What kind of musical background do you have?

None. I'm completely self-invented. I never took lessons or anything like that. I didn't start playing guitar until I was in my mid-20's. As a matter of fact, the band that I was in [Balloon] before Joe Perry was the first band that I ever played guitar in. I was just a frontman before that and I just invented it. To this day, I don't know what many of the chords are that I play. I have pretty complex chord structure type songs now, but it's only just the way I play. I kind of invent it, y'know what I mean? I don't know what it's called. And if somebody says, "Hey, c'mon--let's play this Beatles tune," typically, I won't know how to do that.

Was jamming tough for you then?

No, jamming is not tough. Usually jamming is done over very simple blues progression type stuff. I know how to get around a guitar neck. I'm definitely not a rookie player but I'm not a schooled player either.

So it's almost like playing by ear?

Yeah, it's completely playing by ear and by feel. That's how I play.

How was your first meeting with Joe and the band?

To be honest with you, I was obviously very impressed with Joe. He's still a very cool, big star. But at the time, it was even at some level cooler. It maybe only seemed that way to me because I was younger and I hadn't been exposed to it, but I think Aerosmith had this certain panache. They were very much an older established thing; whereas a band like Red Hot Chili Peppers is vital in a different way. They're vital, new, and currently very hot and cool, right? There isn't the same kind of buzz around Aerosmith (now) as there is around some of these new, hot bands. Y'know what I mean? They're still really big, but not in the "buzzy" way. At the time (of my joining the Joe Perry Project), it was all still very buzzy around Aerosmith. So (with) them breaking up, there was a residual buzz around the Joe Perry Project and around Joe. I remember feeling like joining his band at that time was a big deal.

Anyway, I went and played (at the audition). I remember he had a lot of guitar players come down to the Orpheum in Boston to some theater. They would set up on the stage. That's where they held their auditions. Of course, I was in a band that was still playing small clubs and doing well in the small clubs, but we still rehearsed in someone's basement, y'know what I mean? So to go and rehearse at the Orpheum was like pretty heady stuff, I remember. I was always very confident though. I felt completely confident that I would get the gig. I felt Joe was completely awesome, but I thought I was, too. (laughs) And so I was at that stage in my life when I had maybe more confidence than probably was warranted, but I think you'll find that most of these young guys who have rock bands are pretty convinced that they have their sh*t together.

Well, it definitely worked out for you.

It did, and I recognized that David (Hull) and Ronnie Stewart were really top-notch guys. I felt like I needed to be playing with these guys. I needed to be playing with top-notch guys. So it was awesome. I mean, my band [Balloon] was very hot locally. We were doing really well. But I was still working a day job at a music store. So I went from working in a music store to headlining 2,000-3,000 seat places.

You worked in a music store before?

I worked in a music store, Boston Music Company. It was a very buttoned-down kind of thing--sheet music, classicals, choral music.

But you don't read music, do you?

No, I don't read music.

That's kinda funny. So how was recording the album [I've Got the Rock 'n' Rolls Again] for you?

Well, I don't know about now--I'm sure now it's different--but at the time, we did that album live.

It sounds like it.

Yeah, and many of the vocals are live. I didn't even overdub. Most of the vocals were done as we played. (laughs) I did overdub some of them, but most of them were done as we played. We were writing the songs by scribbling words down on paper that was lying on the floor of the stage. We recorded on a stage at the Boston Opera House. They put mics all over the theater, just like it was a gig.

Was that a main place for you to practice, too?

No, we didn't practice there but. Aerosmith had a place in Waltham called the Wherehouse. We practiced there. By what I was use to, it was awesome. It was a great big facility.

Did you run into any friction with Aerosmith since they practiced there, too?

No, they were beyond practicing. I mean, they would go on tour and then after Joe quit, they were out of commission for a while. I think Joe had his first band together before Aerosmith was back on the road. Aerosmith still rehearsed there, but I wasn't aware of a lot of friction. There was some obviously, but it was between Steven and Joe. I never saw friction between any of the guys in the band. I saw some friction between the Aerosmith crew and Joe Perry crew, but it wasn't like you would think. It was fairly professional at the time. They weren't using (the Wherehouse) when we were using, so it wasn't a big deal.

But when we recorded the album, Bruce Botnick--who was involved with a lot of The Doors' records--produced it. The Record Plant truck came and parked behind the theater. I can't remember how long we worked on it, but it wasn't very long. It was only maybe a week. Maybe four or five days at the most. We cut it and then we went back to the practice room and I overdubbed some vocals. I think it took four or five days. It was really quick. We practiced, we went in, and banged it out. And it sounds like we banged it out. But I kinda like that--that really snarly, roaring thing. I mean, I listen to that record now and I really dig it. I could've done better vocals and I'm sure that everybody in the band feels they could've done better. But at the time, punk rock was happening. I think that the goal was to not make a careful record; it was to make a punk rock record.

Were there any songs that you recorded that didn't make it to that album or stuff that you wish you put on there?

Oh yeah.

Any stuff in the vaults on those?

Yeah, there was stuff that we did that didn't make the record, but. For instance, "Play the Game" at one point was Third World War. We were changing the words to the songs from take to take.

I know you brought a couple of songs from your first band (Balloon) to the Project.

"East Coast, West Coast" and "Listen To The Rock" were local radio tunes. They were getting played like crazy. That's why my band was really popular. "Listen To The Rock" probably the most. And it was different--it was much more of a Free/T-Rex kind of a sound. "East Coast, West Coast" was very much the way we did it with Joe Perry. And then Joe and I wrote "No Substitute For Arrogance," which is a great tune. We wrote "I've Got The Rock 'N' Rolls Again," which I love. Farrenheit even use to play that on tour. We also wrote "Play The Game" and "TV Police." We wrote those four together.

What about the song "Buzz Buzz"?

David (Hull) wrote that.

Was David looking to sing more or was that just a spur-of-the-moment type of thing?

I thought David sang another one. Joe sang a couple. No, I don't think David was looking to do that. Even in Farrenheit, I use to try and encourage Dave to do that, but he wasn't into it. I don't think he was looking to sing more. I think Joe enjoyed singing and it was fine with me. I thought it was cool to say, "Hey, here's David, he's going to sing one." I liked that. Joe use to sing a couple. I think he use to do "Red House" and an Elvis Presley tune. I think he'd do "Heartbreak Hotel." It was definitely Joe's band. Every now and then, he'd say, "Hey, I'm going to do one." And I'd say, "Great, give me a rest." I always liked it when different guys sang.

As for touring, I know you toured with Blue Oyster Cult.

Oh yeah! I forgot about that. Yeah, we did. We did some touring with ZZ Top, but we also played a lot of our own shows. It wasn't like when I did tours with Farrenheit where we would get on a tour and be on that tour for many months, hop onto another tour for two or three months. With Joe's band, it seemed as though we'd play five or six nights with Blue Oyster Cult, then three nights with Alice Cooper, four cities with Rush, three cities with Ozzy, three more cities with Rush, and then we'd do a bunch on our own. We also did some shows with the Kinks, we did a lot of shows with ZZ Top; we did some shows with Nazareth and Judas Priest. So we were really bouncing around. I remember when we played with Ozzy, Def Leppard was the opening act.

Did you ever go outside of the U.S. for any shows?

We went to Canada. We played in the U.S. and Canada. I think later Joe played in South America a lot. But it was a trip for me, especially because I was the youngest guy and it was new to me. As for the other guys, David had already been touring for years. He was playing with Ted Nugent, he did five albums with Buddy Miles. Both Ronnie and David played in the first Joe Perry Project. But for me, it was brand new. So I was just really wide-eyed about the whole thing.

And for Joe, I think that with his first band and his first record, he probably was fired up because it was his project. But you're talking about a guy who had played Pontiac Stadium. I mean, Aerosmith was the biggest band in the world. They were like Led Zeppelin or something. Then he stepped out of it and did his own project, which was not nearly as big. I think he felt that there were forces stifling him, y'know? Forces that were holding him back.

I think by the time we did the record that I did (with the Project), Joe--who was very much more savvy about this than I was at the time--probably thought of those days as hard work. Y'know, you get the blast of having a new project, that first record, and you do that until you put the second record out. It's definitely a lot of fun, but I think he was comparing it to Aerosmith. I was comparing it to my band when I could fill five rooms in Boston. So this was a giant improvement for me, career-wise. Joe, however, probably didn't see it as an improvement for him. So it was probably challenging times for him, but it was awesome for me. (laughs)

Well, we all know about Joe's drug problems in the past.

I've got to tell you, though. I've read all of the stuff and I think there's probably some (occurrences) that were happening, but at that point in time, it really wasn't that unusual. It wasn't like he was the only guy in the world who was doing any drugs, y'know? He had his nights when he was flying, but I didn't generally get the sense that he was a completely f*cked-up guy.

So it didn't affect the band's touring?

Sometimes it did. I mean, it did more towards the end but it certainly wasn't so out of control. And you also have to measure it against the times. In those days, it wasn't that unusual anywhere you went for people to be doing drugs. I think it's kind of unusual now. It just doesn't seem as prevalent as it was. In the early 80's, it was really prevalent. Joe was a famous guy and he was in the spotlight all the time. But I don't think he was that much more screwed up than lots of people were, except that people didn't notice it because they weren't in the spotlight. Sometimes a normal guy goes out and parties, gets really high, and nobody notices or cares.

I remember those days as being pretty wild, but certainly not as out of control as I've heard it characterized sometimes. I always thought it was a pretty professional outfit. Very, very much the quintessential rock 'n' roll band. But, y'know, I've read in concert reviews for some of these L.A.-type of bands where it sounded like it was really, really decadent. It didn't seem like that to me while we were playing. I mean, Joe definitely did have a drug problem, but I never got that fake-phony ("bad boy") thing. I think he did have a problem but at the time, we were trying to make it. We were serious about it.

Near the end, yeah, (the drug problem) became an issue. But the real issue with why that thing (the Project) didn't "happen" was because Aerosmith probably shouldn't have broken up in the first place. They probably should've had a hiatus. I think when you get on the road with guys, it's almost like they are your brothers and you fight like brothers, y'know what I mean? It's not a professional situation. At some point it's more like you're fighting with your brother and it's much fiercer than when you're fighting with your friend, y'know what I mean? I think the Aerosmith guys just had enough of each other and needed to get away from each other for a long time. (laughs)

So it definitely worked out for the best.

It was awesome for me. As I look back on it, I say, "Hey, this was awesome for me." The reason that it ended was because it was clear that Aerosmith needed to reconcile. It was clear that they were going to reconcile and obviously, there was no future in there for me. Nevertheless, it was a good thing I did and it sure worked out to be good for him, too. But I liked what Joe was doing better than what Aerosmith was doing in those years, y'know? In retrospect, I really like the first record a lot and I really like the record we did. I think the record we did as a conceptual thing is awesome because I think it has this kind of raunchy-funky integrity. The first record was more of a professional-sounding record. I think the second record was much more of a statement and it was much truer to what we were about. The third record, to be honest with you. . .I never listened to that closely. I was onto the next thing by then, y'know?

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