The musician that left Joe Perry starstruck: “Holy shit”
Aerosmith are a band who always had their backs against the wall when it came to making music, as no matter what they did, people pushed back on their creativity.
The way that people spoke about Steven Tyler, you would think that there were no long-haired rock stars other than Mick Jagger in the world. The moment Tyler took to the stage, people accused the band of ripping off the Rolling Stones, saying that they were taking advantage of the band’s iconic look and sound and using it for their own gain. No matter what Aerosmith did throughout their career, these allegations continued to follow them like a shadow.
“We’ve always just played our music and haven’t given a shit. Still, the ‘Cheap imitation of the Rolling Stones’ criticism was constant. And it hurt for the first couple of years,” reflected Tyler, “It was constantly Mick Jagger this and Mick Jagger that – that I copied him, and Janis Joplin too. Mick was the cheapest, easiest shot. ‘Well, he looks like him, so let’s write about that’.”
Aerosmith weren’t ignorant to the fact that they did take influence from some of the artists who originally inspired them, though. Even The Rolling Stones were frequently taking from R&B and blues artists that inspired them, it’s normal to allow your influences to bleed into your sound. And while Aerosmith did let it bleed, people continue to criticize them for ripping Rolling Stones off rather than just being influenced by them.
“You could tell that they weren’t listening because we definitely weren’t sounding like the Stones […] Done our best to try to, though,” said Joe Perry, “We steal from everybody […] Amateurs copy and pros steal, and we’re professionals. We make no bones about the fact that we took from people that came before us.”
As a band who were willing to take bits from their favourite bands that were on the scene before them, Aerosmith were an outfit that were always keen for collaboration as well. One of their most famous instances of this was when they teamed up with Run DMC on the now iconic rap-rock crossover ‘Walk This Way’, but there were plenty more times when the band opted to work with other musicians who were willing to lend a helping hand on their music.
Joe Perry was always happy collaborating with other artists, but one of his favourite moments doing this was when he was working away on the band’s fourteenth record, Honkin’ on Bobo, when he found out that one of his musical icons, Johnnie Johnson, was in the same city as him. Johnson was most famed for playing piano for some of rock ‘n roll’s greats such as Chuck Berry, so Perry was desperate to get the chance to work with him.
“I woke up one morning and read in the paper he was in town that day, playing a gig at the House Of Blues,” recalled Perry, “I made a few quick phone calls, and sent a car for him, and before I knew it he was sitting in the basement of my house, behind a piano.”
He continued, “He sat down and played, and we talked and he told some great stories about playing with Willie Dixon. And the whole time I’m like, ‘Holy shit – that’s fuckin’ Johnnie Johnson sitting in my basement, man!’.”
