout the entirety of Back to the Beginning, Bettencourt was – in the words of Guitar World’s Michael Astley-Brown, who watched the entire show – the MVP of the evening.

His presence for the Tyler cameo was equally influential, padding out riffs when required, supporting in the vocals department, and serving as the six-string supergroup glue that, in large parts, held the evening together.

All this is to say, Tyler looks to be in seriously good form, and though a one-off appearance lasting 15 minutes is a very different to sustaining an entire show, it makes chatter of a potential Aerosmith send-off all the more believable.

Last week, Joe Perry said there had to be “at least another Aerosmith gig”, while bassist Tom Hamilton previously admitted, “I refuse to consider it over,” when asked about a potential return.

With Tyler sounding as good as this (especially on Aerosmith classics) a reunion now looks more likely than ever – and, as the evidence shows, it would sound killer...

Last summer, Aerosmith officially announced their retirement, bringing to a close their epic 50-year live career after it was confirmed vocalist Steven Tyler would be unable to recover from a long-standing vocal injury.

At the time, Tyler and co said it had been a “heartbreaking and difficult, but necessary, decision” to make, but now electric guitar icon Joe Perry has seemingly left the door ajar for a potential reunion at some point in the future.

Speaking to Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM (via Ultimate Classic Rock), Perry discussed the possibility of a final Aerosmith concert, which could indeed become a reality if some logistical and organizational hurdles could be overcome.

“I’m always hoping, but going on the road, it’s a big deal pulling that together,” Perry admits. “It’s one thing to sit there and look online and see who’s touring and stuff, and there’s dates that show up, but there’s so much planning, and what it takes out of you physically, it’s a lot more than people realise.”

Logistics aside, there is also an intense physical toll that touring has on an aging rock institution, another consideration that could jeopardize a grand finale send-off.

“It’s a really physical thing, going out on stage,” he continues. “And all that energy that you’re putting out, that you’re transferring to the audience, it takes something out of you in a physical and emotional way. And all of that energy that you give, that’s flowing out there, that’s making people feel good, it takes it out of you.

“So I don’t know, man. But we’re talking about it. I mean, except for anything on the calendar, we’re all alive and well. So, we’ll just have to see.

“I know there’s gotta be at least another Aerosmith gig, and I’m not looking forward to putting the setlist together for that one. But I don’t know, man. We’ll just have to see.”

Perry isn’t the only Aerosmith member to have these thoughts, either. The guitarist says he “thinks” Tyler would be up for it as well, while bassist Tom Hamilton previously told Guitar World that he refused to believe the band was actually over.

“I refuse to consider it over,” he said last year during an in-depth interview. “There are a lot of things we could do in the future. We'll just have to see once we get out of reaction mode and back to creative mode… I find it hard to believe that we'll never play again.”

In related Perry news, last year the guitar hero sat down with Guitar World to take a look back on his Aerosmith career – and his 600-strong guitar collection.

Ever wondered about your best gig ever (so far)? Every musician has one – and for Pat Travers, it was sharing the stage with a host of legendary names at Day on the Green, a recurring concert series at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum. Promoted by rock impresario Bill Graham, the series began in 1973 and drew some of the biggest acts of the era and crowds of around 65,000 people.

“The best show I ever did was 1978 in Oakland, California,” Travers tells tells Rick Beato. “It's Aerosmith headlining, Foreigner, my band [Pat Travers Band], AC/DC, and Van Halen. Five bands starting at 11 a.m.

“So I'm not sure if Van Halen went on first, or AC/DC did. One of them did. It didn't matter. And of course, Bill Graham was the best, and the backstage area had AstroTurf and tables and umbrellas, trailers – and everybody's hanging out together.”

The fantasy lineup of classic rock musicians extended to Travers' backstage encounters – including a comical one with none other than Steven Tyler.

“That was the first time I met Steven Tyler, and that's so funny. Somebody from my record company says, ‘Pat, you got to meet Steven Tyler.’ And I went, ‘Yeah, I've just got to meet Steven Tyler.’

“So they walk me over. He's sitting in a chair underneath an umbrella with a frozen daiquiri, and he's got big mirrored aviators and the biggest dive watch I ever saw, and he's just sitting there, and someone goes, ‘Hey, Steven, this is Pat – Pat, this is Steve.’ And I go, ‘Hey, Steve, how you doing?’”

Tyler’s response? “He goes, ‘My fucking lips are killing me.’ [laughs] I liked him, just loved him immediately. I went, ‘That's my kind.’ He just didn't get it. I mean, he had chapped lips because it was so dry out there, yeah, but he [had] forgotten that, ‘Oh, by the way, your lips are so big you can whisper in your own ear.’ It's funny.”

Another one for the books? An encounter with two guitar greats, and a photo to prove it. “There's a great picture of Eddie [Van Halen], Pat Thrall, and myself backstage. Oh man, we look awesome – three guitar players, just 24 years old.”

In the same Rick Beato interview, Travers revealed he owned three Gibsons by the age of 16 – all of which met an unfortunate demise.

Joe Perry and Brad Whitford rejoined Aerosmith in 1984 after being away for four and two years, respectively. Soon after, the Bad Boys from Boston launched their successful Back in the Saddle tour, which spanned the summer of ’84.

“It was a pretty tumultuous decade,” Joe Perry says while looking back on Aerosmith’s mid-’80s reboot. “It always felt like ‘us against them.’ But we really hung together as a band. Nothing was going to break us up, because we [already] went through all the stuff that usually breaks bands up.”

Perry recalls the fans being there for Aerosmith, proving that the now-sober rockers had the juice that made them stalwarts of Seventies rock. This led to Aerosmith hooking up with Geffen Records and making their first record as a reunited force, 1985’s Done with Mirrors.

It would’ve been fun to say that Mirrors was a smash hit loaded with notable songs that topped the charts. It would’ve been cool to say that because of Done with Mirrors, Aerosmith claimed the ’80s as their own, just as they’d done in the ’70s. But that’s not what happened.

Sure, Aerosmith would eventually shine in the ’80s – but not because of Done with Mirrors. The reality is the album basically failed to launch, sported some difficult-to-understand cover art and featured zero chart-topping hits.

In fact, the sound of this record, which dropped at the onset of the hair- and glam-metal era, was more akin to 1976’s Rocks than anything that Ratt, Poison or Quiet Riot – with whom Aerosmith was competing – were doing in the mid ’80s.

But Mirrors does have its moments. In fact, had it dropped just after Rocks or 1977’s Draw the Line, odds are it would’ve been a hit. What’s more, it’s become something of a cult classic. But in the ’80s, Done with Mirrors left Perry feeling torn. Of course, time – and a string of subsequent world-beating records – heals all wounds. Now, when Perry looks back on the album, it’s with a fresh set of eyes (and ears).

“I got a call some years ago about Done with Mirrors being on a list of, I don’t know… top rock records,” Perry says. “I forget what it was. But it was on a list, and people were regarding it as something that reminded them of our first record.

“I started listening to it, and I was really surprised. I saw it from a whole different viewpoint and saw what they were talking about. It’s really rough and raw, and there are a lot of things about it that reminded me of the first couple of records.”

Aerosmith had reunited in ’84 and gone on the road prior to Done with Mirrors.

“We had just gotten back together. We had done a tour and were getting comfortable playing together again. I had left for almost four years, and Brad had been gone, so we were getting comfortable with being together; that was part of the reason we went out on the road without a record deal. Well, [another] one of the reasons was that we couldn’t get a record deal...”

It’s hard to believe you guys couldn’t get a record deal.

“We had burned so many bridges that nobody would sign us. But we wanted to see if we had the old spark. We went out and toured for the Back in the Saddle tour that summer, and the fans showed up for us. That’s it. They were there for us.”

How did that impact the sessions for Mirrors in ’85?

“When we got into the studio to do that record, we were still learning how to write again. After doing records like Rocks, Draw the Line and even the first three records, you would think we’d be able to pick up from there and go on, but the pressure was on. People were looking at us like, ‘Okay, what are you going to come up with?’”

It must have helped that you were working with producer Ted Templeman, who had struck gold with Van Halen earlier in the decade.

“We got to work with Ted, who had an amazing reputation, obviously, with Van Halen, which was incredible. They sounded monstrous, and I guess we were expecting more from him, so we were both kind of nervous. We were nervous to work with him, and he was nervous to work with us, which kind of surprised us.”

How did those nerves impact the sessions?

“I always felt like that record could have been better if we had worked on it some more, or if everybody got in the control room together and said, ‘We kind of feel uptight about working with you,’ but I don’t know… it’s just how it went.”

Aerosmith covered Let the Music Do the Talking, which came off the Joe Perry Project’s first album from 1980. How did you approach that?

“We brought it to a whole ’nother level, I think. I love the way we did it on my first solo record, but having the band play it – you know, Aerosmith! – really put it into fifth gear. And then, the rest of the songs just had a vibe to them.”

Would you do Done with Mirrors over again if you could?

“I still wish I could have maybe polished a few more things and put a couple more overdubs on. All in all, I think it did what it was supposed to do. It kind of showed me what we needed to do for the next one.

“We had to do that record to get to the next step and take ourselves out of the usual way we were writing and recording. After that, we took off up to Vancouver and tried a whole new way of doing things [for Permanent Vacation, Pump and Get a Grip], and even worked with some other songwriters. That started a whole new thing for us.”

And none of that happens without the learning experience of making Done with Mirrors?

“We did three amazing records up in Vancouver. It was a really creative vibe, but anyway, I think we had to get through Done with Mirrors. One of the things we joked about is, like, ‘What did we do wrong?’”

What did you come up with?

“The first thing we did was print everything backward on the label, you know, with the artwork. [Laughs] We made it one step harder for people to figure out what it is. But the band was also at a point where we weren’t using mirrors for horizontal things [cocaine].

“We were using them vertically, the way they should be used… It was kind of a subtle hint that the reason we’re back and able to continue on is because we made a lot of changes in our personal lives.”

It seems your feelings on Done with Mirrors are ambivalent. Do you still relate to the album the way you do Aerosmith’s other records?

“It’s more bits and pieces of each album. There are certain things that strike home with me for the kind of music that I like personally, but if we just stuck to one kind of music, I think we would have been able to do what we did.

“We wouldn’t have had as much balance as we did. We brought different things to the party. I mean, all I wanted to do was turn up and rock. [Laughs] It’s more about the bits and pieces that we all put there for each record to make it what they were.

“A lot of different spices went into the pot, and some records were more fun than others. But as far as musically, or one record, or another, it’s like I said: it’s more bits and pieces of every record, you know?”

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Joe Perry is set to return to the road in August, with members of Aerosmith, Black Crowes, and Stone Temple Pilots making up the lineup for his revived and revitalized solo band.

Aerosmith were forced to retire from touring last year in light of Steven Tyler’s ongoing health issues, but Perry has been keeping busy with solo material since, recently revealing the one amp that’s been a game-changer for him as he looks to ignite his post-Aerosmith era.

The Joe Perry Project tour, which starts in Tampa, FL on August 13th and wraps in Port Chester, NY on the 23rd, sees the guitarist making full use of his Rolodex: the band hinges on the classic Aerosmith guitar tandem of Perry and Brad Whitford, with touring keyboardist, Buck Johnson, also involved.

The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson will front the band, while the Stone Temple Pilots rhythm section of bass player Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz rounds out the group.

The eight-date tour is tragically brief for such a superlative group of musicians, but it may yet prove the precursor for a more comprehensive tour further down the line.

It’s unclear what material will be performed across those dates, but with Perry alluding to new solo material, that will likely play a key role alongside cuts from his fairly extensive solo back catalog.

The tour marks the first time the two Aerosmith guitarists have worked together since the band's 2024 tour was brought to a premature end. Perry may also be hoping the new band will help shine a brighter light on his co-guitarist’s talents.

Speaking to Guitar World in 2023, he said, “It's always rubbed me the wrong way when people put Brad down and refer to me as the lead guitarist. Some of the best solos in our catalog are ones Brad did.” So expect solos aplenty from the pair.

Whitford echoed those frustrations in an interview that same year, explaining how many music critics and fans assume Aerosmith's best guitar moments come from Perry's fingers and not his own.

“After Rocks came out, Aerosmith was touring England, and I was sitting in a bar in London reading a review of the album in Melody Maker,” he had said. “And when they got to talking about Last Child, they started talking about how it sounded like Jeff Beck, which was very flattering. But then I kept reading, and they gave Joe credit for the guitar solo and kept comparing it to Jeff Beck. I read that, and I fucking went nuclear.

“I was just so pissed off. It’s like, here I am, having my fucking work being compared to Jeff Beck, and they’re crediting Joe Perry. It was bullshit, and I was so upset.”

Robinson is also no stranger to working with Perry, having featured on his 2023 album Sweetzerland Manifesto MKII. He released his first new music with the Black Crowes in 15 years last year, calling their record, Happiness Bastards, “our love letter to rock n’ roll”.

In related news, Perry has reflected on the band’s hit-and-miss album Done With Mirrors, which saw the group link up with Van Halen super producer Ted Templeman, while the makers of Perry’s new favorite amp have spoken about what his support means for the growing company.

Head over to Joe Perry's website for a full list of upcoming tour dates.

In the mid-1980s, in a bid to channel some of Van Halen’s trailblazing sound and energy (and success) Aerosmith turned to the band’s super producer Ted Templeman, who was behind the desk for the band’s six “monstrous” albums up to that point. But nerves, Joe Perry says, blighted the sessions for what would become 1985’s Done With Mirrors.

Templeman had credits with The Doobie Brothers, genius madman Captain Beefheart, and Van Morrison before playing his role in turning Eddie Van Halen and company into one of the biggest bands in the world.

With Aerosmith's own hotshot guitar duo, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, returning to the fold after several years away, hiring Templeman felt like a shrewd move as the bad boys from Boston set about proving they could still roll with the punches. However, speaking in the new issue of Guitar World, Perry says it wasn’t quite the dynamic pairing they’d hoped.

By his admission, Aerosmith had “burned so many bridges that nobody would sign us,” and so, heading into the studio without a record deal, he says “the pressure was on”. That impacted their sessions with Templeman greatly.

“We got to work with Ted, who had an amazing reputation with Van Halen, which was incredible,” he reflects. “They sounded monstrous, and I guess we were expecting more from him, so we were both kind of nervous. We were nervous to work with him, and he was nervous to work with us, which kind of surprised us.

“I always felt like that record could have been better if we had worked on it some more,” he adds in retrospect. “Or if everybody got in the control room together and said, ‘We kind of feel uptight about working with you,’ but I don’t know... it’s just how it went.”

The band never addressed the elephant in the room. And while Done With Mirrors was a significant upgrade from 1982's Rock in a Hard Place, which saw the band filling Perry and Whitford-sized holes with Meat Loaf and Stevie Nicks session player Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay, it wasn’t a roaring success. But it served a larger purpose.

“I still wish I could have maybe polished a few more things and put a couple more overdubs on,” he continues. “All in all, I think it did what it was supposed to do. It kind of showed me what we needed to do for the next one.

“We had to do that record to get to the next step and take ourselves out of the usual way we were writing and recording.”

Later moving up to Vancouver, the band reworked their writing process to pen what is arguably their strongest three album run in Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get a Grip.

“That started a whole new thing for us,” Perry adds, accepting that Done With Mirrors needed to happen before the band could properly get their mojo back.

Aerosmith were forced to retire from touring last year amid Steven Tyler’s ongoing vocal issues, but bassist Tom Hamilton has said that the band aren’t quite dead yet.

For more from Joe Perry, Yngiwe Malmsteen, Kiki Wong, and plenty more beyond them, grab a copy of the new issue of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.

Joe Perry has recalled the time he was loaned a Fender Stratocaster that belonged to Jeff Beck – and revealed that he almost took the instrument out on the road with Aerosmith.

In a new interview with MusicRadar, Perry discusses his friendship and playing relationship with Beck and also talks about playing Beck’s ‘number three’ Strat with his side project the Hollywood Vampires – an appropriate outing for an instrument belonging to the late guitar hero.

“It was his number three [Stratocaster],” Perry explains. “The whole premise of the Vampires was to pay homage to the guys who had passed on. I think we were going to have it on the road with Aerosmith, but when that [the band’s Peace Out farewell tour] got cancelled, I gave it back to Jeff's guitar tech.”

A nightly outing for the Beck Strat on the road with Aerosmith would have been a tempting prospect for guitar geeks and fans alike, but sadly it was not to be following Steven Tyler’s vocal injury and the tour’s subsequent cancellation.

Both Perry and Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton have since discussed their hopes that Tyler might recover enough to get back on the road, with Hamilton recently saying, “Maybe Aerosmith will do something in the future, but it’s a big ‘if’.” However, even if that does happen it looks as if Perry’s moment with the Strat might have passed.

“[Beck’s former tech is] the guy helping the family put Jeff's stuff together for the auction,” explains Perry. “I think he might have given it [the Stratocaster] to Billy Gibbons to play just to keep it out on the road. I'm hoping to get a chance to play it again.”

The same Strat seems to have been played by the likes of Gibbons, John Mayer and Steve Lukather since, and Lukather has hinted it’s part of a wider Jeff Beck tribute project.

However, special its association, as Perry notes repeatedly in the interview, what surprised him most about Beck’s instruments, including the loaner, is how unremarkable they were.

“There's nothing special about it except that it was Jeff’s,” says Perry of the Strat. “Whenever I’d see him play live for real it was an off-the-rack Strat. He was never one to say, ‘I’ve got to play that. That’s my number one. That’s the one I can't live without.’ I think that was interesting. He looked at the guitars like tools, not something you get attached to.”

One model that truly would have been worthy of the term ‘remarkable’ would have to have been the off-the-wall and ultimately ill-fated Ibanez Jeff Beck signature guitar that came to light via Guitar World last year – also set to feature in the upcoming Jeff Beck guitar auction.

Last summer, the American rock institution Aerosmith shocked fans by announcing the band's retirement from touring after five decades on the road. In a social media statement, the band attributed the difficult decision to frontman Steven Tyler's vocal injury, forcing them to cut short an extensive North American tour.

However, it seems like this might not be the last we’ve heard from Aerosmith in the live circuit, as bassist Tom Hamilton shared with Boston radio station WBUR that the renowned frontman is recovering “really well” but added that the healing process “goes at its own pace.”

“Maybe Aerosmith will do something in the future, but it’s a big ‘if’ and the last thing I want to be doing is to try and push Steven in that direction. If we do anything in the future, it would come from him.”

The bassist had previously told Bass Player that, “as far as the career goes, I refuse to consider it over. There are a lot of things we could do in the future.”

He continued, “We’ll just have to see once we get out of reaction mode and back to creative mode. I’m going through a phase now where I can feel my playing taking a step upward. Inspiration is always right around the corner.”

As to whether this will take the shape of a full-scale reunion, Hamilton added, “I find it hard to believe that we'll never play again. I’ve been surprised by things that have happened with this band too many times to think that the future is closed.”

Aerosmith bass guitar player Tom Hamilton has revealed how a trip to see Motörhead play live with his son eventually lead to him joining Thin Lizzy in 2016.

Until that point, Hamilton, who has been part of Aerosmith since their formation, had never played a part in a musical project outside of the band. However, speaking on the Defenders of the Faith podcast, he admits this was an offer too good to miss.

“I went to see Motörhead with my son one night and after the show, we were able to spend a lot of time with Lemmy, who was so great to us,” he reveals. The pair met the rest of the band – guitarist Phil Campbell, and current Scorpions drummer Mikkey Dee – and it unknowingly laid the foundation for what was to come.

“A few months later, [Mikkey Dee] got in touch with me and said he was going to be playing with Thin Lizzy on a tour to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Phil Lynott's death [and 40 years since Jailbreak]. He said they were looking for a bass player and if I wanted the gig, it was mine.”

The Irish rockers had disbanded following Lynott’s passing in 1984, shortly after the release of the heavy metal-tinged Thunder and Lightning LP. Guitarist Scott Gorham announced a new-look line-up for their 2010 return, which featured original drummer Brian Downey, long-standing keyboardist Darren Wharton, Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell, and vocalist Ricky Warwick. At that point, Marco Mendoza handled bass guitar duties.

In 2012, members of the band established the Black Star Riders name to write and release new music without impacting Lizzy’s legacy. Thin Lizzy, meanwhile, was reserved for special tours and one-off events. Fast-forward several years, and a torn Hamilton had a decision to make.

“I knew in my heart there was no way I would say no, although it would be the first time I ever did something outside of Aerosmith, so I had some butterflies,” he says. “I had done some minor things outside of my day job, but never a tour.”

Hamilton listened to his heart and agreed to get involved.

“A few months after that, after studying my ass off learning the songs, I was in London for the first day of rehearsals. I thought I had the songs down, but I was a little behind the curve,” he accepts. Luckily, he had a get-out-of-jail-free card.

“Damon Johnson, who is now a great friend of mine, was playing guitar. He and I got together one-on-one the next day and he helped me get polished. From then on, rehearsals went better and better, and then we were off to our first gig.

“We played five or six big festivals in Europe and it was a blast,” he remembers.

The bassist says he never met Phil Lynott, but tackling his songs gave him “an immense amount of respect for what he accomplished musically.”

Hamilton has since stepped down from the role, with Mastodon’s low-end bringer Troy Sanders tapped up for their last run of shows in 2019.

In August last year, Aerosmith announced their retirement from touring in light of Steven Tyler’s vocal injury, but Hamilton has refused to rule out a potential return in the future.

Meanwhile, original Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell has spearheaded a new acoustic release blending Phil Lynott's bass and vocal parts with newly recorded guitars.

As another bumper year of killer riffs, face-melting guitar solos, and eye-catching gear releases comes to a close, Guitar World has been asking big-name players for their personal highlights.

Joe Bonamassa, one of the biggest gear-obsessives in the world, has already named a nautical-themed reverb pedal as his favorite stompbox of 2024 – but for Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, 2024 was the year he fell in love with a brand-new amp brand.

“They’re great amps to use with pedals, meaning you can get them relatively clean to get the most out of your pedals,” he says of boutique firm Silktone Amps.

Silktone handcrafts its collection of amp heads and combos from its Northern California HQ, alongside a small stable of fuzz and overdrive pedals.

The firm started by manufacturing guitar cables, but in recent years it has branched out into creating the gear its cables can be plugged into – and Perry may just be its biggest new fan.

“You can get it to crunch just by putting it to 10,” he continues of his own Silktone. “I run mine at 2 o’clock. I also have a compressor pedal and a boost from Fulltone that I use with it.

“If you can get your hands on a Silktone, it’s a great piece for your arsenal. I did some recording with mine, and for what I was going for, it worked great.”

Though he has clearly shaken up his amp collection, Perry’s guitar arsenal has remained largely unchanged over the years. Having said that, he surprised the guitar world last year when he admitted to using Strats for much of Aerosmith’s ’70s material, despite most people thinking of him as a Les Paul loyalist.

“I always felt like we should sound like one of us was playing a Fender Stratocaster and the other was playing a Gibson Les Paul,” he told Total Gutiar earlier this year. Perry, then, was firmly in the Fender camp.

But when the guitarist left the band in 1979 he also cut ties with much of his collection, which meant parting with one Strat that he still longs to be reunited with after all these years. He also recently opened up on why selling an unassuming red Hofner Stratocaster clone that was purchased on the road is one of his biggest gear regrets.

Aerosmith retired from touring in 2024 amidst Steven Tyler’s health issues, but Perry says the guitar scene’s future is bright, even if the age of the guitar hero is over.

Head to Magazines Direct to pick up a copy of the new Guitar World, which includes chats with Grace Bowers and Matteo Mancuso, as some of the world’s biggest players choose their favorite guitar highlights of 2024.

Leading up to August of this year, Joe Perry was busy preparing for a tour. Not just any tour – he was saddling up for what was to be Aerosmith’s rebooted Peace Out tour, the same one that came to a screeching halt after a performance at the UBS Arena in Elmont, Long Island, on September 9, 2023, when normally evergreen vocalist Steven Tyler suffered an injury during the show and fractured his larynx.

But all that changed on August 2, when Aerosmith issued a joint statement informing the world that there would be no second chance at ‘Peacing Out.’

“It has been the honor of our lives to have our music become part of yours…” said the statement that ran across all Aero‑related social media. “Steven’s voice is an instrument like no other. He has spent months tirelessly working on getting his voice to where it was before his injury.

“We’ve seen him struggling despite having the best medical team by his side. Sadly, it is clear that a full recovery from his vocal injury is not possible. We have made a heartbreaking and difficult, but necessary, decision – as a band of brothers – to retire from the touring stage.”

Just like that, Aerosmith, as a touring entity, was gone. Joe Perry, of course, was left reeling to think about what might have been. It’s understandable, as he had spent over 50 years, save for a few lost years between 1979 and 1984, devoted to the Aerosmith machine. The idea that he and his bandmates couldn’t say goodbye on their terms is heartbreaking.

For these reasons and about a million others, when Perry dialled in with Guitarist in mid-August of 2024, he politely informed us that he wasn’t ready to talk about Aerosmith’s end. And who could blame him? Facing one’s musical mortality unexpectedly is one thing, but there’s also the matter of family – which his bandmates in Aerosmith, and the band itself, should be likened to.

In short, Aerosmith’s being forced off the road in such fashion leaves the band with a heavy grief. As such, Perry needs time to mourn. But, thankfully, he was still up for talking guitars, gear, and how today’s landscape is being shaped by all of it.

This brings us to an important question: why is Joe Perry important in 2024?

To start, it’s not about farewell tours or classic albums, nor is it strictly about Aerosmith. The answer is far more multi-layered than you can imagine. But for starters, few so-called ‘classic rock guitar players’ boast Perry’s idiosyncratic legacy.

You can rattle off names like Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, and Brian May. And, of course, all of them are truly genius-level when it comes to their greatness. Page was a studio savant, and Gilmour a master of time and space. And then there’s May, a titan of melodicism and Vox-laden tone. All essential, all quintessential. All decidedly ‘classic rock.’

So what makes Joe Perry – a self-taught rocker out of New England who once wanted to be a marine biologist, who grew up with undiagnosed ADHD, and who powered through break-ups, make-ups, and shake-ups to strut his stuff – akin to a giant striding across the Earth? Well, everything, really.

With Perry, it’s about feel, vibe, and a certain je ne sais quoi. And you better believe it’s swirling all around the man’s orbit every time he takes the stage. That is to say – it’s real. “If you spend all your time learning technique, scales, and all that,” he says, “you’re not really going to write something new and interesting.”

‘Interesting’ is the magic word when it comes to Perry. He refuses to stagnate or be boiled down in an age of clickbait, oversaturation, social media wars, and a landscape often featuring rehashes of things too often seen but featuring little substance.

Not many know it, but he’s not a simple Les Paul-slinger or run-of-the-mill Strat devotee. Two minutes spent with him chopping it up about valve amps, speaker changes, weirdo guitars, and pedal accumulation will tell you that.

To that end, Perry is a mad scientist with an array – and ever-changing – pile of stompboxes at his feet, who will remind you as often as you’ll listen that “there are no bad tones.” And looking back on his career, he’s always been that way. It’s a way of thinking about life, and playing guitar, that can’t be taught. You’ve either got it or you don’t. And Joe Perry’s got it in spades.

“You have to teach yourself to break away,” he says. “Technique is a way to get somewhere, and in and of itself, it’s fine. Fucking go for it if you want, but if you want to play the kind of rock ’n’ roll that I like, there’s more to it. There’s infinite numbers of chords that can help you, but it’s really what you want to do with the guitar.”

Perry knew that from the jump, feeling his way through the world as a New England kid with a guitar in hand, and a dream he was instinctively prepared to lay it all on the line for. There have been a lot of kids who were like that, but Perry was different. He felt a kinship with his instrument and understood its place.

“The guitar was a weapon of rebellion,” he explains. “People were afraid of that music. They called it ‘the Devil’s music.’ They called it all kinds of things. It was too sexy, but it was just three chords and a nasty feel. If you walked down the street with a guitar case, it was a guarantee that somebody would go, ‘Wow, you play guitar?’ It was a chick magnet [laughs].”

But it’s not like that any more, not for Perry or anyone else. “It’s just so mainstream now,” Perry says. “And it’s great – it’s such a great instrument. It’s adaptable to many things, but I think the era of the guitar hero is kind of… There will still be guitar heroes, and there will still be people on the cover of Guitar World, but it certainly isn’t going to be… I’m hearing a lot of great rock ’n’ roll, but it’s not guitar-centric.”

Losing Aerosmith doesn’t help that. The final words of the band’s internet-breaking statement are still ringing in our ears in place of Perry’s sleazy riffs and blues-blistering solos: “We are grateful beyond words for everyone who was pumped to get on the road with us one last time,” the band’s statement said in closing. “A final thank you to you – the best fans on planet Earth. Play our music loud, now and always. Dream On. You’ve made our dreams come true.”

With more rock giants falling off each year, the scene is changing. KISS hung it up in December of 2023, REO Speedwagon announced their end in September 2024, dozens of farewell tours are afoot, and Aerosmith are gone now, too. But Joe Perry isn’t. He’s got more to do – and he damn well plans to do it.

In fact, he’s got plenty to say about the current trends in guitar. “You might have a guitar solo in there,” he says, “but it’s not the basis of the song. Guitar has just become so accepted; it isn’t a symbol of rebellion any more. For better or worse, it’s just another instrument.”

But don’t get it twisted; Perry doesn’t feel the guitar has been relegated. If anything, its appeal is broader than ever. “It’s an amazing thing that’s happened over the last 70 years,” he smiles. “Guitar is global. It’s a global market. I keep my eye on it, but I certainly don’t sweat it or worry about staying relevant.”

With Aerosmith in his rearview mirror and more than seven decades under his studded leather belt, Perry has learned a lot. He’s lived dozens of lives, and even though his contemporaries are dropping like flies, Joe Perry forges ahead. Aerosmith might be over, but Perry is just getting started. And as always, he’ll do it as classic rock’s ultimate chameleon.

“I stick to what I do best, you know? I’m sure I’ll be doing something, whatever, down the road. But who knows, really? One thing I know for sure that will stay the same is that everything is going to change.

“Anybody that goes to Berklee and learned all the techniques and all that stuff, that’s great,” he says. “But what are you going to do with it? That’s what it’s all about – what you do with it. Do you want to write songs, or do you want to impress people with how skilled you are? There’s a market for both, you know, if you want to try to make a living playing guitar.”

Was there a lightning bolt moment as you were coming up that led to your growth as a guitarist?

“That’s a big question. I guess realizing at the very start that it was pretty much about getting a guitar that felt right in your hands. It’s a weird thing because, like any guitar player, I can plug into another player’s rig, fiddle with the knobs, and end up sounding like that person.”

So, it’s not so much about the rig but how you use it?

“Not so much the rig, it’s how you hear the sound – and adjust to it. If it’s louder, softer, and where your picking hand is, like if it’s close to the bridge or closer to the neck, so much is dependent on getting to know the sound you want. And over the years, the equipment choices just exploded.”

You’re something of a mad scientist when it comes to guitar pedals and gear. Was that always the case for you?

“When I started, I think you had to search around for a fuzz pedal, you know? I mean, I look in the guitar magazines and there’s probably a dozen new fuzz pedals every month now, so it all comes down to really dialing it in. You can be stuck someplace, but you can still get a sound that’s usable. It’s up to what it sounds like to your ear. There’s no other magic to it than that.”

As a self-taught player with a deeply distinctive and successful style, do theory and theatrics mean much in the grand scheme?

“Well, I have a learning disability [ADHD]; it’s tough for me to focus. But if you can get some of that stuff, along with whatever you’re learning by listening to other players, that’s great. If you can get some theory and technical knowledge, it can only help. The problem is not getting too hung up on it.”

Do you think there’s a lot of that happening in recent years?

“There was a video going around, and maybe you’ve seen it, but there’s this player [Phil Taylor], who was the fastest on the planet and playing Flight Of The Bumblebee. He starts as fast as you think a human can do it, and then he bumps it up and up. It’s blinding, and you can’t even see his hands.

“It’s incredible technically, but it’s a mechanical thing, though there’s skill there and he put in the time. But if you can write a song that’s as catchy as Flight Of The Bumblebee, that would be something. Learning theory can be a huge help, and if you want to do it, more power to you. But I wanted to play the music people wanted to hear and be in a band that entertains people.

“I learned that some of the best riffs are the simplest. The ones that people can sing to are the ones. I’m a fan first. I went on the road with John McLaughlin with Aerosmith in the early '70s and – holy shit, man – those guys could play. But you couldn’t dance to it. I have total respect for that kind of talent, but it kind of left me cold.”

Since you’ve never leaned on theory, did unlocking the fretboard come easy for you?

“I was just listening to what other people were playing and trying to copy that. I was never very good at it, but figuring out where they were putting their hands and trying not to sound like anybody else was important. And I wasn’t skilled enough to have something to replace it with; it took me a while to get my own voice. But I think anybody that’s self-taught breaks the mold.

“You know, sometimes I’ll try to learn a riff just to see if I can do it. I don’t know if it’s going to help me, but sometimes it will. So many times, the best riffs have come when I pick up a guitar that I’ve never played before because it sounds a little different. I’ll play some riff that’s just out of hand, and all of a sudden it sounds different and I’ve got the basis of a song. You’ve got to keep your ears open.”

Your open-mindedness regarding gear is something that’s not championed enough. People often assume it’s all Les Pauls and Strats, but you have a 600-guitar collection of oddballs.

“I was never hung up on getting one sound and going, ‘That’s it,’ you know? From the very beginning, almost everybody I knew had one guitar, maybe two. If you wanted a different guitar, you traded sideways. I listen to a lot of guitar [being] played and there are so many different sounds; it’s really inspiring.

“Take a song like Back In The Saddle; I wrote that riff on the Fender six-string bass. The only reason I knew about the six-string bass was because I used to see Peter Green with Fleetwood Mac, and during one of their jams, he would pick one up. I thought, ‘When I get a little money, I’m gonna get one.’

“So I got one, started messing around with it, and suddenly this riff came out. The whole introduction to Back In The Saddle and all those riffs just fell into place. It wasn’t like I said, ‘I’m gonna write a song with this’ – it was just this riff that was suddenly there. I grabbed it, recorded it, showed it to the band, and there it was.”

And events like that only ended up fuelling your guitar-collecting habits, right?

“Yeah, that’s why half of the guitars in my collection are funky, weird guitars. When I started collecting guitars, it was this Les Paul or that Strat, but I was looking under the dust and finding these $100 or $200 guitars with no names on them that I’d never heard of, but they had a funky sound. I ended up with a collection of those kinds of guitars. I still go back and pick them up. And when I do, I make sure I have a tape recorder nearby.”

Were you ever hung up on new gear versus vintage gear?

“No, but I might have bought something new once I got a little money. I remember being in the Record Plant when Aerosmith was recording the second record [Get Your Wings, released in 1974] and I needed a Strat.

“My one was probably from ’68 or ’69 and it was stolen. I sent my tech down to Manny's Music and said, ‘I need a Strat – just make sure it’s black’ [laughs]. It was probably a 1973 Strat, but it worked and was fine. That’s probably the same Strat I played the solos from Sweet Emotion and all those songs on.”

You’ve often said, “There are no bad tones.” That’s important, as it’s easy to get hung up on one tone and reject others as ‘wrong’ or ‘bad.’

“With effects and pedals that create tones, it’s about how you use them. Even something that sounds broken might be just the thing. There’s an old joke, but it’s pretty much true, and it’s that a Marshall sounded best probably when it was 15 minutes away from blowing up [laughs].

“That’s when the tubes were running hot, and maybe the preamp was driving the power amp too much and the transformer was overheating. But you’d get this sweet sound and, sure enough, it would start smoking.

“It’s tough to get an amp to blow up now. They’ve made them so bulletproof. I mean… nobody wants to have their amp fry in the middle of a show, and nobody wants to return their amp after they bought it, but I think everybody’s got a favorite tone or a working tone. I mean, you can use something that’s absolutely ratty.”

“The solo from Janie’s Got a Gun, that was a pretty ‘bad’ ratty sound. I had a Chet Atkins signature guitar, which was meant to be an almost acoustic-sounding guitar with an early piezo pickup. The nature of it was, if you turned it up, it would sound very ‘not acoustic’ [laughs].

“I plugged into a 15-watt Marshall practice amp – a transistor amp with a tube – and when I started cranking it, it sounded pretty nasty. I turned everything all the way up, played it and the producer said, ‘It sounds terrible. That’s never going to work.’ I said, ‘Listen, just run the track, and let me give it a try.’

“And it sounded like what I wanted it to sound like. I wanted it to sound nasty and angry. I wouldn’t use that guitar sound on too many other things, but it’s an example of taking a sound that most people would turn their nose up at, but it worked for that track.”

You mentioned ‘working tones’ before. What’s the secret to the quintessential Joe Perry working tone?

“Not too much distortion: I don’t like too much distortion because it takes away from the actual tone of the guitar. I don’t want to squash the sound. I’m really conscious of really getting clean tones. But if you’re striving for really distorted sounds, you’re gonna lose the tone of the guitar.

“If you pile overdrive on, it’s all gonna sound the same no matter what guitar you use. But if that’s what you want for your style and what works, go for it. I like a sound with some definition and some of the guitar’s tone. I lean toward a cleaner sound.”

Many people don’t realise you’re a big pedal guy. Do you have any always-on pedals, with the knowledge that you’re very into clean tones?

“I like a little bit more compression – not so much added distortion but getting that grind from the actual preamp pushing a bit. So maybe I’ll have a boost pedal, but lately, over the last 10 years, I’ve been using a compressor. It’s like an always-on thing. I can get more sustain [that way] without having to get as much distortion.”

Through all that exploration, have you ever found yourself at a point where there were too many guitars, too many amps, and too many pedals to where you felt lost?

“My objective is to play songs in a band, you know? If I start feeling like the guitar isn’t doing it, I go back and listen to the shit that got me to like guitar in the beginning.

“When I’m not feeling it, my wife always goes, ‘Just go down and play some blues.’ I’ll go and put an old John Lee Hooker or Muddy Waters record on, and I don’t know… some of the early stuff just brings me back to the basics. But it’s not so much the guitar that I hit walls with; it’s coming up with the inspiration to write songs.”

Is there anything on guitar you can’t do but wish you could – and have you found a workaround for that?

“I found that when I get on stage, I tend to want to squeeze the neck and tighten up. I didn’t realize that, but I found myself really getting excited and I’d stiffen up and make it so I couldn’t play as fluid as I was, say, 15 minutes before in the dressing room.

“I’m not sure what it was… but I read an interview with Keith [Richards] in 1980 or something, and he said, ‘Play with a light touch.’ That’s when I realized I was holding on too tight. You never know… sometimes it takes a word or a lick, and a lightbulb will come on.”

When you look at the modern guitar scene, what are your thoughts on what you see?

“I think there’s a lot that’s still going to happen. I kind of doubt that there’s going to be another Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, or Eddie Van Halen; that was a time and an era. Those were standout guys who turned the world upside down and changed the way people heard guitar in our little world. But it’s not going to be like that any more.

“They used to call Alvin Lee ‘the fastest guitar player in the world.’ He was ripping it up, but he played the pentatonic blues scale faster than anybody else for those five minutes. But it was a one-trick pony and, really, it doesn’t matter who is the fastest. Like that Flight Of The Bumblebee guy, you go, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool,’ but he’s not gonna draw crowds like Taylor Swift.”

So, what’s the guitar’s place in modern popular music?

“The thing is there’s so many people out there now. The population has increased from, what – five billion [in 1987] to eight billion? There’s room for more kinds of music to be successful, which is really good for people who want to make a living. As far as guitar, there’s always going to be advances in new things, and there’s always going to be those who carry on the tradition. It’s just a different thing.”

As an older artist, do you find it difficult to stay relevant?

“It’s been a long time since I worried about that. I still listen to music, I still like music, and I still listen to all the same stuff. It’s funny, the first taste of what you’re talking about was in the '70s when disco slammed into us. Frankly, I liked a lot of it. There was some pretty funky stuff and great songs, but the press was like, ‘Rock ’n’ roll is dead. Disco is king.’

“And then there was punk. All the punk guys were saying, ‘Oh, fuck The Rolling Stones. They suck.’ They had to throw out the old to have something new. You start seeing a lot of stuff that was pushed by record companies because they want the newest, latest thing. And then there was the MTV thing, which fucking blew the roof off the business.”

It sounds like you’ve always been fearless in the face of genre change or just okay with riding it out…

“That’s really it. When Nirvana and Pearl Jam came out, suddenly that was the ‘new’ rock ’n’ roll to me. I just put it next to AC/DC or the next Aerosmith record. It all sounded like rock ’n’ roll to me. But the record companies made a big deal out of it and singled out every band from Seattle, which was nothing new, either.

“The record companies try to make you think it’s something new, but if you listen to all the alternative guys, the only thing different is they weren’t wearing Spandex [laughs].”

As you said, there probably won’t be another Hendrix, Page, or Van Halen. But the fact is that there probably won’t be another Joe Perry, either. You’ve influenced and innovated sounds, gear, and people. Have you reached a point where you can reflect on your journey and impact as a guitarist over the past 50 years?

“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t really spend much time thinking about that. Obviously, when somebody comes up and says, ‘When I first heard Rocks, or Walk This Way with Run-DMC, I discovered Aerosmith,’ I say, ‘Well, thank you very much.’ I mean… that’s what we set out to do. But other than that, I’m still puzzled.

“I remember this poll that came out on Billboard, where they wanted to ask a bunch of other guitar players about the most iconic guitars of the last however-many years. Everybody, I guess, voted and my name made the list, which was kind of nice. They listed three of my guitars, and one of them was the 10-string [BC] Rich Bich. And for all the notoriety, it’s probably the least-played guitar of the ones people know.”

So why do you think it’s so often singled out?

“I mean… there was a picture of me holding it up on the Live! Bootleg record, but it’s funny when I run into guitar players now and they always ask me about that guitar. It’s like, ‘I probably used it on a bunch of songs on my first solo album [Let The Music Do The Talking, 1980]’. It’s one of those guitars that works really good for certain things, but it’s funny they didn’t mention any of my Strats or whatever.”

Is there anything you’re experimenting with at this stage that might significantly impact you going forward?

“I have a 12-watt Silktone amp, and I’ve been messing with speakers a lot. I think speakers have become a bit too ironclad. One of the things about those early amps is that when you push them to the edge, they have a sound that isn’t distorted but just a certain sound.”

“I have a friend named Jack Donahue [veteran audio engineer], who sent me some eight-inch Bogen speakers that he re-coned with really thin paper to make them more like the old ones.

“Jack is in Boston, and the re-cone made that Silktone sound great. So I’ve been experimenting a lot with speakers. I had some speaker cabs made by Marco Moir, my old guitar tech, with a variety of size baffles, watt-ratings, et cetera. It’s amazing how different speakers can be made with the same amp.”

Do you have a favorite or go-to speaker at the moment?

“My favorite right now… There’s a lot out there, it’s a matter of taste. The 10-inch Alessandro Custom 1959, 20-watt rated and made by Eminence, is probably my favorite. They do a 12-inch that’s got a little higher rating. If you’re gonna use one, just be careful of how much power you pump into it! But Weber makes great ones, and Vox ‘blue stacks’ are great. I like vintage Jensens because I like lower-watt-rated speakers. It’s a tone, not a volume, thing.”

Would you single out any one guitar as most associated with your legacy?

“Well, my favorite guitar is the one I call the ‘Burned Strat.’ It looks all burned up and has Seymour Duncan [P-Rails] pickups that combine a Strat pickup and a P-90 in a humbucker slot.

“That’s my favorite guitar. But it’s kind of hard because I’ve played a bunch of different guitars over the years, so it’s funny that the Rich Bich is the one that’s been chosen to attach to my legacy [laughs].

“You just have to chuckle. That’s all, you know? I mean, all that stuff is out of my hands. And that’s the other thing that you learn pretty early on: if you can deal with all that stuff, you can deal with the rest of it. You can just let it go. Otherwise, you’ll spend all your time freaking out.”

Joe Perry has one of the most epic guitar collections on the planet, and we’re not just talking just primo vintage unicorns, ’59 Gibson Les Paul Standards, ’62 Stratocasters, and all that collector’s gold. He’s got all kinds of weird guitars.

He likes oddball electric guitars, strange shapes with reverse headstocks, finishes that look like they’ve been recovered from the ocean.

There are custom builds and stock Strats, too. And as he reveals in this edition of Bought & Sold – your monthly repository of gear stories from guitar’s best and brightest – Perry even has a serious crush on the post-war European guitars, and he has a particular liking of one very special (and inexpensive) Harmony hollowbody that has got riffs in it and lots of them.

What was the first serious guitar that you bought with your own money?

“I got a Guild Starfire IV. It was the one that didn’t have the master volume knob, but it was good. It had the two smaller humbucker-style pickups and it pretty much had that classic ES-335 shape, you know – the double‑cutaway with the holes. It was Guild’s version of that.

“I always wanted a Gibson, like that vibe, but I didn’t have the money and that one was hanging on the wall. So that’s what I got. That served me pretty well until I really got rolling.”

What was the last guitar you bought and why?

“I haven’t gotten it yet, but I put an order in for the six-string basses that Fender is reissuing. I had an original six‑string bass that I wrote Back In The Saddle with; I played that on stage in the ’70s. It had four toggle switches on it and was stolen in the late ’80s. I was really bummed about that, of course, and I was on the road. I was scrambling for another six-string bass and the only thing I could find was a three-toggle version.

“It was okay, but I talked to the guys at Music Man and they made me a six-string bass, which has a shorter scale length and a little wider neck. They put a Floyd Rose on it because I liked that vibrato for six-string bass chords.

“When you play that, you get a little bit of that movement with the bar and it sounds amazing. So that’s what I’ve been using live for the last 20 years; it’s a little easier to play and a little easier on my fingers when we do Back In The Saddle. But I saw that Fender is reissuing some of these, and they’re probably as good as they were made back then. So I’ve got an order in for one of those.

“The other guitar I shelled money out for was a Strat that somebody showed me from Fender. It’s kind of a purple that has been distressed and it just looks beautiful. The thing is, they are only sold through Sweetwater and I had to have it, so I bought it from Sweetwater. I used that quite a bit on the recent Hollywood Vampires tour.”

What’s the most incredible find or bargain you’ve ever had when buying guitars?

“I have to say, they all feel like bargains when you get them in your hands, you know? There’s a reason – there’s something about every one of those, whether it’s a late-’50s [Les Paul] Junior with one P-90, a hollowbody Harmony, or whatever. If you pick it up and you can play it… there are no bad tones, no wrong tones. It’s just what it inspires you to do.

“You may pick up a guitar, and there’s something that’s harmonically a little different and it may inspire you to write a riff that you might not have if you picked up your old standard whatever-it-is. So that’s why when I’m buying guitars some of my favourites are the European guitars from the ’50s and ’60s. That’s some incredible stuff. They’re not what’s on the cover of Guitar World this month, but there’s something about them.

“I’ve written some riffs that have ended up being on some of my favourite songs with this old Harmony hollowbody. It has like an old piezo in it; it’s just got this great feel. I’ve written some riffs that I probably wouldn’t have written if I hadn’t picked that guitar up. That’s why my guitar collection is probably half oddballs, Airlines, and those kinds of guitars.”

Have you ever experienced buyer’s remorse after acquiring a guitar?

“Not really. I’m terrible about getting rid of stuff to make room for something else [laughs]. It’s like when you have a workshop and you’ve got scrap metal or wood; you put it away because you never know when that will come in handy. And that increases my vocabulary for when I’m in the studio.

“You don’t know what’s going to work; there aren’t horrible guitar sounds. Obviously, if it’s unplayable, or – well, I can’t even say that because there are some guitars on which you might only get three strings working and that might just be the sound you need for an overdub. You never know. So it’s tough to say that I have any regrets about buying guitars. Though it does lead me to the question that I know is coming…”

Have you ever sold a guitar that you now intensely regret letting go?

“I have to say that I’ve probably had an equal number of guitars stolen from me as what I’ve sold. I had a Junior, which was a single-cutaway with a P-90 and just a flat body. It was my main guitar back in the ’70s, and it got stolen. I miss that one.

“But with selling, I’ve got a story. In the ’90s, when we had a place up on Lake Sunapee [in New Hampshire], on 4 July they would have fireworks out in the harbour. Every year, we would get out on the boat and there were hundreds of boats all parked out in the harbour to watch the fireworks.

“Back then, it was kind of hard to find amplifiers that worked off batteries, but there were a couple of things. I think Fender had these things that looked like a can, had a battery in them and were very loud. I got a transformer hooked up to the battery on the boat, and I got a couple of amps working; it was loud enough and the sound travels pretty well across water.

“It was one of those quiet nights before the fireworks went off. Families were out on the boats, and I had this guitar that I found out on the road somewhere – it was a red Hofner copy of a Strat that sounded a little Strat-y. So I knew the fireworks were going to start at 8pm, so at about 7.30 I turned all the amps on and I played The Star‑Spangled Banner and it echoed across the water.

“Nobody really knew who was playing or where it came from, but it was fun. Families were in the boats and people were clapping. So I did that for a couple of years with that particular guitar, and as the years went on the guitar ended up getting back with my main collection.

“I was kinda in one of those moods at the end of the tour, and I had like 400 of these guitars that I never played. I said, ‘I gotta get rid of some of these things. It’s time to clean house a little bit.’ I earmarked a few guitars to go and somehow that guitar got on the list. And like three or four months later, I found out that it was gone and was like, ‘Next time, I gotta pay more attention to this. I’m not getting rid of anything else for a while.’”

“A couple of years later, we’re on the bullet train in Japan, and as the bullet train is pulling out 30 or 40 people follow us up there. As the train was moving along, I saw a kid holding that guitar out for me to sign it. But the train was already moving, slowly pulling out, and the kid was holding it out with a Magic Marker. I’m thinking, ‘Man, I gotta get the kid’s number to see if I could buy it back or trade it for something else,’ because it did have some sentimental value, you know?

“But we were off to the next city, and at that point I didn’t have any ideas about how to get in touch with the guy. I suppose I could have tracked him down through the fan club and tried to figure out who it was, but it was lost. That’s one guitar I would like to try and buy back because it had sentimental value to me during those times up on the lake.”

Hopefully, someone reading this will find a way to get the guitar back to you.

“I’ll buy it back. I’ll trade it for something else, you know? It would be fun to get that back. And again, that was one of those off-the-wall, not exactly the hippest guitar of the month. But it sounded pretty cool and it had a really good neck. It was more about the sentimental things. I regret having lost that.”

What’s your best guitar-buying tip?

“Spend a little time with it. If it’s in the guitar store, plug it in and close your eyes and if it’s right, you’ll know. You can generally tell if a guitar is going to be a good one by how it sounds when it’s not plugged in. A lot of it is how the wood and the metal react, how it sustains and how it feels; that’s the most important thing.

“It can even be a $120 guitar, but if it feels right to you, that’s what you gotta go by. So much of it has to do with how it feels in your hands and how it hits your ears. I’ve found very often that sometimes you have to try things that don’t go by the book or don’t follow the rules.”

“I remember doing the solo for Janie’s Got A Gun, and I wanted something that sounded really angry and really, really nasty because it was that kind of a song. I plugged in – I had a Gibson Chet Atkins, and they can sound harsh if you turn them up too much because they’re meant to sound like a loud acoustic guitar.

“I had it plugged into a 15-watt Marshall transistor practice amp, and I turned the volume all the way up. I played it for Bruce Fairbairn, the producer, and he said, ‘It sounds like shit,’ and it kind of did [laughs].

“It was pretty crazy and nasty. It had that mid top-end that you can get with a transistor amp, especially those early ones. They have their place in the sound spectrum. But overall, well, it was definitely nasty. But I said, ‘Well, let’s just give it a try.’ It had that bite and it worked for me. For something else, it would be totally wrong, but for that, it worked great.”

When was the last time you stopped and looked in a guitar shop window or browsed online and what were you looking at?

“I’m thinking of maybe buying another organ. I love the old Hammond B-3s, and I’d like to buy another B-3 so that the keyboard player in Aerosmith can have the real thing. Lately, I’ve been rummaging around, but there are a lot of factors involved.

“Ultimately, I’d like one that’s chopped down, so it’s not huge. I had an old B-3, but I think it came out of a church. It was like this gigantic piece of furniture and it took up half the room, for Christ’s sake [laughs]. But anyway, I was online a couple of nights ago looking around just to see what they’re going for.

“Other than that, I get the magazines – I get them all, just to see what the latest and hottest stuff is. I’ve been experimenting with old speakers, and my last big dig was going on eBay looking for old speakers, like late-’30s and ’40s. Some of them sound amazing, you know?”

If you could only use humbuckers or single coil pickups for the rest of your career, which would it be and why?

“That’s funny because Seymour Duncan makes a pickup with a P-90 and a single-coil Strat kind of pickup [the P-Rails]. It sits in a humbucker slot and that’s on my beat-up ‘Burned Strat’ that I’ve been playing since we put it together in 2001. It was already a Frankenstein; I’m always tweaking it and adding odd bits and pieces here and there to make it better.

“But anyway, they make this pickup that I’m surprised nobody mentions in the magazines. It’s great because you can have it be the centre kind of pickup, the P-90, or both together, and then you basically get a humbucker out of it. I would choose that pickup to go to a desert island with because you can get a huge kick and great tone out of it.

“It’s really amazing. Each has a three-way switch, so you don’t have to use a separate switch in the pickups. There’s a little toggle where you can switch it back and forth if you want, and it drops right into the humbucker hole. It’s really a cool pickup – you can be playing along and accidentally flip the switch, and you’ll get a different tone, but it’ll be just as cool as the one you’re playing. So it’s a lot of fun to mess around with. It’s like a good Strat, with the five-way toggle, just doubled.”

• Sweetzerland Manifesto MKII is available now on Roman Records

For over 50 years, Joe Perry has been the quintessential poster boy for the Gibson Les Paul – and, more recently, has spoken about his use of the Fender Stratocaster for Aerosmith’s ’70s studio sessions.

However, the guitar hero is a bona fide guitar collector – owning somewhere in the ballpark of 600 guitars – and he says the oddballs inspired some of Aerosmith’s most beloved tracks, too.

“I was never hung up on getting one sound and going, ‘That’s it,’ you know?” Perry states in a new interview with Guitarist.

“From the very beginning, almost everybody I knew had one guitar, maybe two. If you wanted a different guitar, you traded sideways. I listen to a lot of guitar [being] played and there are so many different sounds; it’s really inspiring.”

1976's Back in the Saddle is characterized by the distinctive “growl” in its main riff – and it all came about thanks to Perry experimenting with a Fender Bass VI he had been eyeing for some time.

“The only reason I knew about the six-string bass was because I used to see Peter Green with Fleetwood Mac, and during one of their jams, he would pick one up. I thought, ‘When I get a little money, I’m gonna get one.’ So I got one, started messing around with it, and suddenly this riff came out.”

Perry goes on to say that writing that song on the Fender Bass VI was crucial to it coming to fruition.

“The whole introduction and all those riffs just fell into place,” he reminisces. “It wasn’t like I said, ‘I’m gonna write a song with this’ – it was just this riff that was suddenly there. I grabbed it, recorded it, showed it to the band and there it was.”

Upon release, the song was a moderate commercial success. However, over time and as the band's status grew, it became one of the most well-known songs in their entire discography, as well as a live favorite.

On the topic of Aerosmith's live shows, the band announced their immediate retirement from touring and the cancellation of all remaining farewell tours in August. However, Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton has teased that this does not mean the band is well and truly over.

Joe Perry has offered his thoughts on the state of the guitar in contemporary music, and while he insists the instrument has a bright future ahead, he doubts it will be defined by the feats of individual players.

Over the decades, the development of electric guitar music has been spearheaded by a crop of innovative players who have sought to push the boundaries of what is capable from a fretboard. At the same time, their music largely had a profound cultural and social impact that has fiercely shaped the current musical landscape.

As a result of their work, they have long been known as ‘guitar heroes’. Players such as Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Jeff Beck and others can all comfortably fit into this category.

However, according to the Aerosmith guitarist, the rise of a similar class of ‘guitar heroes’ – or individuals who will influence the direction of guitar and completely change the way it’s viewed in popular music – might not take place again.

Speaking in the new issue of Guitarist, Perry voiced his doubts over whether we’d ever see a similar cohort of players emerge again, even though there are still players who are working to take guitar playing to new heights.

“I think there’s a lot that’s still going to happen,” Perry responded when asked for his opinions on the modern guitar scene. “I kind of doubt that there’s going to be another Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page or Eddie Van Halen; that was a time and an era.

“Those were standout guys who turned the world upside down and changed the way people heard guitar in our little world. But it’s not going to be like that any more.”

That’s not to say that the world is now devoid of those who will continue to make us rethink what is possible from a fretboard. There’s still plenty of room for further innovation, but it seems Perry doesn’t think such developments will be attributable to 'guitar heroes' any more.

“The thing is there’s so many people out there now,” Perry says when pressed on his thoughts for the guitar’s place in modern popular music. “The population has increased. There’s room for more kinds of music to be successful, which is really good for people who want to make a living.

“As far as guitar, there’s always going to be advances in new things, and there’s always going to be those who carry on tradition. It’s just a different thing.”

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist, which features interviews with Joe Perry, Martin Barre, and Steve Cropper.

In related Perry news, Aerosmith recently announced their retirement from touring – although, in an interview with Guitar World, bassist Tom Hamilton says he doesn't consider the band over.

In 1973, the band who just a few years later would be known as the “Bad Boys from Boston” dropped their debut album, Aerosmith. Its release set off a chain of events that eventually led to their being nicknamed “America’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band.” And while that’s big-time praise – not to mention one hell of a nickname – you have to remember Dream On is on that debut album.

That said, even though “Dream On” would – eventually – gather more than a billion streams on Spotify alone, it wasn’t enough to catapult Aerosmith to success 51 years ago.

In fact, their debut was so lackluster, sales-wise, that Columbia Records was reluctant to give the band a second shot and only did so if the band’s double-barred lead guitar tandem of Joe Perry and Brad Whitford agreed to allow studio pros Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner to sub for them on 1974’s Get Your Wings.

Looking back on it, Perry recalls being “not happy about it” but understands that you had to take your licks to get by in the biz. “It was just one of those things,” he tells Guitar World. “The record companies were in the business of making money; they didn’t really care how you felt about it. It’s a tough business. It is what it is.

“It was a business, and they didn’t care if they were selling music or selling washing machines, you know? It’s not like you’re walking up to someone with open arms who will give you whatever you need. It was more like, ‘This is how it’s gonna be.’”

Perry, an iconic guitarist who spent the bulk of the Seventies laying down sleazy riffs and off-the-cuff solos beside his fellow Toxic Twin, Steven Tyler, learned a hell of a lot from the Get Your Wings experience, saying, “We made up for it with the next one.”

Indeed, they did, as 1975’s Toys in the Attic, featuring gargantuan classic rock staples Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion, plus deep cuts like Adam’s Apple and No More No More, blew the damn lid off the thing.

It was everything Perry and his pals had ever wanted, but they quickly learned that success, while thrilling, was a lot to handle. “I think that’s what ended up taking us down – the shock of it,” Perry says. “It was just our time. But really, the ones that dictated what they wanted were the record companies. They could sit there and say, ‘This is the newest…’ and sign anyone they wanted.”

Success came hard and fast for Aerosmith, as they rattled off two more killer records in 1976’s Rocks – a beloved sleaze-rock staple – and 1977’s Draw the Line – a great record, but one frozen in time as depicting a band going entirely off the rails. Perry says, “Everybody grows up at a different pace, and that’s probably why I eventually left.”

To that end, after the release of 1978’s Live! Bootleg, Perry left Aerosmith in the middle of 1979’s Night in the Ruts, a record he looks back on fondly, even if he didn’t play on all of it.

“I wasn’t really mad at them; we just weren’t getting along,” Perry says. “We just had too much, too soon. We had just kept going since the early Seventies, and the glue that kept us together started to get unstuck. We kind of lost the vision and didn’t know what was next. Back then, making it to 27 was like being on borrowed time, so it was tough to live elbow to elbow. It seemed like we’d done everything we hoped to do, and we had no idea what would come next.”

What came next was the near-end of a rock ’n’ roll institution. Perry went on to form his Joe Perry Project, and Brad Whitford left the band a couple of years later. Tyler, Joey Kramer and Tom Hamilton stayed on and hired Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay, but it was never the same to most onlookers.

It all worked out triumphantly in the end, and all involved – including the band itself – are alive to tell the tale. But at the time, things seemed bleak. “I remember being quoted as saying that we ‘weren’t ready for the Eighties,’ and that was true,” Perry says. “But personally, even through all the bullshit, we still loved each other, and we still do – you know what I mean?”

“In my heart,” he says. “I never thought, ‘I’ll never play with them again.’ It was just like, at the moment, we just needed a break. I mean, it was a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff together, some good and some bad. That’s just how it was.”

Steven had a version of Dream On in his back pocket coming in. How did you add to that?

“I’m not sure how many of the lyrics he actually had done or what the chords he had were exactly, but we were just learning to play together and figure out what we could actually do.

“I just added what I thought it should sound like on guitar, and would sound great when we played it live, and also gave it a kind of different flavor. I think we made it a little more of a rock thing, and we brought that song to life. We all put those little touches in there and turned it into an Aerosmith song.”

Aerosmith’s debut, Aerosmith, wasn’t initially a hit. Was that tough to deal with, considering how hard you’d worked and how young you were?

“We were getting used to the fact that it was going to be a fight. It took me a couple of years to even… I mean, we were so focused on getting the band to sound the way it should, and we really weren’t even sure what people heard.

“We were a good live band, and I know we were good enough to where people remembered seeing us, but it took a while to get a record contract, and it took us a while to get a manager. So we were pretty used to the fight, and I think that stuck with us. We felt like we had to prove ourselves.”

Considering what you and Brad have accomplished, it’s hard to believe Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner subbed for you on a lot of tracks from Get Your Wings. Was that a tough pill to swallow?

“It was. I look back on it now, and we had Jack Douglas producing it, and Bob Ezrin was involved. Those were the guys [Hunter and Wagner] that were great guitar players and that Bob liked to use. So they had them play on a couple of songs, and Brad and I were not happy about it.

“This was our last go-around; we had to do it because the record label [Columbia] barely gave us the second record deal. But Bob Ezrin turned out to be a really good friend, and it was nothing personal. Back then, Brad and I were still learning how to work. But we made up for it with the next one.”

You sure did. Toys in the Attic was, and is, a monster. While working on Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion, did you know you were onto something?

“They come out how they come out, you know? I mean… I knew that, well, even after the first record, I knew I could write songs. So I felt like it was just another one. I’ve written other songs I felt were really good, where the tempo is just right, and at different points in our career, it might have been a huge record. I don’t know… so much of it has to do with timing and luck.”

And resiliency, which Aerosmith had in spades from the jump.

“You’ve got to make your own luck. You can’t sit around on the couch waiting for a hit. You’ve gotta go out and do what you can to get yourself in the right position. And then, there’s that last 20 or 30 percent that’s, like, “Holy shit,” and lightning strikes, you know? So much of it has to do with being in the right place at the right time and doing all you can do when you are.”

In terms of the gear we hear on Toys, you were using a fair amount of Stratocasters, right?

“I had an old Strat. I remember we were at the Record Plant around the time we were doing Toys in the Attic, and somebody stole my guitar out of the studio. It was my Strat, so I stepped out to buy a new one from Manny’s Music [in NYC], and that was the guitar I used.

“That was pretty much my main Strat for a couple of years, but it’s gone now. To try and find a Strat like that, you’ll pay an arm and a leg for it. They were making pretty good guitars back then. [Laughs]”

Rocks is, more or less, universally loved, with even several members of Aerosmith, like yourself, naming it as the definitive Aerosmith record of the Seventies. A personal favorite of mine is one you wrote called Combination.

“Oh, thank you. It was one I did where I just had this riff kind of thing. It was a real case of seeing what you know and saying and doing what you know.

“I took a few of those things and put them into the lyrics. But I really hadn’t put that vibe into any other song, except for maybe Sweet Emotion. The last bit is kinda like that. That same kinda vibe was coming through – and to a head – on Combination.”

By the time Rocks was recorded, what did your typical rig consist of?

“I was using a [Fender] Twin pretty often, and I had a Fender and a Marshall going at the same time. I’m pretty sure I had a 50-watt plexi at that point, and that was basically all I had in the studio.

“I also had a couple of [Gibson] Les Paul Juniors and the ’59 Les Paul. Those were my main guitars, but I had many. If I wanted a new guitar, I sold or traded another. I remember trading guitars with Johnny Thunders a couple of times back then for a Les Paul Junior.”

These days, you can see what a band is doing on social media 24/7, but it wasn’t that way in the Seventies. Can you paint a picture of what life was like on the road for Aerosmith back then?

“We traveled a lot. You could get from Terre Haute, Indiana to Charleston pretty easily. And then, we’d leave for Atlanta or Tampa and go on to L.A. We really didn’t ever do the tour-bus thing; we went from driving ourselves to flying commercial to chartering planes. And then we’d stay in Holiday Inns, and those kinda places because the nice hotels would say, ‘No rock ’n’ roll bands!’

“Other than that, it was pretty much a show, and it was good. It must have been fun to watch. You’d check in, get your bags, go to the room, do soundcheck, do the show, then go back to the hotel, hang out and go to the next city. And after the show was mostly time spent at the hotel bar, which was a lot of fun.”

Young guys in cities in the middle of nowhere must have been a recipe for all sorts of trouble.

“Yeah, it was. [Laughs] I mean, I think that’s when the TVs started going out the window. But, okay, I know that sounds like fun, but you have to be pretty loaded to do something like that. And then, after you look at the expense reports, I don’t think I got that much fun out of it. I can say I did it, but that was it. It’s so not what I’d do now, but, like you said, we were young guys having fun, and we had nobody to tell us, ‘No.’”

By the time Draw the Line came out in 1977, the wheels were starting to get a little wobbly on the wagon. How would you describe the state of Aerosmith by then?

“A lot of personal stuff that we didn’t let bother us in the beginning was starting to show itself. We were still touring, and we’d get the itinerary and that was it. We’d show up at Logan Airport [in Boston] and I’d be gone. We were getting older; some of us were getting married and some had girlfriends. It’s like when you get older and stop being mad at your parents, you know? All that stuff is part of growing up.”

Draw the Line was still a great album, with an underrated highlight being Bright Light Fright. That always seemed like your answer to punk rock, which was blooming.

“That was really it; I loved punk. I remember when I’d be riding in the limo, or whatever, I’d hear the Sex Pistols or the [New York] Dolls and I’d turn it up. I’d be like, “Yeah, this is fucking rock ’n’ roll, man. This is great. So, Bright Light Fright was about as close as we were going to get to punk. We dabbled in all kinds of music, like country, but that was kinda my version of [punk].”

When people think of the guitars you used in the Seventies, your ’59 Les Paul often comes up. But there’s a photo of you from the Live! Bootleg album holding your B.C. Rich Bich. Where did that guitar come from?

“Our sound man, Nite Bob [Robert Czaykowski], hooked me up with a lot of guitars back then. B.C. Rich was making some guitars that didn’t look like Les Pauls or Stratocasters, and there was a quality of build that I liked. There was something about the Mockingbird and the Rich Bich, and Brad bought one, so we were a couple of the first guys to use them.

“I remember being in the studio around then, and the phone rang, and the secretary said, ‘Joe, phone call for you.’ It was Lou Reed. I’d never met him, and he called me, saying, 'I saw a picture of you with this guitar…' That guitar has a distinct sound that doesn’t work for some things, but it sounds great on others. It has a really cool thing about it, almost like a flange thing. It’s really amazing, though it doesn’t work for everything.”

I’ve read that you weren’t sure about doing the Live! Bootleg record, and having it be raw and un-messed with was a dealbreaker.

“One of my favorite records is by the Kinks, Live at Kelvin Hall, which is kind of hard to find. But that’s what I’d heard, and it was probably my first live record. I remember hearing it, and that’s where I kind of got my education of, ‘Here’s a real good product.’

“It made an impression on me because the audience was as loud as the band and exciting to hear. It sounded live and raw, and when I found out that people were overdubbing and ‘fixing’ their live redoes, I was like, ‘What the fuck? I don’t want to do that.’

“If somebody else wants to do that, that’s their business, but I wasn’t down for it. If we were gonna put out something “live,” it should be live. Even down to the cover, we had a band meeting about that and wanted to have the coffee stains and the whole bootleg look.”

You touched on why you left, which happened during the recording of Night in the Ruts in ’79. That must have been difficult, given how much you’d been through with the guys.

“I’ll tell you, at that point, it took a lot. You have to imagine that it was everything you just described. I remember a big part of why I left was not just personal stuff but business stuff. I wanted to do an audit of the business and see where our money was. We didn’t pay any attention to that stuff; we would get checks and put them in the bank.

“We knew we were doing well, and we made sure the taxes were paid and all that shit, but we didn’t have a handle on it. I remember telling the guys, ‘We should do an audit.’ I was talking to the other guys, and it was all part of the business; I’m all for everybody getting their fair share, but I don’t want… it just seemed like they didn’t want to. They said, ‘Everything’s fine.’”

Can you remember when you finally decided to quit?

“One day, I just quit. There was an incident and a big fight backstage, and it was just a bullshit fight. But I also wasn’t happy with what was going on behind the scenes; it felt like we were being told where to go and when to go. Nobody seemed to be looking out for us as far as caring or burning out, and I was trying to get some kind of handle on that.

“So I got my own lawyer and said, ‘If they don’t wanna do it, I’m gonna do it myself. How much did we make last year,’ and blah, blah, blah. There was stuff going on and I wanted to check it out, but I couldn’t get the rest of the guys to go along with it. I finally told my lawyer, ‘Call them up; tell them I’m not coming back,’ and I didn’t. I felt like a huge weight was off my shoulders. I thought, ‘I’m just gonna put a band together, do a record, go out, tour and have fun.’”

In terms of the ’70s, through the highs and lows, what comes to mind when you think back on it all?

“Things went the way they went. Like I’ve said before, if we’d had our wits about us, we would have just said, ‘Let’s take a year off.’ We certainly had enough money to take time off, but there was too much bullshit. We couldn’t get it together to talk to each other like that, so that’s how it went.”

Steven Tyler affectionately refers to Tom Hamilton, Aerosmith’s bassist since day one, as “Mr. Sweet Emotion” – evidence that his grooving bassline from the the band’s 1975 classic track is one for the ages.

But to boil his accomplishments down to just that piece would be a disservice. Hamilton played guitar on classics like Uncle Salty and Sick as a Dog from Toys in the Attic and Rocks, respectively, and co-wrote Janie’s Got a Gun from Pump.

Aerosmith ground to an unexpected halt on September 9, 2023, when Tyler fell throat-first into the onstage railing at Elmont, New York, three songs into the show. But no one knew it was over at the time; the singer powered through another 15 songs – and a late-night rendition of Happy Birthday for Joe Perry.

But when the singer found he was struggling to breathe and speak, let alone sing, the Peace Out farewell tour was postponed. It was slated to re-start on September 20, 2024, but on August 2 the band announced its cancelation, with Tyler unable to fully recover from his injury.

Based on his guest spot with the Black Crowes earlier this year, it’s apparent that Tyler can still sing. But the concern must be that the 76-year-old won’t hold up to the rigors of 20-plus songs a night for months on end. Of course, the entire Aerosmith team is devastated.

“We had an amazing crew,” Hamilton tells Bass Player. “And so many people who put in everything they had, from our management and production designers to the video directors, sound and lighting people and… well, I could go on and on.”

But he adds: “As far as the career goes, I refuse to consider it over. There are a lot of things we could do in the future. We’ll just have to see once we get out of reaction mode and back to creative mode. I’m going through a phase now where I can feel my playing taking a step upward. Inspiration is always right around the corner.”

Hamilton is working on new music with a new group, to be revealed soon. Meanwhile, he says of Aerosmith: “I find it hard to believe that we'll never play again. I’ve been surprised by things that have happened with this band too many times to think that the future is closed.”

It must have been painful to cancel the farewell tour.

“I was surprised but not shocked when I got the news. When Steven fell, he hit his larynx on a railing and fractured it. I still can’t believe he finished the show. It’s not the first time he’s had an injury during a show and powered through it. I know how hard he worked on healing and working on getting ready to go on the road again – but it just wasn’t possible.”

Can you give some insight into the state of Aerosmith now?

“It was a punch in the gut finding our touring days are over. Maybe someday we can do something again, but it won’t be a tour. I’ve been keeping busy playing in a band we’re calling Close Enemies. We’ve recorded a bunch of killer songs and we’re getting closer to deciding how we’re going to put it out. Can’t wait!”

What are your overarching thoughts when you look back?

“My Aerosmith bandmates and I are still in reaction mode. It’s hard going online and seeing all the other bands out there, but I try to keep myself from dwelling on it and letting myself go to a dark place inside. It’s painful thinking about all the fans who were waiting to come see us. I’ll always be grateful to them for being there for us.”

From a bass perspective, how do you measure your accomplishments?

“I only think of it as a prelude to what I want to be as a musician. I’ve never been satisfied with where I was at as a bass player. There are a lot of things I wish I did to get ahead musically. I know I contributed a lot to help make this band cook. It’s not just about musicianship. I’m proud of the fact that I always wanted to be a good band member – a good teammate. I was always wanting to get better and contribute more.”

What’s the secret sauce to your bass tone?

“I’m still searching for that perfect tone I hear in my head. I think it’s buried somewhere in my technique – it’s in my fingers somewhere. I don’t spend a lot of time listening to Aerosmith albums, but sometimes when I happen to hear one of our old songs, I realize I’ve always been closer than I thought, and it pleasantly surprises me.”

As far as effects, do you have a tried-and-true recipe?

“I’m not a big effects user, but I do use a few things. One is a 3 Leaf Audio Octabvre octave pedal for thickness. I’m constantly trying out distortion pedals. I think the Origin Effects BassRIG is one of the best I’ve ever had. I use in-ear monitors, and that pedal gives me a nice, juicy sound. I pretty much leave it on.

“When we were doing the Vegas residency, I dipped my toe into the Fractal world. After a while, all my distortion and chorus sounds came from the Fractal. I use different effects for my in-ears and my stage sound. For those last three shows, I tried putting an SVT up there; I used it alongside the Gallien Kruegers, and I got some major fatness.”

How did you come up with that Sweet Emotion bassline?

“I’m always looking for that perfect balance between clarity and crunch. That opening riff came along sometime between our first and second albums. I was practicing one day, just thinking of exercises to get my hands warmed up.

“When I’m in that mode and I get my hands nice and loose, there’s a flow that happens. It’s like I’m sitting by a river and something floats by that gets my attention. I’ll just mentally grab it and keep playing it over and over – and sure enough, something else will float by.”

Did you take inspiration from a particular place?

“There’s a Jeff Beck album, Rough and Ready, that has a lot of really cool, energetic bass playing on it. I was inspired by it and wanted to come up with something with that feeling, and that’s where I got the interludes between the verses.

“Then, at some point, I picked up my guitar and came up with the guitar part in the verses. Pretty soon I had the basic arrangement. But I was just too musically shy to try and get everybody’s attention on it.

“When we were recording the basic tracks for Toys in the Attic, we wound up finishing a day early. Our producer, Jack Douglas, said, ‘Anybody have a riff we could play around with?’ I kind of put my hand up. Jack got everybody together and I showed everybody what I had – and by the end of the day we had a basic for it.”

You played guitar on Uncle Salty and Sick as a Dog. What gear did you use?

“I used a Fender Strat to write the guitar parts for that Uncle Salty, and then when we did Rocks, I came up with Sick as a Dog on a Fender Esquire. I love Teles and Esquires.”

Many say Rocks is Aerosmith’s best album – do you agree?

“I’d have to agree it’s the album that defines us. I’d say it’s virtually neck and neck with Toys. Both of those albums were a friggin’ blast to put together. Working with Jack was really fun and exciting. He and the band were very much into experimentation, and you can really hear that with those records.”

How do you look back on the tough period of the late ’70s?

“By the time we started work on Draw the Line, drugs were becoming more destructive. I don’t consider that a great Aerosmith album, although a lot of people really like it. It definitely has some great moments on it.

“Then came Night in the Ruts. It was actually a step in the right direction, but by that time, the band was starting to fall apart. We were only partway finished with that record and we had to go on the road. A tour had already been booked and we couldn’t put it off.

“There was a lot of anger building up, and it came to a head during that tour. We were doing stadiums, but we let the bad feelings overtake our ability to appreciate what we had. The result was Joe and the rest of us parting ways.”

Do you remember Joe’s departure?

“I think we’d just played Cleveland Stadium to a huge crowd. We gathered in a dressing room trailer and everything exploded. I knew there was no point in trying to talk it out. I just wanted to be free of all the conflict.

“I was actually glad that it happened. Joe went off and did solo projects, and the we found Jimmy Crespo, who was an excellent guitarist and writer. We all set up shop in New York and started work on an album. We got work done – but just barely.”

Is that what led to Brad Whitford leaving?

“Brad finally got sick of the madness and took off. The rest of us kept working and finished Rock in a Hard Place. Jack suggested we replace Brad with a lovable madman named Rick Dufay – who was just this side of being out of control, but he contributed a lot in a crazy way.

“He helped out musically and added a lot of personality into the mix. We put the album out and went out on the road, which was the definition of the word ‘fiasco.’ Too many shows ended early due to the excessive use of chemicals.”

At the time, could you have imagined that Joe and Brad might return?

“Ironically, Rick regularly told us how crazy we were to not put our band back together – a suggestion that would have left him without a job! During the next few years, I’d hear talk about getting Steven and Joe to get back together, but I knew it would have been back to the same old nightmare.

“It took a couple more years before everybody really got in touch with what we had lost. Joe’s solo career wasn’t doing what he’d hoped, and Aerosmith was going nowhere. Finally, everybody realized it was time to put the past where it belonged.”

Did it surprise you that after Joe and Brad returned, Aerosmith became bigger than ever?

“We went out on the road, and it was rough, but it worked. We recorded Done with Mirrors, but it wasn’t until we did Permanent Vacation that things really took off. We worked with Bruce Fairbairn as producer – he really brought some structure into the recording process.”

Some fans say Aerosmith’s albums with Bruce are the best, even if they were different-sounding than the ‘70s albums.

“We made three albums with Bruce: Permanent Vacation, Pump and Get a Grip. We had a manager who got us to realize that things were changing in the radio world and convinced us to take advice from an amazing A&R guy at our new record company.

“Grunge was starting to happen in a big way and radio stations that used to play us started going the other way. It was time to try to have some hit singles. In my mind, those three albums were the perfect combination of rocking out and having hits. I’m really proud of all three of those albums, but especially Pump. We took some big chances but still stuck to making rock records we were proud of.”

You co-wrote Janie’s Got a Gun – a big hit from Pump.

“I brought in a demo of a song idea that had an intro that combined harmonics with a climbing riff on the E string. I drove home that day feeling pissed that nobody took notice of it! About a month later, Steven came to the studio one day with Janie’s Got a Gun. He sat down at a keyboard and played and sang the whole song – finished.

“We were all blown away, but I was a little perplexed; his chord progression sounded awfully familiar. It included the bass riff from the thing I had brought in a few weeks before. I fought with my emotions, trying to decide if I should make an issue of it. I decided to be a good soldier and keep my mouth shut. It was a Steven Tyler song, even if it included that piece of my song in the intro.

“A couple of months later, I was back in Boston and Steven and Joe were still in Vancouver mixing. One day, Steven called me out of the blue and said, ‘Hey, I’m putting your name on Janie’s Got a Gun.’ I was so relieved because I was still sitting on some anger about it! Sometimes things work out nicely.”

Do you hold Get a Grip – arguably Aerosmith's biggest record – in the same regard as the classic ‘70s records?

“I can’t say Get a Grip is my favorite Aerosmith album. But Livin’ on the Edge has always been one of my favorite songs to play live. The hit singles that became hit videos on that album helped pave the way for us to spend the next 30-plus years rocking out onstage. Plus, now we had girls in our audience!”

After the mega success of Get a Grip, Aerosmith tapered off in the studio. Why?

“We went for a long time without making records. Don’t ask me why. We just enjoyed being about the road and playing live. No excuses; it’s just the way things worked out. We were busy with rollercoasters!”

What album would you call out as Aerosmith's most underrated?

“I’d have to say Rock in a Hard Place. It’s a mess, but it has a lot of cool moments.”

Why have you chosen to play G&L basses over Fender?

When I started playing G&Ls, it wasn’t a matter of them versus Fender; I love Fender basses. But I needed something with a narrower neck than a P-Bass. I’ve always been into Jazz Basses, but I was ready for something different.

“The ASAT neck is just right in my personal Goldilocks story. Plus, I liked the active electronics – I think that was the main thing. I had a period when I played Music Mans; I still love those things. They’re all Leo Fender’s inventions.”

When did you discover G&L?

“I had an amazing tech for 15 years who had a gorgeous black ASAT. He let me use it, and the more I played it, the more I liked it. I had a period starting in the ‘90s when I started playing Sadowskys. They’re really nice guitars – like Super Fenders. I have a five-string that I got back then, and I’ve played it in every show the band has done since then.”

You’ve got a signature model with G&L that’s flown under the radar.

“I do have a signature model ASAT; I don’t think too many people know about them. One day I was whining about how heavy they were, so they made me a couple of custom instruments. One was made out of pine and the other was made of the same wood as the production versions, but with a lot routed out. They both sound amazing.”

In addition to G&L, you’ve been playing a funky bass with a cool display during Sweet Emotion. What’s that?

“It’s called a Variax Bass 700, and it’s made by Visionary Instruments. Most of the front face is a video screen. Years ago, I used to stick video iPods to the front of whatever bass I was using. I reversed the screen so whoever was looking at them would see themselves.

“I thought it would be kind of funny to take the bass out on the thrust at the beginning of Sweet Emotion – the people in the audience could see themselves when they looked at the bass.

“This company found out about it and sent me a bass they had designed that had a video screen on it. My tech could put whatever footage we could scrounge up on it. The company kept improving how it looked and played. We could put comedy footage on it or flashy outer space stuff. Pretty cool!”

How has your rig shifted over the years?

“I consult my uber tech, Trace Foster, on gear questions. He recommends things, and if they sound good I keep them. In the early days I used SVTs, but the sound man complained that because of the cabinet design, the full volume of the amp doesn’t happen until the 20th row, making it hard to mix.

“I took him at his word and started trying other gear. After a while, I tried a Gallien Krueger rig and really liked it. It was easy to get a fat, punchy tone. In my band, the percussive, clearer sound was what worked, so I’ve stuck with them ever since. I use the Fusion 550 heads with four of the 4X10 cabinets. I’ve had great luck with them – a good company!”

Last month, Aerosmith announced they’d be retiring from touring after vocalist Steven Tyler sustained an injury while on stage that he’s not expected to fully recover from.

At the time of the injury during a gig in September 2023, the US rock icons were readying themselves to complete their farewell tour, which had to be postponed after Tyler fractured his larynx.

Though Tyler managed to finish the show after falling throat-first on a railing during only the third song, it has since been decided that a rigorous tour of 20-plus-song setlists was no longer feasible.

However, just because the band have pulled the curtain down on their live days, it doesn’t mean Aerosmith is finished altogether – at least, that’s according to their OG bass guitar player Tom Hamilton, who refuses to believe the band is truly “over”.

Speaking in a new interview with Guitar World, Hamilton discusses the end of Aerosmith, which, he says, might not actually be the end after all.

“I refuse to consider it over,” he asserts. “There are a lot of things we could do in the future. We'll just have to see once we get out of reaction mode and back to creative mode.”

Hamilton is keen to stress that, although Aerosmith may never tour again, that’s not to say they won’t work on some other music project at some point down the line.

“I find it hard to believe that we'll never play again," Hamilton goes on to admit. "I've been surprised by things that have happened with this band too many times to think that the future is closed.

“It was a punch in the gut finding out that our touring days are over. Maybe someday we can do something again, but it won't be a tour.”

News of Aerosmith’s retirement from touring took Hamilton by surprise as much as it did the fans. After all, he hadn’t seen Tyler injure himself, and had felt that the September show had been a roaring success.

"I felt like we were on our way to a great tour,” he reflects. “I didn't know what had happened to Steven until a couple of days later when our manager called and told me. I was completely shocked because it had been a great show. I still don't know how Steven managed to finish the show with a fractured larynx."

Joe Perry has been gracing the world’s biggest stages for over 50 years now, initially, of course, with Aerosmith, then later on with the Joe Perry Project and the Hollywood Vampires. Of course, each project very much has its own identity, but there are some constants running through Joe’s playing style.

First of all, Joe has always made use of a number of tunings. Sure, you’ll hear him rocking out in E standard most of the time, but some of Aerosmith’s biggest tracks feature altered tunings you may not know about – there’s plenty more detail below.

He’s also quite experimental with the guitars he uses. Though he’s the embodiment of a guitar connoisseur, he likes to feel inspired from gig to gig, so, while he has some guitars set up for specific songs, he’ll often choose different guitars on different nights. There’s a certain freedom and spirit that’s a big part of his playing.

Read on as we break down some of Joe’s trademark techniques.

Example 1. 10-string riffing 

Our first example is inspired by 1993’s Living On The Edge which was originally recorded in drop D tuning (DADGBE), though we’re experimenting with double drop D (DADGBD) here.

Live, Joe mostly uses his 10-string B.C. Rich Bich, or, alternatively, the 12-string fretboard of a Gretsch 6/12 doubleneck – the extra course of strings providing a richer, jangly sound.

Example 2. Drop A tuning

The next example is inspired by Joe’s gritty slide work on 1977’s Draw The Line, where he uses a Dan Armstrong Plexi guitar tuned to open A with the sixth string way down on a low A (A A E A C# E).

It gives a real growling bottom end that contrasts with the smoother slide sound. For our example, we recommend wearing your slide on your third finger and playing the low powerchords with your first finger.

Example 3. EBEEBE tuning

Joe employs a bespoke E5 tuning (EBEEBE) on one of Aerosmith’s biggest tracks, No More No More, and, typically, he has a Telecaster set up specially for it. We’re looking at some simple strumming here, so it’s easy to get started with.

Example 4. Bass VI riffs

This next example is inspired by Back In The Saddle, a song originally written on a Fender Bass VI. Joe is riffing in the midrange of the bass guitar, and that means some similar ideas can be created on the guitar.

Though we’ve used a bridge pickup here, you could experiment with a neck pickup and by playing bar 1 in 5th position to get a warmer, bassier tone.

Exercise 5. Open E slide licks

Here, we’re taking our inspiration from Rag Doll, once again playing slide, but in open E tuning (E B E G# B E) this time. Joe plays this song on a P-90-loaded lap steel over crunchy Les Paul tones provided by Brad Whitford. As always, make sure to position your slide directly over the fret in question, not behind it.

Exercise 6. Funky riffing

This next example is inspired by Last Child. Aerosmith have always blended classic rock with funk, right from their early days. It’s the kind of riff that Joe’ll play on almost any electric guitar, Strats, Les Pauls, hollowbodies, and so on.

Exercise 7. Simple open chords

Sometimes simple is best and this example uses classic, open position powerchords. Joe is famed for plugging his ‘Boneyard’ Gibson Les Paul Standard into lightly overdriven Marshall amps with the help of clean booster pedals such as the Klon Centaur.

Exercise 8. Blues-rock phrasing

Much of Joe’s signature lead work fits into the blues-rock framework established by Joe’s key guitar influences such as Jeff Beck, Peter Green and Jimmy Page. This example is inspired by Joe’s soloing on tracks like Train Kept A Rollin’. The A minor pentatonic scale is the scale of choice here.

Exercise 9. Pentatonic riffs

This example uses the E minor pentatonic scale to create an exciting, fast paced riff. This type of riff work can be heard throughout Aerosmith’s back catalogue – our example was inspired by songs like Toys In The Attic.

This riff will sound best if played exclusively with downpicking, but you may need to build up to our fairly fierce 180bpm tempo.

Exercise 10. Riff In An Elevator

Any open string can be used as a pedal tone to provide a harmonic grounding for other notes to be played against. This riff is inspired by Love In An Elevator and features a descending line that combines pull-offs and rhythmic picking. Such is Joe’s penchant for swapping guitars out, this is one of those riffs that you could play on almost any guitar.

Example 11. Question and answer licks

Leaving space in musical phrases is a key ingredient of authentic blues guitar, and Joe uses this concept to the max in his solos. Our example uses the E minor pentatonic scale in its shape 1. The opening line is ‘answered’ by an ear-grabbing one and a half tone bend on the third string.

Example 12. Power ballad arpeggios

This next example is inspired by classic Aerosmith power ballads like I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing. A simple D5 arpeggio is repeated and each time the bass note changes to provide movement. This type of idea has a hypnotic quality and is very effective when played at a power ballad tempo.

Example 13. Fingerstyle doublestops

The doublestop is great for creating riffs and this next example is inspired by tracks like Dude Looks Like A Lady. Joe used a Gretsch Duo Jet to record this song, and the Filter’Tron electric guitar pickups add that extra spice.

The fingerstyle technique allows both notes to be plucked simultaneously and this adds a unique sound to the attack. The notes are also cut slightly short as the fingers pluck the next doublestop.

Example 14. Boogie riffing

Joe is a master of the boogie riff, both with Brad Whitford in Aerosmith and in his solo Joe Perry Project line-up. Our example is inspired by his rhythm work on tracks like Walk This Way and many others. The rhythm on this one has a shuffle feel and requires a solid picking hand.