Joe Perry is about to sweep yet another generation of aspiring guitar players off its feet by going digital in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, due in June for PlayStation 2 and 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. So what better time to recount some of his other achievements—you know, besides selling 100-million albums? Here, Gibson reveals 10 things you may not know about one of the finest rock guitarists of our time.
Joe Perry is a guitar fanatic. Last year, he told Ultimate-Guitar.com that he owns close to 600. Favoring Gibsons, Perry has played SGs, Firebirds, ES-175s, ES-350s, and Les Pauls, and even has his own signature Joe Perry Boneyard Les Paul. His favorite is a custom Gibson Lucille that prominently features a picture of his wife Billie on its white finish and her signature on the headstock. “There is only one of them in the whole world,” Perry said. There better be.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist met wife Billie Montgomery in 1983 while making the video for the Joe Perry Project’s “Black Velvet Pants.” The relationship lasted longer than the band. The couple married two years later in Maui and have two sons, Tony and Roman. It was Perry's second marriage.
Perry also has another son from his first marriage, Adrian, and a stepson from Billie’s previous marriage named Aaron Hirsch, who helps Perry with his flourishing hot sauce venture.
What hot sauce venture? The Aersomith guitarist is the founder of Joe Perry’s Rock Your World hot sauce, a wildly popular blend of peppers, garlic, onion, lime juice, and sweat in a bottle. How did he get into the business? Blame Jimmy Page! “I’ve just been a hot sauce fan for as long as I can remember,” Perry told us a few years ago. “Jimmy Page loves hot food, and he’s always sending me bottles and I’m sending him bottles. We both travel a lot and come across all kinds of weird things. Especially when you’re on the road you’re stuck eating lots of bland food and you want to spice it out.”
Perry likes to—drum roll, please!—spice things up on-stage, as well. Outside of Aerosmith, Perry has played with everyone from Eminem to Tom Jones. On the Kiss/Aerosmith tour, he joined the co-headliners on-stage wearing Paul Stanley’s boots for a killer version of “Stutter.” It wasn’t the first time he broke into the impossible-to-penetrate Kiss family. Perry also appeared on Gene Simmons’ 1978 solo album.
You may have also caught Perry doing his thing on TV. Watching him jam with American Idol finalist Sanjaya Malakar on “You Really Got Me” was especially ... memorable. Let’s all give Joe a big high-five for playing on the 2006 version of the Monday Night Football theme song with Hank Williams, Jr., Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen, and Little Richard.
Perry’s skills aren’t limited to the six-string. His vocals can be found on several Aerosmith songs, kindly cataloged by those know-it-alls at Wikipedia: “Bright Light Fright” (Draw the Line, 1977), “Walk On Down” (Get a Grip, 1993), “Falling Off” (Nine Lives, 1997) “Drop Dead Gorgeous” (Just Push Play, 2001), “Stop Messin’ Around,” and “Back Back Train” (Honkin’ On Bobo, 2004), plus a duet with Steven Tyler on “Combination” (Rocks, 1976).
On his 2005 solo album, Perry recorded a cover of the Doors’ “The Crystal Ship.” When we asked him what magical substances he took to so effectively imitate Jim Morrison’s spaced-out baritone, he told us: “I had enough left over from the old days. I’ve been in a permanent state of euphoria since, I don’t know, 1968.”
The critically acclaimed solo album’s track “Mercy” earned Perry a Grammy nomination in 2006 for Best Rock Instrumental. He lost to Les Paul. We don’t think he was all that disappointed.
Perry has lots of cool nicknames. With Steven Tyler, he makes up one half of the now reformed “Toxic Twins.” Some like to call him the “King of Cool.” His real name is Anthony Joseph Pereira. But like Perry, we think the most fitting is “Joe F***king Perry!”
Joe Perry Photos by Adam Bielawski