Aerosmith’s Joe Perry talks about the monkey on his back…
As mentioned in last night’s blog, I was digging through a whole bag full of old cassettes – recordings from interviews that go all the way back to 1988.
THIS particular interview from 1989 was one of the more….unusual ones. Aerosmith had just released their album Pump, and I got an interview with guitarist Joe Perry (who has been my “drool object” for years, by the way!).
The thing was, that I had a dayjob at the time, at a bindery and the interview could only take place at some point during the day. I had no idea how to solve that – but I accepted the interview-time that the record company gave me, and figured that I would have to find a solution when the time came.
I was not allowed to leave my “work station” just as I pleased – we had our specific breaks at specific times. If you had to do something outside of those times…you simply didn’t.
So…In the middle of work, I told my colleagues that I had to go to the bathroom and left. When I knew that nobody could see me, I sneaked quickly around the corner to a payphone that was sort of hidden. I attached my recorder to the phone and quickly called the record company that was supposed to put me through to Joe.
The whole time I was scared to death that one of the bosses would walk by and find me there. Would have been pretty hard to explain why I was talking to Aerosmith’s guitarist during working hours…
In parts of the interview you can even hear the machines in the background, but not in this particular segment. :-)
The audio quality sucks, but so did the circumstances. :-) Yet, it was an interview to remember!
Here’s Joe first talking a little bit about “the new album” Pump – and then explaining why it’s so easy to get addicted to drugs and alcohol when you’re in the music business.
Enjoy.
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 