Joe Perry Quotes

I've been fascinated with all kinds of weapons my whole life, and as I have been able to afford to acquire pieces, here and there I started to collect.

AC/DC is a prime example of taking that blues rock thing and just living in that world. They only really move the furniture around a little on each album, but it still works.

Describing certain sounds, there's a common language that guitar players have.

I don't need to speak ... I play the guitar!

When I got sober and started working out, I fell into that trap of working out too much. I know a lot of guys can relate to that - if you don't get that runner's high every day, you feel like, 'Oh my God, I'm losing it.'

I've been going long enough to prove what I wanted to prove, to get the girl I wanted to get, to make the money I wanted to make, to drink all the beer I wanted to drink. I've played - not exactly everywhere, but I've played enough places.

'Back In The Saddle' - I never realised what a good riff that was, or at least how much it satisfied me. And when we play it live, it comes across much better than I ever expected it to.

The really pop country stuff can sound a little bland because they put in strings and horns and all of that.

L.A. was just an inspiring kind of place to be. It felt like going to Paris in the Twenties and Thirties. Everybody's there. Everybody's hanging around. Everybody's talking about music.

You think it's all written, but it's not. There's always another way to twist those three chords around.

I love to listen to the music that first inspired me - I get that fresh feeling back.

There's no doubt arena shows are exciting, but you don't get that up close and personal kind of vibe, and that's what rock n' roll is all about for me.

Steven and I stood on the stage at the Boston Garden after the Stones had just played there and the stage was still up. We had been playing cards, maybe a high-school dance, to 400 or 500, maybe a thousand. We just stood on the stage and thought, 'Well,man,maybe someday.' In 4 years that was OUR stage.

There are definitely things about 'Legendary Child' that echo the music we did earlier in our career. It's got the right stuff.

I know that some of the great painters and some of the great artists didn't even start to 'peak', as you say, till they were in their fifties and sixties. And God knows, history is full of artistic people that weren't even recognized till they were dead and gone.

I really didn't like 'Done With Mirrors.' I really didn't like 'Just Push Play.' Then there are other records I really think were good for their time, like 'Toys and Rocks.'

The kids get a vote. That's very important when it comes to raising kids. And always keep the bigger picture in mind.

People spend their careers trying to figure out what makes a hit single. But I learned a long time ago that you can't anticipate what people want, because it's always going to change.

Take life on life's terms - one day at a time. And have fun while you're doing it.

The Beatles just changed everything right across the board. They just had that right combination of clean-cut good looks - a cute band - but under that they had a real rock n' roll thing going on.

The bottom line is fans just want to hear a good song. Some people will look underneath to see who wrote it, but they just want to hear a good song. And if they don't hear it, they're not going to buy it just because you wrote it.

If you take your last album & try to copy it, then thats sure to hell the way to stagnation. And that makes me bored ... and if I'm bored then the music is boring and so are the band!

I think that's really important, that kids get exposed to music as soon as they can - not necessarily to become musicians, but at least have an outlet. It's an art form that's easily accessible to young ears.

Every time I get in front of an audience, I do the best I can. I really don't look at it like, you know, 'This is gonna be this crowd, or that crowd.' If anything, I think about the demographics only because of what songs will entertain more than others.

In order to be near us, to hang out with us, it was good to have drugs.

I have seen more bad songs make it because of MTV than good ones that haven't.

The Beatles had some juice when it came to distortion, but Clapton was finally able to break through those early studio engineers' fear of overloading. He defined the sound that guitarists spend the rest of their lives trying to get.

Sometimes when a record's done, I'm satisfied and I won't listen back to it for a while 'cause I'm usually pretty tired of the songs. Then I've got to learn them again to play them live, and sometimes it takes a while to realise it's a really good record.

A lot of people don't listen to the albums. They just listen to the singles.

Maybe you could put it out there that I don't have a built-in dislike of ballads. That was kind of the reputation I had back in the Seventies. But I've come around. Ballads have become something of an acquired taste.

I think one of the most valuable things Aerosmith has is the energy we produce when we all play together.

I don't want fans to think we're clean, upstanding American boys, but we are Americans, and we do stand up.

I know that the gift that God gave me isn't gonna just wither up and die unless I let it die, so it's a matter of me having the faith that it's gonna come out. Whether or not the public's gonna like it is another story. But I think as long as I keep changing and sticking to what I really love - and the same goes for Steven and the other guys in the band - then people are gonna like it.

I don't see anyone avoiding the Stones because DJs make jokes about them being a part of the Geritol set. All it does is make the DJs look stupid.

I've come to realize that you live on through recordings; they're like a musical diary, a window into somebody's soul.

I have always been fascinated with guns. I grew up in America, so, granted, it is part of our heritage, and it is written into the laws of how this country is run.

I guess we all have a bad night now and then and really screw up. I listened to our earlier stuff and we screwed up a lot. But at least now that we are sober, when we screw up it's for real.

Aerosmith is such a powerful band; I mean, it's like a steam locomotive.

Y'know, I don't like jazz much. I'll put it on once in a while and listen, and I'll appreciate it.

I never envisioned what I was doing as part of a career.

India brings out so many different feelings in me. I've been fascinated with India and Indian culture as long as I can remember - ever since the '60s with the Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

The great British blues guitarists of the Sixties - people like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Peter Green - could play like virtuosos, but they also understood the importance of energy and intensity

I think people have to be more aware of what the repercussions are of their actions.

For me, L.A. was, and is, a very creative place to be.

There was a time I thought I couldn't enjoy rock 'n' roll unless I had heroin in me

Berry's On Top is probably my favorite record of all time; it defines rock and roll. A lot of people have done Chuck Berry songs, but to get that feel is really hard. It's the rock and roll thing-the push-pull and the rhythm of it.

I didn't think I could go onstage and play unless I had a beer to loosen up. Well, if it was only one beer to loosen up, I'd probably still be drinking today.

After a while, no matter how much you love any pop song, you're going to get tired of it. That's the way it is with any entertainment. It's good when you first hear it or see it, you like it for a while, then it gets old. It gets chewed up and spit out and it's done.

I'm a Republican, but I'm a Republican from the old school. I was taught that you get what you put into it. You can be anything you want to be if you work hard enough at it, and you can earn your place. That's the old way.

I've always felt you are only as good as your next album or next show. What you've done is done. When you get a gold record, you hang it on the wall, and then it's like, 'Yeah, next?'

I've seen bands split up for five years and do nothing. That sounds great to me, but it just hasn't worked out that way.

I think that ... the age of just slapping songs into movies, that's done.

Tyler. "We should cover that tune. Whose original is this?" "What the fuck are you talking about, Steven?" I said. "That's us." "Is it?" he asked. "Hell yes, it is." "Where was I?" "In the booth, singing.

Music is music; you don't have to put a label on it.

I collect firearms, and I've got a Winchester, an Indian rifle. It has tacks for every warrior that was shot, like notches on a pistol, and it's got feathers and beads hanging off it. It's like a work of art.

The '70's came and went already

Rhythm and sex go together and that's where I come from as far as the music goes. Rag Doll and Love In An Elevator are such sexual songs that you put them on & the strippers go NUTS!