JOE PERRY
Name: Joe Perry
Birth name: Anthony Joseph Perry
Born: 10 September 1950 Lawrence, Massachusetts, U.S.
Genre: Hard rock
Occupation(s): Musician, Songwriter
Instrument: Guitar
Anthony Joseph Perry (Born September 10, 1950 in Lawrence, Massachusetts),
better known as Joe Perry, is the lead guitarist and contributing songwriter for
the rock band Aerosmith.
The paternal side of Perry's family are Portuguese, originally from Madeira. His
grandfather changed the family's name from Pereira to Perry upon arriving in the
United States of America. His maternal side is Italian, more specifically
Neapolitan.
Perry and his younger sister, Ann-Marie, grew up in the small town of Hopedale,
Massachusetts. There, his father was an accountant and his mother a high school
gym teacher and later an aerobics instructor. She later retired to Arizona while
Perry's father died in 1975. Perry also attended the prep school Vermont Academy
for high school - a boarding school of about 230 students in Saxtons River, VT.
During Joe Perry's early years he formed a band with Tom Hamilton called The Jam
Band. After meeting with Steven Tyler, Joe & Tom would go on to form Aerosmith
with him. While initially dismissed as Rolling Stones knock-offs, the band came
into its own during the mid-1970s with a string of hit records. Chief among
these successes were Toys in the Attic (1975) and Rocks (1976), thanks largely
to the prevalence of free-form, album-oriented FM radio. The group also managed
hit singles on the AM dial with songs like "Dream On," "Same Old Song and Dance,"
"Sweet Emotion" and "Walk This Way."
During this time, Perry and vocalist Steven Tyler became known as the "Toxic
Twins" for their notorious hard-partying and drug use. Hard core drug dealers
made a cash grab following Aerosmith around the country knowing there would be
an unlimited supply of customers. Aerosmith's crowd in these days earned the
nickname "The Blue Army". So called by the band after the seemingly endless
amount of teenagers in the audience wearing blue denim jackets and blue jeans.
The audience was abundantly male with extremely long hair, one of the loudest of
its day.
Following Rocks, the group began to stumble - drug use escalated and the
creative process became hampered by strained relationships within the band. They
managed another hit record in 1977 with Draw the Line, on which Perry sang lead
vocals on the track "Bright Light Fright," considered by some to be one of the
album's highlights. A fall of '77 tour was scheduled, but as the crowds got more
dangerous, violence followed. An m-80 was thrown onstage in Philadelphia at The
Spectrum in October 1977, injuring both Perry and Tyler.
Summer of 1979 saw the band headline over Van Halen, Ted Nugent, AC/DC and
Foreigner during the world music festival concerts. An argument backstage in
Cleveland resulted in Joe Perry's wife throwing a glass of milk at Tom Hamilton's
wife. This would prove to be the turning point that saw Perry quit Aerosmith,
taking a collection of unrecorded material with him, which would later become
the basis of his Let the Music Do the Talking album.
By the end of the year, Perry had formed his own band - The Joe Perry Project.
Their debut record, Let the Music Do the Talking, reached #47 on the Billboard
album charts, selling 250,000 copies domestically. While sales and reviews were
respectable the group mainly thrived as a live act. It managed to do so even
after its second album, I've Got the Rock'n'Rolls Again, went largely ignored.
In the end, the Project never solidified a lineup; all three studio releases
would feature a different lead vocalist and the entire roster was replaced
before their final effort (1983's Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker.) Even a brief
stint with fellow Aerosmith exile, rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford, failed to
ignite things again and the group found themselves with minimal label support by
1984.
Name: Joe Perry
Birth name: Anthony Joseph Perry
Born: 10 September 1950 Lawrence, Massachusetts, U.S.
Genre: Hard rock
Occupation(s): Musician, Songwriter
Instrument: Guitar
Anthony Joseph Perry (Born September 10, 1950 in Lawrence, Massachusetts),
better known as Joe Perry, is the lead guitarist and contributing songwriter for
the rock band Aerosmith.
The paternal side of Perry's family are Portuguese, originally from Madeira. His
grandfather changed the family's name from Pereira to Perry upon arriving in the
United States of America. His maternal side is Italian, more specifically
Neapolitan.
Perry and his younger sister, Ann-Marie, grew up in the small town of Hopedale,
Massachusetts. There, his father was an accountant and his mother a high school
gym teacher and later an aerobics instructor. She later retired to Arizona while
Perry's father died in 1975. Perry also attended the prep school Vermont Academy
for high school - a boarding school of about 230 students in Saxtons River, VT.
During Joe Perry's early years he formed a band with Tom Hamilton called The Jam
Band. After meeting with Steven Tyler, Joe & Tom would go on to form Aerosmith
with him. While initially dismissed as Rolling Stones knock-offs, the band came
into its own during the mid-1970s with a string of hit records. Chief among
these successes were Toys in the Attic (1975) and Rocks (1976), thanks largely
to the prevalence of free-form, album-oriented FM radio. The group also managed
hit singles on the AM dial with songs like "Dream On," "Same Old Song and Dance,"
"Sweet Emotion" and "Walk This Way."
During this time, Perry and vocalist Steven Tyler became known as the "Toxic
Twins" for their notorious hard-partying and drug use. Hard core drug dealers
made a cash grab following Aerosmith around the country knowing there would be
an unlimited supply of customers. Aerosmith's crowd in these days earned the
nickname "The Blue Army". So called by the band after the seemingly endless
amount of teenagers in the audience wearing blue denim jackets and blue jeans.
The audience was abundantly male with extremely long hair, one of the loudest of
its day.
Following Rocks, the group began to stumble - drug use escalated and the
creative process became hampered by strained relationships within the band. They
managed another hit record in 1977 with Draw the Line, on which Perry sang lead
vocals on the track "Bright Light Fright," considered by some to be one of the
album's highlights. A fall of '77 tour was scheduled, but as the crowds got more
dangerous, violence followed. An m-80 was thrown onstage in Philadelphia at The
Spectrum in October 1977, injuring both Perry and Tyler.
Summer of 1979 saw the band headline over Van Halen, Ted Nugent, AC/DC and
Foreigner during the world music festival concerts. An argument backstage in
Cleveland resulted in Joe Perry's wife throwing a glass of milk at Tom Hamilton's
wife. This would prove to be the turning point that saw Perry quit Aerosmith,
taking a collection of unrecorded material with him, which would later become
the basis of his Let the Music Do the Talking album.
By the end of the year, Perry had formed his own band - The Joe Perry Project.
Their debut record, Let the Music Do the Talking, reached #47 on the Billboard
album charts, selling 250,000 copies domestically. While sales and reviews were
respectable the group mainly thrived as a live act. It managed to do so even
after its second album, I've Got the Rock'n'Rolls Again, went largely ignored.
In the end, the Project never solidified a lineup; all three studio releases
would feature a different lead vocalist and the entire roster was replaced
before their final effort (1983's Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker.) Even a brief
stint with fellow Aerosmith exile, rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford, failed to
ignite things again and the group found themselves with minimal label support by
1984.