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Joe Perry's 'revolving door' of musicians heads out on tour
At last month’s Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath's “Back to the Beginning” multi-act extravaganza in Birmingham, England, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler took the stage. He was in fine fettle, belting out “Train Kept a Rollin’,” “Walk This Way” and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.”
The performance led to speculation that, after the cancellation of Aerosmith’s 40-date farewell tour a year ago due to an injury to Tyler’s larynx, there might be one more night in the arena for Aerosmith.
“I would bet that there’s an Aerosmith show left,” said Joe Perry, the band's guitarist, on the phone from his home in Sarasota, Florida. He saw Tyler on video and liked what he heard. They met in Sarasota in mid-July to discuss the possibilities.
“There’s been talk about doing a documentary, that might be part of it. I’ve been spending a lot of time with Steven and he just doesn’t want to tour and he can’t tour. It’s tough,” Perry said. “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.”
What Perry can do is hit the road for a nine-date stint with the Joe Perry Project, including the Boch Center Wang Theatre Aug. 19 and opening two dates for The Who’s farewell tour, including Fenway Park Aug. 26.
The project is Perry’s perennial Plan B, a unit he’s put together several times starting in 1979. In the spring of 2023, he toured with the group and shortly thereafter with the Alice Cooper-helmed Hollywood Vampires. This year, he said, “I took off my Hollywood Vampires hat, and I felt like I wanted to go out and play a little bit.”
So, he reassembled the Joe Perry Project, which he described as having a “revolving door” of musicians. This time, he’s got The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson as the lead singer; Stone Temple Pilots’ rhythm section, bassist Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz; Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford joining on guitar with longtime Aerosmith sideman Buck Johnson on keyboards.
The band had yet to rehearse when we spoke in mid-July, but Perry said they’re working on carving a set list out of roughly 45 songs. Many of those are, of course, Aerosmith songs. Some come from Perry’s solo albums and there will certainly be several Black Crowes and Stone Temple Pilots tunes in the mix, too.
“You get some great players lined up and pick these songs out and then it’s interesting to hear how they come out,” Perry said. “We won’t know until we get in the room and the amps are on; then we’ll find out what works.”
Perry shared that Robinson has been lobbying for five lesser-known Aerosmith songs rarely played live, and Whitford wants to do songs Aerosmith recorded on the 1979 album “Night in the Ruts.” He and Perry never performed the songs together live. (Perry left the band midway through recording the LP; Whitford exited in 1981 before rejoining in 1984, as did Perry.)
“The vibe of the project is loose. I like thinking of it as a garage band, but we’re playing on a stage in front of people,” Perry said. “These gigs with these guys is kind of a dream – this lineup is kinda selling the places.”
The Joe Perry Project also landed the opening slot on not just The Who’s Fenway date, but on one of the tour’s two final shows at the Hollywood Bowl. There’s synchronicity to it. As a teen, Perry saw The Who open at the original Boston Tea Party club. In 2004, The Who and Aerosmith played a festival in Japan. It was the English rockers' first time playing in the country. “Pete [Townshend] went out and smashed his guitar,” Perry said. “His tech, who worked for him 20 years, said ‘I’ve never seen him do that. I finally got a chance to see the real deal.’”
As to Aerosmith, they nixed any idea of remounting a major tour after Tyler’s injury, but if a multi-city tour is too long and grueling, might not another residency, such as they did in Las Vegas in 2019 and 2022, be in the cards?
“I’ll never say never, but I wouldn’t bet on it — no pun intended,” Perry said. “You really have to want to be out there and we’re all at that point of: How do you want to live? How do you want to spend the next however long you’ve got?”
Some of what Perry likes to do when he’s not rocking: Drive fast muscle cars. He has a 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 “and that’s like a rocket, a lot of fun.” And for quieter times, “I got a dock here in Sarasota and I started fishing a little bit. It reminds me a lot of up at the Lake Sunapee where I grew up, and met Steven and Tom [Hamilton]. There’s that vibe and connection.”
The end, inevitably, will come.
“Like Ozzy said, I don’t want to die in a hospital somewhere,” Perry said, with a rueful laugh. “It wouldn’t be bad to die onstage and I’ve come close.” (He collapsed during a 2016 performance with the Hollywood Vampires at Coney Island. Initial reports suggested a possible heart attack, but it was later determined to be due to dehydration and exhaustion.)
“That didn’t work out so well,” Perry said with a wry laugh. “But you want to go down on your horse. I just don’t want to be like General MacArthur, just an old soldier just fading away.”
