Fortunate One: Joe Perry Keeps the Train Rolling with Brad Whitford, Chris Robinson and Robert DeLeo
“When I first sat down with Robert DeLeo about a month ago and we started talking about what songs we’d like to put in the setlist, we ended up with 45 of them for what will be 16 or 17 slots. It was crazy,” Joe Perry says, while discussing the initial process of ramping up for a series of gigs that will begin tonight in Tampa.
This version of the Joe Perry Project will find him teaming with his Aerosmith guitar foil Brad Whitford, their touring keyboardist Buck Johnson, and the Stone Temple Pilots’ rhythm section of bassist DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz, as well as Black Crowes vocalist Chris Robinson.
“I told Robert we needed to bring out the paring knife and get serious here,” Perry adds. “That’s been the hardest thing because everybody has their favorite Aerosmith songs that they want to do, including me and Brad. We want to do some songs that we’ve never been able to do with Aerosmith and stuff like ‘Pandora’s Box,’ which I’ve tried to get on a setlist forever. We’ll be doing a couple of the hits, but there are a few others in there where I can’t remember the last time Aerosmith played them. There’s even one song on the list that we never played together because it was released when we weren’t in the band. So we’ll be out there entertaining each other, but I think the fans will be happy with what we come up with.”
Are there covers you’d love to play and have been thinking about for years but, for whatever reason, you haven’t done yet?
Yeah, I have both a short list and a long list. One of those songs was then suggested by Chris. When I asked him if he wanted to join up, he said, “As long as we do X, Y and Z.” We all loved the same kind of music when we were growing up, even though we’re a couple of generations apart in some cases. So picking out a cover song that we all agree on is probably the easiest thing that we’ll decide. There might be some additions too because, when you’ve got players at this level, it would take us all of an hour to work up something new and throw it in.
In terms of the music that’s moved you over the years, is there a show you saw as a fan that really knocked you on your butt?
Oh man, there are a few. I was lucky enough to see the Dave Clark Five on their last tour. People forget how big they were. There were times when they had more hit songs on the charts than The Beatles. I wasn’t a big Dave Clark Five fan, but the guy who played drums in my garage band was a big fan, so we went to see them and it definitely made an impression on me.
I was also lucky enough to see The Who in a 500-seat club. They played a couple of their hits and then they said, “OK, we did something called a rock opera, and we’re going to play a short version of it.” Then they played about five songs from Tommy a couple weeks before it was released.
I also saw Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac a half-dozen times. In fact, they put out a live album that was recorded over the course of three nights in Boston, and I was there for two of the nights. They made a huge impression because they really knew how to use two guitars, like The Yardbirds. With Aerosmith, we covered a couple of those Fleetwood Mac songs.
You later opened your club Mama Kin on Lansdowne Street, near the spot where the Tea Party was once located. Is that where the album was recorded?
It was recorded at the original Tea Party, which was on Berkeley in an old church. You had to go up the stairs to get in. Up in the balcony is where BCN would broadcast. That’s when Peter Wolf was doing his radio show and the J. Geils Band was basically the house band. Peter would finish his radio show, then come down and sing with them.
They were one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen, hands down. Other than maybe Sly and the Family Stone, I can’t think of a band that knew how to build the energy like they did back then. I wish they’d have stayed together, but stuff goes on. We always felt like they were the original bad boys from Boston, but then we took over.
When I was talking to Chris and his brother Rich recently, they mentioned that when R.E.M. covered “Toys in the Attic,” it was a big moment for them because they were R.E.M. fans at the time but had been Aerosmith fans long before that. Can you recall your response to their version?
I was a little surprised because R.E.M. is more of an arty kind of band. But I was really happy that they heard something in “Toys in the Attic” that rocked their boat. It reminds me that for a long while, the record stores had trouble finding a slot for Aerosmith because we did a little bit of everything. We weren’t really a blues band, although we were blues-based in the sense that Muddy Waters said, “Blues had a baby and they named it rock-and-roll.” We also didn’t fit in the same slot as Metallica. We covered James Brown songs. I don’t see any boundaries.
When we did the whole thing with Run-DMC, it worked because it showed just how similar it all is. I see hip hop as the next logical step from the blues, when you think about it. A guy standing on the street corner with a boombox and rapping is the same thing that guys did with the blues. They used to stand on a street corner, singing about their lives and getting people moving. To me, it’s simple, it’s direct and it’s all about getting people to feel good while listening to lyrics that have something to do with you.
You mentioned seeing The Who before they released Tommy in 1969. You’re opening for them at Fenway and the Hollywood Bowl at the end of this tour. I know you’ve shared bills in the past. Can you recall how that initially felt, given your history as a fan?
Oddly enough, when we were playing all the domes in Japan, they opened for us on that tour [in 2004] because The Who had never played Japan before. We were all Who fans, so we were like, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I think I wore out my Live at Leeds record.
It was great. When we played in Tokyo, I saw Pete smash his guitar. I had never seen him do it out of all the times I saw him play live and he’d stopped doing it.
It’s like hitting a tree with a baseball bat. It hurts. You’ve got to have a lot of adrenaline going. At the Tokyo Dome, he was playing a Strat, and sure enough, at the end of the show he took that thing apart. Guys who had been working for him for 20 years said, “I’ve never seen him do that.”
You don’t plan something like that. Sometimes the adrenaline and the excitement of the music gets to you and something has to give. So sure enough, the fans in Tokyo got a show.
I’m really excited to be on the bill with them. I have a lot of respect for them and gratitude for having me on the bill, especially at Fenway, and then also with the Hollywood Bowl.
I remember seeing pictures of you smashing your own guitar when you played at the Roxy in 2018 to celebrate the release of Sweetzerland Manifesto. You had a lot of guests, including Robert DeLeo and Chris Robinson, who sang “Fortunate One,” which would appear on your next record [Sweetzerland Manifesto MKII]. Did that night in any way lead you to put together this band with Chris on vocals?
That was an amazing show. It was the only show where I did the album. At that point I had the first version, and the second version was in the works. I had already written some more music for it and Chris sang on that song, then Gary Cherone sang on another one.
I’d been out in LA working on the record, which took a long time to get done. I was staying with Johnny [Depp] at his house because the studio was there, and it seemed like there was always something else going on. There was a steady stream of musicians going through. Then when the record was finally done, just about everybody lived out there, so I said, “I want to do a show at the Roxy and play the songs off the album. Maybe we’ll throw a few others in there, too.”
I made some phone calls and, sure enough, everybody showed up—Chris and Gary and Terry Reid and Robin Zander and Robert. It was a wild night. [Depp, David Johansen and Slash were also were among the participants.]
It was amazing. I know we filmed it. Someday I’ll go through it and put it out. Again, I have a lot of gratitude that they all showed up. It was just a big party.
Chris sang with us at that show, but as far as this tour goes, it was more just me being a fan of Black Crowes. I always dug the way he sang and he was on my wishlist when I’d ask around to see who was available. I also go back with Robert a long ways.
Obviously that show at the Roxy was one of the times when we were together, but Black Crowes records are on my A-list. So to get him to join up is just fucking great. It was kind of like, “Well, who would I like to get in there?”
I started thinking about putting this together last spring. I really wanted to do it in May or June but we couldn’t clear everybody’s calendar until August.
When I started thinking about the potential songs for the set, I was listening to my first solo album [1980’s Let the Music Do the Talking] and one of the things I noticed is that Ralph Morman sounds remarkably like Chris. There’s definitely something about the texture of their voices, plus the way they deliver. It’s in that Bad Company kind of vibe. It’s not a lot of screaming, but they use their voices like instruments. There’s something about it. It didn’t dawn on me until recently just how similar they are.
Can you talk about the alchemy that you anticipate from these five players?
We’re going to be out there entertaining each other. I’ve played with Robert, I’ve done some one-offs with Chris, and of course Brad, that goes without saying. Buck has played in Aerosmith for the last 10 years, and also with the last couple of Project tours and the Vampires [Perry’s band with Depp and Alice Cooper—Hollywood Vampires.]
Robert DeLeo is one of the best bass players I’ve played with. He’s rock solid. Eric is the only one that I’ve never actually done a gig with, but I’ve heard his playing for years. When I was looking for a drummer Robert suggested him and I said, “If he wants to do it, that would be great.” There’s nothing tighter than a rhythm section that’s been playing together for as long as they have. It’s worth its weight in gold.
[Editor’s Note: Hopefully this will yet happen. On Monday Perry released a statement announcing that “Unfortunately, due to a family emergency Eric Kretz will be unable to participate in the upcoming Joe Perry Project tour dates. Longtime JPP drummer Jason Sutter will join the band for the immediate future and Eric looks forward to rejoining the tour as soon as he is able.”]
We’re pretty tight, but we’ve never all played together. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes because Buck and Chris are kind of southern guys, so they bring a different kind of rock-and-roll to it that I love, and they all get the funk that comes with Aerosmith.
It’s been a couple years since you released an album. Is there any chance you’ll record one with this band?
We’ll be rehearsing in the studio, so who knows? We may come out of there with a couple of new songs. You don’t know until you all get together and start playing. By the time people see the band, it’ll have taken on a life of its own.
Like I said, we all kind of have the same roots. We can name albums we have in common that had a huge influence on us. That’s kind of the glue that gets us all together. There’s something about that feeling. Of course, everybody in the audience feels the same way.
I mean, I was a fan first. I still am. We all are. So we’re going to give it everything we’ve got and have as much fun as we can, which is a lot.
