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Joe Perry
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Joe Perry is an American guitarist, born Joseph Pereira in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1950. As a boy he wanted to be a marine biologist, but at a boarding school in Vermont he heard the music of Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Kinks and The Yardbirds from his classmates. He had already learned to play guitar at ten, right-handed although he is left-handed. Now he sat in his room for hours playing riffs from records.
Music and breakthrough
In the late 1960s Perry started The Jam Band with bassist Tom Hamilton. When singer Steven Tyler, guitarist Brad Whitford and drummer Joey Kramer joined, the name became Aerosmith. At first the band was dismissed as a copy of The Rolling Stones, but in the mid-1970s success came, with Dream On and the albums Toys in the Attic (1975) and Rocks (1976), with songs such as Sweet Emotion and Walk This Way. Perry and Tyler wrote most of the songs together and became known as the Toxic Twins, because of their drug use. In 1979 Perry left after a quarrel and started the Joe Perry Project. In 1984 he returned to Aerosmith.
Influence
In 1986 Perry and Tyler recorded a new version of Walk This Way with Run-DMC. That record helped rap break through to a wide audience and gave Aerosmith a second life, with albums such as Permanent Vacation (1987) and Pump (1989). Perry is known for his raw, bluesy riffs, which he took from the British rock of the 1960s.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
In School of Rock
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