Real Name: Anthony Joseph Pereira
Joe Perry is the lead guitarist and one of the songwriters of the legendary rock band Aerosmith. Born in Massachusetts in the year 1950, Perry is from a Portuguese origin from Madeira.
Joe Perry met up bassist Tom Hamilton and first formed a band called The Jam Band. Steven Tyler joined them and formed Aerosmith. They had a line of hit songs during the mid 1970s most notably Rocks in 1976 and Toys in the Attic 1975. They were criticized for their drug use and heavy playing. There concerts drew male crowed largely who loved the denim and long hair, the style of the 70’s. Inevitably they were called the “The Blue Army”. The audience were highly addicted to drug and were violent. Due to this, even drug dealers and smugglers toured behind Aerosmith to make some quick money.
While on a performance in Cleveland, an argument broke out behind the stage between Joe Perry’s wife and Tom Hamilton’s wife. Perry’s wife Elyssa Jerret threw a glass of milk at Hamilton’s wife. This led to Perry quitting Aerosmith. While he left Aerosmith, he took with him dozens of unrecorded music materials and later on released the album Let the Music Do the Talking in March 1980. This album went on to sell around 2,50,000 copies in the United States alone. This record managed to reach No.47 position in the Billboard rankings. However, his second album in 1983, “Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker” went unnoticed.
Tim Collins who was the bands manager spoke to Perry and tried to get him united with Aerosmith again. Perry accepted this and rejoined the band. After the reunion, Perry and Tyler remade their mid-70’s hit “Walk This Way” in Run-DMC which took them to the limelight again.
As the band was still under the influence of alcohol, they had to go to rehab and successfully made it back to stage with some amazing successes again. The Aerosmith album Pump, released in 1989 made its triple-platinum.
After almost nine years, they topped the charts for the first time in 1998 with their single, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” with Diane Warren. The last notable performance by Perry is that with the Boston Pops Orchestra along with Steven Tyler in 2006. Aerosmith still tour heavily and are largely popular around the world.
Perry married Billie Paullette Montgomery Perry in 1985 after he broke up with Elyssa Jerret with whom he had a break up. Elyssa’s son and Billie’s son Tony started up the band Tab. Bille’s son Aaron who was from her previous relation, manages and is the Chief Executive Officer for the hot sauce brand Joe Perry’s Rock Your World. Perry loves his family and takes the whole family with him wherever he tours.
Perry uses various models of Gibson, namely Les Paul Junior, Gibson SGs, Gibson Firebird, Gibson ES-350, Gibson ES-175, Les Paul Standard and custom made ones by Gibson. He also has a signature series after him called the Joe Perry Signature Less Paul guitar.
However, between the 1970s and 1980s he tried out Fender Stratocasters and telecasters.