JOE PERRY

The iconic guitarist looks back on Aerosmith in the Seventies, the decade that literally made and temporarily broke apart those Bad Boys from Boston

- Andrew Daly

IN 1973, THE band who just a few years later would be known as the “Bad Boys from Boston” dropped their debut album, Aerosmith. Its release set off a chain of events that eventually led to their being nicknamed “America’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band.” And while that’s big-time praise — not to mention one hell of a nickname — you have to remember “Dream On” is on that debut album.

That said, even though “Dream On” would — eventually — gather more than a billion streams on Spotify alone, it wasn’t enough to catapult Aerosmith to success 51 years ago. In fact, their debut was so lackluster, sales-wise, that Columbia Records was reluctant to give the band a second shot and only did so if the band’s double-barred lead guitar tandem of Joe Perry and Brad Whitford agreed to allow studio pros Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner to sub for them on 1974’s Get Your Wings.

Looking back on it, Perry recalls being “not happy about it” but understands that you had to take your licks to get by in the biz. “It was just one of those things,” he tells Guitar World. “The record companies were in the business of making money; they didn’t really care how you felt about it. It’s a tough business. It is what it is. It was a business, and they didn’t care if they were selling music or selling washing machines, you know? It’s not like you’re walking up to someone with open arms who will give you whatever you need. It was more like, ‘This is how it’s gonna be.’”

Perry, an iconic guitarist who spent the bulk of the Seventies laying down sleazy riffs and off-the-cuff solos beside his fellow Toxic Twin, Steven Tyler, learned a hell of a lot from the Get Your Wings experience, saying, “We made up for it with the next one.” Indeed, they did, as 1975’s Toys in the Attic