Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry may be 65 years old, the age of retirement, but he’s working harder than ever. In addition to heading to Europe in late May for four shows with Hollywood Vampires and then touring North America with the band in July (see our tour announcement here), he’s doing lots of recording. And collaborating beyond his Vampires project with Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp.
Hence what started as a solo instrumental album is morphing into something more and different as Perry has had singers like Iggy Pop, David Johansen and esteemed Brit-rock cult hero Terry Reid add their voices and words to his tunes. As the classic rock guitar hero told Rolling Stone recently, “One night, Iggy Pop stopped by the studio after he’d done a show here and listened to a couple of tunes. Within a couple hours, he had finished [recording] everything and that was really the turning point for the record. It was really, really good to go that way. And then Terry Reid sang on at least four songs, and David Johansen came in” and the result was a few more songs with vocals.
He has already unveiled one of the tracks with Reid, “I’ll Do Happiness.” Click here to listen.
Perry plans to get more musical friends to record with him, and credits living in Los Angeles with offering a wide range of possible collaborators. “[T]here is always somebody passing through or they live out here. It’s just been a wider spread of friends and neighbors I can ask if they want to come in and have a go.
“I go to the studio almost every day and we’ve been talking about cutting some new tracks for Hollywood Vampires so I’m also writing songs that I think would work with Alice [Cooper] singing.” Some of what Perry is recording could also become Aerosmith songs. “For me, it’s really about writing music,” he says.
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The guitarist qualified recent statements by singer Steven Tyler that the band’s next tour could be their final hurrah. “A farewell tour is something we’ve talked about doing for years, let’s say roughly in the last five years,” Perry says. “It’s just something the band’s talked about at various times. At this point, the five of us have never sat down and said, ‘It’s time to do it.’ So ‘considering’ is an appropriate word for that statement. A farewell tour is definitely not confirmed.”
